Victorian Details

 

Isaac has given me a wonderful gift, a gift I attempt to pass along each week to those of you who follow my blog.  It is because of Isaac that I pause to see the things I have taken for granted or completely ignored most of my life, until Isaac made them important to me.  It is because of the loyal followers of my blog that I am constantly on the lookout for things they, you, might find interesting.

 

During our visit to Concordia, KS for the Orphan Train Celebration, (See "Orphan Trains," 1/31/13; "Shared Orphan Stories," 2/2/13; and "More Orphan Train Stories, 6/12/13) we did a little sight-seeing.  One building caught our eyes.  It now houses an antique shop, and we took a few minutes to enjoy the treasures inside.  However, it was as I was leaving the building that a particular architectural feature seized my attention.  The building had several sets of stairs, and the risers were particularly beautiful.  I paused to photograph one set on which the name of the foundry appeared.  Recently, I decided to research what might be found about Sweet & Crider.

 

Charles Edwin Sweet was born a few years after Isaac, in 1884, but he died the same year of Isaac's death, in 1895.  He attended  only a few months of school before going to work to help with his family's finances, driving a team when he was only seven on the canal in New York state where they lived.  He arrived in Kansas with his family ahead of Isaac, settling in Greenleaf, Washington County, KS in 1872.  Sweet began carrying mail, then bought a stage line that he operated until 1878 when the railroad arrived.  By the time Isaac settled in Stafford County to stake his claims in 1878, Sweet had become financially successful enough to form a business partnership, selling hardware and implements in Concordia.  He was a self-made, successful man in businesses and real estate, although he also suffered some financial failure through poor investments and speculations when hard times swept the country.  Among those disappointments were a bank in Red Lake Falls, Minnesota, a flour & grist mill, and the firm of Sweet & Crider foundry. 

 

Interestingly, Charles Sweet and Isaac B. Werner have certain things in common.  After selling his drug store in Rossville, IL, Isaac invested in land with his brother in Minnesota, (just as Sweet invested there), and between his time as a druggist in Rossville and leaving to stake his claims on the Kansas prairie, Isaac entered into a partnership operating a mill in Rossville (just as Sweet invested in a flour and grist mill).  It seems that Isaac's decision to leave his successful drugstore business and the milling operation to become a farmer was not as successful financially as Charles Sweet's decision to prosper as a businessman, making his land investments in city lots rather than farm land.  However, the hard times during the late 1800s seem to have challenged both men.

 

(Remember, you can enlarge the photographs by clicking on them, and be sure to notice all the stairs  with the intricate iron work on the building.)

Shared Orphan Train Stories

Sculptures at Orphan Train Museum

People are sharing Orphan Train Stories directly with me by e-mail and on facebook, so I thought I would share a few to add to this week's post below.

Shirley Jorns Fast wrote:  My grandparents, John and Dovie Jorns, wrote a letter to the Kansas Foundling Society saying they were interested in possible placement of a little girl age 2 to 4, as they had a natural daughter age 8.  They never received a reply, but two months later, much to their surprise, early one morning the Depot Agent delivered my father to them with a note saying, 'we know you requested a girl but we hope this little boy will fulfill your needs.'  My grandmother always said, "And fit our needs he did!"  Apparently the train arrived in Preston [KS] shortly after midnight, and as the depot was closed, they just left him on the bench outside with a note that said to deliver him to the John Jorns farm.  The agent found him at 6 a.m. and delivered him.

 

Wendy Sloan of Norton, KS wrote:  I actually knew a gentleman that made his home here in Norton that was on the orphan train.  He was born in Arkansas and traveled on the train here and was adopted.  He had some interesting stories.

 

Lillian Kateman wrote:  Christine Murphy was a lady in the Slater [MO] Christian Church.  She and her husband were school teachers and moved back to the Slater area after retirement...  He was a former "Orphan Train Kid, and while he was alive they attended "Orphan Train Reunions."  Christine attended the reunions after his death as long as she could before her death.

 

Others have written to share movie titles that include stories of the Orphan Trains, and Alice McMillan Lockridge shared a wonderful link for those of you who would like to read more at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/orphan.  I hope you enjoy these stories received from visitors to the blog, and don't miss the story and photographs below.

Orphan Trains

                Orphan Train Museum, Concordia, KS

Between 1841 and 1860, America became home to 4,311,465 immigrants in search of a better life.  Some of them found exactly what they had hoped, but others found disease, over-crowding, unsafe working conditions, and lack of sanitation, especially in the cities where many of the immigrants remained.

 

The result was that many died or faced extreme poverty.  Older parents and siblings had not always immigrated with them, so when immigrants with children faced difficulties, there were no family members to help.  Children were orphaned or were placed in orphanages by desperate parents who could pay weekly or monthly for their children's care.  When the parents failed to make payments, the children became wards of the state.  Other children were left with no adult to care for them, and they roamed the streets, begging, stealing, and surviving however they could.  Some of the boys survived by selling newspapers. 

 

Donated Clock at Museum

After the Civil War many infants were abandoned along streets and in tenement hallways.  Mothers hoping to entrust their infants to others able to care for them often left their babies on the door steps of the wealthy and of churches.  Because of the need, foundling hospitals were created.

 

As cities became overwhelmed with the number of these abandoned and orphaned children, the idea of sending them West, to towns and farms with fresh air, was coupled with the expansion of railroads.  The Orphan Train movement began.  Between 1854 and 1929, it is estimated that 250,000 orphaned, abandoned and homeless children were placed throughout the United States and Canada.  Research indicates that 1 in every 25 Americans is somehow connected to an Orphan Train rider.

The research building at the Orphan Train Museum

In doing my research about Isaac Werner and his community, I never found a mention of an Orphan Train arriving in any of the nearby towns, nor did I find any mention of an adoption; however, there were many such children placed in Kansas.

 

Imagine being a child, perhaps as young as three or as old as sixteen.  You joined a group of from ten to forty other children of all ages, entrusted to an adult you probably did not know, called a "western agent," responsible for transporting you and the other children to a location in the West where you would know no one.

 

Partial view of plaque beneath clock

If you were such a child, you would eventually reach a town where you and some of the other children would be lined up in a row on the platform of the train depot.  Flyers would have been sent to the towns along the way of the planned stops of the train.  A screening committee would have been formed to assist the western agent in selecting who among the people gathered to obtain a child were suitable prospective guardians.  The screening committee was probably composed entirely of men, typically the town doctor, a clergyman, the newspaper editor, a store owner or a teacher.  You might be too young to remember many details about yourself, so your name and age might be embroidered in your dress, if you were a girl, or your jacket, if you were a boy.  If your birthdate were known, it might be included.

 

The prospective guardians might be a loving couple unable to have children, or they might be a couple needing a helper for their farm work.  You would have no say in the selection process.  If you were chosen, your parent guardians were required to sign a contract regarding your schooling and your care, and if you were one of the older children, your guardian would be required to provide certain clothing and cash to give you a start when you reached the age to be on your own.  Whether the requirements of the contracts were fully kept was difficult to insure, since the western agent would continue on his or her journey with those children not selected.

 

Some of these children were ill treated, chosen primarily for their labor, but even those were taken from the hard lives they were living in the cities.  Many of these children were adopted, formally or informally, and became a part of loving families.

 

You may visit the museum website to read more about the history, as well as letters of some of the children and newspaper articles from the period at http://orphantraindepot.org/

You may also request research if you think you might have a family member who was one of the riders.  Consider a visit to Concordia to see the museum and other local sites.  The 2013 Annual Orphan Train Riders' Celebration & Depot Days will be held June 7, 8 & 9.

 

Remember, you can enlarge the images by clicking on them.  If you have a family story about the Orphan Trains, please share it in a comment.