More Orphan Train Stories

An Orphan Train

A little girl stood on a train platform with a group of other children, managing to position herself close to two younger boys.  Adults milled around the children, resembling nothing more than shoppers selecting merchandise.  In a way, they actually were shopping, for the children had just disembarked from an orphan train and the adults were prospective guardians, deciding which children they wished to select.  Because farm families often had in mind gaining help on their farms, boys were often selected first, and the two little boys standing near that girl were quickly chosen.  The adults who had come to look the children over were beginning to wander away, and the chaperones were directing the children who had not been chosen back to the train, preparing to resume the journey to other towns where potential foster parents might be waiting.

 

Robert Morgan & Lyn with portrait of the Reed children

Suddenly the little girl burst out of the group of children being urged back on the train.  She grabbed the hands of the two little boys near whom she had positioned herself and refused to let them go.  Although she was only eight years old, she felt responsible for her little brothers, for the rest of their family had drowned in Lake Ontario when their wagon broke through the ice on which they were crossing the frozen lake.  She refused to release her brothers' hands, insisting that the three of them were not going to be separated by distance, even if they were selected by different families in the same town.  If no one in the town were willing to take her, then all three of them were getting back on the train.

 

Display at Orphan Train Museum

The family who had chosen her youngest brother, Howard, who was only three, finally committed to take her, not for themselves but rather to be responsible for finding a family for her.  It was through the determination of this 8-year-old girl that the three Reed siblings remained in close enough proximity that they did not lose touch with one another, as so many other siblings did when they were separated while riding the orphan trains.

 

Morgan-Dowell Research Center

This story was told to me by Robert Morgan, the son of little Clara Reed, who kept her family together the best that she could.  The three-year-old brother was adopted by the Dowell family, and the generosity of descendants of these three children resulted in the building of the Morgan-Dowell Research Center adjacent to the Orphan Train Museum. 

 

My husband and I traveled to Concordia for the 2013 Orphan Train & Depot Days Celebration.  After registering, we had a delicious lunch at Jitters Coffee House and visited a music store and an antique shop before returning to the Orphan Train Complex to hear Friday afternoon's speaker, Doug Brush, author of "Northern KS Div'n MO Pacific Lines, Originally Cent. Branch Union Pacific RR."  Later, we visited the museum before enjoying Heavy's BBQ prior to attending a concert in the park by NCK Jazz Band, a pleasant ending to our day.

Speakers' panel at 2013 Orphan Train Celebration  

 

Saturday morning I was honored to be asked to join the speakers' panel which included, from left:  descendant Shirley Andrews, writer & early keeper of orphan train history Evelyn Trickel, descendant Robert Morgan, descendant Margaret Webb, myself, and moderator Holly Andrews.  I shared Shirley Jorns Fast's story contributed as a comment to my blog of 1/31/2013 about the Orphan Trains, and the audience appreciated it very much.  Thank you, Shirley!  (You may also visit my blog of 2/2/2013 for more orphan stories shared by followers of my blog.)

 

Descendants of Howard & Nora Reed Dowell

Last year was the first year that no riders attended the celebration.  Most of the riders are now deceased or have reached the age when travel is challenging.  However, many descendants of riders were in attendance.  At Saturday's luncheon I met the descendants of  Howard Reed Dowell, the little brother of Clara and James Reed.  Those descendants graciously posed for a family photograph:  the orphan rider's son, Harold Reed Dowell, 2nd from left; grandson, Donald Reed Dowell, far right; great grandchildren, Nicholas & Kim,  far left and holding little Nora.  Howard took the surname of his adoptive parents, but he retained his original surname of Reed as his middle name, and the men in the family have continued the use of Reed as their middle names.  Nora carries on the name of Howard's wife, her great-great grandmother.  (Another great-great-grandchild, Nicholas' son Easton Reed Dowell, was not present.)

 

Sculptures outside museum donated by Mr. & Mrs. R. Morgan

Board President Susan Sutton, other members of the Board, Curator Amanda Wahlmeier, staff, volunteers, descendants and their families, and people of Concordia that we met made us feel very welcome.  Thank you to everyone.  I urge anyone who reads this to consider a visit to Concordia, especially on a Tuesday-Saturday when the Orphan Train Museum  is open.  www.orphantraindepot.org 

Whether Isaac ever met someone who came West on an Orphan Train I do not know.  I do know that many children were brought to IL and KS, states where he lived, so it is possible that he knew a family that adopted a child from an orphan train.  If you know stories about orphan train riders, please share them with me.  I would especially love to know if any children came to Stafford County, Kansas!

Imagine parting at the depot to start a new life in a strange place with strangers



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.