HISTORICAL COMMENTS BY GEORGE CHEVALLIER 12-29-12

The Orphan Trains

The history of the Orphan Trains has largely been forgotten. They began in 1854 and continued until 1929, a period of some 75 years.

The Orphan Trains were begun by Charles Loring Brace. He was a member of a prominent Connecticut family who had gone to New York City to complete his seminary training. In 1853 he founded the Children’s Aid Society to help what were known as “street Arabs”. At the time, there were estimated to be about 30,000 children roaming the streets of New York. He felt that the only way to help them was to get them out of their squalid surroundings and with a good Christian family. He was aided by the New York Foundling Hospital. They were rounded up and put on trains heading for all parts of the country. At every stop they were cleaned up and paraded before the local people in hopes that they would be taken and cared for. Since the country was mainly agrarian, many hands were needed on the farms, no matter how small. Many of the farmers simply looked on them as cheap labor. While I am sure their physical labor was helpful on a farm, some couples who were childless were more than glad to have the opportunity to raise and nurture the little ones. I’m sure whatever their situation turned out to be, it had to be better than living on the streets of New York. However, the process at each stop was similar to a slave auction, with the farmers checking teeth and muscles to see if the child would be an asset to his farm.

Some of the more successful stories that began with the Orphan Trains are that two future governors were products of that system. One became the governor of North Dakota(Andrew Burke) and the other became governor of Alaska (John Brady).

This period of mass relocation of children in the United States is widely recognized as the beginning of documented foster care in America.

During the existence of the Orphan Train Movement, it is thought that about 200,000 children were placed out.

The children in the picture appear well-dressed and the girls all have hats on. The girl on the right even has glasses, though you can just barely see them in this picture. We can only hope these children found good loving homes to go to.