Where have all the children gone?

The Orphan Train Solution

Beverly Rowls7th Annual GEAR UP YAL Conference

Orphan Trains – What’s That?

• Forced migration of over 200,000 children from the New York area to other states

• Started in 1854 and lasted until 1929• The ‘solution’ to homeless, orphaned,

abandoned, abused, poor children• The beginning of the foster care system in

the United States• An ignored event in U.S. history

An inquiry• When is a ‘solution’

NOT a ‘solution’?

The Orphan Train Era – Who?

• The children:– In the 1850’s, due to massive immigration to

the U.S., as many as 30,000 abandoned children lived on the streets of New York City

– Infants, children, teens – homeless, hungry, unprotected, unwanted; no education, no medical care; no future

– Many turned to crime in order to survive– Throw away children - all they had for

protection was each other

The children

The Orphan Train Era – Who?

• The adults– Parent(s) unemployed, ill, addicted, or abusive

– unable to support their children• No extended family available• No welfare programs

– The leaders• Get those Street Rats off New York streets!

– Put them in jails!– Put them in orphanages!

Reverend Charles Loring Brace

Founder of the Children’s Aid Society (1853)– Worked with the impoverished

children on the streets of New York

– His solution: remove homeless children from the streets and send them to “Christian” farm families to learn how to become good citizens

– Father of the Orphan Train Movement

– Philosophy of the Society: self-help, gospel of work, importance of education

Improving the lives of the poor

Orphan Trains – What?• The “Placing Out” system

– Remove the children from New York to relieve the overcrowding and reduce crime

– Place them with families in need of laborers• Some found loving families to adopt them• Some were used for slave labor• Some became indentured servants

• Trains provided cheap transportation to the places where the children were needed

• Large numbers of children could be transported at one time

Transporting the children

Orphan Trains – Where?

• Stopped in over 47 states, Canada and Mexico

• States receiving the most children: Illinois, Ohio, Iowa, Missouri and Michigan

• States receiving the least number of children: New Mexico, Wyoming, Utah, Alabama and Maine

The Orphan Trains – How?• Children placed with

good, Anglo-Protestant, rural families

• A “screening committee” was formed in every town

• Selected possible parents • Being chosen might mean

being checked like cattle– Feel muscles– Check teeth– Smile and perform

• Foster parents did not have to take siblings

Foster parent agreement

• Agree to take the child and child had to agree to go

• Child must be treated as a member of the family (food, clothes, training)

• Parents must provide the local education requirements

• Parents required to write annual status report to CAS

Positive results from the process

• Many would have died if they had stayed in New York

• Very little chance for improvement• Very few could gain an education• Many would have been imprisoned • Much potential talent would have been lost

Negative results from the process

• Not all children were orphans• Children could be removed from ‘unfit’ homes

(alcoholic, abusive or Catholic)• All ties with the past were lost• Some children were physically or psychologically

abused• Stigma attached to being an orphan• Many thought they were on the only Orphan Train• Most felt that something was wrong with them

because their mother gave them away

Problems for future generations

• Only non-identifying information given to the rider or their descendants

• Family research often resulted in dead-ends due to closed or missing records

• No family medical history• Could not inherit property of ‘adopted’ family• Those from the Baby Trains had no memories • No birth certificate for obtaining a drivers license, marriage

license, pass port or military requirements• Riders often refused to share their story or discuss the past

When is a solution Not a solution?