The Story of the Orphan Trains

by Pam Connell | More from this Blogger

08 Jul 2007 02:11 PM

My last blog introduced my review of the Orphan Train Children series of children's books. Twenty pages of historical notes in the back of each book tell the story of the real "orphan trains", which took more than 150,000 children in the care of the New York Children's Aid Society to rural communities between 1856 and 1929. Another hundred thousand were sent to the West by the New York Foundling Home.

The notes explain the conditions in the Lower East Side of New York, the diseases which took many lives, and the fact that many children were from immigrant families with no extended family in the U.S. They describe the work street children did to support themselves. They describe the founding, by social worker and minister Charles Loring, of the Children's Aid Society, which provided vocational training and housing for a small portion of the city's street children. Realizing the Society had no room for all the children, Loring sent a representative to visit farm communities in western New York to ask about villagers' interest in taking in children. He was surprised how many wanted them.

The Children's Aid Society did set up rules: children must be fed, clothed and sheltered as the family's own children. Boys ages 15-18 could work on the family's farm for their room and keep. Boys ages 12-15 could work on the farm half the year but must be sent to school the other half. Children under twelve were to be treated equally with the family's biological children in terms of schooling. Representatives of the Society visited each new family six months after placement and reserved the right to remove the children from the home if there was mistreatment. Many families went on to legally adopt these children. The Society encouraged this, although it only required a commitment to foster the children to age 18.

There is a website for Orphan Train Riders and their descendants which can be accessed by clicking here.

Please see these related blogs:

Book Review: The Orphan Train Children Series, Part One

Should You Adopt a Child from a Photolisting?

Types of Adoption Part Two: Adoption From the Child Welfare System

I Vowed I'd Never Look at Those Photos Again...

Learn more about Pam Connell

Pam Connell is a mother of three by both birth and adoption. She has worked in education, child care, social services, ministry and journalism.

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