Westward Ho! All Aboard the Orphan Train - Page 2
© Meg Greene Malvasi
Often the children were pulled, prodded, and pushed aside as if they were livestock at auction. Sometimes siblings were separated as a family might have only room for one child. Lee Nailling watched with great sadness as his one-year-old brother was carried screaming from the hall, while Lee and his younger brother Leo watched. Children who were not selected then marched back to the train station to travel to the next stop. And so it went, until all the children were placed. For some, the journey was unending. They watched as others were selected, while they were overlooked and unwanted.
The children ended up in a variety of households from sod shanties of prairie farmers to comfortable houses of urban shopkeepers. Some were chosen as an additional source of labor, whether it meant working on a farm or as a domestic servant. Others were sought to replace a child who had died. Some children were chosen to help care for an older, ailing adult. Many of the children found loving homes and the kind of nurturing environment that Charles Loring Brace believed was so essential to leading a healthy and productive life. Other children, however, were unhappy in their new homes and ran away. Still others were sent back to New York or simply bided their time until they were old enough to strike out on their own.
From 1854 until 1929, the Children's Aid Society "placed out" at least 150,000 children to homes mainly in Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, and Kansas. Over the years, the orphan trains traveled to forty-seven states as well as Canada. Some orphans were even sent to South America! Although not all the children ended up in happy homes, enough found a new life with families who loved them to make the efforts of Charles Loring Brace and the Children's Aid Society a resounding success.
Want To Know More? Visit the Orphan Trains of Kansas and They Rode the Orphan Trains.
Check Out At Your Library: The Orphan Trains by Annette R. Fry (Grade 5+), and Trains West by Carole Turner Johnston (Grade 6+).
Next Week: "The Last Orphan Trains"
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The copyright of the article Westward Ho! All Aboard the Orphan Train - Page 2 in History For Children is owned by Meg Greene Malvasi. Permission to republish Westward Ho! All Aboard the Orphan Train - Page 2 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
