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The Last Orphan Trains

© Meg Greene Malvasi

Between 150,000 and 200,000 children in forty-seven states, Canada, and South America found new homes as the result of the orphan trains. By 1930, though, it was a different world. Many of the problems that had made necessary Charles Loring Brace's efforts to create new beginnings for children in need of a better life were being addressed. Where there once were few laws and even fewer programs to help needy children, the plight of the abandoned, neglected, and abused was being confronted nor only by private charitable organizations but also by the federal government.

As early as the turn of the century, charitable organizations like the Children's Aid Society were being helped by new programs and new legislation. These efforts were specifically directed at protecting children and helping to improve the urban environment in which they lived. As a result, the need to "place out" children was not as pressing as before.

One of the more ambitious programs came with the creation of a national Children's Bureau, a division of the Department of Commerce and Labor. Headquartered in Washington D. C., this agency, established in 1912, was charged with investigating and reporting on all matters that pertained to children. The staff of the Children's Bureau compiled studies of all aspects of child development such as birth and death rates. They examined the proceedings and decisions of juvenile courts, and the problems of abandonment by parents, homelessness, adoption, and child labor. Working with private organizations, individuals, and state and local agencies, the Bureau gradually succeeded in bringing the issue of child welfare to national attention. Not only did the achievements of the Bureau reduce the number of desperate cases, it also cut down on the need to use the orphan trains.

With the onset of the Depression, many families also found themselves in more difficult financial and straits. Farm families, in particular, who often adopted orphan train children to work on their farms, had a hard enough time taking care of their own. In the end, diminished economic resources contributed to a decline in "placing out."

It has only been during the last decade or so that historians have begun to tell the story of the orphan trains. Today, there are a number of books, magazine and newspaper articles, movies and videos available that recount this amazing tale. Certainly there remains one more exciting aspect of this story that hasn't been fully explored-the orphan train riders themselves. A few hundred riders are still alive and are more than happy to talk about their experiences. Some former riders have made use of the Internet and have posted their stories as well as trying to locate other orphan train riders. States like Kansas, Iowa, and Nebraska have "Orphan Train" sites filled with information about the towns the trains visited, the names of the children aboard, newspaper articles written at the time, and first-hand accounts from the orphans themselves. The Orphan Train Heritage Society, located in Arkansas, serves as a clearinghouse of information about the orphan trains. Not only does it publish a quarterly (four times year) newsletter, its staff answers research requests as well as helping to located missing family members who rode the trains. The Heritage Society also regularly presents programs to schools, churches, and other civic organizations on the history of the orphan trains. In addition, orphan train reunions are held in many areas. It often happens at these get-togethers that siblings, separated from each other for years , are reunited!

The copyright of the article The Last Orphan Trains in History For Children is owned by Meg Greene Malvasi. Permission to republish The Last Orphan Trains in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.