The Orphan Trains

Flanagan, Alice K. The Orphan Trains. 2006. 48p. ISBN 0-7565-1635-8. Available at 362.7 on the library shelves.

Industrialization in the United States led to a migratory movement from the countryside to cities. This dislocation brought more jobs, but also reduced many people to poverty. Some parents were simply unable to take care of their children. Many immigrants who arrived in New York City lived in overcrowded tenement housing and found it difficult to care for their offsprings. Sickness and poor health often killed one or both parents, leaving children orphaned and alone.

As cities grew in size, the number of orphans roaming increased as well. Concerned citizens created orphanages, but there were not enough people in cities to adopt these children. Thus orphan trains were born. The brainchild of the Children’s Aid Society, trains were chartered and sent to the Midwest and as far away as Texas with orphans on board ready to be adopted. Trains would stop in towns, and locals were invited to adopt a child and treat them as their own until the child reached the age of 18. Over the next eighty years, over 200,000 children were transported from New York City to new parents.

At first parents and orphans were concerned, but as reports of ideal environments and decent country living filtered back to New York City, more and more children joined the trek. An interesting period in history, the orphan trains reveal an innovative way to solve a problem.