Orphan Trains

 

It's that time of year for the Hallmark Chanel, and all their sappy holiday love stories. Turn on the television, grab some popcorn, and don't forget the tissues. Oh yes, if you happen to watch one of these movies, primarily filmed in Canada, by the way, you will usually shed a tear or two.

Hate to admit, but John has been seen reaching for the box of Kleenex, once or twice during these holiday films.

The plots are all the same. Woman meets man of her dreams, they fall in love, and then something comes between them, leaving her to wonder if he is truly the man of her dreams. Finally, the last ten minutes of the show - the couple realizes that they are meant to be together.

Of course, the plot can vary. It can be a man who meets the woman of his dreams - same scenario and same results. Just didn't want to be gender biased here.

So, we were watching one of these tissue grabbing films not long ago - this being the season and all, when suddenly the phrase orphan train was used.

The film, actually a series, was called 'Love Comes Softly.' It was sappy, but at the same time pretty entertaining and had a great moral. Don't all Hallmark films - as well as their cards?

The setting was the old west and the phrase was something neither one of us had heard before.

"Orphan train?" Laureen questioned.

"I could make something up, but never heard the term."

Obviously, research was afoot - thanks, Sherlock.

Turns out that the term was not widely used during this time, but caught on later. It seems around 1830, the numbers of homeless children in the eastern part of the United States were growing at an alarming rate.

Typhus, yellow fever, and the flu were running rapidly through neighborhoods, taking parents and grandparents in its path. Medicine wasn't what it is today, so the children were often left to fend for themselves when their entire households would succumb to whatever disease landed on their doorstep.

Also, many children were deserted due to poverty or perhaps a parent's addiction. In other words, no one was looking out for the most vulnerable in society.

Stealing from Dickens' term street urchin, as an explanation for these hordes of children wandering the streets in search of sustenance. 

The Children's Aid Society was founded in 1853, by Charles Loring Brace. Room and board was offered to homeless boys as a way to provide temporary housing. The plan was to find jobs for these homeless youth but soon, the society was overwhelmed with the unfortunate children with nowhere to turn.

With the nation developing westward, Brace came up with the idea of perhaps offering these boys, and girls up for adoption. He had hopes that with the country expanding, families may be interested in adopting a healthy young child to help around the farm. Brace's hope was that good solid families would jump at the chance to embrace a child as their very own. This way, the children would be able to leave the crowded cities that left them often as victims of terrible and immoral crimes - they would have the chance of a better life with families who loved them.

The system worked in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and rural New York. Now, Brace decided to expand to the Midwest which was flourishing with pioneers heading out to make their own destiny.

In 1854, the plan expanded with the use of trains, to transport children across the nation. Brace felt that 'his' children would find the nurturing they would need to grow into independent and useful citizens for a growing nation.

The actual term, Orphan Train, wasn't actually used until after the program ended in 1929. Terms like, Mercy Trains, Baby Trains and the like were the more common description of these trains heading west with their precious cargoes.

In fact, less that half of the children who ever rode one of these trains were actually orphans. Twenty-five percent were just children abandoned by their parents on the streets of New York, New Jersey, and other eastern cities. The others, were boys and girls who just wanted a life away from the crime and sadness of those same cities, believing there may be a brighter life awaiting them out west.

Some of the children found a better life, but some were no better off than slaves. People would come to local courthouses, and the children would be paraded up the steps of the courthouse so those interested could get a good look at them.

In fact, the phrase 'up for adoption' is derived from this practice of having the children up on the steps of the courthouses.

Some interested parties would come up to the children, check their teeth to ensure there wasn't gum disease, pinch their cheeks to see if a healthy color would return, and other degrading physical intrusions.

The idea seemed like a wonderful way for children to escape the horrors of life on the streets, but there were many detractors who believed it was a perverted way to exploit these children.

Babies were easy to place in homes, but when a child was in their teens, many potential 'parents' thought they would be too set in their ways and be more than a handful.

So, the jury is still out if this practice served its purpose of helping those children in need. In her best selling novel, orphan train, Christina Baker Kline weaves a fictional tale about one of these children who lived this life. There were good times, as well as bad times for these children of the trains.

The last train left New York City on May 31st, 1929 for the state of Texas. This was during the Great Depression and the horrendous Dust Bowl, overtaking the Midwest.  After a seventy-six year run, the trains were finally halted for this venture. Public opinion had changed about orphans, and poor people in the United States. Families, no matter how poor, should stay intact, and there were other government avenues for these folks to approach, instead of just abandoning their child to the streets or crowded trains.

An interesting fact - according to the New England Historical Society, one out of every twenty-five Americans has a personal connection to an Orphan Train rider. 

So, next time you settle in for the evening with a Hallmark film, look for those things that are new and get to researching. It's great when we learn something new - especially for the old grey matter.