Orphan Trains: Which One Would You Have Taken Home?

I was reading again tonight about the orphan trains that traveled the country from big American cities out to the western farm country. Charles Loring Brace was a pioneer in trying to find homes for city children who had lost their parents. These trains would travel with a group of orphans, accompanied by two adults who would care for the children, clean them up upon reaching a town, and then present them to prospective parents along the trains route. Townspeople were alerted to the children’s need for families by reading about it in newspaper ads. Couples would literally go to the town halls or local theaters where the children were lined up and pick children out to take home. There were some happy endings for some of these children. For others, they were viewed as free farm/household help, and they were mistreated, sometimes horribly. Some of the older boys ran away from their new homes to escape terrible situations.

Despite the tragedies, these train trips represented the best hope many of these children had for any kind of a future with a family. I stared at the picture for a long time, trying to think how anyone would be able to pick out a child. They are all so beautiful. I would have had to take them all home, I’m afraid. Those darling little girls, the serious looking older girl, the scrubbed little boys, (I have a serious weakness for little boys and their mischievous grins. It’s a good thing– I have four sons!) These children had mothers who had died and many times their fathers simply could not care for their children when their wives passed away.

I have a book of stories about children from the orphan train and the cases were heartrending. One of my favorite stories in that book involved an 11-year-old girl who traveled the trains with a little sister. The older girl had a crippled hand and she knew that someone was going to adopt her little sister and separate them. Back then nobody thought anything about separating siblings. Her little sister was adopted by a family who would not take the older girl and at each stop along the train ride, the girl continued to hope that someone would take her. She would hide her crippled hand behind her back so prospective families wouldn’t see it. The woman who cared for the children bought her new hair ribbons to try to help her look her best. But every time a family would come to look at her as a prospective adoptee (many viewed these children only as extra household help) they would see her hand and turn away. Finally, at the last stop along the journey through Kansas, she and two other children with problems were the only ones left. A single woman, a Christian, had read about the train stop and left her boarding house to come and see them. She somehow felt drawn there by the Lord. When she met the girl with the crippled hand, she realized what God was saying to her. Back in those days, single women almost never adopted a child. But she obeyed the Lord and adopted the girl and brought her home to live with her. It was one of those stories with a happy ending. Years later, that same adopted girl who was given a home and love and care ended up caring for her adoptive mother in her old age. The love the woman showed was paid back with interest.

Being an adoptive mother of two children, these amazing stories of the orphan trains still move me. I will be honest. I miss having little ones at home. I adored being a mother of little ones. I miss reading story books, I miss bath time, I miss little tykes running around in their footie pajamas at night, and I miss hugs and kisses that come with the abandon of a little one’s unconditional love. I wish adoption could be easier. It was a tough job when we adopted our two from Eastern Europe within 9 months of each other. Now international adoption is increasingly long (China adoptions are now almost 3 years, I understand), very expensive and fraught with ever more difficult paperwork. Domestic adoption is in a complete mess due to children not being freed for adoption until so much damage/abuse has taken place that the average family is ill equipped to deal with it. Abortion takes the lives of over a million babies a year that could have found loving homes such as ours. For the children’s sake, I’m glad that we don’t have orphan trains any more. But if I had lived back then and had been in a position to have done it, I would have been at the train station, opening my arms to a frightened child, or two, or three…

There are many fascinating books and websites on the orphan trains, including a PBS special that was turned into a DVD about it. Just do a search and see what you can find!