Orphan Trains in the Midwest

The general population fall into one of two categories. Either people have never heard of them, or they are fasinated by them. This presentation offers both camps a deeper look into this subject, beginning with most of the children were not orphans. A typical train car carried 30 to 40 children ranging in ages from infants to teenagers, accompanied by two to five adults from the New York Children’s Aid Society. one of two major children’s assistance societies in New York (the other being the Catholic-run New York Foundling Home). Having been told little more than that they were “going out West,” many of the children had no idea what was happening to them. Among those who did, some looked forward to finding new families while others objected to being removed from their “homes” in the city—even as dismal and dangerous as they may have been.