Mister, won't you take me?
By MARGIE CLARK
Of the Courier-Post
http://www.pcgenweb.com/pcgs/misc/orphan_train.htm
BOWLING GREEN - From the mid-1850s until 1929, trains rolled through the Midwest stopping at nearly every town that had railroad tracks, leaving part of its precious cargo in each rural area and farm community - a few children in one small town and a few in another until they were all gone.
Pictured are four of the Rifenburg children who came on the 1910 orphan train to Bowling Green. The two adults in the back are Children's Aid Society agents, Anna Laura Hill and B. W. Tice. First child farthest left is Virgil Rifenburg. The child in the middle of the adults is Lucy Rifenburg and to her right is Steve Rifenburg. Nelson Rifenburg is the second child to the right holding his hat. (Photo submitted by Marvin Darnell)
Ed Lawson of Bowling Green, recently researched the orphan trains that carried trainloads of homeless children shipped out from the slums of New York City, N.Y., after discovering that his friend's father, Howard Darnell, was one of the orphans on the train that stopped in Bowling Green in 1910.
"I make history speeches to clubs and churches," said Lawson. "I thought this subject would be interesting, especially since a friend, Marvin Darnell, was the son of one of the children who came to Bowling Green on the orphan train."
According to Lawson, in 1830, 30,000 abandoned and orphaned children, referred to as "street arabs," were living on the streets in the slums of New York City. That number increased rapidly in later years until 1914. In that time period 35 million immigrants entered into the United States. The orphanages were also overflowing.
The living conditions for these children were deplorable and they were suffering horribly. Many sold matches, rags or newspapers to survive. Others had to beg for food or steal to get by. Many were eating out of garbage cans and sleeping in doorways.
In 1853, a Methodist minister, Charles Loring Brace, 26, a true humanitarian, found his calling to help the plight of the homeless and cast-off children of New York City. He eventually founded the Children's Aid Society of New York.
In 1869, the Sisters of Mercy started the New York Foundling Hospital and soon the Catholic group was also sending its own trains west. Although numbers vary, some researchers estimate 150,000 to 400,000 orphans were sent west. As many as 100,000 may have been placed in Missouri. There are records for more than 6,000, according to Stephanie Haiar, curator of the Orphan Train Heritage Society of America Inc.
"In every American community, especially in a western one, there are many spare places at the table of life," Brace wrote. "There is no harassing struggle for existence. They have enough for themselves and the stranger too."
Brace's plan was to send notices to Midwest towns, announcing the time and date a train load of orphans would be arriving. The trains would leave New York City carrying the children and two adult agents from the society.
Handbills were distributed around each scheduled town describing the children as being of various ages and of both sexes, having been thrown friendless upon the world. The citizens of each community were asked to assist the agents in finding good homes for them.
As the train made its stop, the children would be paraded in front of the crowd of onlookers. Inspection sometimes involved poking and prodding in an attempt to ascertain their value as workers on farms or in local shops and businesses. Children that were not selected were returned to the train to travel on to the next stop.
Most people really wanted to give the child a good home, but in some cases the experience was unsuccessful - they didn't get a good home. There were instances of abuse and neglect, forced labor and little food, leaving bad memories of cruelty among the stories of kindness and hope.
"Stories of child abuse, marriages between orphans of unknown parentage and locally born residents caused the Missouri State Legislature to pass a bill in 1901, forbidding orphan trains to stop in Missouri," said Lawson. "Apparently, the law was never enforced because the trains continued coming for another 28 years."
