New York CityOrphan train movementUp to 30,000 homeless children in one city, in peacetime. Where were their parents?From 1854 to 1929 the trains moved about 200,000 children. In 1850 there were an estimated 10,000 to 30,000 homeless children in New York City alone.
Photo: Michael Tomko · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikimedia Commons
Orphan Trains · Dowagiac, Michigan, United States
First orphan train stop, Dowagiac
The open question
A train of children shows up and families pick them at the station. Who checked where they went?
On the record
In 1854 Dowagiac was the final stop for the first group of orphans brought west from New York; children were dropped off and taken in at the depot.
Sources
More from Orphan Trains
New York CityOrphan train movementUp to 30,000 homeless children in one city, in peacetime. Where were their parents?From 1854 to 1929 the trains moved about 200,000 children. In 1850 there were an estimated 10,000 to 30,000 homeless children in New York City alone.
Concordia, KansasNational Orphan Train ComplexChildren stood on a stage and said their names. How many lost those names afterwards?A museum in the restored Union Pacific depot. Some children were walked from the depot into a playhouse and put on stage, said by the museum to be the origin of 'up for adoption'.
New York CityChildren's Aid SocietyBusinessmen paid to send city children to farms. Who needed the labour, and who gained?Founded in 1853 by Charles Loring Brace with money from New York businessmen; one of the three charities behind the orphan trains.
New York CityNew York FoundlingSo many babies left on doorsteps that a whole hospital was needed. Why then?Founded in 1869 by the Sisters of Charity for abandoned infants; it sent children west on its own trains.