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: Unknown photographer · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons
Orphan Trains · Parkchester, United States (approx.)
New York Catholic Protectory
The open question
Built because Catholic parents didn't want their children shipped to Protestant farms. How many families lost track of children that way?
On the record
The New York Catholic Protectory was a Catholic orphanage in the Bronx, New York City, founded in 1863 by the Society for the Protection of Destitute Roman Catholic Children in the City of New York ("The Society"). Ives and his supporters supporters established the Protectory after an unsuccessful attempt to create a Catholic placing out agency to rival Charles Loring Brace's Protestant-run Children's Aid Society (CAS). By 1878, the Protectory was serving over 3,000 children annually.
- Year
- 1863
- Kind
- agency
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.
Dowagiac, MichiganFirst orphan train stop, DowagiacA train of children shows up and families pick them at the station. Who checked where they went?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.
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.