Orphan train
Ten-year-old Charles Cordis, wearing a new suit and carrying a cardboard suitcase containing a change of clothes, boarded a train in 1876 in New York City with dozens of other orphans whose fates were unknown.
Cordis’s mother and father were German immigrants seeking new opportunities in the United States, as did thousands of Europeans. Instead, they found an early death from influenza.
The dreams of a new life had seemed very promising. Father Cordis was a commercial artist. Some of his designs were incorporated into a White House restoration.
Little “Chuck” was devastated by the loss of his parents. With no other family to take him in, the city authorities placed him in an orphanage. However, he was luckier than the thousands of homeless children poking the streets of New York at the time.
Immigrants’ search for a better life was not always successful. Many were malnourished and sick upon arrival. Those without practical skills literally starved to death, leaving the children to fend for themselves.
The youngest children managed to enter the city’s orphanages, but the problem was too great for the public welfare. Most of the half-starved children formed gangs that cooperated to find clothes in garbage piles, protect themselves from predators, beg for pennies, steal food, and huddle together at night at the doors.
These roving gangs of youth were commonly known as “street Arabs.”
A young congregational minister, Charles Loring Brace, went to New York City in 1853 from his native Connecticut to complete a thesis for his seminary degree. He was appalled at the hordes of dirty, ragged kids who pestered him for pennies.
Brace abandoned his thesis studies to try to help “these children of unhappy fortune.” His first plan was to establish trade schools and “dime banks” in the belief that these would teach homeless children to be self-sufficient.
However, it soon became clear that this approach was too slow. A year later, Brace adopted the train idea rehearsed by Boston a decade earlier. He wrote: “The great duty is to remove them from their environment and send them to kind and Christian homes in the country.”
It must be remembered that in this period, the beginning of an industrial revolution and crowded urban life, there was a growing need for food. Agricultural workers were rare.
Brace founded the Children’s Aid Society to raise funds and organize train caravans to transport orphans to heart farms where they would be adopted and raised in a traditional family.
The New York Foundling Hospital, which cared for Catholic children, soon joined the Society. Both are still active today in non-adoptive services.
The Society’s first “orphan train” was organized in September 1854 with 46 boys and girls aged ten to twelve. Their destination was Dowagiac, Michigan. All 46, plus a street kid who sneaked aboard in Albany, were successfully placed in new homes.
The program was a resounding success. From 1854 to 1929, more than 150,000 children were sent on orphaned trains to new homes in rural America. Placements were discontinued in 1930 because prospective adoptive parents during the Great Depression were reluctant to add another person to feed.
Not all children were orphans. Many were mid-grown youth, generally male, from large or single-parent families who had difficulty carrying a large number of younger brothers and sisters.
Once legal permits were obtained, a route was selected and an advanced group of volunteers toured the railway line. In promising cities, posters were posted in public places proclaiming “Homes Wanted for Orphans.” A room was rented and “adoption committees” were formed to align prospective families.
Upon arriving at designated stops, all children were washed, combed, urged to smile, and examined by adults. The usual procedure was to line the children up on a platform for inspection.
The husky children were quickly claimed. Farmers looking for workers would feel the muscles of the children and, if successful, would lead them to a desk where adoption papers would be signed. Contributions of money were encouraged but not required.
Young children were also requested by couples without children. Clearly, the older girls were the last to be claimed near the end of the railroad line. Some “problem” children were never claimed. With deep regret, they were returned to the New York orphanage. Some traveled twice on orphan trains to finally be accepted.
The children were told not to try to find or communicate with their biological parents or siblings. However, some did, with varying success. An estimated 1,000 “horsemen” live in their seventies today. Annual meetings are popular.
Society agents made occasional trips to check on the welfare of their former pupils. Infrequently abused or unwanted children were brought back for a second placement attempt.
Orphan train historian Annette Riley Fry writes that the Children’s Aid Society kept track of their placements. Most grew up to be worthy citizens. Some became leaders in government, business, the church, and the military.
One of them was John Brady, who was on an orphan train that stopped in Noblesville, Indiana. Judge John Green liked to relate in later years why he chose John as his adopted son:
“I decided to take him home because I considered him the most homely, tough and unpromising boy of all time. I had a curious desire to see what could be done with such a specimen of humanity.”
Judge Green lived to see Brady graduate from Yale and Union Theological Seminary. Ms. Green watched his adopted son become Governor of Alaska for three terms.
Despite personal difficulties, most of the family clashes were harmonious. Typical is the life experience of Charles Cordis, recounted by his grandson Charles Cordis III of Port Charlotte:
“The grandfather was adopted by the Clarence Wilcox family in Rosemont, Illinois. They were potato farmers and devout Puritan Congregationalists.
“When Grandpa grew up, he married Wilcox’s daughter Mary. They had four children: three boys, including my father Charles Cordis, Jr., and a girl. They all went to college. Grandpa died in 1999 at 83 years, a happy man. “
June 17, 2001