Orphan Train Movement
By Asmar B. and Tyrone H.
What is the Orphan Train?
The Orphan Train Movement was a supervised welfare program that transported orphaned and homeless children from crowded Eastern cities of the United States to foster homes located largely in rural areas of the Midwest.
Founder: Charles Loring Brace
Charles Loring Brace, founder of the Children’s Aid Society, thought that it would be smart to transport children via train across the country to help them live better lives.
Time Period
It began in 1853 and ended in the early 1900s.
Treatment of Children
Throughout the entire Orphan Train Movement, between 100,000 and 200,000 were transported. Each child would get a number on the train. The children would arrive at their location and become adopted by a citizen in the particular city or area. Some children would love their new home because they never really had a home and other children would be extremely uncomfortable because they weren’t used their new home.
Orphan Train Riders
Alice Bullis Ayler: Kansas 1930
Ann Harrison (Mabel Rubin):Colorado 1911
Ann was adopted by John Joseph and Anna Waters Gruele of Colorado Springs, Colorado. She learned at the age of 26 that she was adopted. Both Anna and John adopted Ann when she was 11 in Arizona. When her adopted mother died of tuberculosis, Ann and her father moved to Colorado. Ann completed high school and began to sing professionally. When she was 25, she went to New York to further her singing career but found about herself when she was younger. She found out that she was baptized and found out her birth date, February 16, 1909.