Emily’s journey, as it turned out, was only just beginning. In 1906, Emily was plucked from the Elizabeth Home for Girls, operated by the Children’s Aid Society, and placed on a train, along with eight other children, bound for Hopkinton, Iowa. In this book, the author tells the true story of his paternal grandmother, the late Emily (Reese) Kidder, who, at the tender age of fourteen, became one of the aforementioned children who rode an Orphan Train. The Society gathered up orphans, half-orphans, and abandoned children from streets and orphanages, and placed them on what are now referred to as “Orphan Trains.” It was Brace’s belief that there was “always room for one more at a farmer’s table.” The stories of the individual children involved in this great migration of “little emigrants” have nearly all been lost in the attic of American history. The primitive social experiment became known as “placing out,” and had its origins in a New York City organization founded by Charles Loring Brace called the Children’s Aid Society. That’s exactly what happened between the years 18. It seems incomprehensible that there was a time in America’s not-so-distant past that nearly 200,000 children could be loaded on trains in large cities on our East Coast, sent to the rural Midwest, and presented “for teh picking” to anyone who expressed an interest in them. The Brave Journey of an Orphan Train Rider work brings to light a meaningful concept: the idea that charity, then and now, is sometimes tinged with greed, indifference, hostility, self-promotion and is an institution that can serve the giver more than the receiver.” – David James Rose, Washington Times “As a portrait of the time’s charitable networks, The Orphan Trains succeeds. This little book is kind of a preservation movement, and a contribution to our understanding of how the West was won.” – David Shribman, Wall Street Journal “Soon there will be no memories of the ‘little companies,’ as they were called, of children setting out with an adult leader for a new life. It is good, scholarly social history.” – Library Journal This well-written volume sheds new light on the multifaceted experience of children’s immigration, changing concepts of welfare, and Western expansion. She captures the children’s perspective with the judicious use of oral histories, institutional records, and newspaper accounts. Holt carefully analyzes the system, initially instituted by the New York Children’s Aid Society in 1853, tracking its imitators as well as the reasons for its creation and demise. This ‘placing out,’ an attempt to find homes for the urban poor, was best known by the ‘orphan trains’ that carried the children. “From 1850 to 1930 America witnessed a unique emigration and resettlement of at least 200,000 children and several thousand adults, primarily from the East Coast to the West. The Orphan Trains: Placing Out in America They rode from New York to Wellington, Texas and found new parents. A great read for kids and history buffs alike! Orphan train story about two boys five and six years old being put on a train and shipped across the country looking for new parents. Follow Stan and Vic’s story from being orphaned to becoming World War II heroes. A true story of two American boys living through the hardships of life and the times.
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