Orphan Trains

[@steamfan7147]

My old neighbor was an Orphan train kid. He wound up in Iowa and was adopted by a farm family. He had nothing but praise for them, because he was in a pretty rough spot before. He grew up and joined the Navy just before WWII broke out. He served on the USS Hornet (CV-8) until she was sank at The Battle of The Santa Cruz Islands. He survived the war and went back to farming. He was a good man and I am proud to call him my friend, he died aged 89 just a few months after his second great grandchild was born. His grandson still lives on his farm today.

[@Liphted]

Wow this anecdote is so powerful and humanizing!

[@Tmrfe0962]

Thank you for sharing, that story. A nice piece of history.

[@sorryforthings72]

Amazing story.....thank you!

[@DawnOldham]

Thank you for sharing such a nice story that fleshes out this story a bit more! My great grandfather actually jumped on trains when he left home (a tent home for the poor) and made his way by working for farmers as he stopped at different towns. He eventually settled in one of the towns, married and had the children that became my family!

[@jeffstorm]

It was truly the triumph of the Judeo-Christian ethos to see a societal sin as the abandonment of children, then providing help within this ethos, that Children are better off with Families and not institutions. We are seeing a similar problem today with single parent homes and the institutionalization of child care. Even the new public schools in California look like hey were designed by Jail architects. I saw the local brand new High School and all I could think was..... this looks like a county Jail. Programs like the Children's Aid Society had some failures, but the successes outweighed the failures. All borne on the Faith of a man, whose heart was touched by God.

[@practicalvegankelly8384]

Great story. One of those children who was sent west was Henry Lee Jost. He wound up in northern Missouri and was the last picked when the train arrived( he was small in stature). He worked on several farms, eventually went to school and studied law. He made his way to Kansas City, MO and was appointed assistant county prosecutor and took place in some very famous trials. He then ran for mayor of Kansas City and won. They called him the “Orphan” mayor. He then ran for Congress and served one term. A success story for sure.

[@LoneStarMillennial]

I knew one of the children who arrived in Texas in the early 1900s via an orphan train. She was adopted by a farm family, worked hard with them, and had a good life she was thankful for. I met her when I was a child in the 1990s and my parents routinely visited a retirement home for nuns in Victoria, TX, where my mom visited some of her old teachers from Catholic grade school. It was an awesome experience. Sister Bernadette, herself in her 80s, befriended us while we visited and was one of the most joyful people I've ever met. She became a nun when she grew up and taught schoolchildren for decades, and told us all about the orphan trains and her experience, and others she knew from them. Several others she knew also became school teachers.

[@lynnwood7205]

One of my coworkers in 1978 told of how he got his youngest sister. The parish priest would visit each farm every month weather permitting to check on each family and their children. One year he came out and told the father of the family that the diocese had allocated one orphan to them and when the family was to pick up the child at which train depot. The church also expected the child to attend school and church. So one fine day they were all at the train depot in horse drawn wagon, the car was just a few years off, to pick up a small scrawny girl with a slim and battered almost cardboard suitcase. They stopped on the way back to picnic and lemonade was poured. The girl could not believe that the cup she was given would be hers to keep and that is how she gained her nickname which our co worker would not tell us. His parents insisted that all the children treat her as their sibling and member of the family. The parish priest would visit the family every so often to review the school attendance of all the children. She did well in life, going on to college and having a happy marriage.

[@pvanpelt1]

I wonder if they’d talked to the priest about adopting? It almost sounds like, “Hey, you two, it’s your turn to take an orphan.” It sounds like either way she was loved and cared for.

[@andrewwalton8690]

What a lovely story Lyn

[@healinggrounds19]

I wonder what the nickname was. Lemonade?

[@amcalabrese1]

Thanks to ancestry DNA, we discovered that my grandfather’s brother had a baby girl that was placed in an orphanage. The child ended up in one of the Catholic orphan trains and ended up in Oklahoma with a Polish immigrant family. We were able recently to connect with the girl’s son (in his eighties) and his children and grandchildren.

[@danieltaylor5231]

@13:24 That's the smile of a man who knows he's blessed with a great wife.

[@garylefevers]

Correct.

[@DHMenke]

My wife and I served as foster parents and over the years fostered maybe 50 children ranging in age from babies to age 17. We adopted one of them who is now 23, and he is part of a close and loving family. All of our other children accepted him as a brother. We have also informally adopted three more children who are not legally ours, but are "like a son" or "like a daughter" to us, and are now grown and living their own productive lives. Sometimes I think that some of our adopted kids may be "better" than our own biological children, meaning, more respectful and more successful. But overall, we're glad they are all part of our lives.

[@ed12151]

My Grandmother and her sister were one of these kids from NYC, they became one of these kids after her parents died in the early 1900's. The orphanage that they were put in burnt down, and they where put on a (Lehigh Valley) train. She told how that her sister was taken by a family in Pittston, Pa., My grandmother was finally was take off the train here in Towanda, Pa.. Even though she was only about 5 yrs old, she was made to take care of blind wife of the family, so I guess you could have said she was a form of a slave. My grandmother and her sister did get to reunited, as for my great aunt she would never talk about her life early years.

[@malcolmmeer9761]

In 1975 I met a couple who lived on and ranches in the Oklahoma panhandle. They told me they both were orphans from the east coast area They were part of the orphan train. They married but never had children. I remember they didn't have any family type pictures in their home. They said they didn't know if they had any siblings I will always remember them they were a loving and caring couple. They would have been great parents

[@dfuher968]

Yeah, thats the sad part. They didnt know, if they had siblings. Its really good, that they were adopted into good homes and taken care of. But its really sad, that more wasnt done to keep siblings together or at least in touch.

[@ericw270]

My grandfather was an orphan during the depression. Him and his brothers were taken in by a dairy farm in Alton Illinois

[@naturefix290]

Better than a German ran orphanage like my wife’s grandfather.

[@Mike10001]

@@naturefix290 You have no idea. You leftist cry about not playing games all day. Try not eating.

[@naturefix290]

@@Mike10001 lol leftist? Rigggght

[@Michael-yl2iq]

Helping unwanted children is always a difficult challenge. It is great to hear a story of someone acting on the problem.

[@vernwallen4246]

This problem will never entirely go away.💕💕💕💕

[@rocksandoil2241]

My grandmother's cousin (adopted) was from NY, raised in NW Arkansas, and was on the orphan train. Her sisters were separated from her, and her brother ran away from the Catholic orphanage and lived on the streets of NYC. She eventually connected with her sisters. She said she was too old to be cute and too young to work hard so it took all the way to Arkansas before anyone would adopt her. Her first "parent" beat her and the woman's husband found someone else to take her. When old it was found she had a healed broken bone in the hip, which she attributed to the beating with a broom by that first woman. Her mother died in birthing and her father was a barber who died within a couple years. I still have the only doll she ever owned. This may well be your best video.

[@sheltot43]

My late neighbor was the son and nephew of two brothers who were adopted from an orphan train. His dad was adopted in east Texas and his uncle further west. They were able to reconnect later in life. They were adopted by farm families who needed help, but they weren't mistreated or asked to do anymore than anyone else.

[@tonyk1584]

I found myself an orphan, with prospects exceedingly dim When along came a man, train ticket in hand, who said I should travel with him I saw sights during that journey, which to my eyes incredibly rare At the end a nice couple gave me a great home, and the rest of my life I lived there.

[@032319581]

Your face lit up when you mentioned your wife. So thankful you brought this to our attention. Needs to be taught in schools.

[@rogerwhittle2078]

An extraordinary and moving story THG and fascinating that Mrs THG has a familial connection to Orphan Train Children. I was thinking nothing quite like this ever occurred in Britain, but then I had another thought - it absolutely did, although not on quite the same scale or duration. In June 1940, upwards of 200,000 children were 'evacuated' from London, the southeast and Kent/Sussex coastal areas (because of shelling) to destinations all over England, mostly by train. There was 'organisation', but it was slightly "Heath Robinson" (which is exactly equivalent of "Rube Goldberg" - might make a 'short'.) Local 'committees would allocate children to willing families, without much in the way of 'vetting'. Most of the children evacuated quite liked the adventure, but many did not, being subject to abuse and cruelty, some even being treated as slave labour. Some 'escaped 'back to their mothers (fathers usually away in the forces or factories far from home.) I am a post war baby, but I have known and worked with a few people who 'survived' evacuation. Great vlog sir.

[@edschermerhorn5415]

As the father of children through adoption out of foster care, we need to be just as critical of the flaws in modern orphan care as we are of Bryce’s efforts! All childhood trauma is bad, but we must look at what opportunities those children would have had if they had been left in the cities. The best place for ANY child is in a loving home. By birth if possible, by love otherwise.

[@SadisticSenpai61]

I think the large problem with our current system is that it's so incredibly piecemeal and cobbled together. It's also extremely easy for the average person to never interact with the system in any way. Ofc, the root problem that created the huge glut of orphans in the mid 1800s still exists today - poverty. It's possibly even worse now because the rules for who qualifies to adopt requires a degree of means and financial security that the average American just doesn't have. Yes, there's plenty of subsidized adoptions and programs to allow poor ppl to adopt, but the vast majority of ppl that would want to participate in those programs either don't know about them or the application process is so arduous and bureaucratic that they give up and/or don't have the time to actually follow up - especially when you have to take off work for various appointments and meetings. The whole system needs a complete overhaul from top to bottom. And ofc there's consistently problems with abuse in a lot of these programs. I know a lawyer that specializes in subsidized adoptions who's constantly on the lookout for indications that the couples he's working with might be abusive. One of the biggest indicators in his experience is if the couple insists on homeschooling.

[@gnostic268]

Agree with you. I was a foster child for awhile as a toddler. Childhood trauma is the gateway for many problems people develop. Soft White Underbelly here on YT shows this through the interviews with former foster kids.

[@jetsons101]

I became a foster home back in 1997, it's not EZ but worth the effort. I wouldn't change a thing. I now have foster grandkids. Thanks H.G. for a great piece of history.

[@gpclipner]

My great great grandfather was a railroad conductor in the late 1800s. And picked up an orphan from a train.

[@annakeye]

You are an absolute delight, my good fellow. Your snippet 13:21 regarding your spouse and that beautiful smile when you complete the sentence really did bring a warm fuzzy to yours truly. No small feat as I'm a tad cynical at the best of times.

[@JTA1961]

Same here ✊😀👈

[@brianeisenga882]

A couple I know does foster care. It takes a special person with a huge heart. Sometimes the children are only there over night. Sometimes 60 days or more. I commend the people that take children in. Stay safe out there.

[@blip1]

This video is excellent. It kind of hit home. My great grandmother on my dad's side of the family was an orphan in Kansas City. Presently, we have no idea how she got there. She was an amazing person! Worked at the Sears catalogue distribution center in KC for 20 years or so.

[@SadisticSenpai61]

Have y'all done DNA tests? That's a great way to find family members you didn't know you had - especially in situations like your family's. Just be aware that surprises might pop up in the form of half-siblings. My dad's the "genealogist" of the family. He's found the DNA test results to be very useful in confirming some family stories and also proving other family stories to be complete nonsense. We also managed to find the kids of one of his cousins as well. His cousin had a tendency to knock up women and then skip town. His uncle was extremely happy cuz he now has grandkids and great grandkids to dote on. They didn't even live that far away so they've been able to visit regularly. We're still waiting on the Ohio branch of the family to take the tests to confirm whether or not we're actually related. Supposedly, their ancestor's half-brother is my ancestor. He was a traveling salesman and knocked up my great great great grandmother. He gave false info on the marriage license (it was a literal shotgun wedding) and skipped town less than a year later, never to be seen again.

[@dirtcop11]

Even though it wasn't perfect, it was a start. We still have a long way to go with the lost children in our world, but with each step, we learn and grow. In a perfect world, no child would have to suffer from being abandoned and unwanted.

[@skyden24195]

Beautiful sentiment. :-)

[@maxpayne2574]

Or put in a dog cage at the boarder

[@skyden24195]

@@maxpayne2574 ouch! ...but I get what you're getting at. ;-}

[@dmcgee3]

Well US foster care has been quietly privatized by the same companies who run for profit prisons and it’s gone exactly how you’d imagine

[@d.a.2742]

My father-in-law's great- grandfather came from New York on the orphan train when the parents could not care for him ....he was adopted in Iowa and the rest is history....I love history and this man I came to call dad ,therefore I traced his family all the way back to the old country of Germany for him to have ....the photos and history I discovered he has since made into a book including his family as it stands now .

[@donnatanner359]

4 year old Anna was placed on a train in New York. after several weeks Anna arrived at Whitewright Texas. She and others children got off the train and lined up. most of the kids were picked up by local families. Anna was extremely lucky as aDoctor and his wife selected her. was instant affection. Anna grew up, got married lived a long happy life. (Anna Bassett) She adored her adopted parents.

[@skyden24195]

When I saw the title of this episode, I remembered a previous Forgotten History episode mentioned that Mrs. The History Guy was related to a child of the Orphan Trains and in the comments section of that episode a lot of people stated that they had never heard about those particular trains of history; I was one of those people. So I, as I'm sure many others were, was thrilled that The History Guy did this episode and even noted his personal relationship to these forgotten, historical trains. Thank you Mr. & Mrs. The History Guy. (and "staff.")

[@tobyeperkins5301]

I read Joan Lowry Nixon’s series of four books to my students for many years. It is a wonderful series set just before the civil war about 6 Irish children sent west by a widowed mother. Great reading for 8-12 year old children.

[@shaynewhitaker1564]

As a man who lived a portion of his life in an orphanage (an experience I wrote about in my book, The Homeless Man's Journal) I really liked this video. It was certainly interesting and struck a chord with me, given my own history. Like the Orphan Train children, I have witnessed many of my fellow Orphans go on to live a life renewed, and others who never seemed to escape destitution. The stories of those who society often overlooks is assuredly, if I may, "history that deserves to be remembered." Stories like this serve as a reminder that even the meekest among us can do great things. I have enjoyed many of The History Guy's videos, but this is a new favorite. Great job.

[@willlockler9433]

"Little" stories like this that comprise "large" components of individual lives, one of the things you do best. Thank you.

[@Jonoth]

My Great Uncle was an Orphan train kid! Went to my Polish family. He was the oldest, apparently my great granddad wasn't sure about great grandmom, but he shouldn't of worried. They had 11 additional kids!

[@Joeyindahouse]

Greetings History Guy! This comment will take the form of a suggestion for a future episode. A few years ago my wife and I retired to a small homestead here in south Mississippi. Homesteading has become a meme on KZbin with many excellent channels. I've been learning all I can about how the interior of our great country was settled. What was the "Homestead Act"? How did it work? Was it successful? From what I can glean, there was once a time, in our history, where an individual could "stake a claim" and receive acreage, on the order of 160 acres (a square). Is that true? I'd be interested in seeing anything to do with how land was parceled and settled... History that deserves to be remembered! Many thanks, for your excellent work and your gifted story-telling style.

[@malcolmmeer9761]

160 acres is a quarter square. A square is 640 acres. I think you can homestead the Alaska Bush. I believe the actual H A ended in the 1970s tho.

[@Joeyindahouse]

@@malcolmmeer9761 Thank you! As I understand it, those 640 acre "squares" are aptly named, and are the key block used in the great national survey... A massive undertaking which must also be full of history!

[@malcolmmeer9761]

Just for reference tho. If you tell a farmer or rancher you own 2 squares of land they think 1280 acres.

[@northdakotaham1752]

Here in North Dakota, 160 acres is considered a "quarter" which is a quarter of a "section" which is 640 acres or one square mile. I would also appreciate seeing a video from THG on the Homestead Act as that is how my family came to obtain the land they farmed in the Red River Valley, North Dakota. We are still farming it today, 4th generation and 140 years later.

[@skychief399]

One of my grandfathers and his brother homesteaded a full section (640 acres) back in the 1890s (I think). Most of it has stayed in the family divided now among their grandkids like me. I don’t live on my share. A local rancher will graze cattle on it now and then. I do pay my property taxes on it. And life goes on.

[@tap0019]

We learned about Orphan Trains in our adoption classes. The children would "put up" on luggage carts on the train platforms so that prospective adoptive parents could look them over. Children were gladly taken to farms for hard work for the new parents. We adopted 2 children and now they are 22 and 15 years old and are about to graduate college and the other is starting the second year in High School. Our son is Hispanic and has dark skin. Our daughter is Caucasian, and they are equal in our love! We love them both so much! God bless the children!!!

[@mikemiller1646]

On a note related to orphans, in the early 1990s I had a patient who was abandoned as a child. Her mother came to a hospital in Texas, has her then left. This was about 1930. With no one to claim her and before the days of child protective services it fell to the nurses to find her a home. They asked around among their friends, members of their parishes, extended family and neighbors. Apparently the difficulties of the time made it hard to find someone to take her in. Eventually and older nurse whose own children had grown and left the house took her home. My patient said she could of not found a more loving mother. Her family lore was that because it was something of a sudden decision, her adopted mother neglected to tell her husband about the new family member and he returned from his night shift at work to find his wife asleep in bed with a bassinet by the bed. We forget, with our current professionalized social service system, that for millennia most social care was provided in an ad hoc manner within a clan or family group.

[@LisaCaudill001]

Thank you so much for bringing this out into the open. It's so rare to hear about this time in our history. I really appreciate you setting the record straight.

[@donkeyboy585]

“Your password deserves to be remembered” Well played sir

[@TheTomar33]

Bitwarden is free.

[@TheTomar33]

Can you do a video on alexis de Tocqueville, or charity giving.

[@DaneOrschlovsky]

The smirk on his face when saying that was priceless, giving himself a "well done, Sir."

[@peterscott1111]

There were similar programs in the UK, sending children to Australia, which ran till the 60s. It now turns out that quite a few of them were very badly treated and abused. Things done with the best of intentions so often go astray.

[@kvogel9245]

I had a great aunt who was adopted around the turn of the century in Missouri, from an orphan train from NYC. She later became a nun, Sister Frederick, and died in Chicago in her 90s. My grandmother was also adopted, although her parents were friends of the family who died young. They were both lucky to go to a decent family.

[@fauxhound5061]

seeing the picture with the kids at their tables smiling at the camera made me smile back, kids joyfulness is truly infectious

[@JTA1961]

Amen

[@israelwikkerink188]

I loved that smirk you got when you mentioned your wife. You are a beautiful person Mr. History Guy.

[@C_HILL_OUT]

My great grandfather came west on an orphan train. Before the pandemic, there was an orphan train reenactment in Belton MO that included some of the history and a short train ride.

[@Josh-of-all-Trades]

I love how Mrs. History Guy provides a connection between history and now. It reminds me of how all history effects us now.

[@swwy5]

My father in law was raised a a Catholic orphanage in Hell's Kitchen, NYC from 1919 to 1933. The stories of his orphanage time there were terrible.

[@ericstevenson2188]

I worked for the Children's Aide Society in Greenwich Village in the 90's and it was nothing like what you speak of and it was terribly interesting watching this. At the time I had no idea of this history.

[@hhjones9393]

That smile when THG says " The great great granddaughter of one of those orphans married the History Guy" is priceless.

[@dorightal4965]

The depression created a number of temporary orphans. My father was placed in one in Los Angeles even before the crash due to a family break up when his mother left home. My grandfather had no option but to place his 3 sons in the orphanage since he had no day care of sitters available. They stayed there for about 6 years, when my grandfather returned with a new wife who became a great mother to the 3 boys. All of the boys excelled in school and went on to various careers. One was a Rhodes Scholar, served in the OSS in WWII (the elder son). One (the second born) had a career in management for a major aircraft firm. The youngest, my dad, earned a doctors degree in education and taught many generations higher levels of math. The orphanage experience was a place that my dad shared with me often and was fondly remembered. He took me to visit the place many years later. He was there from the age of 2 to about 8.

[@JTA1961]

Thanks for sharing

[@silentwitness4843]

I disagree. My parents both were children then. I never heard of anything like giving up children..

[@dorightal4965]

I don't see how you can "disagree" with the facts of another's family history?? My previous generation's history was not a story of fiction. I presented it to show another way the economic pressures of the depression affected one family, my own. @@silentwitness4843

[@jonswebilius6900]

The Shakers used to take large numbers of orphans to live in their communes. Since Shakers never had children of their own, orphans were one of the methods by which they kept their sect viable. I'm new to your channel. Have you done a program about the Shakers? I think their story is fascinating.

[@fenna_pel]

i have been watching the history guy video's for a while now, but the expression on your face at the 13:25 mark ... wow: pride, love and respect all rolled into one :) keep up the great work :) Fenna

[@JTA1961]

Excellent observation

[@pamelamays4186]

It's awesome that you have a direct connection to this story. One of the articles featured in this story mentioned a city called Schuyler. That's kind of interesting, since a Schuyler, namely Elizabeth, founded the first orphanage in New York City. When I first read the title of this episode, I thought it was going to be about old and forgotten once mighty trains that had ended up in some desolate location.

[@julianpalmer4886]

From one homeless descendant to another, God Bless you

[@thetrumpnewsnetwork7503]

My wife was in foster care as were her siblings. For all but one of them it was a tragedy. Many foster children are abused sexually and phycologically.

[@janisbentzen4503]

So it was the same as what they left

[@thetrumpnewsnetwork7503]

@@janisbentzen4503 stupid comment

[@davidjsouth231]

My great great grandad was in an orphanage in Michigan because his dad was a merchant marine on the lakes and their mom, no ancestry as to her whereabouts. My great great grandad ran away from a farmer who picked him from the orphanage to work on the farm. Thus ended up in northern Michigan

[@roberthill3207]

Have a great day everyone.

[@curtismcelhaney2512]

You too

[@MrDmitriRavenoff]

You too fine human.

[@barbkeen1221]

You also!! ❤😊

[@Vet-7174]

You as well !

[@nedludd7622]

How?

[@kirtliedahl]

Another example of the wide variety of great episodes you always produce. Great job, and thank you!

[@kathytoy5055]

Thanks, HG! That was incredibly interesting. I love that you take on otherwise obscure topics along with the core empire topics. This variety is what I enjoy most about the channel and was probably the missing element in my formal history education. Oh, and a particularly nice tie today as well. Cheers!

[@TSemasFl]

Good one, HG. I enjoyed listening to this story. Just more Americans who helped make our country great.

[@Spirelord]

In Opelousas, Louisiana, there is an Orphan Train Museum, which includes one of the engines used on the route! It is really quite something to see this slice of history preserved there. It's primarily associated with the leg of the route that brought orphans from East Coast cities over to rural Louisiana...a migration no one would ever have expected as being commonplace!

[@barbkeen1221]

There's also one in Concordia, KS. I was an otr truck driver and used to pass the street it was on countless times but unfortunately never had time to stop in and visit it.

[@DavidBrown-cs1tq]

@@barbkeen1221 same here all the time going thru Concordia on US71 always wished I could stop to see the Orphan train museum and the WW2 POW camp museum also

[@barbkeen1221]

@@DavidBrown-cs1tq The life of a truck driver!! When others think how cool it is that we get to see different places all the time and think we actually stop to be a tourist, we actually just wave at the signs that say where the tourist spot is and keep on trucking! 😂 🚛💨

[@christinerobinson890]

I saw the movie Orphan Train when I was about 12. It seems like a good solution for the time. Our foster care system is broken and orphanages seem like houses of abuse. We adopted three teenagers in 2005 and 2007. I think they were better off with us than in their former situations. All three are leading successful, responsible lives.

[@JTA1961]

You picked them at a very difficult age. Huge respect. However doing it again & again makes me concerned for your sanity. (X teenage foster kid)

[@connieembury1]

My grandfather on my mom's side of the family was one of the children sent over from London, England as one of the “home children” to Canada in the late 1800s. He was lucky as the people he was placed with treated him decently. He was allowed to attend school but had many chores to do. When he was 18 the family he was with helped him to find a job with the Canadian National Railway and he worked with them for 45 years. He didn't talk much about his past, just that he was Welsh by birth and his family moved to London for work and both his parents died when he was just 9 years old and he was then on the streets till he was caught up and sent over. Not all the children from this program had an easy time, many were badly abused and made to work hard.

[@davidmoore1248]

You can always count on THG to provide different views on a subject in a way that doesn't detract from the historical importance of it. Thanks!

[@Bardin7094]

I’ve watched your channel for a couple of years now, I really enjoy it and this is a topic I’d never heard of before today. I agree this moment in history should be remembered. Even with its many successes I don’t completely agree with how children or the parents were disregarded but social programs are seldom without a great many flaws. Thank you so much for the work you and your wife do, it’s a great channel and you’ve grown so much.

[@WildBillCox13]

The personal anecdote, though brief, is beautiful.

[@abbycross90210]

My step-granddather was an orphan his entire childhood during the 20s-30s. He was a sickly, weak kid so he was never adopted so he had to grow up in an orphanage until he aged out.

[@troytrexler5459]

Then what happened? Was he in the orphanage until drafted for WW2?

[@abbycross90210]

@@troytrexler5459 he was deaf in one ear so he wasn't drafted. He put himself through college and law school and later became a judge

[@Mojo-le2bv]

It is always sad as a child when you realize just what your place in the family is, why you were brought about and how you will be seen or portrayed according to family for the rest of your life. Those painful experiences last a person all their life, never forgotten and when retold never easing up on the pain that was created from experience. My parents felt I was their mini psychiatrist when alone with each at a time, they would pour out their pain from childhood on through adulthood, and with each other and other of their respective family members. I realized then that the pain never goes away but needs to be released every so often as to get infected if a blister where the pus builds up and needs clean up so as not to back up into the bloodstream. I saw my parents as bigger extensions of me, nothing more, nothing less. They were given a lot less than me and had a lot less options with a great more societal restrictions. All in all I am appreciative.

[@TheHylianBatman]

Nothing like a tale of American history for the History Guy's life.

[@davidlogansr8007]

Good Morning Good Sir! Have you considered doing a story about Milton S. Hershey? His legendary Milton Hershey School has saved probably Hundreds of Thousands of children since its inception in 1909. There are several good books about the Hershey’s not the least of which is called “One of a Kind”. Thank You for your excellent work!

[@eliscanfield3913]

Are you a grad? My nephew attends; he started in 2nd or 3rd grade and is in middle school now. (my sister has stage IV cancer, she and her ex had very little money when he started, sometimes even crashing at friends and relatives homes, and they wanted him to have an element of stability in his life, just in case. She's managed to live much longer than expected.)

[@davidlogansr8007]

@@eliscanfield3913 Good Morning Bryan! No, my late wife and I were Head Houseparents in the 1980’s. Only her declining health forced us to leave. We were (then) the only House Parents who paid out of our own pockets to have student home pictures taken by a professional photographer. We remain in touch with a number of “our boys” and regard them as extended family! We knew that the kids had not done anything to end up there (negative) and we treated them accordingly. Some were and are open and receptive to our approach and others less so. That is not to say there was no discipline, there was, but neither of us ever struck a child, which happened elsewhere, and never withheld food, drink or snacks as those DO LEAVE emotional issues. My Wife and I got most food in raw and taught all of our boys how to cook it. Ask any questions you may have about our tenure, I will be Happy to respond!

[@jjducharme1]

Thank you, I'm also a great great grandson of an orphan train child. As an adopted child I recently reconnected with my birth family and was told the story. This helps round it out and is very greatly appreciated.

[@dinascharnhorst6590]

I wonder whether any of those children came from the Orphan Asylum Society (now known as Graham Windham), founded by Eliza Hamilton? I love the personal note toward your subject, Sir! That truly makes history come alive!

[@robertholmberg6485]

We had a friend who was on the orphan trains. She was married to a WWII veteran who was stationed on the U.S.S. Texas

[@HM2SGT]

I'm reminded of the Irish Rovers"The hiring Fair" He said, "You're welcome with me, Johnny. And you're with a decent man." But little I knew what I had to do for Grady of Stravan. As I went down to the Hiring Fair in a place they call the Strand, Twas there I hired for seven long years with Grady of Stravan. And before I went and hired with him, he was very nice to me. He promised me eggs and bacon, and he then shook hands with me, Saying "You're welcome with me, Johnny. And you're with a decent man." But little I knew what I had to do for Grady of Stravan. When I went up to my bed that night, I let out an awful bawl. For the fleas they made a fierce attack, and I got no sleep at all. When I came down for my breakfast, what do you think I see, But a dozen squawling children saying "Is there anything there for me?" He said, "You're welcome with me, Johnny. And you're with a decent man." But little I knew what I had to do for Grady of Stravan. I worked on Grady's farm til I looked an awful sight. My bones were pushing through my skin, for I worked from morn til night. One day, I died and passed away, and Grady gave a grin, Saying "He'll make good fertilizer, and there's plenty more like him." Saying "You're welcome with me, Johnny. And you're with a decent man." But little I knew what I had to do for Grady of Stravan

[@erinikeuchi6447]

Very enjoyable video.0ne aspect that I love about history is how we are connected to it. Thank you for sharing that your wife descends from this historical time. Soo cool

[@markjury6633]

My grandma was taken off of an orphan train. I really miss her.

[@kchall5]

It's great that you have such a personal connection to a consequential and controversial period in American history. Based on the large numbers of children sent to the midwest, I'd imagine that a surprising number of people from that region can trace their history back to "orphan train" kids.

[@sadiesaurus54]

My great grandmother was an orphan train child, she ended up in wisconsin and married my great grandfather, who came to the US from Luxembourg with his family when he was 8

[@trishthehomesteader9873]

Thanks THG and commenters!💜 Even though I know that was another time and another culture, I still color history with the present. It warms my heart and assuages my concerns for those children that they mostly had better lives.💜

[@skyden24195]

You're much obliged. ;-)

[@David-zc6wq]

great gran daughter married the history guy..you drop a nugget like that and move on. That's a story to be remembered.

[@kevinbaker6168]

I became friends with an older man who was sent to Missouri on one of the orphan trains. What his past was before here came west was a hazy memory to him. Unfortunately the family that "adopted" him never really treated him as member of the family. His childhood was one of being the "B" orphan child and as he got older an unpaid servant/laborer on their farm.

[@ronfullerton3162]

From time to time more about the orphan trains and the people they brought west comes to light here in Nebraska because many found there way out to the prairie of the Dakotas on down through Kansas and Oklahoma. The stories vary a lot as to if it was happy or sad endings. But they all faced to hard life of survival out here. But amazing stories they all are. And a big part of the history out here. Thank you History Guy for another good story and history.

[@raymondoverson8715]

My wife's family had a member come west on one of these trains. Great work and thanks for sharing.

[@BHuang92]

In 1979, an TV movie aired called "Orphan Train" that follows the lives of two fictional characters Ben and Tony as their lives change when they are enrolled in the Orphan Train program.

[@toldyouso5588]

Yeah, I remember it, one of the orphan heroes was an.English kid called Liverpool who protected the others from sexual predators.

[@eliscanfield3913]

@David Single Wow, that's totally relevant to a comment about a 40 year old movie. Also, China couldn't help being the source of this damned virus. Do you work for Russia?

[@barbkeen1221]

@@eliscanfield3913 There's always one!

[@michaelcerkez3895]

While it may have been related to a different religion my heart is with Father Flanagan and Boys Town. I'll not put them all in competition with each other for anything done for children in dire straits can not be bad. Thank you Mr HG, and Mrs HG as well.

[@cynthiabeckenbaugh5189]

My daughters 6th generation grandfather was , Charles Loring Brace. A man willing to try a solution for a great problem. A good man.

[@stevedietrich8936]

Awesome lesson in American history THG. Neat to hear that Heidi has a connection to this story as well.

[@jdathey]

Great episode! This reminds me of how my gr-gr-grandfather and his brother came to Canada at ages 13 and 9. They were orphaned in 1868 in Southampton, England and brought to Ontario to live with a family and work as farmhands. Many orphaned children were brought to Canada and Australia through the British Child Emigration Scheme. He eventually was emancipated, married and started a family, eventually settling in Clare Co., MI.

[@JTA1961]

Being a x foster child I hadn't heard the term emancipated for 43 years altho it was spoken alot among us at the time.

[@robertberglund8321]

The best stories are the ones that hit closest to home.

[@catjudo1]

History Guy, you have such a way of telling these historical stories, something I doubt I could ever do. This is because of the things my grandmother would tell me that would get me into trouble, as she was a prankster and liked to mess with people. My grandmother convinced me that orphans have no belly buttons since they don't have parents. Yeah, that went over real well when my second grade teacher told the class that she had been an orphan. You can just guess what I asked her.

[@mark_wotney9972]

There is an orphan train museum in Concordia, Kansas. Worth the visit. They have some KZbin videos.

[@omegadubois6619]

The proud, happy smile on his face when he mentioned his wife was heartwarming.

[@elizabethharttley4073]

This was facinating I appreciate the sensitivity applied to this topic. Carry on

[@Jeg_er_tyk_og_grim]

I just found out (8-25-2023) that my great-gramdmother was an orphan train child. Never knew that and am 37 years old

[@cernowaingreenman]

My great-grandmother was in an orphanage/girl's workhouse in Peoria IL and was adopted in 1895. Her blonde curls made her stand out and helped her find a home.

[@JohnCBurzynski]

I am told that my grand father was on the orphan train. Even after this video I still don’t know what that means. He was born in Milwaukee lived and died there and never had a name change. His parents passed before he was a teen and it is unclear where he lived until he shows up again around 18. I wish I knew what happened. Part of the forgotten past, I guess.

[@skychief399]

@johncburzynski If you go to the App Store (or the Android equivalent) and search “genealogy” or “family history” you’ll find several good free apps (I’ve stayed away from the pay type apps) to help you learn about your family ancestors. Some have First Person stories included. I started from scratch. I’ve learned a wealth of Information about my extended family. Good luck.

[@souta95]

My town (Dowagiac, MI) commissioned a mural commentating the orphan train a couple years ago as it was a stop on the very first train.

[@middletech]

It wasn't perfection, but it took a bad situation and made it better.

[@arrow1414]

Unless you weren't much better than a slave and abused.

[@middletech]

@@arrow1414 That's called childhood.

[@onrr1726]

both my grandfather and an uncle were born in NYC shortly their parents immigrated from Ireland both boys ended up in the same orphanage and ended up being adopted by a family in King Ferry, NY. that ran a big farm. to my knowledge my grandfather had 5 or 6 other siblings most of which died when they were still children. He had an uncle already here in New York State but his uncle could not take him being that he was active in the IRA and wanted for leveling a British police station sometime after the Easter uprising. My uncle ran into similar situation with parents who had way to many children and no money so he was put up for adoption. Both were able to keep in contact with their parents long after settling down on the farm after adoption. neither of them wanted the farm after they had returned from Korea. My grandfather took a job as a prison guard at Auburn, Prison in Auburn, NY my uncle a welder for P&C Foods in Syracuse, NY fixing shopping carts.

[@chiefpontiac1800]

I cannot imagine how these little kids must have felt, being abandoned by their parents. I'm sure that most found good loving homes, but I bet that many were abused. How sad.

[@evensgrey]

Not all were abandoned, many were really orphaned. Worse, children of immigrants might have no other family they could go to if their parents died. Notice how the program ended at about the time that medical care greatly improved, such that very few young people were dying of infections any more. (Before the advent of antibiotics, any little cut or scratch might well kill you horribly, and there was little that could be done for things as common as pneumonia or bronchitis. I had a severe bronchitis when I was 26. Had that occurred before antibiotics, I would have been, at best, months in hospital with a chest tube to drain the puss, and probably have had severe lung damage if I survived at all. As it was, it took three rounds of antibiotics to cure it.)

[@Mudhooks]

There is a song by Tom Russell called “Rider on an Orphan Train” about children torn from their siblings and sent who know where. I dare you not to cry. Canada had the same sort of orphan trains, taking British children and sending them to Canada. The Barnardo Children (named for Dr. Thomas John Barnardo opened orphanages for poor children.) and similar efforts by the Catholic Church. The Barnardo children were put en mass on trains travelling across Canada. Some children were adopted by living, caring people who couldn’t have children. But many were taken by farmers who simply saw them as free labour. They might be given a bed in the kitchen but many were put iut in the barn, alone, ill clothed, with inadequate bedding and no heat. Many didn’t get the same food as the family, eating scraps and slop. Many were beaten. Sexual abuse was not unknown for the girls and boys.There was no place to run if you wanted to. Children froze to death doing so. The authorities were supposed to check on them every so often but often they either couldn’t tell how they were being treated or weren’t believed. The lucky ones were taken away by the inspector. In some cases, the children weren’t actually orphans. They might have been put temporarily in an orphanage when a mother was unable to make ends meet, with the intention of taking them home when they got back on their feet. They would go to the orphanage and find their child gone with no explanation. In other cases, children were taken from their single mothers “for their own good” and sent away with no consent. Many of the children never saw their family again. Some children succeeded in spite of the treatment. Some didn’t. Some had mixed feelings about their experiences. Churches and organization actively sent children to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. The physical and sexual abuse that many if the children experienced was horrific. Re: Barnardo: adoptions. There was controversy early on with Barnardo's work. Specifically, he was accused of kidnapping children without parents' permission and of falsifying photographs of children to make the distinction between the period before they were rescued by Barnardo's and afterwards seem more dramatic. He openly confessed to the former of these charges, describing it as 'philanthropic abduction' and basing his defence on the idea that the end justified the means. In total, he was taken to court on 88 occasions, usually on the charge of kidnapping. However, being a charismatic speaker and popular figure, he rode through these scandals unscathed. Other charges brought against him included presenting staged images of children for Barnardo's 'before and after' cards and neglecting basic hygiene for the children under his care.

[@sonoffantm]

Great story (as usual). Thought I might send a note thanking those of you involved in the production of The History Guy channel. Always a bright spot in the day when a new episode appears ! Was just browsing your About section on your webpage and chuckled to myself when reading the statement that you "talk too fast but am working on that". Being an individual who frequently used to say "the wrong thing" when talking fast, I purposely slowed down to catch myself before verbal mistakes are blurted out and now seem to notice how fast most people do talk. Since you are likely reading from a script with prior proof reading eliminating any possible mistakes, speaking at warp speed is very excusable. Having found times being in a very relaxed mood and have any trouble contending with the speed of your delivery, I just access the KZbin settings icon and slow down the playback speed. History Guy now in relaxed mood, too.

[@JWSitterley]

The story of Annie Oakley is quite similar. Thanks History Guy.

[@nobilesnovushomo58]

It was up to the children to do something about it. Recently my mother had a realtor job that took her to a more rural area of small town Ocala Florida, The guy was taken in by extended family but by 12 years old he was on his own because they had a lot of mouths to feed and they were in unhappy marriage considering both of them had children from different marriages, he owns a big farm and he sold it for $850,000, it was replete with a house and he told me that he also had a history in the Air Force which he joined by age 18. He was born in the 1930s or 20s and he still owns more than most college students and millennials. I’m just saying that generally once people start focusing on themselves a lot more rather than all these wishy-washy programs they tend to advance themselves much past those that don’t. Most hippies eventually went on to live in mildly decent paying jobs and they aren’t that ambitious. Although the guy wasn’t exactly flawless in his past of seeing woman and having different children, he still did really well for the life he lived.

[@JTA1961]

You can't predict the hand of cards you're given. However how you play the game is up to you... (X foster kid)

[@janetd4862]

My great grandmother and her sister were just little girls when their mother died. Their father abandoned them, and they were separated and sent to Nebraska to live with farm families, basically as slaves. She left that home at about age 12 to marry and thus escape. I didn’t learn her story till more than 30 years after she died. Living in Nebraska, I have heard stories of the orphan trains. The stories have been prettied up, but from what I’ve heard around here, most stories were not happy ones. The orphans were taken in as free labor, and provided with as little as possible.

[@HM2SGT]

I'm reminded of the Irish Rovers"The hiring Fair" He said, "You're welcome with me, Johnny. And you're with a decent man." But little I knew what I had to do for Grady of Stravan. As I went down to the Hiring Fair in a place they call the Strand, Twas there I hired for seven long years with Grady of Stravan. And before I went and hired with him, he was very nice to me. He promised me eggs and bacon, and he then shook hands with me, Saying "You're welcome with me, Johnny. And you're with a decent man." But little I knew what I had to do for Grady of Stravan. When I went up to my bed that night, I let out an awful bawl. For the fleas they made a fierce attack, and I got no sleep at all. When I came down for my breakfast, what do you think I see, But a dozen squawling children saying "Is there anything there for me?" He said, "You're welcome with me, Johnny. And you're with a decent man." But little I knew what I had to do for Grady of Stravan. I worked on Grady's farm til I looked an awful sight. My bones were pushing through my skin, for I worked from morn til night. One day, I died and passed away, and Grady gave a grin, Saying "He'll make good fertilizer, and there's plenty more like him." Saying "You're welcome with me, Johnny. And you're with a decent man." But little I knew what I had to do for Grady of Stravan