Iowa History Project
is a special project of Iowa GenWeb, brings the history of Iowa alive through the transcription of various Iowa history books and documents. The home page of the Iowa History Project is located at: http://iagenweb.org/history

In the 1850s, approximately 200,000 orphans lived in the United States, an estimated 30,000 of them resided on the streets of New York City. In the city, homeless children survived by selling newspapers, matches and rags and formed gangs to help protect on another from street violence. The street gangs were so threatening that police often imprisioned children - some as yung as age 5 - which adult criminals. Distrurbed by the sight of so many vagrant and troubled children, minister Charles Loring BRACE founed the Children's Aid Society to alleviate the problem. With help from the New York Foundling Hospital, the oranization raised money to obtain legal lpermission to arrange accomodations in homes for as many children as possible. Thus the "Orphan Train" as born.

BRACE and his contemporaries concluded that running trains of orphans to the Midwest would be the most efficient way to decrease the number of homeless children in urban areas, namely Boston and New York City. Between 1854 and 1929, at least 100,000 children were shipped via train to rural America. Farmers in the Midwest needed labor to settle the expanding farm country, and Brace believed farm families would welcome needy children into their homes. While this was true in many cases, many children were treated as indentured slaves and later reported abuse. Nonetheless, BRACE's orphan trains gave way to modern foster care, which has placed countless children into loving homes.

Unfortunately, many riders on the orphan train lost their birth certificates and other important documents, making it difficult to trace their roots. The National Orphan Train Complex hopes to preserved what history is left - and connect the dots for people - by collecting stories and artifacts from those who were part of the Orphan Train Movement. - DAR July/August magazine American Spirit

To learn more about the Orphan Train Movement or search for your family's connects to the orphan train visit http://www.orphantraindepot.com/