Young readers will join Libby and Josie as they journey on one of the infamous
orphan trains in 1896 from New York City to the Midwest in search of a forever family and a piece of the American dream in "The Cheese Song: All Aboard the
Orphan Train!".
Explore the history of
Orphan Trains in Illinois, with guest speaker Rochelle Gridley, at Rock Springs Nature Center on Sunday, June 23 at 2 p.m.
Filling a gap in the history of young people, Kline researched the
orphan trains that "transported a reported two hundred thousand children from the East Coast to the Midwest between 1854 and 1929." Based on her research, she depicts the fictional journey of Niamh, who, sent to the Children's Aid Society when her family is burned in a New York tenement fire, is put on an
orphan train bound for the Midwest.
The
orphan trains and Indian boarding schools of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the US, to mention only two examples, were also religiously motivated.
In "The Gift," set in Jersey City in 1877, a desperate young mother gives up her daughter to the infamous
Orphan Trains. "Man and Boy" offers a story about the sale of Jumbo to P.
Aside from writing Mail-Order Kid, Marilyn's other work about the
orphan trains includes her tour of Nebraska, from 1991 to 1995, performing as Louisa May Alcott and “Henrietta's Mother,” the mother of an
orphan train rider, countless days interviewing Teresa, and limitless hours researching the topic.
Extra!: The
Orphan Trains and Newsboys of New York" tells the story of the fate of many children in the early twentieth century, and how the Children's Aid Society sought to help these young people through their early lives.
Kim Vogel Sawyer is a prolific author of numerous Christian-themed novels with personal ties to the
Orphan Trains through a much-loved grandmother.
Some topics covered include the Alamo, Indian boarding schools, the
orphan trains, and the women of the westward movement.
The three create a special group and dub themselves as "wildflowers." Hillary and her friends always are on the lookout for
orphan trains and strain to catch any glimpse of the children inside the passenger cars.
The
orphan trains moved children from orphanages and inner city poverty to farm families, marking the recognized beginning of foster care and adoption in this country.
Where would his pictures fit within her argument about the Protestant progressive urge to weaken parochial institutions in favor of using "
orphan trains" to provide a family experience--that in some ways resembled bound labor and apprenticeships of the colonial period?
