WELLINGTON — Nearly a century after its last stop, the Orphan Train movement continues to fascinate.
Jim and Sunni Bales became interested while visiting the Orphan Train Museum in Concordia, especially in the stories of those children who had come to Sumner County. Jim Bales is director of the Chisholm Trail Museum here.
When Sunni learned that an Orphan Train traveling exhibit was available, the Bales partnered with the Sumner County Historical & Genealogical Society to bring it here. It will be displayed at the museum through June 30.
Meantime, the threat of hail and tornadoes couldn’t keep about 100 people from attending Jim Bales’ May 19 presentation on the subject. An encore presentation is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. June 9 at Wellington’s Cowley College campus, 2209 Davis-White Loop. Admission is free.
The Orphan Train movement began in response to conditions in New York City during the 1800s and early 1900s, when there were estimated 10,000 to 30,000 children living on the streets. Immigration was one cause, Bales said.
“Families often had just enough money to get to the United States.”
Immigrants who expected to find jobs when they arrived were often disappointed. Meanwhile, the city was overcrowded and diseases were prevalent, sometimes killing several members of a family.
The orphans were “street urchins” to some, “sewer rats” to others. Bales said The Children’s Aid Society sent the first Orphan Train to Dowagiac, Michigan, on September 20, 1854. It had 46 boys and girls aged 10 to 12, all of whom were adopted. The society’s agents made return trips to check on the children, and if necessary, find them another home.
The phrase “Orphan Train” appears to have first been used in a newspaper in 1915. By the movement’s end in 1929, about 200,000 children had been relocated.
Some in the crowd here had a connection to Orphan Trains.
“The fella I go out with, who lives in Bel Air, his mother was an orphan train rider,” Marlene Otto, who also lives in Bel Aire, said.
Many more area residents undoubtedly have a connection as well.
Bales said he has found information on five Orphan Trains that came to Sumner County. Two stopped in Wellington, and one each went to Belle Plaine, Mulvane and South Haven.
One orphan brought to Wellington was Chales Hansen. Charles’ father was a whaler. Hanson’s mother died while his father was at sea, and their children were placed on Orphan Trains. Charles’ sister ended up in Ohio, while he and his brother went to separate families in Kansas. His brother, unhappy with where he was, hitchhiked back to their town in the east.
