Orphan Train exhibit coming

By PHYLLIS ZORN

Staff writer

Marion City Library will have a three-week Orphan Train exhibit in its Santa Fe room Sept. 15 to Oct. 5.

Called “All Aboard the Orphan Train,” the exhibit will explore the Orphan Train movement, which lasted 75 years, from 1854 to 1929.

It will include the establishment of orphanages that started the “Placing Out Program,” and what the Children’s Aid Society did to relocate children.

The movement began in response to conditions during the 1800s and early 1900s, in New York City when an estimated 10,000 to 30,000 children lived on the streets.

Immigration was one cause. Families often had just enough money to get to the United States.

The exhibit will tell how Orphan Trains started, why they were needed, and how children were placed with different families, librarian Janet Marler said.

Immigrants couldn’t always find jobs when they arrived. The city was overcrowded, and diseases were prevalent, sometimes killing several members of a family.

Orphans were “street urchins” to some, “sewer rats” to others.

The Children’s Aid Society sent its first Orphan Train to Dowagiac, Michigan, on Sept. 20, 1854.

It had 46 children ages 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 other homes.

About 200,000 children had been relocated by the time the movement ended in 1929. Kansas ended up with 5,000 to 7,000 orphans.

In conjunction with the display, Sara Richter will present a program on Orphan Train riders at 1 p.m. Sept. 24.

The exhibit will be free. No registration is required.

Hours will be 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday.

The library will be closed Sept. 20 and 27.

More information is available at (620) 382-2442.