Between 1854
and 1929 over 250,000 orphans and unwanted children were taken out of New
York City and given away at train stations across America. Originally organized
by minister Charles Loring Brace to rid New York of homeless street children
and provide them with an opportunity to find new homes in the developing
Midwest, this nearly eighty year experiment in child migration is filled
with horror stories and happy endings. The last train came to Sulphur Springs,
Texas in 1929. The trains stopped in pre-selected towns where people interested
in taking a child would assemble. The children were lined up on the platform
or a meeting hall stage, encouraged to perform or sing to endear them to
prospective takers and were inspected, often prodded and poked to determine
whether or not they would be good workers on farms or local businesses.
Children not chosen were put back on the train and many were shuttled from
family to family and town to town. Until the release of a 1993 documentary
on PBS's The American Experience, these children's stories were largely
untold.
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