Good question. My stepfather's father was apparently an orphan train child. I don't know how he ended up in the Pacific Northwest, but he was "adopted" by a wealthy family to work for them for free. Adoption was in name only. When he was still a young teenager he was given a train ticket back to NYC, and told never to contact them again. He had a hard life, but raised a family and took good care of them. Most of his children were successful and well educated.
It would be something if you could find more information on that. Seems like quite the coordinated effort to put that many orphaned children on trains even back then.
Makes ya wonder if this had something to do with the orphan trains that are an oddity to American history
Good question. My stepfather's father was apparently an orphan train child. I don't know how he ended up in the Pacific Northwest, but he was "adopted" by a wealthy family to work for them for free. Adoption was in name only. When he was still a young teenager he was given a train ticket back to NYC, and told never to contact them again. He had a hard life, but raised a family and took good care of them. Most of his children were successful and well educated.
It would be something if you could find more information on that. Seems like quite the coordinated effort to put that many orphaned children on trains even back then.
I just read about that the other day. First I had heard of it. Horrible stuff.
And yet the orphan trains were started by well meaning people trying to get poor children good homes and off the streets of New York
Yeah, it's a sad thing. The road to hell is paved with good intentions