A FAMILY APART

THE ORPHAN TRAINS

February 21, 2011

"Where is it we are going?

The train leaves with gathering speed...

All I know is town away.

Swaying cars, clacking noise,

Sensing loss...

Start to grieve...

Could you not bear my crying?

Did I hurt you?

As we pull into the station...we make them choose us.

                                            Just WHO am I?" Mark K.  11 years old

My name is Mark. I came to New York City on a crowded boat with my parents, 5 brothers and 5 sisters...as did about 4 million other immigrants between 1841 and 1860. We were all filled with hopes, dreams and the promises of a new world...but New York (and other port cities where people like me landed,) swelled beyond its capacity and was ill equipped to handle such a huge influx of people. There was widespread disease, crime and without the support of extended family members, the inevitable breakdown of our families. Along with many of my friends who also came from large families, I was sent to an orphanage...evidently, I had "aged out" of my family and Ma and Da thought I could make it on my own! At the orphanage, I was cared for as long as my parents could pay for my care. But, barely able to care for themselves and my younger siblings...and living in the most basic, overcrowded and unsanitary conditions...tenements...those payments soon ceased. I was left to fend for myself on the streets with between 10,000 and 30,000 other kids like me...abandoned, homeless, neglected...in a sense ORPHANED, even though my parents were still alive. Some of us kids found small jobs to help ourselves, but at a time when there were few jobs available, even for Da, living...SURVIVING...was a struggle!

In 1854, when I was 10, my pals and I began hearing about something called ORPHAN TRAINS. With the help of people from the newly established New York CHILDREN'S AID SOCIETY, kids like me would be offered a chance at a whole new life...AGAIN! We'd be "placed out," leaving behind our crowded, urban East Coast "homes." Herded together, we'd be transported by train to new homes in Western, Midwestern and Southern states...foster homes in rural settings. We'd stop at predetermined cities where it was known that foster homes were available for us, then the local people would come to select those of us they wanted. I liked THINKING  about it...the possibilities. But I wasn't sure I actually wanted to leave all I had come to know for the TOTALLY UNKNOWN! (This was the beginning of the foster care system still working in our country today...in a different incarnation with different rules, of course.)

Finally one day, the first group of children suitable for "placing out" were selected...I was one of them! There were 45 other boys who rode with me to a place called Dowagiac, Michigan. We'd heard that the younger kids were easier to place and while kids as old as 17 found new families, usually they weren't older than 14 years old. I was 11, so my chances were probably pretty good. But...what if I wasn't chosen? MORE disappointment...more hardship!!  I thought the risk was worth taking. For the train trip, we were grouped together (with chaperones,) bathed, provided with new clothes and even taught basic manners so we could impress prospective parents. To make sure that none of us went missing, numbers were pinned on our clothes and we were asked to count off at regular intervals.

When we arrived at our first destination, we had a few hours to clean up and rest. Then, we were taken to a town center...my group was taken to a church. Here, people from near and far gathered to size us up and decide which of us they wanted to take home...to invite into their families. I wasn't chosen the FIRST time...only 14 of us were! The remaining 32 of us returned to the train, hoping to be selected at a subsequent stop. I was FINALLY selected when we got to Calhoun County, Michigan...I went home with John and Susan Beers, their son William and their daughter Ida...off to start my new life! I felt very grateful for this chance...to be part of a family once again...scary though it was!

This photo was given to me as a gift from my adoptive family, the Beers...a remembrance...You can't see me clearly, but you can see my head circled as we lined up for "the selection" process.

 Between 1854 and 1929, when the program stopped, more than 200,000 children had ridden the ORPHAN TRAINS. Some found loving families and were adopted (as I was,) others were regarded as only cheap labor and worked long hours in the fields and in the homes. Changing attitudes towards keeping families together, new state and local laws funding foster care and prohibiting out-of-state-placement as well as child labor legislation brought about the end of the ORPHAN TRAINS in 1929...
AND...

I grew up to become a CONGRESSMAN from the great state of Michigan with my new, loving family by my side...CONGRESSMAN MARK KENNETH BEERS. I guess I'm one of the many ORPHAN TRAIN success stories...

SINCERELY,

Mark K. Beers

*SPECIAL NOTE: Special thanks to my cyber-friend from PAPER TRADERS,  
Connie Holso. She opened my eyes and heart to this little-known but very poignant piece of the puzzle that IS our American History...keenly aware of my "ongoing romance" with trains. 

Please stop by again...