The famous "Orphan Trains" which once brought children to St. Patrick's
Parish were a project of the Children's Aid Society, founded in New York
by Charles Brace in 1853. He saw little boys sleeping under the Harlem
Bridge, in burned-out safes in Wall Street, in old boilers and barges,
on steps and in stream gratings. He decided the best thing for these
orphan, outcast children of the New York slums would be to send them to
midwest farm families.
The "Orphan Trains" ran from 1854 to before the Great Depression in
1929. The first train brought 47 boys for placement in Michigan. At
least 100,000 children were eventually placed. Some were placed in
abusive situations where parents wanted workers rather than loving
children. However, 90% of the children were successfully placed in good
homes. Many of the orphans became journalists, judges, lawyers,
attorneys, physicians and leading business and professional men and
women.
Before the boxcars of children entered a town, the children were bathed
and given clean clothes to wear. The were given instructions on how to
act on arrival at the train station, town hall, church or wherever
people gathered to pick out a child. Sometimes the children sang, danced
or just stood and smiled to get the people's attention. At first people
thought the children were of the "criminal class" because they heard the
children were "slum dwellers". Their attitude soon changed when they saw
how very normal the children were.
The farm families were always give adequate notice so that many people
would be waiting for the trains to come in. In Neola' St. Patrick's
Parish, the children were taken to the convent from the train depot. The
following Sunday they were taken to Mass by the Sisters. After Mass,
Father M. T. Schiffmacher would line up the children in front of the
Communion rail. He would select a child for a family, and the parents
were responsible for making the child a welcomed and loved member of the
family.
Among the orphans, who became part of the St. Patrick's Parish, in
Neola, Iowa were: Evelyn Cavanaugh (later Sister Mary Ritea of Sisters
of St. Benedict), Ida Sweeney (Parks), Theodore Dunn, Teddy McGinty,
Velma Henley (reared by Young family), Charlie Stephany, Ethel King, and
Eugene Raymond. Their loves were a testament to the generosity and good
will of St. Patrick's Parish families.
NOTE:
This has to be a more recent article because they weren't called 'Orphan
Trains' until the 1970's or so.
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