| JOHNSON COUNTY IAGenWeb Project |
Iowa Orphan Train Riders
Johnson County, Iowa
|
According
to the Associated Press, orphan trains are the least remembered of
America's migrations to the west. It is reported that as many as
350,000 children shipped out of New York on “Orphan Trains” from the
1850’s to 1929. The trains stopped in rural areas so that
prospective parents could look over the youngsters and decide whether
to take in any of them. The trains were the idea of Methodist Minister Charles Loring Brace, founder of the Children’s Aid Society of New York, intended as a measure of moving children out of the alleys and squalor of a city over run by immigrants and the industrial revolution, out to the west and to the wholesome farm family life. Elaine Mercado, a Jackson County, IA Historical Society volunteer, became intrigued with the orphan train movement when she was tasked with organizing a huge, gifted repository of Iowa Orphan Train research files and documents that had been collected and compiled by MaDonna Harms. MaDonna had collected the orphan train information from old newspapers and letters from the Foundling Home. After going through over 1200 of MaDonna’s personal files, Elaine was inspired to author a booklet on behalf of the Jackson County History Museum, entitled “Iowa’s Orphan Train Riders”. She reports that between 10,000 and 20,000 orphans came to Iowa during the 75 years that the trains came. Through her research, Elaine learned that the following orphan trains came to Iowa City: • A Children’s Aid Society train came in March of 1854 and another one on September 20, 1854 • A FYFH train came in 1888 and again on March 16, 1897 • A NYJA (New York Juvenile Asylum) train came in 1899. |
| Child's Name (Birth name if possible) | Date of Trip | Receiving Family | City | Comments |
| Patrick McCord (Crandall) | 1860 | Not placed | Iowa City | Sister Mary |
| Daniel Henry Gallagher | 1882 | Callegy & Welsh families | Iowa City | Brothers are Edward & Charles |
| Charles Gallagher | 1882 | Charles Marshall | Iowa City | 9 yrs old; Brothers are Edward & Daniel |
| Edward Gallagher | 1882 | Iowa City | 8 yrs old; Brothers are Daniel & Charles | |
| Elizabeth Robinson | 1888 | Iowa City | 3 yrs old; Twin brother is William | |
| William Robinson | 1888 | Iowa City | 3 yrs old; Twin sister is Elizabeth | |
| W. Albert Lopshire | 1891 | Miranda Cline | Iowa City | |
| Becky Denneny (adopted name) | 1897 | Lawrence & Harriett Denneny | Iowa City | 13 yrs. old |
| Louisa (Laura) Heering | 1899 | Louis Lindeman | Iowa City | 10 yrs. old |
| William Perrine | 1899 | Moses H. Akers | Iowa City | 7 yrs. old |
| Amy Cash | 1900 | Pat & Mary Beecher | Oxford | 10 yrs. old. Beechers also took a boy named Bill. |