Orphan Trains, The (1988)

[bunniefuu]

Good evening, and welcome to the american experience.

I'm david mccullough.

One sure measure of the heart and soul of any society

is how it treats its children.

Tonight, you're about to see

an extraordinary film on the subject, "the orphan trains"

and behind the film is a remarkable story.

A few years back, two film producers--

janet graham and edward gray--

were taken dow into the dim basement

of an old basement on east nd street in new york.

It was the headquarters of the children's aid society

the private charity,which in times past, for years

sent more than , orphaned or unwanted children

from the streets of new york

to new homes across rural america.

Presiding over the basement

was a tiny elderly woman named ethel lambert.

I'd like to show you her photograph

but she hated to have her picture taken.

She was a retired employee who, for years

had been working voluntarily to save stacks of old papers

and records that she felt certain had historic value.

By studying the building's architecture

she'd found a hidden closet behind old filing cabinets

and there she discovered a lost treasure--

the -year-old diaries of charles loring brace

founder of the orphan trains.

There are scrapbooks of newspaper clippings

and most important of all to her

hundreds of letters from the children themselves

all organized year by year.

Her dream was to create an archive

so that future generations might read what happened

in the words of the children

many of whom wrote of their fear that they'd be forgotten.

Ethel lambert was herself the mother of two children

whom she had raised as a single parent.

Fortunately, there are ethel lamberts everywhere

in all parts of the country-- people who stubbornly refuse

to let the past be treated like rubbish.

Were it not for this ethel lambert

who died before our film was completed

tonight's story would never have been told.

For this reason

janet graham and edward gray have dedicated the film to her.

Girl: "I am years old.

"Father died three years ago

"and mother died a year ago.

"I became a singing girl.

I went onboard the boats and sung."

"I am tired of singing.

I would like to live with somebody."

Narrator: in , a plan to rescue

thousands of new york street children

was announced by a new charity, the children's aid society.

It would send the children

to live with families in rural america.

By , the society had relocated

over , orphaned, abandoned or neglected children.

Man: far as I know, my father hit the bottle pretty heavy

and they took us away from him.

Then my mother died when I was two years old.

Woman: my mother and I were very close

because I was all she had, and she was all I had.

On january of

my mother came to the school, and she had a suitcase.

She was going to go and have tests taken care of

see why she was having these awful headaches.

That was the last I saw of her.

Woman: my mother bore five children

and she accepted responsibility for none.

She just simply brought us children into the world

and then let the rest of the world take care of us.

Woman: we were hungry.

I don't ever recall taking a bath in a tub of water.

We slept on old dirty mattresses on the floor

and the rats ran over our heads

and through our hair lots of nights

and we'd wake up screaming with it.

We don't know where our parents were.

We never did know.

Narrator: the trains that carried the children out of the city

became known as orphan trains.

Woman: I knew that this was going to be my home from then on

but it seemed like it just kind of hit me when I got here

that I had left everything behind, which I had.

I didn't have my sister anymore.

I didn't have my parents anymore.

I didn't have any friends.

They were total strangers.

It just caught up with me all at once.

But she was with me-- mrs. Carmen.

She never left me for a minute

and she helped me get into bed.

And that's when I began to cry

was when... The emotion hit me, I think

when I went to get into bed.

I still felt all alone

and yet I knew there was someone around me

but they were strangers.

I didn't know them from adam.

Man: they had to find homes for those children up there in new york

and that was their way of doing it.

You couldn't do that now.

People were different then.

The whole world was different.

They acted different, lived different

and they couldn't do a thing like that now.

Keach: this ambitious relocation effort began

back in the s in new york city

a time when , homeless children prowled the streets

in search of money, food, shelter.

A thousand immigrants a day had been flooding into the city

from rural america, from europe.

Work was scarce.

Families crowded into shacks and tenements

were easy prey to cholera, tuberculosis and alcohol.

The plight of these impoverished children became the obsession

of a young minister, charles loring brace.

A member of a prominent connecticut family

brace had moved to new york city

to complete his seminary training.

He was horrified

by the conditions he saw on the streets.

As he wandered through the city, he talked with children

recording their stories in his diary.

Man: "may , .

"At dusk, I found a girl in the sixth street begging.

"Gave her a loaf of bread and followed her home.

"This little girl, nine years old, without a bonnet

"barefooted and thinly clad

is sent out every day to beg for money."

"In the evening at :

"went down to the coffee cellars where the newsboys congregate.

"They were not more than ten or years old

"yet they had all the manners of old roues--

drinking their coffee, smoking and talking of gambling."

"Visited the th ward in the afternoon.

", Children throng the streets at all times.

"The younger girls sweep the crosswalks.

The older girls prost*tute themselves."

Keach: because of their wanderings

the children became known as street arabs.

Some joined violent gangs.

Others survived by selling matches, newspapers

or pieces of old rags.

"Their numbers are almost incredible"

said the chief of police.

"They are destined for a life of misery, shame and crime."

"When mother was dying

"she warned me against going to live with strangers.

"I became a singing girl.

"People said I had a good voice.

"I used to sing in the beginning to keep away those sad thoughts

but soon, I made use of my voice for a living..."

Girl: "I go onboard the boats and sing

"and I gather as much money as I can.

"I have no other way of getting along.

"Sometimes, I make very little by it

sometimes nothing."

"All the night, I was out in the street

and no one spoke to me or asked me who I was."

Keach: the police began arresting vagrant children

some as young as five

and locking them up with adult criminals.

Reformers urged that children be sent to more modern institutions

called houses of refuge

and orphan asylums where they could be trained.

In an era when most children were expected to work

brace argued against the asylums

said the skills they taught had little practical use.

Brace: "the best of all asylums for the outcast child

"is the farmer's home.

"The great duty is to get these children of unhappy fortune

"utterly out of their surroundings

and to send them away to kind christian homes in the country."

Keach: brace knew that the greatest need for labor

was in the expanding farm country to the west

where there was a long tradition of employing children

as apprentices and hired hands.

He believed that america's christian farmers

would welcome the homeless children

not only give them work

but treat them as new sons and new daughters.

He imagined sending tens of thousands to the country.

In , brace founded the children's aid society

to arrange the trips, raise the money

obtain the legal permissions needed for relocation.

To recruit likely children

brace and his staff of volunteers

visited orphanages and reformatories

and the homes of impoverished parents.

Brace: "found one room not more than foot by ten

"with two women and five children.

"The boy, peter casey, would like to go to the country

"but the mother said she would rather die than part with him.

"In general, the mothers do not like to part with their children

even to get them in much better situations."

Keach: but desperate parents often saw little hope.

Many surrendered custody of their children

in hopes of insuring their survival.

Woman: "this is to certify that I am the mother

"and only legal guardian of hattie moxley.

"I hereby freely and of my own will agree

"for the children's aid society to provide a home

"until she is of age.

"I hereby promise not to interfere

in any arrangements they may make."

Keach: to the children, surrender often meant

an inexplicable break with their families.

I had just finished eating, and this matron came by

and tapped us along the head: "you're going to texas...

You're going to texas."

Well, some of the kids, you know, clapped and laughed.

When she came to me, I looked up, I said, "I can't go.

"I'm not an orphan-- my mother's still living.

She's in a hospital right here in new york."

"You're going to texas."

No use arguing.

Miller: we all had a certain place that we had to sit at a certain table

and we knew our place.

We just ate our supper

thinking the next day would be just another day.

But the superintendent said, "I have something to tell you."

She said, "you're going to take your baths

"and you will be issued all new clothing.

"And tomorrow morning, very early

you will rise and board a train to go to find a new home."

I don't know what to think sometimes.

Some of my brothers tell me

that my biological father was no good.

And he might have not been, but by the same token

if he was at the train

he was crying when we were taken from him.

The man had to lay down at night

and wonder where all his children were and everything

and regardless of the kind of man he was

he had to have a certain amount of love for his family

or he wouldn't have been at the station at all--

and crying when we were taken from him.

I'm sure that it was circumstances

that he couldn't help.

Keach: three times a month

agents of the society assembled the children into groups

ranging from six to .

The groups were booked at a discount

on regular passenger trains.

Woman: "the trips were planned so as to arrive on friday

"usually leaving new york tuesday noon.

"We filled one end of the car, or if the party was large enough

a coach was put on for us."

Nailling: I do remember the children milling around outside the train

waiting to be assigned our seats.

The big problem was that you never knew

what the future held for you.

You had no idea what the future ever held for you

and that was a great concern and a great worry.

Keach: the journey usually lasted for three or four days.

The children never left the train.

They slept in their seats.

Latimer: I didn't cry.

I guess I was too angry to cry.

We were going too far, too fast.

Bobo: I've kept this suitcase as a souvenir all these years.

Each one of us had one.

And I don't suppose that it's very expensive

not over a couple of bucks.

But, uh... We had the handle here we could carry it by.

I had all my possessions in there

which wasn't much, just clothes.

No shoes, just a change of clothes.

I had the whole future ahead of me

and I didn't know what to expect.

But, uh...

I didn't want to stay in the orphanage.

Keach: on the journey west, the agents tried to comfort the children.

They gave each child a hand bible

and spoke of the good homes that awaited.

Agent [ dramatized]: ♪ from the city's gloom to the country's bloom... ♪

Keach: sometimes the agents sang to the children.

Agent [ dramatized]: ♪ where the fragrant breezes sigh ♪

♪ from the city's blight to the green woods bright ♪

♪ like the birds of summer fly. ♪

♪ Oh, children, dear children

♪ young, happy, pure...

Nailling: I can't remember exactly what he told me

but my biological father

gave me a pink envelope with his address on it

and asked me to be sure to let him know

when we got to our destination.

Well, I took the envelope that my father had given me

and put it on my inside coat pocket

trying to be very protective of it.

And that night, why, of course, like all kids, we went to sleep.

The next morning, I woke up

and I guess the first thing I thought of was my pink envelope

and I reached in my pocket and it was gone.

And I was kind of heartbroken, of course.

And I asked leo to get down on the floor

and help me look for it.

And we were looking for it when one of the caretakers came by

and asked us what we were doing

and I told her that we were looking for the envelope.

I was afraid to tell her anything else

because punishment sometimes was a little severe.

And she told me to get up, get in my seat;

where I was going I would not need that envelope.

Keach: as the train drew nearer to its destination

the children's clothes were changed, their faces washed.

They were prepared for the defining moment of the trip:

the distribution.

In local newspapers, notices had run in advance

encouraging people to come see the homeless children

on the stage of a meeting hall.

As the children waited to be displayed

they were urged to make a good impression on the audience.

Man: "november , .

"I was a witness of the distribution

"of children in minnesota.

"The children arrived at about half past : p.m.

"And were taken directly from the train to the court house.

"Mr. Matthews set the children one by one before the crowd

"and gave a brief account of each.

"Applicants for the children were then admitted in order

"behind the railing and rapidly made their selection.

"If the child gave the assent

the bargain was concluded on the spot."

"It was a pathetic sight, to see those children

"tired young people, weary, travel-stained

"confused by the excitement

peering into those strange faces."

Hastings hart.

Keach: the distributions continued for years-- until .

It was a huge stage

and we were all set up there in two rows, of semi-circle.

And the people were already down in the audience.

They had been notified ahead the day before

that we would be there.

Woman: the big day came

and we arrived on a sunday in kirksville, missouri

at the presbyterian church.

We marched down the aisle-- of us.

And they would walk past us.

And you were viewed.

And that's a strange feeling.

You'd never been looked at in that way before.

You'd never seen people looking all around you.

That was an ordeal that no child should go through.

They pulled us and pushed us and... Shoved us.

And this old man--

I had never seen anything like anybody chewing tobacco.

I knew nothing about it.

This old man came up and his mouth was all stained brown.

And I thought, well, he'd been eating

chocolate candy or something.

Then he said, "open your mouth."

I looked at him.

And, you know, "I want to see about your teeth."

I opened my mouth and he stuck his finger in my mouth

and rubbed over my teeth.

And his old dirty hands just... I wanted to bite, but I didn't.

Keach: the local minister, banker, doctor

and other leading citizens

were asked by the children's aid society to form a committee

to check qualifications of potential foster parents.

An agent explained the society's rules to the crowd.

All placements were to be made on a trial basis.

Legal adoption was not required.

Dissatisfied children could leave.

Those who stayed were expected to work

as contributing members of the household.

The foster parents were asked to house, feed and educate

the new york children in the same manner as their own.

Brace's system put its faith in the kindness of strangers.

Well, I lived on the farm out west

and i... My uncle was a doctor in denton.

And I went in to see him that day.

And he says, "I was down...

"They called me last night down at davis's rooming house.

"They had a bunch of children down there

and one of them was sick."

He said, "they've got those children

to find homes, give them homes."

Said, "if I was you

I'd go down there and get one of those boys."

"He could be a big help to you, as he grew up

and you could be a big help to him."

And I went down and the lady said, "now, here they all are."

There was eight or ten in that row

different kinds and different expressions

and all different places they'd come from

some from italy, some from other countries.

And they was all...

And they just let me pick the one I wanted--

this little sharp-eyed boy.

I said, "I'll take that one."

And they fixed him up and he had a little bundle of clothes.

And we took him home.

And I was and he was nine, I think.

Bobo: I wasn't very comfortable up on that stage

because I didn't know where I was going to go.

And I was old enough to realize

that there could be a lot of mistakes made.

A farmer came up to me and he felt at my muscles

and he says, "oh, you'd make a good hand on the farm."

And I says, "well, I'm not going to go home with you."

I says, "you smell too bad.

You haven't had a bath probably in a year."

And he took me by the arm

and was going to lead me off the stage, and I bit him.

And that didn't work, so I kicked him.

And so then, everybody in the audience thought

I was an incorrigible.

They didn't want me because I was out of control.

I was crying there in the chair by myself

and a schoolteacher came up there, and she says

"I'd like to take you home with me

"and play with my boy for a week and if nobody wants you then

why, then we'll have to send you back to new york."

But this elderly couple in their s

were contacted by this schoolteacher

and they had no children, never did have.

They had a stillborn, about years previous.

So, uh...

He put me on my... On his lap in this schoolteacher's home

and got acquainted with me.

And he said, "if you go home with me

I'll buy you a pony and a bicycle and a puppy."

So I thought that was great.

So I went home with them

and I finally got the best home of the whole bunch.

But I always thought

that biting and kicking did me a lot of good.

Best day of my life!

He was a little italian

still had a little of that italian talk.

Well, he was great... We was in a buggy.

Come... We had to get him in our buggy

and go miles to our farm.

He enjoyed sitting down there holding those lines.

Course, the horse done most of the driving anyway.

And we got out on that farm.

He'd never been on a farm.

He thinks, oh, that's the world to him.

He saw chickens and hogs and sheep and everything.

And somebody gave him a little old pup--

after a year or two-- an airedale dog.

And of course, he thought he was a rich man having a dog.

No children have them in new york.

It was interesting to see him, those city ways he had

and put him in the country.

Latimer: we got to the house

and this nice old lady met me...

And says, "you look all right."

Well, they had already had their supper

so she fixed a plate for me and this big goblet of milk.

And I tasted it and I said, "it's sour."

She heard it.

She could hear that.

She said, "it is not.

I churned it fresh this morning."

Well, I still didn't know what she was talking about.

I said, "well, I don't like it."

She said, "you don't have to have it."

Anyway, she took the glass away

and her daughter-in-law was waiting

for her husband to come out because the w*r was over now

and her husband was stationed at langley field, virginia

and he would be home soon.

So I could sleep with her that night

and that was really a night.

She told me just exactly why those people wanted me

that she would be gone and I was growing up

and I would be big enough to take care of that house.

And that's all they wanted with me

but she wouldn't be there to help me.

And I said, "what can I do?"

She says, "go back to the hotel

and tell them that this is just not for you."

So she drew me a map of where I was back to the beckham

and I walked in and I never got such dirty looks in my life

as I did when they saw me walk in that door:

"well, what happened to you?"

And I said, "they didn't want a child, they wanted a sl*ve."

Keach: the children whom no one selected

were escorted back to the train

and taken to the next stop on the line.

Nailling: by that time

there was some , maybe children left on the train

along with my brothers and i.

And we eventually wound up in a little town

down in deep northeast texas called clarksville, texas.

And we were lined up again there and examined and everything.

And a couple came by

and picked up gerald, who was only ½ years old.

I don't suppose the child had ever been shown

any love or anything

because when the lady bent over to talk to him and everything

he just almost jumped in her arms

and you could see him grab her around the neck.

So they decided to take gerald.

There again, I felt terrible

because I knew I was losing a brother right there.

And they took gerald over to the table, did the paperwork

and he w just happy as he could be

until they started out the door

and he suddenly realized that he was losing his brothers.

And he turned around

and screamed right loud for his brothers.

And of course, that broke my heart again.

Latimer: the next morning

the door of the room opened up

and two men were staing in the doorway and one of them...

I started here and looked up like that

and I thought I would never quit looking.

That was, I thought

the biggest man I ever saw in my life-- probably was.

It was my dad... Would be my foster dad.

And he said, "may we come in?"

And the matron said, "oh, yes, come on.

This is hazelle sitting right here on the floor."

She says, "get up, hazelle, and shake hands."

And I got up

and he says, "you're going to be my little girl."

And I says, "if you ever hit me, I'll never get up."

He says, "dear, I'll never hit you.

I'll never hit you."

And he never did.

He never did.

Keach: children were sent

to michigan, illinois, iowa, minnesota, kansas and texas

states in all.

They were taken to sod houses and cabins.

To large farmhouses and shopkeepers' homes in town.

From the very beginning, many of these placements made so hastily

did not go according to plan.

Woman: "julia mccann came to us with very erroneous ideas.

She expected to be taken care of by rich people."

Man: "I had your son for about three months

"and he did not suit me

"so I gave him up to mr. Gilson and he gave him to a good farmer

and the farmer could not keep him."

Man: "we farmers can hardly imagine

"how it is that these boys can be so awkward on a farm.

"I have promised to give them a horse apiece

"if they will stay and be good boys.

I fear that they will run away."

Keach: children drifted from farm to farm.

Some even made their way back to new york.

There were stories of children landing

in reform school in michigan;

from indiana, rumors of children on the dole.

A southerner named j.h. Mills claimed

that "men needing labor, their sl*ves being set free

take these boys and treat them as sl*ves."

Bobo: there was one boy...

I refused to go home with this farmer, too.

And he took this other boy, albert, uh...

Maybe I shouldn't name him, but...

And they kept him on the farm, wouldn't send him to school

worked him hours a day in the field

and he just lost his mind.

And he died at an early age, less than years of age.

And he finally ran away from home.

But it was too late.

They wouldn't let him go to town and see people

afraid he'd tell them how badly he was treated

and he never saw anybody.

I saw him about two times

during the whole time he was there, about ten years.

I just saw him twice and he was afraid to talk to me.

Said I couldn't help him.

I didn't know enough to help him.

But my dad always thought that he was abused

so he was afraid to talk about it

afraid he'd be abused some more.

Keach: the record books are filled with names and dates

details of departures and arrivals

but say little about the quality of the children's treatment.

The extent of abuse is unknown.

The society's goal was to visit each child once a year.

But there were only a handful of agents

to monitor thousands of placements.

With reports of children drifting through the countryside

brace consented in to an independent investigation.

It found the local committees were ineffective

at screening foster parents.

Supervision was lax.

Many older boys had run away.

But its overall conclusion was positive.

The majority of children under

were leading satisfactory lives.

Girl: "dear mr. Brace

"when I lived in new york, I had no bonnet

"and now I have more bonnets than I can wear

"and I get no whippings

"and I have a father and mother and brothers and sisters here

"and they are kinder to me than my own ever were.

I think I will never be happier than I am now."

Keach: in new york, the children of a new generation of immigrants

were facing deprivation and homelessness.

Brace continued to insist that removal from the city was

the street children's best hope for deliverance.

He used photographs like these, made by his protege jacob riis

to dramatize their plight.

The society boasted about the story of two street kids

andrew burke and john brady

who were sent to the same indiana town on the same day.

On arrival, the judge who adopted brady considered him

the homeliest, toughest, most unpromising boy

in the whole lot.

He said, "I had a curious desire

to see what could be made of such a specimen of humanity."

John brady grew up to be governor of alaska.

His friend andrew burke grew up to be governor of north dakota.

But many rural people viewed the orphan train children

with suspicion

as incorrigible offspring of drunkards and prostit*tes.

The children spoke

with the accents of ireland, germany and italy.

Unlike most midwesterners, many were catholic.

One official said

"what was good for new york was very bad for the west."

Man: "I have known several of these city arabs

"being provided with homes

"and never heard of but one that proved to be honest.

I believe it is the blood and not the education that tells."

Woman: bad blood-- that's what they used to consider it.

We kids from new york were of inferior stock.

Bad blood is what's running through those veins.

And some people have bad blood and others have blue blood.

Well, the bad blood is supposed to carry the bad things

down from your parents through your life.

All the bad things are supposed to come through that bad blood

and you don't have a chance to do better.

The first day of school, they took me to the third grade.

I could hear whispers among the kids:

"there's an orphan and he's going to be in our class"

and they say, "you don't know what his background is."

And they kind of dodged me.

And they said, "well, he's an orphan.

We don't want to have anything to do with him"

because they wasn't used to that.

They were... They were farming families

and well-knit families, most of them

and they didn't have that kind of trouble.

Woman: you know, I was never invited to birthday parties.

I would see other children going to birthday parties

and it really hurt.

Children didn't want me.

They didn't want to play with me.

And I remember, possibly in the fourth grade

when I was walking with this girl

and this mother came and screamed over

and she said, "haven't I told you?

"I don't want you to walk with her.

"I don't want you to talk to her.

Get away from her."

And that's the way it was.

It was very hurtful

because sometimes I'd go home and look in the mirror.

What was the matter with me?

I didn't know.

Somehow those people, the ones I went to school with

knew that I was a b*stard.

Keach: the children expressed their hopes, fears and loneliness

in letters they wrote to brace and his colleagues.

Girl: "elkhart, indiana, may , .

"Dear friend, the place where I lived, I did not like.

"They whipped me till I was all black and blue.

"I told the lady I did not like to stay there

"so she told me I might leave.

"I have a good place now.

"I hope you will write to me

"and let me know if you see any of my folks in new york.

"I would give a hundred worlds like this

if I could see my mother."

Katie murphy.

Keach: annie williams was sent to live in this house

in battle creek, michigan.

An irish orphan

she'd been discovered by one of brace's agents

sleeping in a doorway near the new york docks.

Brace visited annie while on a field trip to the midwest.

She later wrote in this letter.

Girl: "january , .

"Dear mr. Brace

"it is rather pleasant today for winter weather.

"I go to school and enjoy myself first-rate.

"I would like to teach school when I get a good education.

"But sometimes I have a great deal of trouble and woe.

"I build many air castles

"and before they are entirely constructed

they tumble down in a heap of ruins..."

"I suppose we must take life's journey as it comes."

Annie williams.

Nailling: you didn't think about the years ahead of time.

You're trying to think a day ahead of time

and you live in hopes that the good will come

but you doubt it at the same time.

Anyways, the naillings took me in

and... They took me, gave me a room of my own.

That was almost unbelievable for anyone

to have a boy that age to have a room of their own.

The next morning, we went in for a huge breakfast

and the breakfast was set in the main dining room

which was an honor

and the prayer was... Was most gratifying

and... And it gave me a new thought on life

that maybe this wasn't so bad after all--

that I'd kind of wait and see how things worked out.

Weiler: you have to have something deep inside of you

that will make you want to keep going.

When I went to school

they had a game they played.

"Send in and send out" was the name of it.

And the... The width of the playing ground... Playground

they would line up and they'd go after people.

Well, they had... They wanted fast runners.

So I started running home and running back to school.

And running, running, running, wherever I went, I was running

and one day, I finally talked them into "please let me play.

Just, please, just once let me play and go after somebody."

That was all it took.

I was in sixth grade.

After that, they fought over who got me

because I could catch anybody there was.

Miller: nobody seemed to want to keep me very long.

I was shuffled from one home to another for many months

until I finally was placed with the carmens.

That's me.

[ Laughs]

and that's my calf.

I made pets out of all the calves

and they just tagged me everywhere.

I really had a wonderful time.

They were so good to me.

And as far as having a wonderful family, I was one of the lucky.

They were always there for me when I needed them, always.

Woman: "danville, indiana, june , .

"You wanted to know if john reyer is with me.

"He is with me and always will be.

"If he were our own son

"we could not love him more than we do.

"We have given him our name.

"We call him charlie highland.

"He thinks we are his parents, and we want him to.

"I love him so much

that it would break my heart to part with him."

Mrs. Sallie highland.

Nailling: my adopted mother, mrs. Nailling

she lived with a horror that I would eventually go back

to new york to my biological people, and, of course

after two or three years with them

that was just past thinking, because I was happy where I was

and I don't imagine I would have gone back

if I'd have had the chance

but even after I was grown, she had that horror.

I remember my mother hiding a letter one time

from the doctor hoffman wanting to know

if I was happy and well cared for and all.

And she put it up on top of a... A corner shelf

and it stayed up there, I guess, for ten or years.

When I got the letter that my mother had died

I just felt like the door had closed.

I just walked out of the house, walked down the road.

It was cotton-picking time.

Daddy said I could stay at the house.

So I did, but I didn't cry.

I just felt, "well, this is the end of something."

And there was always that hope that she would get better

and I would get a letter or maybe she would come.

Somehow or other I still had that hope.

Weiler: nobody can understand the loneliness that an orphan feels.

It's a... A loneliness... You just don't know who you are;

you don't know who you come from.

So there... There's that, with the combination that if only...

If you could just only have known your biological mother

if you just could have seen her.

Williams: as far as I have been able to research

my biological mother never made an inquiry.

You'd have thought

maybe there'd have been a little ache in her heart

to wonder whatever happened to me.

And if I die, should be fortunate enough to go to heaven

and if I saw her in heaven...

I guess I would speak

and say... And extend a hand and say

"my name is lorraine, and you're marguerite, aren't you?"

I would not say, "I am your daughter."

I would leave that, up there, to her to put two and two together.

And unless she had a comment, I believe I would walk on

because the true mother and dad who loved me

cared for me in sickness and in health

were the ones that cared so much that they legally adopted me.

They loved me and they were my mother and my father

and I think they are the only two ones

that should be called rightfully "mother" and "father."

Ayler: it hurt awfully bad being separated from my family

but as I got older and realized

I would have never stood a chance

if they had left me in that environment.

I would never have gotten to do anything I was capable of.

By them picking me up and moving me clear away from it--

as bad as it was afterwards--

I got a chance to do what I was capable of doing

making something of myself, being a good mother.

Armstrong: I think he looked on me as a father--

I feel like he did-- and my wife as a mother.

And we went through life together.

He just passed away at... I think at years old.

And I was always, and still am, glad that I did that one thing--

to take that boy and raise him.

This is the picture.

This is the knickers and the high-lace boots and the blouse

that I wore on the train.

And this is the picture I first had.

I was ½ then.

I'd been with... With my parents for six months

and they dressed me up for the picture.

My mother wanted it when I was all dressed up

so she could show it to her relatives.

She just wanted to show me off.

[ Laughs]

my father couldn't wait till could he buy me my first pony.

He just went all over the country

trying to find a pony for me.

He was a very successful merchant.

He owned a hardware store, was president of the bank

and he owned two farms.

I never did work on the farm.

He never asked me to.

I never had a spanking.

Never had a spanking of any kind, or a correction.

My dad would put me on his lap

and say, "I want you to be a good boy

"and you made some mistakes today

and... And I want you to... To be a good citizen."

And he never did spank me.

But i... It got next to me, you know?

He wanted to give me a good start.

He... The kindness is what got next to me.

He saved my life.

I tried to live the life that alvin bobo wanted me to live.

And I think I have.

Keach: the orphan train program was widely imitated.

, Children were sent to catholic communities

by a religious order, the sisters of charity

and organizations in boston, philadelphia and chicago

relocated thousands more.

When charles loring brace died in , he was acclaimed

as the most influential child saver of the th century.

But in the th century

america's vision of childhood was changing.

The emphasis was shifting

from the virtues of work to the benefits of play;

from children's economic value to their emotional needs.

On may , , the children's aid society

sent three boys to sulphur springs, texas.

It was the last of the orphan trains.

Back when he began, brace said:

"when a child of the streets stands before you in rags

"with tear-stained face, you cannot easily forget him

"and yet, you are perplexed what to do.

"The human soul is difficult to interfere with.

You hesitate how far you should go."