Would Emily ever find happiness? Only time would tell.Įventually, a change in attitudes toward the practice of placing out children, along with foster care and child labor laws, would bring the orphan train era to an end. With each new placement, she felt more like an indentured servant than a welcomed new member of the family a feeling that would stay with her with each new home. Over the next five years, Emily would be placed with seven different foster homes in four states. They became part of the largest migration of children in the history of the world known as the Orphan Train Movement. Other orphans, ranging in age from one- to 13-years-old, were also on board. In 1906, a 13-year-old orphan named Emily (Reese) Kidder boarded a train in New York City bound for the Midwest with the hope of being adopted by a kind and loving family. “It may be argued that the real story of the orphan train era… is the individual children who made those journeys into places unknown–forever changing the landscape of America’s heartland.” For the next 75 years, this organization would transport nearly 250,000 orphans by train to the homes of farm families in western destinations.
It was clear something needed to be done, and in 1853 city missionary Charles Brace started the Children’s Aid Society of New York City. In the years that followed, mothers were forced to give up their children, leaving an estimated 30,000 homeless children to wander the New York streets. In addition, the American Civil War had left many families without fathers to support them. Immigrants were pouring into New York City primarily from Germany and Ireland, and police estimated that 10,000 of them were boys and girls living on the street. The crisis involved children… and lots of them. She slumped down behind a large oak tree, buried her face in her hands and sobbed.Ī real crisis began to unfold on the streets in New York City in the late 1840s. Why would they leave without her? She thought this foster family liked her. After some time, a fellow churchgoer approached Emily and said her family had already left. The church meeting they were attending was small, so they couldn’t have gone far. Virtual Patron Library Card RegistrationĮmily looked around frantically.
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