1. After reading! Spoiler Alert! True Facts about the Children

In the 1850’s a minister named Charles Loring Brace founded the Children’s Aid Society of New York. In 1854 the first trainload of ‘wild Irish kids’ left New York for a small town in Michigan, on what would become known as “The Orphan Train”. It was assumed that the farms of the Midwest would reform them, by offering them fresh air and hard work, because most of the kids were too much to handle and had grown up without structure or moral values. This was especially true by the end of the Civil War, when lots of children found themselves abandoned, neglected, and begging in the slums of the New York City streets. In 1861 the Roman Catholic Church started the Society for the Protection of Destitute Roman Catholic Children of New York City, aka the Catholic Protectory. They were so overcrowded that they outgrew their lower east side location and moved up to the country and farmland of Van Nest, Westchester County – now known as ‘The Bronx’. 

In April of 1863 they set up a school and dormitories designed to provide food and shelter, as well as an education in religion, science, and industrial trades. They hoped that by teaching the children manual labor skills they could be employed once released. The uniforms they wore were made by the girls under the Sisters supervision, and their shoes were cobbled on site by the boys under the Brothers supervision.

 

Children under the age of fourteen were entrusted to the institution, with written consent from the parents or guardians, for protection or reformation due to want or abandonment. Often time the children were reunited with their parents, when the circumstance of the family improved.

The Catholic Protectory also served as a detention center for children who had violated the law. There was a grueling daily routine, with every waking moment being spent on self-improvement. A few of the Brothers had a sadistic style of discipline, and survivors of the Protectory tell stories of horrible cruelty. Some of the delinquents housed there went on to be infamous gangsters.

In 1872 Colorado received its first Orphan Train. The trains continued through until 1929 as the railways expanded making their way to the West. The co-founders claimed that the children on these trains were homeless or abused, but mostly they were children of new immigrants and families that were destitute. Less than half the children who rode these trains were actually orphans; as much as 25% had two living parents. They ended up in an institution, like the Catholic Protectory, because their families either did not have the money, or the desire to raise them. Some of the children were made ‘orphans’ by forced removal from their biological families and placed in other states.

In 1893 there was a serious economic depression; as many as 35% of the population of New York was unemployed. In 1896 the nationwide unemployment rate increased. During this time the Children’s Aid Society administration made no distinction between placing a child in a home locally, or one far across the country. A child might even be placed on the West coast, only to have it not work out in that home, and returned back to New York City. The decision on where to place a child was made entirely on the basis of what was readily available in that moment.

It was not unheard of for references of potential adopters to not be checked, the screenings were not very thorough, and requirements of the adopters were not enforced. There were only a handful of agents to monitor thousands of placements. The children were placed in these people’s homes for free, and were expected to serve as an extra pair of hands to help on the farm. From stop to stop on the train route the children were paraded like live stock, and it was an auction like atmosphere. Potential adopters could prod at them to see if they were healthy, and look in their mouths to see how many teeth they had. Many children lost their identity through forced name changes, or were just lost track of by the organization.

Some accused the Orphan Trains of deliberately separating these families as a pattern to break up immigrant Catholic families, and placing them in Protestant homes to change their religious practices. The older children were frequently placed with farmers who could profit off their labor. They were criticized that the indentureship was a form of slavery, and stories of abuse began to circulate. 

The trains ended in the late 1920’s when organized foster care was established in the United States. Legislation was also passed to provide in-home support and developed programs to support destitute or needy families to prevent children from being placed elsewhere. 

The Catholic Protectory was permanently closed down in November of 1938 due to high overhead and the city no longer having enough Catholic delinquents to fill it. However, the Boys’ department was relocated to the Lincolndale facility. The ground where the Catholic Protectory once stood became Parkchester, the country’s largest housing development. It is now a historic site.

2. After Reading: About the Farm