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AUTHOR RENÉE
WENDINGER |
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Orphan Train.
The Kansas Historical Society Collection |
The history of the railroads is deeply tied to
the orphan train era. Railroads remained the most
inexpensive way to move numerous children westward
from poverty-filled homes, orphanages, poorhouses,
and city streets.
By 1860, 30,500 miles of track had been laid. Eleven
railroads met in Chicago. The building of the
railroads spurred western settlement. In 1862
Congress authorized construction of two railroads to
link the Midwest and the West Coast. The Union
Pacific extended westward from Nebraska the Central
Pacific reached eastward from the Pacific Ocean. The
meeting of the two railroads at Promontory Summit,
Utah, in 1869 signaled a new ear of western history.
By 1870 the trains ran from the East Coast to Omaha,
Nebraska.
The New York Central headquartered in New York
served most of the Northeast, including extensive
trackage in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan,
Indiana, Illinois, and Massachusetts, plus
additional lines in the Canadian provinces of
Ontario and Quebec. Its primary connections included
Chicago and Boston. The train route from the New
York’s Grand Central was almost certainly the New
York Central, as the railroad owned the station.
Other railroads used the Pennsylvania Station (Penn
Station) in New York City beginning in 1910.
The New York Central never went west of Chicago which
was the dividing line. The child’s destination
determined alternative routes. Children arriving at
a Midwest station from New York were oftentimes
switched over to another railroad in Chicago or St.
Louis as they continued their journey farther west. |
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