After Tragedy, Young Girl Shipped West On 'Orphan Train'

[Story]

Christina Baker Kline's new novel, Orphan Train, is partially set in 1929, mere months before the stock market crash that would trigger the Great Depression. A young Irish girl, Niamh (pronounced "Neeve"), has just lost her entire family after a fire ripped through their tenement building. She is turned over to authorities who put her on a train bound for the Midwest. The train is filled with dozens of other children who have lost their families in one way or another; they are now hoping that their journey will connect them with new parents and a new, better life.

Kline's book is fictional, but it's based on the very true history of thousands of children shipped to the Midwest. Kline joins NPR's Rachel Martin to discuss the history of the trains, how young girls were often passed over by families and the most surprising fact she learned from train riders.

http://www.npr.org/2013/04/14/176920218/after-tragedy-young-girl-shipped-west-on-orphan-train

 

[MikeKardec]

My dad had an adopted brother who came from an orphan train. The paraded the kids across the stage at the main theater in town a bit like a slave market and Jack (my "uncle") was even allowed to go home with my two real uncles to see if the family would like him. He was told to wait until my grandfather came home then run out and hug him, saying "Daddy, Daddy!" I guess it worked. My father often thought his dad liked Jack better than him.

 

[skyvue]

Laura Moriarty's recent novel The Chaperone detailed the experiences of a character who was sent west via an orphan train (she ended up in Kansas). It also involved a teenaged Louise Brooks.