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Orphan train history shared at McGregor Public Library

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Elaine Eadie shares a family memento during her presentation on the orphan train at the McGregor Public Library on May 18. (Photo by Audrey Posten)

By Audrey Posten, North Iowa Times Editor

“I can’t imagine sending a 10-year-old on a train, not knowing where they’re going to end up.”

But that was, in fact, the reality for thousands of orphaned, homeless  and abandoned children who were transported to new lives via the orphan train, explained Elaine Eadie, in a presentation at the McGregor Public Library May 18.

Eadie, who’s from Waukon, is an orphan train historian. Much of her knowledge was gleaned first-hand, through her father, Gilbert, who, along with his brother, arrived in Waukon on the orphan train over 100 years ago.

The orphan train began through the Children’s Aid Society, which was founded by Rev. Charles Loring Brace, in New York City, in 1853. 

At that time, explained Eadie, “There were 30,000 children living on the streets of New York City.”

Many, she said, were the children of immigrants who’d been unable to find work and could no longer afford to feed their children. 

With the orphan train, the Children’s Aid Society endeavored to find foster homes for many of the children by relocating them to other areas of the country. 

The first train headed west from New York in 1854. Between then and 1929, when the last train stopped in Texas, over 200,000 children, ranging in age from infants to 14 or 15, were relocated. Many came to the Midwest, including Iowa, Eadie shared.

Two of those were Eadie’s father and uncle Walter, who were 10 and 8, respectively, when they traveled on the train.

They were the youngest of  six children, from a family of Scottish descent. Their mother, Eadie explained, had died in 1911 and their father in 1913. Although the two momentarily stayed with an older sister following their parents’ death, she could not keep them, and they were sent to the orphanage.

The boys were sent to their new home with very little.

“They had a cardboard suitcase with a good change of clothes and a used Bible,” Eadie said.

Before the train arrived in a community, an article was put in the local newspaper. An agent from the Children’s Aid Society would also come to town and form a committee, which selected who would get the children.

Eadie said her father and uncle were lucky in that a home had already been selected for them in Kansas.

“Other orphans had to stand on platforms like slaves while the farmers would check their muscles,” Eadie detailed.

This went on for several stops. If a child was not selected, they would be sent back to the orphanage, Eadie said.

Although the Eadie boys were initially sent to Kansas, their stay there was short-lived. The family, Eadie said, decided to move to Pennsylvania and chose not to take the boys with them.

The brothers arrived in Waukon in 1914, and were sent to live with brother and sister Dan and Net Kelly.

“They were never adopted,” Eadie said, but the brothers remained with the Kellys into adulthood.

Eadie’s father, Gilbert, married her mother, Gladys, in 1936, and the family went on to live on the Kelly farm.

Through it all, Eadie remarked, her father managed to stay connected with his biological family. 

“He knew exactly where his entire family was,” she said. “He was a lucky one.”

Eadie said her father, unlike many riders, eventually began sharing his orphan train experience, and was featured in several publications. For many, the experience was just too painful.

“Many were verbally, physically and emotionally abused. A lot were removed from their homes,” she said. “It’s a way of life no one ever thought could happen, but it did.”

Eadie said she’s glad things worked out more favorably for her father: “I’m glad he had a decent life instead of living on the streets.”

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