Gourt > Society > History > By Region > North America > United States > West > Orphan Trains
Charles Loring Brace (1826 in Litchfield, Connecticut - 1890) was one of the greatest contributing philanthropists in the field of social reform. Mr. Brace graduated from Yale in 1846 and then went on to study divinity and theology at Union Theological Seminary from which he graduated in 1849. Shortly after, he married Miss Letitia Neill in Belfast, Ireland, who proved to be a great support to her husband’s social reformation efforts.
In 1852, at the age of twenty-six, Mr. Brace was serving as a Methodist minister, he decided he wanted to fulfill his humanitarian efforts in the streets rather than in church. Mr. Brace became aware of the impoverished lives of the children in New York and for this reason his focus was concentrated on improving children’s situations and their future. A year later in 1853, Charles Loring Brace established The Children’s Aid Society in New York.
Mr. Brace witnessed many children in New York City who lived in poverty with parents who abused alcohol, engaged in criminal activity, and who were unfit parents. The children of these individuals were sent to beg for money in the streets and sell newspapers and matches. These children became known as “street Arabs” or “the dangerous classes” due to the street violence and gangs they inevitably became a part of. In some cases, children as young as five years old would be sent to jails where adults were imprisoned in as well. The police referred to these children, who fell into a life of crime, as “street rats”.
More on [ Charles Loring Brace ]
Art Smith's Story - Arthur F. Smith, an orphan train rider in 1922, tells his personal story.
Orphan Trains - Background on the orphan trains that brought children from overcrowded homes and orphanages in the big northeastern cities to homes out west.
Orphan Trains of Kansas - Stories, articles, bibliographies, timeline and other information on orphans shipped west at the turn of the century in hopes of a better life.
Meta Description: [ Kansas Collection Articles: Stories, articles, bibliographies, timeline and other information on orphans shipped west at the turn of the century in hopes of a better life. ]
Riders on an Orphan Train - Provides a brief history of the orphan trains and the stories of riders Anna May Potthoff Keeton and William James Kimmel.
Meta Description: [ Kansas Collection Articles: Stories, articles, bibliographies, timeline and other information on orphans shipped west at the turn of the century in hopes of a better life. ]
The Orphan Trains - From P.B.S.'s The American Experience. This site provides information about the orphan trains designed to take their passengers to a better place and a fresh start.
Meta Description: [ They were designed to take their passengers to
a better place, a fresh start. Climb on board on The Orphan Trains with The
American Experience. ]
They Rode the Orphan Trains - An article about the orphan trains of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and the children who rode them.
| Canada Line LRT Opening Day Ceremony Vancouver Aug 17 2009 | |
| Next Video | |
