An "orphan train" arrives in Chariton (1899)

A group of children at the New York Juvenile Asylum in New York City.

I'm sometimes asked if "orphan trains" ever stopped in Lucas County and the best answer I can give is "at least once" --- during 1899 --- although the term "train" is misleading. There were no rail cars packed with children. Instead, Ebenezer Wright, Chicago-based superintendent of the western division of the New York Juvenile Asylum, brought a number of children by rail to the Bates House hotel in Chariton during the spring of that year and invited those who might be interested in offering them homes to stop in.

The New York Juvenile Asylum, which reportedly placed as many as 6,000 children with families outside the city between 1854 and about 1923, using trains to transport them, had expanded its territory to include Iowa the previous autumn.

The following notice was published in The Herald, The Leader and The Patriot during the first week in February under the heading, "Asylum Children."

A company of children, mostly boys, aged from seven to fifteen years, from the New York Juvenile Asylum, will arrive in Chariton, at Bates Hotel, Wednesday forenoon, February 22d. Homes are wanted for them with families where they will receive kind treatment and enjoy fair advantages. They may be taken on trial for several weeks, and afterwards, if all parties are satisfied, an agreement will be executed. Persons desiring to take these children on trial are requested to meet them at the Bates Hotel Wednesday forenoon, February 22d, as they will remain but one day in Chariton. For further information inquire at your post office for a hand bill giving full particulars. All expenses for transportation will be assumed by the Asylum, and the children will be placed out free of charge. E. Wright, Agent, Box 165, Station O, Chicago, Ill.

The following follow-up report was published in The Patriot of April 13, 1899, under the headline "Homeless Children," so the visit may have been postponed --- or Mr. Wright may have placed or attempted to place children twice. I've not been able to sort the discrepancy out. 

Mr. E. Wright of Chicago, general agent for the New York Juvenile Asylum, was at the Bates House yesterday with six orphan children, four boys and two girls, their ages ranging from seven to ten years, for the purpose of finding homes for them, and in this respect he was very successful. The children were bright, intelligent, well behaved and neatly clad.

Fannie and Anthony Christian, brother and sister, were taken by Mr. and Mrs. Edward Snyder of Cedar township. Nathan Thorne by Mr. and Mrs. Henry Inbody of Newbern, Marion county, and his sister, Sadie Thorne, by Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Vanderbur of Lacona, Warren county. Arthur Roll by Mr. and Mrs. Jacob W. Loney of Liberty township, and his brother, August Roll, by Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Goodwin of Russell.

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I checked the 1900 census, taken more than a year later, to see if I could track any of these children --- with mixed results. There were no signs of an Edward Snyder family in Lucas County, nor could I find a Joseph Vanderbur family in Warren County.

The Henry Inbodys did indeed take in and adopt a child, but his name was Arthur Ruben Miller --- not Nathan Thorne. He took the name Inbody, married Sylvia Krutsinger and they raised a family in Lucas County. He died during 1954 at age 60 in a car accident in Arizona, but his remains were returned to Mount Zion Cemetery for burial.

Jacob and Emma Loney took Anthony Roll --- not Arthur --- into their home, but if the Alfred Goodwins took his brother, August (or Gus), the arrangement didn't last long. Some years later, Gus Roll was living in Muscatine County when he came to Lucas County to spend a week with his brother.

And Anthony Roll did not not have a happy ending. Suffering from mental illness, he spent a majority of his life in state institutions or the Lucas County Home. He died at the age of 65 in 1956 and was buried with his foster parents, also in Mount Zion Cemetery.