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Speaker 1: Hi, it's Moe. We're off through the new year, but

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Speaker 1: I wanted to share another one of my favorite stories

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Speaker 1: with you before we return with our final episode of

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Speaker 1: the season. It's about the largely forgotten social experiment known

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Speaker 1: as the Orphan Train Movement. From eighteen fifty four to

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Speaker 1: nineteen twenty nine, more than a quarter million abandoned or

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Speaker 1: orphaned children were placed on trains, taking them from East

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Speaker 1: coast cities to the Midwest and beyond to live with

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Speaker 1: new families, the largest mass migration of children in American history. Today,

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Speaker 1: two million Americans are descendants of these courageous riders. In

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Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, we looked back at their often heartbreaking journeys

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Speaker 1: and tracked down the last known survivor. It's a story

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Speaker 1: that moves me as much now as it did when

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Speaker 1: we first told it. As always, thank you for listening.

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Speaker 2: Hi.

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Speaker 3: My name is Addie Skilman, and this is Loving Versus Virginia,

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Speaker 3: the stepping stone for equality in America.

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Speaker 1: Every year, at the National History Day Contest, middle and

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Speaker 1: high school kids from across the country gather to compete,

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Speaker 1: presenting on a range of historical topics, therefore turning the

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Speaker 1: times reward to Victory.

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Speaker 3: Rysler appeal taking a stand against prohibition.

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Speaker 1: Root sixty sis road possibilities.

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Speaker 4: What chaplin, Missouri?

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Speaker 5: Alcoholis?

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Speaker 6: Let's all so great to get your kids all Rude

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Speaker 6: sixty six.

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Speaker 1: But the topic that grabbed my attention was one presented

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Speaker 1: by a fifteen year old from Minnesota, Claire Isaacson.

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Speaker 3: Orphan Train, the compromise that the children on the right trucks.

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Speaker 1: I'd never heard of the Orphan Train, but from her

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Speaker 1: first line, Claire had me hooked.

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Speaker 3: Your parents are not your parents, Your past is not

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Speaker 3: your past. Your life begins when you are chosen.

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Speaker 1: Your life begins when you were chosen, an apt way

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Speaker 1: to describe the Orphan Train, a mostly forgotten nineteenth century

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Speaker 1: movement that rescued abandoned children from the crowded streets of

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Speaker 1: East Coast cities and delivered them by train to new

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Speaker 1: families across the country. In her presentation, Claire channeled real

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Speaker 1: life Orphan Train rider Victoria Moe, a child of Irish immigrants,

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Speaker 1: as she made the trip west.

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Speaker 3: We cruss our fingers and prayed that we get a

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Speaker 3: loving home. Many older children are scared and tried to run.

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Speaker 3: Our pasts were left behind on that train station. We

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Speaker 3: were going to have a totally different life and our

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Speaker 3: new homes.

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Speaker 1: I spoke to Claire after her performance, and I'm a

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Speaker 1: little embarrassed that I'd never even heard of this before.

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Speaker 7: Yeah, I know, it's crazy, and that's why I'm thankful

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Speaker 7: that I did the topics so I can hopefully make

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Speaker 7: more people know about it, because it's really a secret

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Speaker 7: and kind of hidden.

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Speaker 1: How big was this movement?

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Speaker 8: Well, a quarter million children removed west from eighteen fifty

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Speaker 8: four to nineteen twenty nine.

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Speaker 1: A quarter million people. That's like the population of Cleveland.

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Speaker 1: That's a lot of people. As I dug into our

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Speaker 1: archives at CBS News, more voices began to surface, voices

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Speaker 1: of orphan trained riders from years past, all of them

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Speaker 1: children who had been lifted from dire situations and scattered

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Speaker 1: across the country for hope of a better life.

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Speaker 5: They sent me out west to Colorado Springs. I went

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Speaker 5: to Wayne County, Michigan.

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Speaker 4: I had never heard of anything like Kansas.

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Speaker 1: In this episode, we'll tell you the story of the

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Speaker 1: largest mass migration of children in American history, and I'll

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Speaker 1: travel to Texas to talk to the last known surviving

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Speaker 1: orphan train rider. They took you when you were such

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Speaker 1: a little baby of us.

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Speaker 6: The Smallest, Small, Smallest one London Home train.

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Speaker 1: From CBS Sunday Morning, and Simon and Schuster. I'm Morocca

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Speaker 1: and this is mobituaries, This mobid the Orphan Train. May

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Speaker 1: thirty first, nineteen twenty nine, death of an American experiment

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Speaker 1: extra extra. Read all about it the Boston molasses disaster

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Speaker 1: of nineteen nineteen. It's a slow reader. If you happen

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Speaker 1: to be outside Penn Station in New York City last June,

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Speaker 1: you might have seen a familiar face. What else h

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Speaker 1: extract star. I read all about it Warren Harding dead.

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Speaker 1: It was the one hundredth anniversary of the New York

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Speaker 1: Daily News, and I had joined their street team for

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Speaker 1: the day to pass out papers. Look, I love any

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Speaker 1: opportunity to shout random historical facts at strangers were extract

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Speaker 1: I read all about it, the Sultan, the Swat credit

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Speaker 1: to the Yankees, call the bay Rute News you want.

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Speaker 1: I love the baby Ruth thing, but I also wanted

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Speaker 1: to get a feel for what it was like to

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Speaker 1: be a newsye on the streets of New York. You know, newsies,

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Speaker 1: they're the plucky dancing paper boys from that disney musically loved.

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Speaker 1: But it turns out it wasn't all song and dance.

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Speaker 1: Newsies worked long hours on poor wages. Most of them

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Speaker 1: were abandoned children, and in the mid eighteen hundred It's

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Speaker 1: New York City had a crisis of abandoned children. Enter

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Speaker 1: Charles Loring Brace.

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Speaker 9: Charles Loring Brace, from a young age to his dying day,

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Speaker 9: really tried to be the best he could be for others.

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Speaker 1: Say, George is the head curator of the National Orphan

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Speaker 1: Train Complex in Concordia, Kansas. And to tell the story

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Speaker 1: of the Orphan Train, you have to tell the story

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Speaker 1: of Charles Laring Brace, who was born in eighteen twenty

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Speaker 1: six into a well to do family in Lichfield's, Connecticut.

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Speaker 1: What was he raised to do?

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Speaker 5: Yeah?

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Speaker 9: Well, his father, who was a teacher, thought that Charles

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Speaker 9: would follow in his footsteps, and he thought, okay, Charles

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Speaker 9: is going to be a teacher. And then Charles decides

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Speaker 9: to be a pastor. But then he realizes that you

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Speaker 9: don't have to be a pastor that stands behind a pulpit.

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Speaker 1: The patrician Charles was going to become a missionary, an

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Speaker 1: idea that greatly concerned his father, because being a pastor,

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Speaker 1: you know, it's kind of nice you get invited over

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Speaker 1: to dinner, you've got a nice place where you live.

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Speaker 1: But I mean, when you're a missionary, it's you're kind

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Speaker 1: of rolling up your sleeves and getting out there.

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Speaker 9: He truly jumped into the depths that were being ignored.

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Speaker 1: In the eighteen fifties, mass immigration from Europe, mostly Irish

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Speaker 1: and German Catholics, overwhelmed New York City. Poor sanitation and

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Speaker 1: wild pigs roaming the streets spread diseases like cholera and tuberculosis.

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Speaker 1: Non Existent labor laws meant unsustainable wages and unsafe working conditions.

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Speaker 1: And while the wretched state of affairs touched people of

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Speaker 1: all ages, children felt the effects hardest.

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Speaker 10: There was in fantaside happening in New York, where these

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Speaker 10: kids were actually literally dying in the streets, in the gutters.

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Speaker 10: These babies were tossed out of homes.

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Speaker 1: Renee Wendinger has written several books about the orphan train movement.

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Speaker 1: She has a personal connection to the subject. Her mother's

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Speaker 1: Sophia was a rider. Have you ever wondered what would

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Speaker 1: have happened to your mother. Had she stayed in New York.

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Speaker 11: I don't think in that timeframe she would have survived.

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Speaker 1: Charles Loring Brace was determined to help remember the newsiaes.

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Speaker 1: He created lodging houses for them, but there were far

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Speaker 1: more children in need than there were jobs for newsboys.

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Speaker 1: Give me a sense of the scale of the problem.

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Speaker 9: At one point they say ten thousand kids are on

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Speaker 9: the street. At another turn, it's thirty.

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Speaker 1: Thousand, thirty thousand homeless children at a time when New

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Speaker 1: York had fewer than six hundred thousand people total. Charles

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Speaker 1: Loring Brace saw all this firsthand.

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Speaker 9: Is eighteen fifty three. In the February of that year.

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Speaker 9: He starts going out into the streets and quickly realizes

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Speaker 9: that we're spending more money imprisoning children because you could

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Speaker 9: be arrested for being a vagrant child, and he wants

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Speaker 9: to help.

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Speaker 5: Now.

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Speaker 1: Orphanages existed back then, but they were overcrowded, and so

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Speaker 1: called poorhouses put children and adults together, a dangerous situation

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Speaker 1: for kids. So maybe it was best to get them

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Speaker 1: out of New York altogether.

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Speaker 9: He really believed in the idea of getting kids out

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Speaker 9: of the city and out of.

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Speaker 1: Vice, vice seems like the perfect word what he sees

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Speaker 1: going on in the cities of these kids. He just

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Speaker 1: sees it as kind of a cauldron of sinfulness, basically.

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Speaker 9: But he really doesn't see a way for children to

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Speaker 9: grow up and not be touched by it, not be

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Speaker 9: drawn into it, to live in an orphanage and then

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Speaker 9: be let out at eighteen and not fall into a prison.

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Speaker 1: So Brace comes up with a plan to move children

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Speaker 1: en mass to a place where they'll stand a better chance.

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Speaker 1: Put simply, Charles Loving Brace says, we're going to put

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Speaker 1: some kids on a train.

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Speaker 5: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: In eighteen fifty three, Brace founds the Children's Aid Society

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Speaker 1: to help carry out his grand play. First, he needs

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Speaker 1: to find people willing to take in abandoned children.

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Speaker 9: He basically selects a community where he knows someone. They're

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Speaker 9: going to go through that church and require that people

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Speaker 9: who apply for them bring two references from their pastor

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Speaker 9: and from their courthouse, and they're going to place them

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Speaker 9: out under the guardianship of the Children's Aid Society.

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Speaker 1: Why is he confident that they're even going to be

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Speaker 1: placed I.

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Speaker 9: Think he truly believed that people weren't going to come

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Speaker 9: to New York and take kids out of orphanages. But

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Speaker 9: if he brought them to them, put them in their face,

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Speaker 9: there was no way they could say no. And so

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Speaker 9: he took a chance.

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Speaker 1: Brace makes a deal with a pastor he knows in

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Speaker 1: the small town of Dowagiac, Michigan, and the Children's Aid

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Speaker 1: Society begins to gather the forty five children who will

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Speaker 1: be the passengers on the first orphan train.

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Speaker 9: The majority come from the New York Juvenile Asylum, and

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Speaker 9: technically that first train we now know by historical records,

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Speaker 9: is paid for in half by children they had studied

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Speaker 9: your jubil asylum.

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Speaker 1: Were any of the kids coerced, pressured or is this

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Speaker 1: something that they all wanted?

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Speaker 9: It's seemingly like they wanted it, But of course what's

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Speaker 9: the alternative.

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Speaker 6: Now?

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Speaker 1: Orphan train is a slight misnomer. It takes multiple trains

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Speaker 1: and boats to get from New York City to Michigan.

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Speaker 1: For many of these children, it's their first time ever

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Speaker 1: leaving New York City.

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Speaker 9: How scary that must have been on the choppy water

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Speaker 9: and the cliffs and how many trees there are.

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Speaker 1: For these kids, it must have been like going to

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Speaker 1: another planet. Oh, absolutely, a memory of This kind of

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Speaker 1: crossing even made it into Claire's Orphan Train performance.

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Speaker 2: I remember crossing the Hudson River. Oh the wonder that

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Speaker 2: filled our eyes. Oh we had ever seen sorrow and pain?

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Speaker 2: What's the world is supposed for us?

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Speaker 1: The children arrive into Watchiack in late September eighteen fifty four,

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Speaker 1: and no one, not the children, not their caretaker, not

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Speaker 1: the townspeople, really knows what to expect. So they get

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Speaker 1: off the train into Watchiack, and then what happens.

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Speaker 9: The kids are so excited. They're finally in Michigan, their

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Speaker 9: final destination, and they take off.

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Speaker 1: That's right, they run in all directions. Look, they're kids,

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Speaker 1: they've been cooped up on a train for days. Their

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Speaker 1: caretaker can't keep up. He just goes to wait for

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Speaker 1: them at the hotel.

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Speaker 9: Finally the kids start rolling in and they have stolen

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Speaker 9: everything green apples and pumpkins and acorns, and have shoved

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Speaker 9: grass and leaves up their shirts, up their shirt sleeves,

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Speaker 9: in their hats, down their pants, in their pockets because

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Speaker 9: they're so excited. They've never seen everything where it grows.

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Speaker 1: And I'm curious, do they know that you're not supposed

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Speaker 1: to steal. Possibly not, And I'm just I'm trying to

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Speaker 1: imagine what the people in the town are thinking.

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Speaker 9: I bet they're alarmed.

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Speaker 1: They probably are alarmed. The people of Dowagiac, after all,

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Speaker 1: are scheduled to meet the orphan train riders that day

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Speaker 1: at church. You can imagine that already they're regretting welcoming

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Speaker 1: the orphans to town. But when they get to church,

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Speaker 1: they're greeted with a surprise.

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Speaker 9: The first thing that they really hear from the kids

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Speaker 9: are Sunday hymns, and they are singing comy centers, poor

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Speaker 9: and needy.

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Speaker 1: The kids went over the town.

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Speaker 9: They're placed within a week.

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Speaker 1: All of them, so this first ride had to be

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Speaker 1: considered a success.

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Speaker 9: Absolutely.

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Speaker 1: Two months later, a second train leaves New York and

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Speaker 1: the orphan train movement begins in earnest and now a

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Speaker 1: pop quiz because I love pop quizzz. It's easy to overlook,

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Speaker 1: but so much of America's history, innovation, arts, and entertainment

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Speaker 1: politics has been driven by individuals who grew up adopted

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Speaker 1: or in foster families. I'm going to give you some

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Speaker 1: clues and you have to guess which famous orphan I'm describing.

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Speaker 1: If you get two out of three, you win. There

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Speaker 1: are no prizes. Our first clue. Before this, former president,

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Speaker 1: Stanford graduate and self made millionaire was roasted in the

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Speaker 1: Broadway musical Annie for his role presiding over the Great Depression.

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Speaker 1: He was raised by distant relatives in Oregon after losing

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Speaker 1: both of his parents to pneumonia. It's Herbert Hoover fun fact.

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Speaker 1: One of his nicknames was the Hermit, author of Palo Alto. Next,

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Speaker 1: this fast food mogul, whose grandma's advice not to cut

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Speaker 1: corners inspired his decision to make his iconic burgers square

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Speaker 1: instead of round, was adopted as a baby and used

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Speaker 1: his wealth and influence to help others with childhoods like his,

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Speaker 1: creating a foundation that still supports foster children around the country.

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Speaker 1: I'm Dave Thomas. I started Wendy's with one restaurant. It's

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Speaker 1: Dave Thomas. Fun fact. Before he created Wendy's, he was

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Speaker 1: the mastermind behind the fried Chicken bucket that put KFC

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Speaker 1: on the map. Finally, this adopted child would become famous

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Speaker 1: at the ripe old age of ten, playing the lead

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Speaker 1: role in a series about a family living on the

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Speaker 1: prairie in Minnesota. In the eighteen seventies, I decided something.

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Speaker 5: What's that happening home is the nicest word there is.

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Speaker 1: It's Melissa Gilbert. Her show Lit on the Prairie would

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Speaker 1: have storylines revolving around orphans throughout its run, including one

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Speaker 1: played by friend of the podcast, Chason Bateman.

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Speaker 2: And we hope you meant what you said about how

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Speaker 2: you want us to stay, because that's what we want.

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Speaker 1: To Speaking of little houses and prairies, let's get back

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Speaker 1: on that orphan train. As the Children's Aid Society grew,

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Speaker 1: it sent hundreds, then thousands of children all across the country.

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Speaker 1: Now almost none of the riders are alive today. But

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Speaker 1: back in nineteen seventy nine, my CBS Sunday Morning colleague

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Speaker 1: the Great Martha Teichner interviewed sisters Anna and Margaret Fuchs.

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Speaker 1: They and their third sister, Helen, rode the orphan train

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Speaker 1: when they were just ten, nine and seven years old.

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Speaker 1: They were orphaned after losing both their parents to tuberculosis.

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Speaker 1: Margaret remembered seeing their mother's burial.

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Speaker 12: The thing that really got to me was seen in

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Speaker 12: that coffin being lowered, and I can remember trying to

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Speaker 12: jump into that grade because that was my mother down there.

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Speaker 1: When the children were put on a train in nineteen

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Speaker 1: twenty four, they didn't even know where they were headed.

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Speaker 1: As Anna remembered, I had.

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Speaker 4: Very strong ideas that I was going to California. I

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Speaker 4: didn't know there was any other stake besides New York

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Speaker 4: and California, as far as I was concerned.

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Speaker 1: Margaret described their arrival in the tiny town of McPherson, Kansas.

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Speaker 12: First thing I did was to look around. How come

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Speaker 12: they're letting us out in the middle of nowhere. I

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Speaker 12: couldn't see any buildings. I was looking for skyscrapers.

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Speaker 1: Whenever orphans sent by the Society arrived at their destination,

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Speaker 1: they were lined up on a train platform or on

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Speaker 1: the stage of a theater so that families could walk

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Speaker 1: down the line and pick out their preferred kid. As

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Speaker 1: author Renee Wendinger explains, this process actually gave rise to

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Speaker 1: a familiar turn of phrase.

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Speaker 10: Some of the children would have stood on a little

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Speaker 10: box called the soap box, and that's how the term

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Speaker 10: put up for adoption became known as we know it today.

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Speaker 1: If it sounds impersonal, well that's an understatement. Here's how

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Speaker 1: fifteen year old Claire Isaacson described it in her National

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Speaker 1: History Day performance.

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Speaker 2: Ladies were usually chosen first, then the tougher, stronger looking voice.

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Speaker 3: US girls were usually chosen vast. We watched people come

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Speaker 3: and go and inspect of the children. We saw them

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Speaker 3: looking at their teeth and even having some boys to

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Speaker 3: push us.

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Speaker 1: Martha Teichner asked Anna Fuchs about her experience.

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Speaker 13: Did you ever feel any outrage or any any anger

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Speaker 13: at the fact that you were being kind of lined

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Speaker 13: up there and say, okay, I got a kid.

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Speaker 4: No, I don't think so. I think it's a matter

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Speaker 4: of you sort of blame yourself for having lost your folks.

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Speaker 1: The sisters were all selected, but by different families.

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Speaker 13: How big thought was that when you were standing there

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Speaker 13: the day that you were both selected by families, seeing

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Speaker 13: each other and seeing goodbyes and wondering what's going to happen?

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Speaker 12: I think it was sort of the case that there

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Speaker 12: was so much confusion and all that we didn't really

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Speaker 12: have that much chance to think about it, did we.

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Speaker 4: I don't think the thought entered my mind at all

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Speaker 4: until I got there and sat on that step ladder

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Speaker 4: in the kitchen, and then it finally hit me. You

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Speaker 4: are alone that was when you started, and that's when

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Speaker 4: I start in.

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Speaker 1: Sibling separation was an added trauma thousands of orphan writers

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Speaker 1: suffered over the years.

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Speaker 12: Were you scared, Yes, I think we just wanted to

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Speaker 12: be sure that we were going to be close enough

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Speaker 12: together so that we get to wouldn't lose each other.

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Speaker 13: Why was that so important?

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Speaker 12: What was it's We were family and that was all

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Speaker 12: the family there was.

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Speaker 1: Even though Anna and Margaret were both taken in by

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Speaker 1: families in the same town, their lives took very different turns.

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Speaker 1: Anna became extremely close to her new mother, Jenny Bankston.

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Speaker 4: She was a person I could trust when I first

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Speaker 4: came here. When I came out here, that was one

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Speaker 4: thing I did not trust anyone. I had lost faith

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Speaker 4: in people. I really feel like I've had two mothers.

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Speaker 1: Margaret, meanwhile, was taken in by the Runian family, who

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Speaker 1: ran a local boarding house. They enlisted Margaret to help

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Speaker 1: with cleaning and cooking for guests. It was a pretty cold,

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Speaker 1: business like relationship.

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Speaker 12: I always had the feeling that I was there in

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Speaker 12: place of a maid.

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Speaker 1: Now these weren't formal adoptions, at least not at first,

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Speaker 1: but the family's writers ended up with were bound by contract.

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Speaker 1: Parents had to make sure the children went to school

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Speaker 1: and church. They were expectationsations for the kids as well.

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Speaker 9: Yes, the child had to you know, be a child

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Speaker 9: and listen to those parents and help out around the house,

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Speaker 9: and a household at that moment operated like a little business,

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Speaker 9: whether you were the birth child, or the adopted child,

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Speaker 9: or the foster child.

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Speaker 1: Basically, what you're saying is being a kid in the

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Speaker 1: nineteenth century wasn't very fun. No, no, absolutely not. But

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Speaker 1: that didn't make it any easier for orphaned children hoping

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Speaker 1: to find a family. Arriving to one like Margaret's was hard.

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Speaker 12: I honestly don't remember whether I call them mom and

359
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Speaker 12: dad or whether I call them mister ms Venion.

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Speaker 5: What does that tell you about your experience.

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Speaker 12: Well, just that there wasn't that kind of love there, well,

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Speaker 12: affection of any kind.

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Speaker 13: Does it hurt you that you never had that?

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Speaker 5: Does it?

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Speaker 4: Oh?

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Speaker 12: Yes, yes, particularly when I knew the kind of a

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Speaker 12: home that Anna was in, where she was getting that

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Speaker 12: kind of affection and all.

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Speaker 1: Mart situation wasn't rare, but spurred by the Children's Aid

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Speaker 1: Society's success, other organizations began to follow suit, and in

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Speaker 1: eighteen sixty nine, the second largest orphan train institution began earlier.

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Speaker 1: I quizzed you on some of America's most prominent real

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Speaker 1: life orphans, but they're not nearly as famous as some

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Speaker 1: fictional orphans. Remember that Herbert Hoover song from about ten

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Speaker 1: minutes ago, Well, it's from a musical centered around an orphan.

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Speaker 4: Why any kid would want to be an orphan is

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Speaker 4: beyond me.

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Speaker 1: Not little orphan Annie was a star, first of comic strips,

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Speaker 1: then of the Broadway stage. In my opinion, the nineteen

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Speaker 1: eighty two movie is only worth mentioning for Carol Burnett's

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Speaker 1: Miss Hannigan.

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Speaker 9: And if this floor don't shine, I could turn with

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Speaker 9: the pressure building or becks.

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Speaker 4: Unders stamp yes Miss Again.

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Speaker 1: On television, the nineteen eighties, as It Happens, were a

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Speaker 1: boom time for orphan centered sitcoms, starting with Arnold and

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Speaker 1: Willis on Different Strokes.

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Speaker 5: Don't get too used at his place?

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Speaker 4: Who'ld you talk about? Willis?

390
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Speaker 1: And there was Punky Brewster.

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Speaker 5: What doesn't anyone want me?

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Speaker 1: What's wrong with me? Nothing's wrong with you?

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Speaker 6: You don't want me?

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Speaker 9: Neither did my mom, That's.

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Speaker 4: Why she did?

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Speaker 8: She?

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Speaker 1: And who could forget Webster.

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Speaker 5: I'm r getting used to you guys.

399
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Speaker 13: And you know what, chance, we're getting kind of used

400
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Speaker 13: to you too.

401
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Speaker 1: It's surprising, given our love of a good orphan story,

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00:23:47,560 --> 00:23:52,359
Speaker 1: that the Orphan Train has been so overlooked. By the

403
00:23:52,400 --> 00:23:55,600
Speaker 1: time the Civil War ended in eighteen sixty five, the

404
00:23:55,680 --> 00:23:59,800
Speaker 1: Children's Aid Society had placed twelve hundred children with families

405
00:23:59,800 --> 00:24:05,240
Speaker 1: in America's heartland, but Charles Loring Brace's organization placed children

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Speaker 1: primarily in Protestant homes, regardless of the fact that many

407
00:24:09,280 --> 00:24:13,160
Speaker 1: of those babies were born to Catholic immigrant mothers. Enter

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Speaker 1: the New York Foundling Hospital once again, Shaley George from

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Speaker 1: the National Orphan Train Complex.

410
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Speaker 9: The New York Founding Hospital starts in eighteen sixty nine

411
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Speaker 9: with two sisters, Sister Theresa and Sister Anne, and then

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00:24:27,400 --> 00:24:32,399
Speaker 9: they're head of their foundling sister Mary Irene Fitzgibbons. And

413
00:24:32,480 --> 00:24:34,680
Speaker 9: so they start the New York Founding Hospital as tiny

414
00:24:34,760 --> 00:24:38,639
Speaker 9: little Brownstone and within the night a baby's left on

415
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Speaker 9: their doorstep.

416
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Speaker 1: The demand for their services caught them totally off guard, and.

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Speaker 9: By the end of the month they have forty five infants.

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Speaker 9: By the end of the year, they have over one hundred,

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Speaker 9: and so their mission turned to placing Catholic babies in

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Speaker 9: Catholic homes.

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Speaker 1: Not all of those babies were Catholic when they were

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Speaker 1: left at the door of the Foundling Hospital, but as

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Speaker 1: one Orphan trained riders set about the Foundling, you.

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Speaker 9: Might go in one way, but you'll leave a.

425
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Speaker 1: Catholic Following in the tracks of the Children's Aid Society,

426
00:25:07,600 --> 00:25:11,639
Speaker 1: the Foundling started placing children on trains headed west, but

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00:25:11,760 --> 00:25:16,440
Speaker 1: these children were much younger, mostly infants, and specifically chosen

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Speaker 1: to resemble the families they were joining.

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Speaker 9: They believe that placing out younger children who matched the

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00:25:23,320 --> 00:25:26,560
Speaker 9: family by eye color, hair color, age, and gender would

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Speaker 9: cut back on the stigma from the surrounding community because

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00:25:30,160 --> 00:25:32,119
Speaker 9: they looked like the family that they were placed in.

433
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Speaker 1: So it's sort of the reverse of Children's Aid Society,

434
00:25:34,600 --> 00:25:38,760
Speaker 1: where the Children's Aid Society sends kids out and then

435
00:25:39,280 --> 00:25:44,320
Speaker 1: prospective parents choose the kids. Then here it's more of

436
00:25:45,000 --> 00:25:48,399
Speaker 1: a mail order system, right. Basically, that's what happened to

437
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Speaker 1: Anne Harrison, who was featured on CBS Sunday Morning back

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Speaker 1: in two thousand and two when she was a spry

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Speaker 1: ninety three.

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Speaker 14: They had asked for a two and a half year

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Speaker 14: old girl with brown hair and brown eyes. Well they

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00:26:03,880 --> 00:26:07,240
Speaker 14: got a two and a half year old girl that

443
00:26:07,640 --> 00:26:13,760
Speaker 14: had auburn hair and hazel eyes, but that was close enough.

444
00:26:14,320 --> 00:26:17,160
Speaker 1: Because she was so young when she arrived. Anne grew

445
00:26:17,240 --> 00:26:20,680
Speaker 1: up not even knowing she was adopted. Her father made

446
00:26:20,720 --> 00:26:21,480
Speaker 1: sure that.

447
00:26:21,800 --> 00:26:25,960
Speaker 9: Her father basically threatened the entire town to not tell

448
00:26:25,960 --> 00:26:28,720
Speaker 9: her she was adopted. Her father never wanted her to

449
00:26:28,720 --> 00:26:32,280
Speaker 9: feel less than to be thought of, that she was

450
00:26:32,400 --> 00:26:35,600
Speaker 9: not truly his daughter.

451
00:26:35,760 --> 00:26:39,320
Speaker 1: But despite her father's best efforts, the other kids and

452
00:26:39,400 --> 00:26:41,960
Speaker 1: her own teachers never quite accepted her.

453
00:26:42,480 --> 00:26:45,520
Speaker 14: I was never popular in school, and that bothered me,

454
00:26:45,600 --> 00:26:50,200
Speaker 14: and I seemed to always be the odd ball. Orphans

455
00:26:50,400 --> 00:26:55,240
Speaker 14: or adopted children were not really as good class as

456
00:26:55,280 --> 00:26:58,880
Speaker 14: the other people. I think that was just a general

457
00:26:59,080 --> 00:27:02,359
Speaker 14: thought that you were a bad seed if you came

458
00:27:03,119 --> 00:27:05,239
Speaker 14: from people that they didn't know.

459
00:27:07,800 --> 00:27:09,960
Speaker 9: So a lot of the orphan train writers had to

460
00:27:09,960 --> 00:27:13,200
Speaker 9: contend with people who were not pleased with them being

461
00:27:13,240 --> 00:27:17,960
Speaker 9: in town. The idea is that you're going to inherit

462
00:27:18,040 --> 00:27:22,840
Speaker 9: traits of poverty, of vice from parents that some never.

463
00:27:22,760 --> 00:27:25,640
Speaker 1: Knew, almost like the orphan train writers are tainted.

464
00:27:25,960 --> 00:27:29,240
Speaker 9: Yeah, the negativity of immigration is there from the get go,

465
00:27:29,760 --> 00:27:33,840
Speaker 9: the negativity of your parents didn't want you, your parents

466
00:27:33,880 --> 00:27:36,960
Speaker 9: lost you because they were a drunk or abusive or

467
00:27:37,000 --> 00:27:38,840
Speaker 9: in prison, and.

468
00:27:39,040 --> 00:27:42,159
Speaker 1: Would grow up move to Chicago and become a professional

469
00:27:42,280 --> 00:27:45,840
Speaker 1: nightclub singer. She wouldn't find out she was adopted until

470
00:27:45,880 --> 00:27:48,879
Speaker 1: she was twenty seven years old, and that wasn't the

471
00:27:48,880 --> 00:27:52,760
Speaker 1: only surprise waiting for the woman who'd been baptized to Catholic.

472
00:27:52,720 --> 00:27:57,480
Speaker 14: In nineteen eighty nine, I get this letter from the

473
00:27:57,520 --> 00:28:01,080
Speaker 14: New York Health Department. Open it up, and there's my

474
00:28:01,240 --> 00:28:09,119
Speaker 14: original birth certificate, Mabel Reuben. My mother's name was of

475
00:28:10,000 --> 00:28:13,719
Speaker 14: Jenny Ruben. My father's name was Moe Kohn.

476
00:28:15,040 --> 00:28:19,600
Speaker 5: Well. I looked at that and I just split into laughter.

477
00:28:20,240 --> 00:28:22,960
Speaker 9: She just thought, well, I'll just go on and add

478
00:28:23,119 --> 00:28:25,679
Speaker 9: a Star of David to my crucifix necklace and just

479
00:28:25,760 --> 00:28:28,480
Speaker 9: keep going, because what can I do?

480
00:28:30,960 --> 00:28:34,119
Speaker 5: Well? My Jewish friends said, we know it all about.

481
00:28:37,560 --> 00:28:41,040
Speaker 1: The Foundling and Children's Aid Society together set the Lion's

482
00:28:41,120 --> 00:28:44,320
Speaker 1: share of those two hundred and fifty thousand children west

483
00:28:44,960 --> 00:28:48,400
Speaker 1: until the last orphan train left for Sulfur Springs, Texas,

484
00:28:48,720 --> 00:28:52,680
Speaker 1: on May thirty first, nineteen twenty nine, the world had

485
00:28:52,720 --> 00:28:56,960
Speaker 1: simply outgrown the orphan train. Communities in the Midwest now

486
00:28:57,040 --> 00:29:00,920
Speaker 1: had their own abandoned children to help. The story doesn't

487
00:29:01,040 --> 00:29:05,760
Speaker 1: end there. We know how a quarter million children found

488
00:29:05,760 --> 00:29:09,040
Speaker 1: their way west, but what happened after they grew up?

489
00:29:11,520 --> 00:29:13,440
Speaker 2: Do you know the name that was given to you

490
00:29:13,560 --> 00:29:14,200
Speaker 2: at bern.

491
00:29:17,240 --> 00:29:17,920
Speaker 4: Sofia?

492
00:29:19,360 --> 00:29:20,800
Speaker 10: Who names your Sofia?

493
00:29:22,960 --> 00:29:24,360
Speaker 5: For my mother and my dad?

494
00:29:25,280 --> 00:29:31,280
Speaker 1: That's Renee Wendinger interviewing her mother, Sophia Hillesheim Kaminski. Sophia

495
00:29:31,400 --> 00:29:34,840
Speaker 1: had been an orphan train rider taken in by Anna Grime,

496
00:29:35,320 --> 00:29:39,360
Speaker 1: a single woman in Springfield, Minnesota, who spoke only German.

497
00:29:40,080 --> 00:29:43,560
Speaker 14: She really didn't know how to raise children because she

498
00:29:43,680 --> 00:29:45,760
Speaker 14: could not be English.

499
00:29:45,800 --> 00:29:47,120
Speaker 5: So I had to learn German.

500
00:29:48,240 --> 00:29:50,680
Speaker 9: And when I went forward to school, then I had.

501
00:29:50,600 --> 00:29:54,600
Speaker 14: To relearned the English because I had only talked German

502
00:29:54,640 --> 00:29:55,200
Speaker 14: all the time.

503
00:29:55,280 --> 00:29:57,160
Speaker 4: So what did you do for entertainment?

504
00:29:59,160 --> 00:30:01,480
Speaker 5: I didn't have any entertainment. That had to work all

505
00:30:01,480 --> 00:30:02,040
Speaker 5: the time.

506
00:30:02,760 --> 00:30:06,200
Speaker 1: But that wasn't the worst of it. Was Anna physically abusive?

507
00:30:06,400 --> 00:30:09,640
Speaker 11: Yeah she was. She had a little whip that she

508
00:30:09,760 --> 00:30:10,680
Speaker 11: kept in the corner.

509
00:30:10,760 --> 00:30:13,640
Speaker 10: It was a snake handled whip, and by that I

510
00:30:13,680 --> 00:30:16,760
Speaker 10: mean it was sort of a leather handled whip, and

511
00:30:16,800 --> 00:30:19,960
Speaker 10: that's the way she would flog her and she'd say,

512
00:30:20,120 --> 00:30:24,040
Speaker 10: now you remember this, and remember not to do that again.

513
00:30:27,160 --> 00:30:30,400
Speaker 1: Sophia's orphan train story is a sad one, but it

514
00:30:30,400 --> 00:30:33,440
Speaker 1: doesn't end at her childhood. She would grow up to

515
00:30:33,480 --> 00:30:38,120
Speaker 1: become someone vastly different from Anna Grime. Here's how Renee

516
00:30:38,240 --> 00:30:39,280
Speaker 1: describes her mother.

517
00:30:39,600 --> 00:30:42,680
Speaker 10: She just had such a warm, open heart. There is

518
00:30:43,320 --> 00:30:47,200
Speaker 10: no one that ever knew her would say anything bad

519
00:30:47,240 --> 00:30:51,560
Speaker 10: about her, because she was just a warm, loving person.

520
00:30:52,000 --> 00:30:54,480
Speaker 1: You know, it's funny that your mother's story in so

521
00:30:54,560 --> 00:30:57,800
Speaker 1: many of these other orphan train writers' stories. It sort

522
00:30:57,840 --> 00:31:04,720
Speaker 1: of underlines how vulnerable children are, but also how resilient.

523
00:31:04,400 --> 00:31:06,640
Speaker 10: They were the type of people that would just sort

524
00:31:06,680 --> 00:31:09,520
Speaker 10: of kind of pull the bootstraps up and they would

525
00:31:09,560 --> 00:31:13,880
Speaker 10: carry on. But my mother would always say, I was

526
00:31:13,960 --> 00:31:16,280
Speaker 10: just so thankful to have a roof over my head.

527
00:31:16,520 --> 00:31:18,680
Speaker 1: Your mother had a lot to be angry about.

528
00:31:18,760 --> 00:31:21,720
Speaker 11: She really did, but she did not have that in

529
00:31:21,760 --> 00:31:22,400
Speaker 11: her heart.

530
00:31:22,560 --> 00:31:25,400
Speaker 10: And you know, I don't know if that's something that

531
00:31:25,480 --> 00:31:29,400
Speaker 10: we inherit Is it biological? Is do we have the

532
00:31:29,520 --> 00:31:34,320
Speaker 10: influences around us? Is it our geography? I have no idea,

533
00:31:34,400 --> 00:31:38,040
Speaker 10: but her arms were always outreached to people.

534
00:31:38,880 --> 00:31:42,120
Speaker 1: But Renee's mother didn't find peace until near the end

535
00:31:42,160 --> 00:31:45,120
Speaker 1: of her own life. Did your mother ever forgive Anna?

536
00:31:45,480 --> 00:31:51,880
Speaker 10: She did not forgive her until she was about I

537
00:31:51,920 --> 00:31:56,480
Speaker 10: think she was like ninety six years old, and she

538
00:31:56,720 --> 00:31:59,800
Speaker 10: asked me one day if I would take her to

539
00:32:00,000 --> 00:32:03,920
Speaker 10: a cemetery. She said, it's time. I need to go

540
00:32:03,960 --> 00:32:06,280
Speaker 10: to the cemetery and I need to forgive her.

541
00:32:07,680 --> 00:32:09,800
Speaker 1: So you took your ninety six year old mother to

542
00:32:09,840 --> 00:32:13,120
Speaker 1: the cemetery. And what did she say when she was

543
00:32:13,160 --> 00:32:14,880
Speaker 1: at the tombstone? Havanna.

544
00:32:15,760 --> 00:32:19,640
Speaker 10: I have no idea what she spoke inside her heart

545
00:32:20,080 --> 00:32:24,800
Speaker 10: and we walked away and she said, it's done. I

546
00:32:24,880 --> 00:32:27,080
Speaker 10: needed to do that, She said, I should have done

547
00:32:27,120 --> 00:32:28,160
Speaker 10: that a long time ago.

548
00:32:37,520 --> 00:32:40,480
Speaker 1: Now, all the Orphan train riders you've been hearing from

549
00:32:40,520 --> 00:32:45,280
Speaker 1: in this episode, Renee's mother, Sophia, Anna, and Margaret Fuchs,

550
00:32:45,800 --> 00:32:52,040
Speaker 1: Ann Harrison, they're all voices from the past. They're all gone.

551
00:32:52,360 --> 00:32:55,959
Speaker 1: But I wanted to talk to a writer myself, and

552
00:32:56,000 --> 00:32:59,000
Speaker 1: so I went down to Texas to meet the last

553
00:32:59,160 --> 00:33:07,160
Speaker 1: known survivor being orphan train rider. Okay, testing testing right here,

554
00:33:07,960 --> 00:33:11,120
Speaker 1: I'm in a conference room at an assisted living facility

555
00:33:11,360 --> 00:33:15,360
Speaker 1: in East Bernard, Texas, an hour outside of Houston. Sitting

556
00:33:15,400 --> 00:33:21,040
Speaker 1: with me, a host of eager relatives would surrounding ninety

557
00:33:21,080 --> 00:33:25,719
Speaker 1: seven year old Beatrice Voytek, an actual orphan train rider.

558
00:33:25,960 --> 00:33:28,080
Speaker 2: The only thing is we know for ninety seven she's

559
00:33:28,080 --> 00:33:28,640
Speaker 2: doing great.

560
00:33:29,400 --> 00:33:32,200
Speaker 1: That's her son, George. You're a terrific looking ninety seven

561
00:33:32,840 --> 00:33:37,880
Speaker 1: and appreciating you may be the last surviving orphan train rider.

562
00:33:38,040 --> 00:33:38,960
Speaker 1: How does that feel?

563
00:33:39,600 --> 00:33:44,440
Speaker 6: Well, I'm kind of They believe that because I was

564
00:33:44,480 --> 00:33:46,800
Speaker 6: the smallest on that train.

565
00:33:46,880 --> 00:33:49,640
Speaker 1: She's a national treasure. Did you hear that?

566
00:33:50,320 --> 00:33:52,360
Speaker 6: No, you're a national treasure.

567
00:33:53,400 --> 00:33:54,480
Speaker 1: You are because you are.

568
00:33:54,800 --> 00:33:55,880
Speaker 6: You absolutely are.

569
00:33:57,000 --> 00:33:57,320
Speaker 5: Well.

570
00:33:57,360 --> 00:34:02,480
Speaker 6: I appreciate that. I'm thinking, I think extra from any

571
00:34:02,560 --> 00:34:03,280
Speaker 6: other orphan.

572
00:34:03,840 --> 00:34:07,360
Speaker 1: Beatrice, the daughter of an Irish immigrant, was only fourteen

573
00:34:07,400 --> 00:34:10,080
Speaker 1: months old when she made the trip from New York City,

574
00:34:10,400 --> 00:34:13,719
Speaker 1: landing with a Czech family in Texas. She's got a

575
00:34:13,760 --> 00:34:17,440
Speaker 1: fascinating story, but in the end, the person that seems

576
00:34:17,560 --> 00:34:21,920
Speaker 1: least interested in it is Beatrice. I asked her about

577
00:34:21,960 --> 00:34:25,279
Speaker 1: discovering she was an orphan train rider. You didn't know

578
00:34:25,320 --> 00:34:26,440
Speaker 1: that you'd been adopted.

579
00:34:27,040 --> 00:34:29,680
Speaker 6: I didn't know I was an orphan. I didn't know anything.

580
00:34:29,800 --> 00:34:32,720
Speaker 6: I just read it all the time. You mind you mama,

581
00:34:32,800 --> 00:34:36,080
Speaker 6: You mind your mama, And I didn't pay attention.

582
00:34:36,239 --> 00:34:38,960
Speaker 1: Could I asked her about her birth mother, who was

583
00:34:39,040 --> 00:34:40,439
Speaker 1: twenty nine when she had her.

584
00:34:40,680 --> 00:34:44,240
Speaker 6: If she used she stood that chance of getting pregnant,

585
00:34:44,600 --> 00:34:48,400
Speaker 6: then she should have known that she finet to provide

586
00:34:48,480 --> 00:34:49,480
Speaker 6: for that baby.

587
00:34:49,560 --> 00:34:52,279
Speaker 1: Do you wonder what the rest of her life was like?

588
00:34:53,120 --> 00:34:54,560
Speaker 6: You mean my real mother?

589
00:34:55,400 --> 00:34:58,560
Speaker 1: No, I asked Beatrice if she ever wondered what she

590
00:34:58,719 --> 00:35:01,400
Speaker 1: might have missed out on having been scooped up and

591
00:35:01,520 --> 00:35:03,360
Speaker 1: moved so far away so young.

592
00:35:03,840 --> 00:35:08,240
Speaker 6: Well, yeah, I mean I was adopted into a into

593
00:35:08,280 --> 00:35:12,360
Speaker 6: a family, and and that was my family. There's that,

594
00:35:12,520 --> 00:35:13,760
Speaker 6: you know, that was my life.

595
00:35:14,080 --> 00:35:17,520
Speaker 1: You've never imagined, even for a moment, what your life

596
00:35:17,560 --> 00:35:19,759
Speaker 1: would have been like if you stayed in New York.

597
00:35:19,920 --> 00:35:22,880
Speaker 6: Oh yeah, oh yeah, I thought about that, America?

598
00:35:23,040 --> 00:35:24,000
Speaker 1: And what did you think?

599
00:35:24,360 --> 00:35:24,759
Speaker 5: What were you?

600
00:35:25,080 --> 00:35:31,120
Speaker 6: Thank God? I'm I'm here in Texas. I'm satisfied with

601
00:35:31,239 --> 00:35:34,080
Speaker 6: my life the way it is, and and I'm so

602
00:35:34,680 --> 00:35:40,920
Speaker 6: blessed with you know, the people that adopted me and

603
00:35:40,480 --> 00:35:43,640
Speaker 6: and and brought me up and raised me right and

604
00:35:44,640 --> 00:35:47,480
Speaker 6: probably much better than my real parents.

605
00:35:47,520 --> 00:35:50,319
Speaker 1: With and if you ever do want to come to

606
00:35:50,360 --> 00:35:57,319
Speaker 1: New York, I've got a guest room. We'll go see

607
00:35:57,360 --> 00:36:00,960
Speaker 1: a Broadway show. You ever see Phantom of the Opera? No,

608
00:36:01,400 --> 00:36:02,160
Speaker 1: it's terrific.

609
00:36:02,640 --> 00:36:04,520
Speaker 2: Yeah.

610
00:36:04,600 --> 00:36:08,960
Speaker 1: There was no dramatic revelation from Beatrice, no Rosebud moment.

611
00:36:09,640 --> 00:36:12,720
Speaker 1: She didn't render a sweeping verdict on whether the Orphan

612
00:36:12,760 --> 00:36:16,400
Speaker 1: Train was good or bad. As she saw it, She

613
00:36:16,560 --> 00:36:20,680
Speaker 1: rode the train, she grew up, she moved on. It

614
00:36:20,840 --> 00:36:25,480
Speaker 1: was what it was. But when Beatrice herself passes on,

615
00:36:26,040 --> 00:36:29,359
Speaker 1: that won't be the end of the Orphan Train story. Descendants,

616
00:36:29,640 --> 00:36:34,440
Speaker 1: historians and budding historians like Claire Isaacson are still telling

617
00:36:34,480 --> 00:36:38,719
Speaker 1: it today. Does this give you kind of a new

618
00:36:38,760 --> 00:36:41,880
Speaker 1: appreciation of the importance of preserving history.

619
00:36:42,120 --> 00:36:43,040
Speaker 13: I believe it does.

620
00:36:43,480 --> 00:36:48,520
Speaker 8: Yeah, and especially this movement, because it's not well known

621
00:36:48,560 --> 00:36:52,560
Speaker 8: at all. And I've joined the little community of the

622
00:36:52,680 --> 00:36:55,840
Speaker 8: Orphan Train rider, people trying to keep the story alive.

623
00:36:56,160 --> 00:36:58,560
Speaker 1: And the main way of preserving it is through Orphan

624
00:36:58,680 --> 00:37:02,240
Speaker 1: Train reunions. When they first started in the nineteen sixties,

625
00:37:02,440 --> 00:37:04,960
Speaker 1: they were places for the writers themselves to gather.

626
00:37:05,680 --> 00:37:09,439
Speaker 10: What these writers would do, would stand up and tell

627
00:37:09,480 --> 00:37:13,719
Speaker 10: their stories. And I found them so intriguing and so interesting.

628
00:37:14,280 --> 00:37:15,120
Speaker 11: These riders.

629
00:37:15,200 --> 00:37:19,080
Speaker 10: When they got together, they celebrated for three straight days.

630
00:37:19,520 --> 00:37:23,920
Speaker 1: I'm struck by how you used the word celebrate. What

631
00:37:23,960 --> 00:37:25,080
Speaker 1: do you mean celebrate?

632
00:37:25,320 --> 00:37:31,960
Speaker 10: They celebrated their togethern Us as orphan trained brothers and sisters.

633
00:37:32,560 --> 00:37:35,600
Speaker 1: But as the number of riders has dwindled, they've become

634
00:37:35,600 --> 00:37:39,000
Speaker 1: a chance for descendants to share memories and stories of

635
00:37:39,040 --> 00:37:40,680
Speaker 1: their loved ones who have passed on.

636
00:37:41,120 --> 00:37:42,520
Speaker 11: It's quite amazing.

637
00:37:42,600 --> 00:37:46,000
Speaker 10: In fact, we feel very much a kinship with each other.

638
00:37:46,760 --> 00:37:50,520
Speaker 10: We all know what our parents felt or our grandparents felt,

639
00:37:50,680 --> 00:37:55,759
Speaker 10: and soon, hopefully the grandchildren of these writers will take over.

640
00:37:56,640 --> 00:38:00,160
Speaker 1: The legacy of the Orphan train movement. Isn't easy to quantify.

641
00:38:00,880 --> 00:38:04,279
Speaker 1: While all the writers were impacted by their new communities

642
00:38:04,280 --> 00:38:07,840
Speaker 1: and families, many grew up to make their own impact

643
00:38:07,920 --> 00:38:08,920
Speaker 1: on the world.

644
00:38:09,080 --> 00:38:11,960
Speaker 9: The kids went on to serve in the Civil War,

645
00:38:12,040 --> 00:38:14,719
Speaker 9: World War One, World War II, Korea. We have some

646
00:38:14,840 --> 00:38:18,480
Speaker 9: that served in Vietnam. Just thinking politically, you know, speaking

647
00:38:19,080 --> 00:38:23,160
Speaker 9: the people who served in our state governments, in our Congress.

648
00:38:25,320 --> 00:38:27,560
Speaker 1: Just some of the orphan trained riders who went on

649
00:38:27,640 --> 00:38:31,720
Speaker 1: to lead lives of distinction. Andrew Burke became the second

650
00:38:31,800 --> 00:38:35,360
Speaker 1: governor of the state of North Dakota. His friend John

651
00:38:35,400 --> 00:38:38,399
Speaker 1: green Brady, who rode the same orphan train, would become

652
00:38:38,480 --> 00:38:43,040
Speaker 1: governor of the Territory of Alaska. Henry L. Jost became

653
00:38:43,120 --> 00:38:47,040
Speaker 1: mayor of Kansas City, Missouri, his nickname the Orphan Boy

654
00:38:47,120 --> 00:38:51,480
Speaker 1: Mayor before joining the United States Congress. Joe Iya would

655
00:38:51,520 --> 00:38:55,480
Speaker 1: become head football coach at Louisiana Tech University and inducted

656
00:38:55,600 --> 00:38:58,759
Speaker 1: into the College Football Hall of Fame. And while we

657
00:38:58,800 --> 00:39:01,879
Speaker 1: can't confirm, it's a long standing rumor in the orphan

658
00:39:01,920 --> 00:39:06,040
Speaker 1: trained community that a former United States Supreme Court justice

659
00:39:06,360 --> 00:39:09,640
Speaker 1: was a writer, but kept its secret because of the stigma.

660
00:39:10,200 --> 00:39:12,640
Speaker 1: If you think you know who it was, let us know.

661
00:39:13,719 --> 00:39:17,320
Speaker 1: The writers certainly made their mark. The Children's Aid Society

662
00:39:17,560 --> 00:39:21,919
Speaker 1: estimates that there are over two million Orphan trained descendants

663
00:39:22,080 --> 00:39:22,960
Speaker 1: alive today.

664
00:39:23,640 --> 00:39:26,200
Speaker 9: Yeah, they helped shape America, but.

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00:39:26,239 --> 00:39:29,400
Speaker 1: On a personal level, the trains meant something different to

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00:39:29,480 --> 00:39:33,440
Speaker 1: each child who rode them. For Anna Fuchs, it was

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00:39:33,480 --> 00:39:36,560
Speaker 1: the best possible solution to a terrible situation.

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00:39:37,200 --> 00:39:40,480
Speaker 4: It took a lot of kids off of the streets

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00:39:40,480 --> 00:39:44,719
Speaker 4: of New York who might have become prostitutes and beggars

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00:39:44,760 --> 00:39:47,799
Speaker 4: and thieves and gave them another chance of life for.

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00:39:47,800 --> 00:39:51,960
Speaker 1: Her sister Margaret. Though its benefits couldn't justify the pain

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00:39:52,040 --> 00:39:54,040
Speaker 1: it caused for that time.

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00:39:54,200 --> 00:39:56,799
Speaker 12: I guess it was as good as anything. It was

674
00:39:56,960 --> 00:39:59,759
Speaker 12: all it was, but I certainly can't go along with it.

675
00:40:00,400 --> 00:40:04,000
Speaker 12: I feel that the idea of taking children and having

676
00:40:04,080 --> 00:40:07,080
Speaker 12: them lose all contact with any of the relatives I

677
00:40:07,120 --> 00:40:07,880
Speaker 12: think is wrong.

678
00:40:08,400 --> 00:40:12,040
Speaker 1: And Harrison never let the inauspicious start to her life

679
00:40:12,160 --> 00:40:13,040
Speaker 1: slow her down.

680
00:40:13,239 --> 00:40:15,640
Speaker 5: I've had a good life, you think so.

681
00:40:16,160 --> 00:40:22,279
Speaker 14: Yes, I just took opportunities when they came, and when

682
00:40:22,320 --> 00:40:26,160
Speaker 14: I couldn't find the opportunities, I lived with what was there.

683
00:40:27,920 --> 00:40:31,319
Speaker 1: But it's Renee Wendinger's perspective that will stick with me

684
00:40:31,480 --> 00:40:32,200
Speaker 1: the longest.

685
00:40:33,040 --> 00:40:37,840
Speaker 10: I am a grandmother, and every time my grandchildren have

686
00:40:37,960 --> 00:40:41,480
Speaker 10: turned the age of two, I look at them and

687
00:40:41,520 --> 00:40:46,120
Speaker 10: I think, oh, my gosh, this is what my mother

688
00:40:46,320 --> 00:40:49,359
Speaker 10: would have looked like when she boarded that train at

689
00:40:49,400 --> 00:40:55,440
Speaker 10: Grand Central terminal. And I really cannot imagine that little

690
00:40:55,719 --> 00:40:59,640
Speaker 10: child getting on a train to somewhere to know where.

691
00:41:00,040 --> 00:41:03,040
Speaker 11: I have no idea what my life is going to

692
00:41:03,040 --> 00:41:03,400
Speaker 11: be like.

693
00:41:05,080 --> 00:41:09,640
Speaker 1: Wow, and two year olds is so vulnerable.

694
00:41:09,440 --> 00:41:14,080
Speaker 10: Absolutely so vulnerable, it hits your heart. You know, I

695
00:41:14,120 --> 00:41:16,759
Speaker 10: don't know anyone that does not have a heart for

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00:41:17,000 --> 00:41:24,240
Speaker 10: any child.

697
00:41:26,560 --> 00:41:30,560
Speaker 1: An update since we first posted this episode in December

698
00:41:30,600 --> 00:41:34,799
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, we learned that Beatrice Voytech passed away at

699
00:41:34,800 --> 00:41:38,160
Speaker 1: the age of one hundred. Her local newspaper wrote that

700
00:41:38,719 --> 00:41:42,280
Speaker 1: Beatrice started life in New York City, but an orphan

701
00:41:42,360 --> 00:41:44,960
Speaker 1: train ride was in her future to take her to

702
00:41:45,040 --> 00:41:49,160
Speaker 1: East Bernard, where she lived all her life. I am

703
00:41:49,239 --> 00:41:52,000
Speaker 1: so grateful that I had the chance to meet her

704
00:41:52,040 --> 00:41:55,600
Speaker 1: that day in Texas and to learn her remarkable story.

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00:41:58,239 --> 00:42:01,239
Speaker 1: Mobits will be back next week with the story of

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00:42:01,719 --> 00:42:06,080
Speaker 1: legendary comic Lwanda Page. You may know her best as

707
00:42:06,080 --> 00:42:09,000
Speaker 1: the hilarious aunt esther on Sanford and Son.

708
00:42:09,560 --> 00:42:12,239
Speaker 5: You are evil heathen.

709
00:42:13,640 --> 00:42:16,600
Speaker 1: And one of these days the Lord is gonna strike

710
00:42:16,680 --> 00:42:17,440
Speaker 1: you down.

711
00:42:18,040 --> 00:42:20,719
Speaker 13: If he ever decide to get his hands dirty.

712
00:42:22,280 --> 00:42:25,400
Speaker 1: But Page was much more than a secondary character on

713
00:42:25,440 --> 00:42:29,839
Speaker 1: a sitcom. A queen of comedy. She remains an inspiration

714
00:42:29,960 --> 00:42:34,520
Speaker 1: to comedians including Whoopy Goldberg. She as funny as hell,

715
00:42:35,440 --> 00:42:38,359
Speaker 1: Yeah you know, and black women. They will tear you up.

716
00:42:38,840 --> 00:42:40,680
Speaker 1: They will tear you up, they will talk about it,

717
00:42:40,719 --> 00:42:44,799
Speaker 1: they will tell you about yourself. I certainly hope you

718
00:42:44,920 --> 00:42:48,640
Speaker 1: enjoyed this mobituary, Nah ask you to please rate and

719
00:42:48,680 --> 00:42:52,640
Speaker 1: review our podcast. You can also follow Mobituaries on Facebook

720
00:42:52,719 --> 00:42:56,000
Speaker 1: and Instagram, and you can follow me Morocca on Twitter

721
00:42:56,239 --> 00:42:59,800
Speaker 1: at Morocca. For more great content about the Orphan Trains,

722
00:43:00,000 --> 00:43:04,080
Speaker 1: please visit mobituaries dot com. You can subscribe to Mobituaries

723
00:43:04,120 --> 00:43:08,200
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts. This episode of Mobituaries was

724
00:43:08,200 --> 00:43:11,840
Speaker 1: produced by Harry Wood and Gideon Evans. Our team of

725
00:43:11,880 --> 00:43:16,160
Speaker 1: producers also includes Megan Marcus and me Moroka. It was

726
00:43:16,360 --> 00:43:21,080
Speaker 1: edited by Harry Wood and engineered by Dan Dezzula. Indispensable

727
00:43:21,080 --> 00:43:26,520
Speaker 1: support from Genius Denesky, Kate mccauliffe, Sam Egan, Renee Wendinger,

728
00:43:26,800 --> 00:43:31,840
Speaker 1: Shelley George, Jason Sakka, Alberto Robina, Richard Roher, and everyone

729
00:43:31,920 --> 00:43:35,319
Speaker 1: at CBS News Radio. Thank you to the New York

730
00:43:35,400 --> 00:43:37,760
Speaker 1: Daily News for letting me join you for your one

731
00:43:37,840 --> 00:43:41,440
Speaker 1: hundredth anniversary celebration, and to the New York Foundling for

732
00:43:41,560 --> 00:43:44,840
Speaker 1: welcoming us to your one hundred and fiftieth anniversary, not

733
00:43:44,960 --> 00:43:48,839
Speaker 1: that it's a competition. Thanks also to CBS News correspondent

734
00:43:49,040 --> 00:43:52,440
Speaker 1: Bob McNamara for his two thousand and two interview of

735
00:43:52,560 --> 00:43:56,440
Speaker 1: Ann Harrison. We'd like to thank Greg mark Way, the

736
00:43:56,480 --> 00:44:00,520
Speaker 1: families of Anna and Margaret Fuchs and Anne Harrison, Beatrice

737
00:44:00,560 --> 00:44:04,200
Speaker 1: Voytek and her family, and Linda Fomer, the orphan trained

738
00:44:04,200 --> 00:44:08,360
Speaker 1: descendant and researcher who connected us to Beatrice. Special thanks

739
00:44:08,400 --> 00:44:12,480
Speaker 1: to our bold, budding young historians from National History Day,

740
00:44:12,840 --> 00:44:17,839
Speaker 1: Addie Skilling, Tucker Olshaby, Jacob Reid, Evelyn Carpenter, Katie Merrikovitz,

741
00:44:18,040 --> 00:44:22,680
Speaker 1: Jack Anderson, Jader Briggs, Megan swankat Daytona Foley Logan Smith,

742
00:44:22,840 --> 00:44:27,080
Speaker 1: and of course Claire Isaacson and her mom Joy. Our

743
00:44:27,160 --> 00:44:30,400
Speaker 1: theme music is written by Daniel Hart and, as always,

744
00:44:30,840 --> 00:44:34,920
Speaker 1: undying thanks to Rand Morrison and John carp without whom

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00:44:35,160 --> 00:44:36,879
Speaker 1: mobituaries couldn't live