Organized by reformers in the Eastern United States, the program swept children westward in an attempt to both remove them from the squalor and poverty of the city and help provide labor for farms out west. Between 1854 and 1929, up to 200,000 children were placed on the trains and adopted by new families.

On Sunday April 25, 2021 Beatrice Flanagan Polak Fojtik will celebrate a century of life at the Arbor Hills Healthcare Center in Eagle Lake, Texas with her children at her side. Beatrice' life is of national significance, as she is the last known living Orphan Train Rider in the US.

Orphan Train is a work of fiction, however it touches on the real-life stories of those who rode the trains between 1854 and 1929, when more than 200,000 orphaned, abandoned, and homeless children were transported from eastern United States to the Midwest for adoption.

The children were being sold and used like slaves. Placing organizations did not care what happened to children after they were placed, and did not check in on them to make sure they were properly cared for.