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.

Some of them were passenger trains, and in the 1880s, one carried a group of unaccompanied children from New York. It stopped in nearby Wayne, Kansas, where strangers were waiting to choose the children.

Libraries, Archives, and Museums Local libraries, archives, historical societies, and museums often keep records of local newspapers, photographs, or other items to help you learn more about your orphan train rider.

Therefore, he arranged to send the orphaned children to pioneer families. The Orphan Trains and the practice of “placing children out” into homes that would accept them was the precursor to the modern foster care system in the United States. A quarter million children rode the orphan trains from 1854 to 1929.