The "The Train Stops Here! - Part II" Story

It was an ordinary day.  My story today is a follow-up to yesterday's story about the Orphan Trains that ran the rails from 1854 to 1929 delivering orphan children to new homes throughout a few eastern cities and the Mid-West.  In 1953 the United States began surveying railroad lines to the Pacific.  Posters, flyers and advertisements were sent to Europe telling of the virtues of coming to America to get "free land."  Soon millions arrived on the shores of America, many with children they could not support.  Many children became orphans due to the situation, thus the need for the Orphan Trains that would take children from the east coast to points west.  I have read story after story of many of those children and what became of them.  Some stories were heartbreaking while others were inspiring.  Today I will re-tell a few of those stories so you can see what happened to those children who were orphaned and placed on the Orphan Trains, taking them to families they knew nothing about and who may or may not have their best interests in mind.  Can you imagine being a young boy or girl who was abandoned by their parents and sent by train to a new town miles away to never see mom and dad ever again.  Many didn't fare well, while others not only survived, but thrived in their new settings.

Charles Frederick
This little boy stepped off the Orphan Train in Rockford, Illinois with just the clothes he had on his back.  He spoke only German, but he had a card pinned on his jacket displaying his name and his age as 6 years old.  By day's end he was loaded into a covered wagon with other children who had been shipped west with him from New York City.  The orphan children were headed to Durand, Illinois where they would be parceled out to farm families.  

Charles Frederick

These children were no more than indentured workers.  Some of these kids were lucky and "given" to families who adopted them and treated them with love.  Charles was not one of those lucky few.  To his adopting family he was no more than someone to work on the farm.  Years later, Charles' son Franklyn told his dad's story to the world.  Charles went to the Lennons, a family that had come from Ireland in the 1850s and farmed 160 acres north of Durand.  The boy worked hard and attended a one-room school off and on for four years.  Frederick said his father never felt loved by the Lennons.  When Charles was 17 he ran away and ended up working for farmers around Shirland and Harrison and later to Rockford.  He married in 1911 and two years later moved to a house in Loves Park where he lived for 47 years.  His first job was at a tannery; later working for a lumber company.  In 1960 he and his wife moved to California.  He died at the age of 80 in 1962.  Charles may have been mistreated, malnourished and overworked, but his son never heard him talk about that.  Some children on the Orphan Trains must have certainly been abused, but it is estimated that half those orphans that were relocated lived a good life.

Paul Young
This story doesn't seem to start so good since Paul Young arrived in Clyde, Kansas on Friday, October 13, 1911.  Paul arrived from the east with 15 other children and adult placement agents B.W. Nice and Anna Laura Hill.  

Paul Young Clithero

The two adults were to arrange for good homes for the children.  Paul was "the tiniest little lad of 2 years with the auburn hair and the freckled nose."  Boyd and Louise Clithero of Concordia had motored to Clyde to attend the placement meeting and returned home with little Paul.  The family owned a grocery store in Concordia and gave Paul their family name and from that time was known as Paul Clithero.  Paul lived next to little Norman Lewis and they became best friends.  But, a year later Boyd, Louise and Paul moved to another part of town.  Paul was heartbroken, but he still got to see Norman from time to time.  He eventually attended Concordia High School and performed vocal solos for area clubs.   Paul and Norman's biggest adventure together was in 1927 when they decided to head down a local river in a canoe.  The canoe hit something in the river and sank.  They swam to shore and made it safely back to Clyde. Paul eventually served in the US Navy.  He never married and died in Leavenworth, Kansas on July 5, 1963.  He is buried in National Cemetery in Leavenworth.

Alice Bullis Ayler
One of the last three children to ride on one of the "Orphan Trains" in 1854 was eleven year-old Alice Bullis Ayler.  During the 1920s the citizens of New York City were enjoying the Jazz Age while an estimated 30,000 homeless children were wandering the streets, begging, eating out of garbage cans and sleeping in the alleys.  Alice, a resident of Oklahoma City recalled that she was orphaned at the age of nine.  Prior to that she and her mother and siblings were living in a tent in an upstate New York forest, surviving on "green water and berries."  

Alice Bullis Ayler (top right) and her family.

Alice was the oldest of five who had a younger sister sho suffered serious mental damage from successive bouts of whooping cough and diphtheria.  Alice's nickname was Toots, but her twin sister couldn't pronounce that name so they called her "Choo Choo!"  Her siblings were eventually sent to a home near the Empire State Building while she went to the Goodhue Estate on Staten Island.  She can still recall her siblings pleading..."Don't go away, Choo Choo!"  The Goodhue Estate treated her well and she was able to attend school.  A year or so later she was placed on an Orphan Train headed to Kansas.  The Stock Market crash had occurred the year before and the drought that would produce the Dust Bowl was just beginning.  She seemed to be caught in the middle...too old to be adopted, but not old enough to be on her own.  She was moved from family to family as a "hired hand without pay."  At the age of 17 she went to work for J.C. Penney and moved out on her own.  She married her high school sweetheart when she was 20.  They moved to Oklahoma City in 1950.  She had a son, but adopted a daughter to give her the love she never had as a child.  Her daughter Ann enrolled at the University of Central Oklahoma, but seemed to be so unhappy.  Alice tried her best to help her by reading psychology books, talking to doctors and trying to figure out some way to help her.  Sadly Ann died at the age of 39.  One of Ann's doctors told Alice she should enroll in college to complete the work she was hoping her daughter would one day accomplish.  In 1973, she completed work on a BA and then a Master's degree in education in 1977.  The worked for the Oklahoma City schools for several years.  She said her home was like a halfway house during her years in college and in public education.  She often talks about her experiences on the Orphan Train.  Only a few hundred remain with some still searching for family ties and seeking answers to the inevitable question "why"?  

By reading more I found that Alice has recently died.  She was one of many survivors of the Orphan Trains who made a success of their life.  I'm sure that when the program was developed in the United States it was meant to be a solution for homelessness, but didn't seem to turn out that way for many caught in its web.  Life isn't always easy, but at least I was blessed with a mother and father who loved me.  I was more fortunate than many who rode the Orphan Trains years ago. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.