Life in the Five Points

"How did they live in Five Points?" asked Gary Wills, one of America's finest journalists, in his article, "Salvage Archeology in Lower Manhattan." (Washington Post, Dec.29, 1991) The answer was, "Nastily, brutishly and often briefly. When after the 1832 cholera epidemic, the Mayor ordered the streets scraped of animal and human filth, a lady who had lived there all her life exclaimed, 'I never knew the strets were paved with stones.' In the 1849 epidemic, pigs rooting in the streets were, a report said, 'contaminated by the contact with children.' It was said that in death the victims continued the tenement system, buried six tiers deep."

Wills goes on to describe the conditions uncovered by "salvage archeology" at a construction site in lower Manhattan. "Most Five Points buildings, the rubble from which is now 15 to 20 feet below street level, contained a saloon. The police raided one in which 42 people were crammed in one small room, in the corner of which on a pile of dirty straw lay a woman just delivered of a child. Famous gangs like the Plug Uglies, Dead Rabbits and the Roach Guard fueled the riots of July 1863. They began as Draft riots, became race riots then turned to pillaging the rich."

The Orphan Train Era Moves into America's Consciousness

In America during a seventy five year period (1854-1929) over 400,000 homeless children were relocated by means of what were known as "orphan trains." Placing children to live with people other than their parents has gone on from the beginning of time. Known by various names, placing-out has come to be known as "foster care" today. The Orphan Train Riders were America's first documented foster children.

During my research on the formation of Happy Valley School I began to understand how life was in the teeming ghettos of New York City in the 1800's. Happy Valley School was an outgrowth of the work of the Five Points House of Industry, a private charitable foundation organized in the 1850's to relieve the terrible conditions of an area known as the Five Points District.

People poured into New York City from rural farms. Boatloads of immigrants crowded the docks and swams of peddlers hawked their wares in the city. The cacophony of languages was sweet music to the shrewd, enterprising denizens of lower Manhattan. Jobs were plentiful and acted as magnets to the poor. A man with grit, determination and imagination could succeed beyond his wildest dreams. The mansions lining Fifth Avenue acted as a beacon to able-bodied, aggressive men (and some women, too) whose vision and determination shaped our country to the powerhouse it is today.

This dynamic city had its dark side. Alcoholism, disease, poverty, and ruthlessness in pursuit of money scoured the underbelly of an economic giant. Street Arabs (the name given to homeless children) wandered the streets of the city in search of meager scraps of food and shelter. They engaged in gambling, drugs, prostitution, theft, and murder. Gangs roamed the streets of lower Manhattan. The Five Points area of lower Manhattan, long regarded as the toughest section in New York City, was recently featured in a major motion picture, "The Gangs of New York" starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

Acknowledgments

Meaningful art results from a collaboration among many individuals. I would like to thank Mary Ellen Johnson for encouraging me to tell the story of the orphan train riders and for making available the index of names found in the Books of Surrender I found in an old barn in Rockland County, NY. The unamed volunteers of the Orphan Train Heritage Society of America who put in hundreds of hours computerizing the historical information found in those boxes deserve my deepest gratitude.

I would like to thank Connie Dipascuale for a "Partial List of Institutions That Orphan Train Children Came From" that was listed on the "The Orphan Trains of Kansas" website. I thank Gary F. Wills, one of America's finest journalist for the use of material from a newspaper article on "Salvage Archeology in Lower Manhattan."

On Sunday, July 19, 1992, a very special gathering took place. People from many states and the greater New York area drove onto the grounds of the Crystal Run School in Pomona, New York for an alumni gathering that was the culmination of a labor of love. Haya Khoury, a New York City corporate lawyer and a Happy Valley School alumni had arranged the affair with the help of countless others so that a fitting goodbye could be said to a special place in time, the Happy Valley of our youth. In three months workers would be shaping the grounds into a new golf course.
As each car rode onto the ground, cries of recognition would go up and embraces and jokes revived long ago memories of the way we were. The transformation from homeless and neglected children had been complete. Now bankers, carpenters, designers, teachers, laborers, photographers, builders, postal workers and a lawyer talked animatedly about the days they shared as children. They gazed into each other's eyes searchingly for the child they remembered. Some had held up well to the years while others showed on their faces the struggle it took to be where they were today. All accepted each other with spontaneity and generosity. The Ashcrofts, Carneys, Khourys, Greys, Grippers, Rileys, Reineckes, Wenzes, Towles and Fiorelli and many others found warmth, nostalgia and joy in the company of each other.
We can never know how difficult it was to be an abandoned and neglected child in the the late 19th or early 20th Century. A close-knit family suddenly splintered by the death of a breadwinner, a loss of a job, addiction to alcohol, medical problems, imprisonment of a spouse or eviction from a tenement caused severe dislocation and nowhere to turn, as social safety nets were non-existent.
Today in fifteen states across America, Orphan Train Riders and their families meet and hold three day gatherings recalling those days of their youth. They held fast to the promise of America: that anyone can rise above his harsh and humble beginnings to become all he can, if he is willing to work hard enough to reach his dreams. The search for roots is universal. I hope my two books will aid others in putting branches on the family tree.

How my Interest in the Orphan Train Era came about

These 2 books were written as I was searching for informaton on Happy Valley School in Pomona, NY. I was asked if I would like to go through several boxes of uncatalogued records left to the Rockland County Historical Society by a childcare agency that had occupid the site where Happy Valley once stood. As I perused the records I realized they held a treasure trove of Americana comprising orphanage entrance entries and volume after volume of the periodical Advocate for Moral Reform published by the American Female Guardian Society. This magazine had a nationwide readership and recruited families as host for Charles Braces's Orphan Trains. The AFGS established th Home for the Friendless, which took in thousands of destitute (not necessarily orphaned) women and girls, and later, boys.

Having discovered the AFGS records, I became inexorably pulled into the stories of these homeless children. Happy Valley School had been a home for thousands of neglected children in the metropolitan area New York area from 1911 to 1972. I was on of 12 children when I was sent to Happy Valley School along with my three brothers and my sister. I imagine what orphan train chilren felt was somewhat similar to what I experienced as a homeless child about to be placed in a school that was to be my home for ten years. It shaped my character and saved our lives.

Briefly, the Happy Valley School connection with the AFGS goes like this: the AFGS merged with Greer Woodycrest Youth Services in 1965. In 1972 Happy Valley School merged with Woodycrest Youth Services and became known as Crystal Run School. After another merger in 1977 the school became Greer Wooycrest Childen;s Services. In 1991 it was purchased and was turned into a private golf course.

Orphan Train Era History

New York City in the 19th Century could be a brutal Place for a child. A magnet to immigrants and the poor in search of jobs, the city was also a haven for gamblers, thieves and murderers. When adults fell victim to alcoholism, prostitution or drug addiction, their children were the ones who suffered the most.
Temperance organizations such as the American Female Guardian Society stepped in, establishing orphanages and homes for unwed mothers and battered women: "homes for the friendless." Some of the children in the homes were orphans, but most were "surrendered" by parents unable to care for them. Nearly 400,000 of these children were fostered out to families across the United States via "orphan trains." Recently a number of Orphan Train Rider organizations have been formed, providing opportunities for the riders to reunite with famly and loved ones, and to seek sources that provide clues to their roots.
I accidently stumbled on to tens of thousands of these records stored in an old barn at the Rockland County Historical Museum and have published them in two books. The Orleans County Genealogical Society held an Orphan Train Reenactment in Medina, NY in 2004. The photos of that event can be found in my books. Since then the OCGS have purchased a train depot which is being turned into the first New York State Orphan Train Museum. Donations to renovate the museum are being sought by the OCGS.

introduction

Welcome to Tom Riley's orphan train riders blog. I am the author of "Orphan Train Riders" Volume 1 and 2.

Within this blog, I hope to increase awareness of the orphan train phenomena, as well as network with others interested in the history of the orphan train riders.

I welcome comments and queries!