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.