In front of State Farm at Sixth and Broadway in Concordia, the Orphan Train Town, there is a bench with a boy and a girl, lost in each other. This statue was purchased by the Waters family in memory of their parents, Keith and Fern Waters. The family requested an Orphan Train couple – two children who’d been riders. At that time, I didn’t have such a couple, so I went with something close.
Michalena Birraglio was born in Italy on the 8th of May, 1890. We have been unable to find when the Birraglio family immigrated. Michalena’s father Joseph passed away and her mother Marie remarried. The placement agent in charge of Michalena’s placement and well-being stated that the new husband was “worthless.”
Michalena had been placed in two or three homes in New York but none had worked out. She was then temporarily placed in an orphanage in Utica, New York. When Rev. H.D. Clarke, placement agent, found her a home in Dunlap, Iowa, he stated that she was a “most splendid girl of sixteen.” He placed her with Mrs. Sarah Nelson, who was a widow living on a farm with three of her sons. Her oldest son Sam ran the farm. Albert and Asher were her youngest, 14 and 11 years older than Michalena, respectively. Sarah took Lena under her wing. Michalena took the name Lena Nelson and settled in nicely in the Nelson home.
A few years later, her birth mother came with Lena’s little brother, and offered Lena $200 if she would go with her. Lena adamantly refused to leave Mrs. Nelson, who she called “Grandma.” Rev. Clarke said he’d never seen a child as faithful to her foster mother as Lena.
Lena quickly learned all she could on the farm. She became an expert in blooded poultry and cattle. “Grandma” Nelson gave Lena some stock and poultry for her own, and Lena saved money she made with the livestock. She bought Liberty bonds and opened an account at the Dunlap bank. She belonged to a lodge and was a leader of society in Dunlap. When Lena came of age, she continued living with the Nelsons. It was still mother Sarah, Sam, Albert, and Lena. But there may have been another reason why she didn’t leave; Albert and Lena were in love.
On August 18, 1923, thirty-three-year-old Lena married her foster brother Albert Nelson, who was forty-seven. Just over one year later, on the 22nd of November 1924, Lena Nelson died in childbirth. The child was a healthy baby boy that Albert named Kenyon. Albert remained in contact with Rev. Clarke for many years and Rev. Clarke stated that he “worships the boy as he did the mother.”
This beautiful statue is in memory of two loving couples, Michalena and Albert Nelson, and Keith and Fern Waters.
