One question we often are asked by visitors to the National Orphan Train Complex is, “How many Orphan Train Riders actually came to Concordia?” That’s a great question and today we’ll answer it. There are two categories of Orphan Train Riders to Concordia: First, the children who came into town on the train. The second is people who were Orphan Train Riders to other locations, but chose to make Concordia, Kansas, their home. Let’s focus on actual Orphan Train Riders to Concordia.
Three Orphan Trains bought children to Concordia. The Children’s Aid Society (CAS) sent these companies of children with Rev. James Mathews in charge. Rev. Mathews was NOT an ideal agent and was the ONLY agent to be fired, in 1885. He did not adhere to the procedures the CAS had set for the safe placement of their children. His record keeping was lackadaisical at best. Matthews appeared to give kids away willy nilly. If the trains stopped for water and coal, he’d get the kids off (not ordinarily done) and while they were standing on the platform, if someone expressed interest, he’d send that child off with them. He did not bother to set up a placement, he just gave the kids away at the Depot. That is what happed with the children in Concordia. The trains were set up to bring children to Wayne, Kansas, in Republic County. Rev. Mathews distributed children all along the trip and the ones who weren’t placed in Wayne rode the train on to Concordia, which was the end of that rail line. He placed the children out with new families at the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad Depot; the train was turned around at the round house, and Rev. Mathews was on his way back to New York.
The children that were distributed in Concordia were all older, from 12 to up to 20 years old. Older children were less likely to stay where they were placed. Most had already been fending for themselves for some time and a small town like Concordia probably did not hold a lot of interest to them. The 1885 census was taken on the first of March and some of those from the first two trains had already departed the area. I tried to find these kids but they all had very common names. The biggest glitch locating them was the 1921 fire that destroyed the 1890 census. Kansas does have the advantage of agricultural censuses in 1885 and 1895, but for children on the move such as these, that ten years is not a gap but a chasm.
From the company lists of those three trains, I plucked out the ones that had other towns written beside the names of the folks who took the kids. That left me with the following children that I think came as far as Concordia.
January 10, 1885: Mary O’Brien (18), Eugene Schlessinger (15)
February 21, 1885: George Baldwin (14), Charles Bellows (12), Martin Christie (12), Charles Gilbert (20), Frank Haynes (11), William O’Brien (15), John R. Stryker (13), Francis Traynor (16), Charles J. Weiss (16).
April 4, 1885: John Flock (17), Santo Price (17).
Children placed out by the CAS were encouraged to write letters back to the Society. The Society published Annual Reports detailing placements and many times, these letters. The 1885 Annual Report contains letters from Concordia! One letter was from George Baldwin and the other was from James H. Smith, who did not appear on any of the company lists. Again, this lack of information is due to the poor record keeping by Rev. Mathews. Both boys seemed satisfied with life on the prairie and wanted the boys in New York to know that Kansas was a pretty good place to settle. James even wrote twice.
So, for the visitors to the Complex who ask, I have settled on 15 as the number of Orphan Train Riders who arrived in Concordia, Kansas, aboard an Orphan Train. Am I right or wrong? We may never know for sure. But with the sparse facts I have available to me, that is what I can come up with.
