What an exciting summer we’ve had at the National Orphan Train Complex (NOTC)! We’ve shared this unique history with more than 2200 visitors through July of 2025. The history has also been shared with countless other citizens through our traveling exhibit, “All Aboard the Orphan Train.” It has traveled to Crete, Illinois; Osborne, Hill City, Wellington, and Columbus, Kansas. Soon it will open in Ashland, Kansas, before traveling on to Marion and Burlington, Kansas. It will also be available to share the Orphan Train story in Vinton, Iowa, this year. This excitement continues! The exhibit is currently booking for 2026, where it will travel to locations in Missouri and Kansas. Only a few openings remain for 2026.
One thing our readers may not be aware of is that the staff at NOTC conducts a free database name search for anyone seeking to find information about an ancestor who may have ridden the Orphan Train. We have just over 8000 files of known Orphan Train Riders, so when a request comes in, the odds of a file existing are usually not very good. So far in 2025, several hundreds of these requests have been received and processed. It is always exciting when a file does already exists, and it is then copied and mailed to the requester. Sometimes the request leads to a request for full-blown research.
NOTC has also been the recipient of a number of artifacts this year. A previous article shared the donation by Renee Wendinger of several garments and button-up shoes worn by two Orphan Train Riders. In August, we also received a thumb drive recording of the granddaughter of John Joseph Lynch relating his ride to Forreston, Illinois, in the late 1800s. This recording will eventually be part of an exhibit about Lynch.
On Monday of last week, visitors from Olathe, Kansas, brought the framed portrait of Martin Thomas Armstrong. Martin was born November 30, 1869, in Brooklyn, New York, to Thomas and Margaret Armstrong. He had several siblings, one of whom was Peter, who also was on the Orphan Train.
When their mother died, both Martin and Peter were placed in the New York Children’s Asylum. From there, the boys rode a New York Juvenile Asylum (NYJA) Orphan Train to Champaign, Illinois, and then onto Kankakee. The train left on Monday, April 14, 1879, via the Erie Railroad in Jersey City, New Jersey. They likely were accompanied by the Western Indenturing Agent Ebenezer Wright, who handled placements in Illinois.
Once the train reached Champaign on Thursday, April 17, the children were taken to the Doane House Hotel for the placement procedures. The Doane House was a three-story, square building built in 1856, thirty-four feet from the ICRR tracks, and served as a hotel and ticket office/depot for Illinois Central passengers for forty-two years. The Doane House served as a gathering place for residents and visitors alike; it hosted church services, social events, and political discourses.
Peter was placed with the James Barnett family who lived in Chebanse, Illinois. He was 11 years old. Martin was 9 years old and went to live with Isaiah McLane in Gardner, Illinois.
As you may already know from previous articles about Orphan Train placements, the children and new families were requested to correspond with the placing agencies. Martin and Peter both wrote back to the NYJA.
Martin Armstrong, age 19:
“I am still in my home where you placed me. I do not see how my home could be any better. I am well satisfied. I was ten years old when I came West and am nineteen now. I have always been in good health since I came West. I think it would be far better for the Asylum children to come West than to stay in the city, and I think twenty-one is soon enough for boys to leave their homes. I intend to stay until I am of age.
I am the owner of two head of horses. I think that is better than some boys can do by leaving their homes at eighteen. I have got a brother in Nebraska, and we correspond often, and he is getting along nicely.
I have never longed to go back East yet, although I have many friends in the city. I shall never live in the City of New York again. My guardian keeps a large amount of stock, and farms two hundred and forty acres of land. I attend church often and also attend day-school in the winter. I will send you my photograph with this letter.”
Peter Armstrong, age 18:
“I am still in the home where you placed me, and I am doing well. The family are all kind to me, and I think a great deal of my home. I have been in it six years, and I agree with you that it is not the money we get, but it is to have a home with good people, that is worth the most to the Asylum boys.
We have moved to Kansas, and I am living on a farm three miles from town. My brother is a long way from me now, but we correspond often. I have relatives in New York City, and I may go and see them sometime, but I shall never live there again.
James Houston, who came out in my company, is living only fifty miles from me, and he made me a visit last week. I thank you for getting me so good a home, and I hope you will do as well for all the other boys. I go to church often, and shall attend day-school this winter.”
James Barnett, guardian of Peter Armstrong:
“Peter was of age (21) last June, and is at this time in Nebraska, but is soon going to Colorado with sheep. He writes that he will be home about the first of February. He has connected himself with the Christian Church, and I think he will prove a faithful member.
He has always been a very good boy, and I hope will make a good man. He is upright and industrious, and I shall always use my influence to keep him so. Our crops were short, and I could not pay him as much as he could get where he now is, and I advised him to go there.”
These letters were entered into record books at the New York Juvenile Asylum when they were received. Someone from the NYJA would have responded as well; unless the Rider saved those responses, they are now lost to history.
Martin married Tempie May Meyers and together they raised seven children. He remained in the Kankakee, Illinois, area for the rest of his life, dying there in July of 1929. Peter married Martha Ann Knight in Beloit, Kansas. They had four children, and later moved to Troy, Kansas, and then on to Iowa. He died April, 1916, after an accident while driving a team hauling a disk harrow. The team ran away, pulling the harrow onto him.
Information in this article is based on research by Clark Kidder, descendant and Orphan Train historian from Wisconsin, and Sr. Linda Davis, who volunteers at NOTC conducting research.
It was a joy to visit with Cheryl Carpenter-Davis, the great-granddaughter of Martin, when she and her husband came to NOTC to donate the beautiful framed portrait of Martin. It will be used as part of future exhibits such as one about the New York Juvenile Asylum, and of the stories of Martin and Peter Armstrong.
As summer winds down, the staff and volunteers at NOTC look forward to the fall tourism season. It tends to be a little slower, but is always exciting regardless.
