Orphan Trains of Illinois

James Robertson was born in New York in 1845 and was brought to Illinois on the Orphan Train when he was 14. He was indentured on 15 Sept...

Robert C. Chinery was sent West in 1869, at the age of 13. He wrote a comprehensive history of his life in 1892 and sent it to the Asylum. Robert first lived with Gilbert Ives, a farmer near New Boston, Mercer County. He recalled that he had become impatient with his indenture and that Mr. Ives released him from the indenture and hired him for wages. Robert stayed for five years working for wages with Mr. Ives and then took his savings West to try his luck. He admitted spent

Like so many of the OTRs, Thomas was not an orphan, but he came from the New York Juvenile Asylum with a group of 15 children to Fulton,...

Annie Donovan (1878 - 1942) was sent West in 1891 to Knox County. She wrote to the Asylum in 1893 and was living with Ira Hall, an...

Like so many of the orphan train riders, Margaret Allison made a very faint impression in recorded history. The 1877 Annual Report...

The only mention of James Carroll in the Annual Reports is in the 1868 report when the indenturing agent, Mr. H D Perry was writing a...

Andrew Petry (1860 - 1944) and Henry (1863 - 1928) were sent West in 1874. Andrew was first assigned to the Briggs family, but by 1880...