Archive
Orphan Trains of Illinois
The Orphan Trains placed children from the Eastern United States on farms in the Midwest States from 1851 until 1929. Click on the rectangle in the top right hand corner of the map to view the map full screen and larger photos. Click on the map tags to read about orphans placed in different locations. Letters are from the annual reports of the New York Juvenile Asylum. The year of each report is referenced in the tag. Search by orphan name in the full screen mode.
Children Found
Finding the children is a painstaking task. Since I have no known connection to any orphan train rider, I tend to search for children who have distinctive names.
Herman O. Makey (1885 - 1979):
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Herman O Makey was sent to Edgar, Illinois according to a letter written by Miss Sommerville in 1897, with whom he lived. He became a part of the Sommerville household, a family of an unmarried brother, James Sommerville and his three unmarried sisters. James was a farmer and his task was to teach Herman farming. His entry of Rome Beauty apples and tomatoes won Herman 2nd prize for both at the Illinois State fair in 1904. James Sommerville won the first prize for the apple category. (Transactions of the Dept of Agriculture of the St. of Illinois, 1904)
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Herman went to school and even completed three years at DePauw University (1940 census and graduation list of June 1914). He worked for a time as an office manager for a wholesale grocery (1920 census and featured article) but later became a teacher (1930 & 1940 censuses). He married Daisy Stauch in 1915 and had six children with her.
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At the Richmond High School in Indiana, Herman coached the debate team. He wrote a book: "Wendell Wilkie of Elwood" and wrote articles for educational journals about the teaching of reading. He wrote fiction for the Richmond Item. The article to the right is from the Richmond Palladium, May 24, 1923.
Samuel L. Robb
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Samuel L. Robb (1867 - 1939) was sent to China, Lee County, Illinois some time before 1878 and wrote a letter to the Asylum in 1878 reporting on his status. He was living with the Pankhurst family on a farm. In 1920 Samuel was working as a tool and die maker in Detroit. He married there but died in Ottawa, IL.
The Pankhursts were immigrants from England and apparently had a habit of taking in young people. In the 1880 census Samuel was the only child living with them, and was noted to be their "adopted son." In 1900 the Pankhursts claimed one natural daughter and two adopted sons, both of whom were born in Illinois. James and Leslie Lawrence were legally adopted in 1898, after the death of their mother. Their father was the brother of Mrs. Pankhurst. Most puzzling was the appearance of a Williamana Lawrence a 59 year old "house servant." Mrs. Pankhurst's maiden name was Lawrence.
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In 1915 the Pankhursts mounted a campaign to find a young woman who would care for them in their old age. They promised to pay the woman $10,000 if she would come live with them until their deaths. The contest was widely advertised and was administered by a Chicago newspaper. A series of young women came and went, but it was Mary Brackus an immigrant from Croatia or Serbia (the 1920 census is unclear) who spent nearly ten years looking after the Pankhursts (and Anna Lawrence, Mrs. Pankhurst's mother). But Mr. Pankhurst was cheated of his lifetime care when Mary Brackus fell ill and died 8 months after Mrs. Pankhurst died. He lived another 5 years with two servants in the home.
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After Mr. Pankhurst's death in 1930 a woman from Minnesota brought a suit against his estate, alleging that she had worked in the Pankhurst home and that Mr. Pankhurst had subjected her to unwanted sexual attentions and had promised her $10,000 in his will.
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Josephine Fren
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Josephine Fren's letter appears in the 1901 report of the NYJA and does not indicate where she was sent. Her name was found with the Martin H. Crider family of Otter Creek, Lasalle County, IL in the 1880 census. Josephine was just 7 years old and was listed as the adopted daughter of the family. Her birth parents were noted as being born in Turkey. The Crider's had two grown children living with them at the time, as well as three non family members who were working on the farm. In 1910 Mrs. Crider was widowed and lived in her home with one daughter and a 16 year old girl named Marjorie Frelun whose parents were from France and Syria.
John Lauffer
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John Lauffer came West around 1896 and lived with Erastus Bates of Lincoln, IL. He lived with the Bates at least until he was 26 years old in 1910. He married sometime between 1920 and 1922 to Clara Whitson. They had one daughter and John worked as an electrician. When Mrs. Bates died in 1925 John was remembered in her will.
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John's sister Annie was also living in Lincoln, but no trace of her life there remains.
Percy Quimby 1876 - ?
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Percy Quimby wrote in 1895 that he planned to be an electrician. The 1900 census shows him living in the home of an older brother, Calvin Quimby, in New York, working as an electrician.
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Another brother, Herbert Quimby, was placed a few hundred miles from Maroa, in Burnside, Hancock County, Illinois. No trace could be found of Herbert.
Henry Jucker (1889 - 1919)
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The report of 1904 places Henry Jucker in Vermont, IL and ten years earlier another boy in the same place with Wellington Kennedy. The 1900 census shows that Anna Jucker and Henry Jucker were placed with Wellington Kennedy ten years later.
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Henry Jucker went on to become the acting editor with the Canton Ledger (Fulton County) and a newspaper reporter (WWI draft card). He married Flossie Jennings before 1910, but died in 1919.
Mabel Jordan (1873 - ?)
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Mabel Jordan came west in 1891 and was placed in Ashton, Lee County. She does not appear in any census until 1910, when she was working as a dressmaker in Ashton and living as the boarder of an elderly couple, George and Abbie Brewer.
Compton, Lee County
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Paul Kunz (1881-?) -- Placed in Lee County in 1894 -- working as farm laborer on Clayton Bowers farm in Ashton, Lee County in 1910.
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Peter Snyder (1881- ?) Placed in Lee County in 1891 -- working in dairy in 1920 and married to Esther Singer. During WWII he was living in Dixon, IL and still working for the dairy.
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Annie Schellhaas (1884 - ?) Placed in Lee County in 1898. Annie appears in the census as housekeeper for the Guthries, an elderly couple.
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Herman Sanders (1885 - ?) Placed in Lee County in 1898. He was also an employee of the Guthries. He was unmarried when he registered for the draft in WWI and was working as a farm hand for Tillots in Pine Back, Ogle County. He married in 1919 in Ogle County to Mary Leslie. They had one daughter, Leslie Sanders. He had eventually attended college for 4 years and was working as a salesman in 1940. (1940 census)
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Anthony Morek (1878 - ?) Anthony was placed in Tampico in 1890 with a farmer named Keefe, but by 1900 he was boarding in a large boarding house and working as a day laborer on a canal in Whiteside County.
Samuel Ross Tomlinson (1882 - ?) Ross was placed in Derinda, IL in 1894. The 1900 census places him with the Randecker family, which came from Germany. As Ross indicated in his letter, he had to learn German while living in the house. Randeckers also had an adopted daughter of German descent who was born in New Jersey. Ross filed for Social Security in 1937 and listed his parents as: Edgar M. Tomlinson and Jennie Collins. When he registered for the draft in WWI Ross had returned to Queens, New York and made his home there.
John J. Lynch (1865 - 1919) John was placed in Forreston, IL in 1877 with the Denth family, with whom he appears in the 1880 census as a farm laborer. He married Ana Lang in 1891. He appeared again in the census in 1900 with his wife and children: John, Frederick, Sophia, Anna and George. His parents are noted on his wedding license: Cornelius Lynch and Johanna Dohlan. His parents were from Ireland.
John Paddock -- the article to the left appeared in the Dixon Evening Telegraph on September 6, 1906.
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John Paddock was a plow fitter, but in 1930 he and his wife moved to South Beloit in Winnebago County where he was foreman in a refrigeration plant. He and his wife had one child, Wesley Paddock.
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William Paddock was married to Lulu, who divorced him in 1910. Another announcement in March, 1912 in the Dixon paper indicated he was moving to Brandon, Iowa with his wife.
William A. Guptill (1867 - 1941) William Guptill does not appear in the census until after his marriage to Susan and the birth of two of they children, Margaret and Minetta (1900 census). In 1910 he had yet another daughter, Ruth. They lived in South Dixon and farmed there. William's death notice names Aaron Guptill and Katie Cavanaugh as his parents.
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Vernon Guptill (of the attached July 10, 1930 notice in the Dixon Evening Telegraph) was the son of John Guptill (1866 - 1939) who had also been born in New York and lived in Dixon, Illinois before moving to Los Angeles, California. His children were Earl, Vernon and Lucile.
Charlotte Goodman 1880 - ?
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Charlotte Goodman was sent to live with a Miss Hutchin in Kenney, IL. In 1898 charlotte was 18 and married Milton B. Glazebrook, a local pharmacist. After marrying they lived in Decatur and St. Louis and had one daughter. No date or place of birth could be found for Charlotte. Her daughter was Vera Glazebrook Kennery, born 1899.