Americanization and the Visiting Agent

Letter from the visiting agent in 1892 were often sharply critical of the children as well as the neighbors. It was clear from these letters that true Americans were preferred as guardians. In a letter reporting on the home of David Blair, a young man who disappeared from the genealogical record in Winslow, Illinois, the agent notes the Methodist church membership of his guardians and that they "were of German parentage, but natives of Illinois, and fully Americanized, and of liberal and progressive spirit." Richard Cochran was living with the Browns in Knox County, who were good Baptists. The Browns were going to school Richard at home because "His neighbors are Irish Catholics, whose influence upon a former ward that Mr. Brown brought up was unfavorable." Clearly, the Irish need not apply for work in New York or for orphan train children!

Mr. and Mrs. Sharp of Ford County lived in a converted three room log cabin that had a frame addition. This was the only house not praised as a large white house with many rooms and a porch in the 1892 reports. But it was apparently good enough for a young Italian boy named Declindo Banda. The Sharps were good Methodists, and it appears that Declindo would have to leave behind his Papist ways if he wanted to fit in in Ford County. The Sharps had no children, but "they hope to bring up Declindo so that he will be a credit to them , and a child on whom they can bestow their affections and their means." The Sharps never did have children, but left their farm in 1899 and moved into the town of Melvin. Declindo disappeared from the record.

While many children were required to learn German in order to survive in their new homes, this appeared to be an acceptable circumstance in the early years of the orphan trains. Once the visiting agents began their work, strict Americanization was required.