Orphan Train Memorial, Whiteside County

Soon Whiteside County will have its own memorial to the Orphan Trains. I was contacted by a woman whose grandson has taken on this task through his Children of the American Revolution group. He is related to Richard Groharing, an OTR I had heard of before because of other descendant's research on the Groharing. This lovely bench and statues will be installed at the Amboy train depot sometime this summer, perhaps during the Amboy Depot Days.

The story of the Groharing brothers (and sisters) has been investigated by family members and their story was submitted to an Illinois Genealogical Society and was published in their journal in 1994. It is a very interesting story, interwoven with the story of several other young men who came to the same train stop. Here is a link to the story of the Orphan Boys of 1864: http://genealogytrails.com/ill/carroll/train.html