HAMILTON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY

When:  Sunday, March 9, 2025 – 2:00pm-4:00pm

Where: Hamilton County Library – East, 2nd Floor. 1 Library Plaza, Noblesville, IN 46060

After watching author Michael T. Keene's video, David Highway, Hamilton County Historian, will discuss the Orphan Train Movement and the 28 orphans who found families here in Noblesville.

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The Orphan Train was a social experiment in the United States that took place between 1854 and 1929. It was a program designed to relocate orphaned, abandoned, and homeless children from overcrowded cities—mainly New York City—to rural areas across the country, particularly the Midwest.​

How It Worked

The program was organized by charitable institutions like the Children’s Aid Society (founded by Charles Loring Brace) and the New York Foundling Hospital. These organizations believed that placing children with farm families would provide them with a better life than they had in the streets or orphanages.

• Trains carrying groups of children, sometimes dozens or even hundreds at a time, would travel to small towns.

• At each stop, children were presented for adoption or fostering. Sometimes, families had pre-arranged requests, while other times, children were selected on the spot—often based on their appearance or perceived usefulness (e.g., older boys were seen as farm laborers, girls as household helpers).

• Some children found loving homes, but others faced exploitation, neglect, or abuse.

Impact & Legacy

• Over 200,000 children were relocated through this program.

• The movement helped lay the groundwork for modern foster care and child welfare laws.

• However, it was controversial, as children were often placed with little oversight, and many lost connection to their birth families.The Orphan Train movement ended in 1929 when formalized adoption and foster care systems began taking shape in the U.S. Today, there are museums and historical societies dedicated to preserving the stories of Orphan Train riders.