Christina Baker Kline’s new novel, Orphan Train, is partially set in 1929, mere months before the stock market crash that would trigger the Great Depression. Kline’s book is fictional, but it’s based on the very true history of thousands of children shipped to the Midwest.
Q. What happened to orphans during the Great Depression?
While Mills Home eventually moved in that direction, during the Great Depression orphanages were contending with constrained resources and overwhelming numbers of needy children. Those circumstances meant crowded residential cottages, separation of the children by sex, and grouping by age in the housing arrangements.
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Q. How were farmers affected by the Great Depression?
When prices fell they tried to produce even more to pay their debts, taxes and living expenses. In the early 1930s prices dropped so low that many farmers went bankrupt and lost their farms. Some farmers became angry and wanted the government to step in to keep farm families in their homes.
Q. What is a half orphan?
: a child with only one parent living.
Q. Are any orphan train riders alive today?
For years, Orphan Train riders rarely opened up about their experiences. Now they’re rapidly disappearing. Perhaps as few as 100 are still alive. Of roughly 6,000 who came to Nebraska, about six are still alive, Endorf said.
Q. Where did the orphan trains stop?
The Orphan Trains operated prior to the federal government’s involvement in child protection and child welfare. While they operated, Orphan Trains moved approximately 200,000 children from cities like New York and Boston to the American West to be adopted.
Q. When was the last orphan train?
The orphan trains operated between 1854 and 1929, relocating about 250,000 children. The co-founders of the Orphan Train movement claimed that these children were orphaned, abandoned, abused, or homeless, but this was not always true.
