Narrator: A man named Charles Loring Brace had moved to New York from Connecticut about this time and was appalled by what he saw. Having studied theology, he was unsure that a church ministry would be his calling. Instead, he chose to work with the poor at a New York City mission.

Wahlmeier: He had seen the poverty of New York firsthand and wanted to do something about it.

Narrator: Brace observed, "the truth seems to be that each infant needs one nurse or caretaker and that if you place these delicate creatures in large companies together in any public building, an immense proportion are sure to die."

Wendinger: When Reverend Charles Loring Brace noticed all of the overcrowded tenements and kids on the street, he knew that something had to happen.

Narrator: Brace founded the Children's Aid Society in 1853. The society facilitated the placing out of children from existing orphanages. Later in his 1872 book, Brace explained, “Most touching of all was the crowd of wandering little ones who immediately found their way to the office. Ragged young girls who had nowhere to lay their heads; children driven from drunkard's homes; orphans who slept where they could find a box or stairway; boys cast out by stepmothers or stepfathers; newsboys whose incessant answer to our question, “Where do you live?' rang in our ears. “Don’t live nowhere.” Little bootblacks, young peddlers, canal boys who seem to drift into the city every winter, and live a vagabond life, pickpockets and petty thieves trying to get honest work; child beggars and flower sellers growing up to enter courses of crime—all this motley throng of infantile misery and childish guilt passed through our doors telling their simple stories of suffering and loneliness and temptation until our hearts became sick.”

Wahlmeier: During this time period homeless people were considered criminals, that if you were homeless you deserved it. And he really had the forward thinking to realize that these children were born into it, they didn't really have a choice.

Narrator: Brace began wondering whether farmers in the Midwest and elsewhere, many eager for a helping hand, might welcome these children.

Wahlmeier: They needed help establishing their claims and homesteads and so he set up, it was kind of an indenture program where the children were expected to work for their room and board, work on the farm, help establish their claim.

But then the parents in turn were supposed to educate them, send them to Sunday school, send them to church, give them a good Christian upbringing as well.

Narrator: Brace wrote in his book, "We hope especially to be the means of draining the city of these children by communicating with farmers, manufacturers or families in the country who may have need of such for employment." In September 1854, Brace's dream of sending children to new homes in the rural west became a reality when the first orphan train was sent to Dowagiac, Michigan. The society sent 47 boys and girls ages 7 to 15. The test was deemed a success and more trains carried children away from New York in the subsequent years. Within 10 years of the first orphan train being sent to the Midwest, the nation was embroiled in the Civil War. The war created thousands of orphans and half-orphans who were ultimately placed on the orphan trains.