Get on board to hear a historical talk about the Orphan Trains.
The presentation will take place at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Chula Vista Sept. 18 from 4 to 5 p.m. The event is free to the general public.
Paul Erickson, 90, a resident of Fredericka Manor and a member of St. John’s Episcopal Church, said it is important for people to know about the country’s history with Orphan Trains, which was one of the largest migrations in the country’s history from 1853 through 1929.
“There were about 250,000 children that were sent in trains to find new homes in the Midwest. So I’m talking about that, I’ll explain why they had Orphan Trains and discuss how they worked and what happened to them,” Erickson said. “Most people know nothing about them. And since there were 250,000 kids moved, I think it behooved us in our history to know that little bit of history that many people don’t know.”
Erickson knows firsthand the experiences an orphan had riding an Orphan Train because his mother at 5-years-old rode the train from New York to a small town in Missouri after her mother died and her father gave her up for adoption .
Erickson said he will also talk about his mother’s experience as an orphan train kid.
“She rode the train, she met a farm family in Missouri, they took her (in) and they raised her as their daughter,” he said.
Erickson’s mother as an adult worked briefly as a secretary before she got married. After marriage she become a housewife, then dedicated herself as a volunteer when she became a widow.
Forty seven years after she was separated from her only brother they reunited. Her brother had lived in New York and they often saw each other.
“She was delighted to find her real family after so many years,” Erickson said.
Many kids came from orphanages in New York, Philadelphia and Boston. At this time there was an influx of immigrants who came over from Europe to America. These immigrants came looking for new jobs, opportunities and a new life.
Many times these children were born to immigrant families who had no extended family, there were no aunts or uncles to live with if a father or mother died, so the kids wound up in the streets of New York and were forced to ride the train, Erickson said.
Erickson said this has been a lost part of American history until 1886 when someone documented the orphans and experiences on the trains.
Erickson, a retired psychology professor and administrator at San Diego State University, has given plenty of talks about the historic trains to historical groups. Erickson is also a member of the Orphan Train Heritage Society,
Erickson holds a degree in history from Arizona State Univeristy and Stanford University. He also holds a doctorate in psychology from the University of Southern California.
