Orphan Train Rider

One Boy's True Story

By: Andrea Warren

Narrated by: Laura Hicks

Length: 1 hr and 26 mins

Publisher's Summary

Between 1854 and 1930, more than 200,000 orphaned or abandoned children were sent west on orphan trains to find new homes. Some were adopted by loving families; others were not as fortunate. In recent years, some of the riders have begun to share their stories. Andrea Warren alternates chapters about the history of the orphan trains with the story of Lee Nailling, who in 1926 rode an orphan train to Texas.

©1996 Andrea Warren (P)2013 AudioGO

Great short story of a part of our history!

In years past, as today, there have always been children who find themselves needing a home outside of their birth families. In earlier times, families often took in orphaned, or needy children, then immigration and poor jobs and wages, made this all but impossible. This book tells the story of one man's solution to this problem. A pastor decided that there was a better solution than housing kids in orphanages. Thus the Orphan Trains were started from the Children's Aid Society.

Orphan Trains took inner city kids cross country to give families in the Midwest and south an opportunity to choose kids from the trains to become a part of their family. Between 1854 and 1930, more than 200,000 children were placed into families by this method. This book tells one man's journey from his mother's death to his final placement into a good home. Lee Nailing tells his story from abandonment by his father, splitting up of his siblings, to becoming the "son" of a wonderful family. He eventually got in touch with a couple of his surviving siblings too. Parts of other children's experiences were interspersed within this story. Some poor experiences, but mostly good ones.

Children from these trains generally grew up to be good productive citizens, including one governor, a leader in Alaska, leaders in other children's aid groups, and other community leaders. Very interesting book, good for adults and for teaching children about this part of history. Pictures included.

Very Dry lecture, better to listen to historical fiction

This book is told as a dry recap of the historical tragedy surrounding the Great Depression; A time when people were so poor and jobs so scarce, people were starving and unable to feed their families. This tragic circumstance caused a proliferation of orphaned and abandoned children. The Orphan Train was a humane way to deal with providing homes to the overwhelming number of orphaned kids, but the oversight post adoption was lacking. There were no laws in place regarding adoption at this time, and while many children found good homes, many were not so fortunate.
This historical tragedy is better told in stories such as “Orphan Train” written by Christina Baker Kline, and , “Before We Were Yours” written by Lisa Wingate . There are many interesting books available, but this one does not really portray this heart wrenching time in history in a meaningful way.

Page turner

I loved this book. It was a roller coaster ride of emotions! I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Great information

I am more knowledgeable about the orphan train experience after listening to this book. Thanks

Excellent historical story

Who could speak of a sad period in our history like one of the children who was pulled away from everything known to them and cruelly placed in the whole unknown. So glad this child got a good home, I’m sure many didn’t. Wonderful story to share with my 11 year old.

What is amazing story.

Follow the adventures of an orphan as he travels West in this true tail of hardship and hope.

Lovely Historical Story

I really enjoyed the first person account of the orphan train. Excellent narration and story.

One of the best true stories ever!!!

I love how the story was told by an actual person who rode the train!

Listen with your children

A simple story, but brings back to life a bygone era and a bygone method of caring for homeless children.

Great historical quick listen

Great informative piece of history during the depression not often mentioned. I had never heard of the orphan trains before reading. This is a shorter story with plenty of info and perfect for a short trip.

Sad but inspiring....also unbelievable it happened

Great little in-between story.. listen to while your choosing your next novel..
heartbreaking but inspiring loved hearing what happened to these children.. bless them all

definitely worth a listen

I enjoyed the story from history and we all should be aware of the past the good the bad the ugly.

Enlightenment

This was an enlightening read, had never heard of the train orphans before. Thank you

Hard to believe these thing really happened for so

not really orphaned but un wanted! lots of children herded on to a train like cattle then chosen the same way! brothers, sisters parted. many to work and never see parents again! Good listen but hard to believe for some people back then it was a reality! Short story but good!