Mail-Order Kid: An Orphan Train Rider's Story
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Her obituary headline in The Hays Daily News read “Last Orphan Train Rider [in Ellis County] dies at age 95.”
How ironic that Teresa was remembered with the taunt that so curdled her life—the geschickte, the sent-for one, the mail-order kid. She arrived in Hays, Kansas, an orphan train rider, and now she exited there, still an orphan train rider to many. Despite years of hiding her origins, Teresa at the end of her life wore her orphan label as visibly as Hawthorne’s Hester wore her scarlet A. However, she never hid her origins from herself. She always knew she was, as she put it, “the lowest of the low.” That is why she had fought so hard to excel, so she would not be just a “nobody.”
Judy Sherard, the Daily News reporter, must have phoned all over town to gather so many quotes from people who had known Teresa. Like the blind men and the elephant, each person stumbled on a different aspect of her. One admired her for being “always so pleasant and enjoyable.” Another appreciated her pride in her Jewish heritage. One saw her as a “tiny, unassuming woman” who “epitomized kindness, independence and optimism.” Another fell in love with her because “she was such a bright, interested little person.”
Time transformed that curly haired temper-filled child who rode to Kansas. Circumstance forced the first change. Her marriage to Jess made her rein in her temper, but she bloomed after she went to work for Mrs. Fields in the Hays Public Library. There Teresa realized that, like Mrs. Fields and Sister Rosina, she possessed the power to help others blossom—and she did.
But Teresa didn’t quite understand the love that flowed back to her. She could not lose sight of her position—her “lowly” position, she would say—as an orphan in the world. Her diminished self-esteem made her quick to credit everyone but herself.
Finding her relatives and discovering that they were not horse thieves but well-to-do educated Jews helped a lot. So did all those orphan train reunions she attended, especially the New York one, full of another kind of family, a family of folks who knew what it meant to work hard, to face mockery. Her shame slowly turned into a stubborn pride as she spoke publicly about her childhood.
Occasionally Teresa still heard an orphan train rider say, “For goodness sake, don’t let anyone know that you rode on an orphan train. Don’t let anyone know you’re from an orphanage.” She once believed that, too; that’s how she spent most of her time in Denver, hiding. However, after finding Arthur and OTHSA, and after making dozens of speeches, her ideas changed. She felt secure enough to buy a cream-colored OTHSA jacket with “Orphan Train Rider” printed in large scarlet letters across the back. She wore it proudly.
She had reason to wear it proudly. In her life, she had been part of an enormous relocation of children, the displacement of a half million youngsters. Like every one of them, when Teresa stepped on that orphan train she left behind not only her birth family but also the metropolitan culture into which she had been born. She, like every other orphan train rider, had to deal with displacement whether she liked it or not.
Teresa was one of the rare riders who lived into the twenty-first century. As of 2010, fewer than one hundred orphan train riders still lived. Soon all their tongues will be stilled, but Teresa’s story remains to speak for them. It represents those half-million riders who, no doubt, fought equally fascinating battles of their own. It flashes like a beacon for the tens of millions of orphan train descendants who wonder just how it was for their own ancestor.
In addition, Teresa’s life holds a message for all of us. Like other similar testimonies, such as Anne Frank’s diary, her life is a tribute to the resilience and power of the human spirit.
Acknowle
dgments
I want to express my gratitude to the many people and organizations that helped me research and write this book. Any mistakes in Mail-Order Kid, though, are solely my responsibility.
My thanks to:
Readers of my manuscript, including Carla Barber, Doris Crippen, Margaret Dent, Kira Gale, Paul Gatschet, Kay Golden, Gus Hallin, Sandy Hill, Jack Loscutoff, Michael Meade, Ann Moncayo, Mildred Rosell, Steve Trout, Grace Witt, and Kate Yarrow.
Members of LineWrights, a writing group in Hays, Kansas, and the Omaha NightWriters Fiction Collective for their support.
Don Coldsmith and Greg Tobin, The Tallgrass Writing Workshop, Emporia, Kansas.
The Orphan Train Heritage Society of America, particularly Mary Ellen Johnson, Founder.
Research helpers at the National Orphan Train Complex in Concordia, Kansas; at the Nebraska Historical Society in Lincoln; at the Ellis County Historical Society, Hays Public Library and Fort Hays State University’s Forsyth Library, all in Hays; and Lorena Smith, Phelps County Historical Society, Holdrege, Nebraska.
Others who assisted my research, including Dwight Ganzel, Robert Hodge, Eloise Thomsen, Jane Tinkler, and Arthur Weinstein.
The Phelps County Historical Society, Holdrege, Nebraska, for its early sponsorship of my orphan train presentations.
The Nebraska Humanities Council and particularly Mollie Fisher for supporting my orphan train programs.
The New York Foundling and the Children’s Aid Society, New York.
Barbara Franzen, South Central Counseling, Hastings, Nebraska.
Leona Pfeifer, German professor, Fort Hays State University, for her help with language.
Sandra Wendel, editor and owner of Write On, Inc.
Lisa Pelto, Ellie Pelto, Erin Pankowski and Gary James Withrow at Concierge Marketing, Inc.
And to the 352 orphan train riders whose stories I read.
About th
e Author
Great Plains writer Marilyn June Coffey has written three books, 600 poems, and dozens of articles and stories. A trained journalist (B.A., University of Nebraska, 1959) and creative writer (M.F.A., Brooklyn College, 1981), she has produced work that includes a popular memoir, a record-setting novel, and a prize-winning poem.
Her poem, “Pricksong,” reviewed in the Los Angeles Times Book Review and Newsweek, won a national Pushcart Prize.
Coffey’s novel Marcella made literary history. It was the first novel written in English to use female autoeroticism as a main theme. Gloria Steinem called it “an important part of the truth telling by and for women.” Quartet in London published it in paperback; Pol in Australia and Ms. excerpted it, and Danish newspapers serialized it.
In 1989, Coffey’s memoir, Great Plains Patchwork, appeared. The New York Times called it entertaining and insightful. Atlantic Monthly featured a chapter as its cover story. Natural History bought two chapters, American Heritage one. Harper & Row, McGraw-Hill, Macmillan, and Harcourt Brace Jovanovich printed excerpts.
Known as a prose stylist, Coffey received a Master Alumnus award for distinction in the field of writing from the University of Nebraska in 1977. Since 1987, the UNL Archives has collected forty boxes of Coffey’s papers in its Mari Sandoz room.
In 1991, Coffey investigated the orphan train movement, developing three programs for the Nebraska Humanities Council. One became the second most popular of the 232 programs underwritten by NHC and spurred her to write Mail-Order Kid.
Now retired, Coffey taught writing at Boston University, Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, and Fort Hays State University in Kansas for thirty-four years, twice earning tenure. She became an interpretive reader/performer, appearing on local radio stations, statewide TV, and before more than 130 groups in twelve states, from Maine to Texas.
Coffey is an Admiral in the Great Navy of Nebraska, the state’s highest honor. However, the honorary title is given tongue in cheek, since Admirals in landlocked Nebraska claim jurisdiction over little but tadpoles. Governor J. James Exon appointed Coffey, a Nebraska native, an Admiral in 1977 for her writing achievements.
Resources a
nd References
Find information on orphan train riders
For tips on researching an orphan train rider, see Mary Ellen Johnson’s Waifs, Foundlings, and Half-Orphans, published by Heritage Books and a
vailable for purchase at major booksellers.
As of June 5, 2010, the Children’s Aid Society’s archives (from 1853–1930) are stored at the New York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024-5194. Phone: (212) 873-3400. Web site: https://www.nyhistory.org.
Following the lead of the Children’s Aid Society, many other social services that were part of the orphan train movement are arranging to donate their orphan train documents, too. Soon the New York Historical Society will become one of the nation’s largest repositories of information about the orphan trains.
The Orphan Train Heritage Society of America, Inc., since 1986 in Arkansas, has relocated to Kansas. It is now part of the National Orphan Train Complex, P.O. Box 322, Concordia, KS 66901. Phone/Fax: (785) 243-4471. Web site: www.orphantraindepot.com.
The New York Foundling is located at 590 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10011. Phone: (212) 633-9300. Web site: http://www.nyfoundling.org.
Important sources
Adams Co. [NE] Historical Society. “How the Little Orphans Lived.” Historical News, 14, no. 1 (1981).
——. “The Little Orphans.” Historical News. 13, no. 12 (1980).
——. “The Orphan Trains.” Historical News. 13, no. 11 (1980).
Birkby, Evelyn. “The Children’s Train.” Kitchen-Klatter Magazine (April 1979) 11, 19.
Brace, Charles Loring. The Dangerous Classes of New York, 3rd edition. New York: Wynkoop & Hallenbeck, 1880.
Brophy, A. Blake. Foundlings on the Frontier: Racial and Religious Conflict in Arizona Territory, 1904–1905. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1972.
Endorf, Charlotte M. Plains Bound: Fragile Cargo, Revealing Orphan Train Reality. Denver: Outskirts Press, 2005.
Fry, Annette Riley. “The Children’s Migration.” American Heritage, 26, no. 1 (1974) 4–10, 79–81.
Hodge, Robert A. Kansas Orphan Train Riders—These We Know. Emporia, Kan.: Robert A. Hodge, 1996.
Holt, Marilyn Irvin. The Orphan Trains: Placing Out in America. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1992.
Jackson, Donald Dale. “It Took Trains to Put Street Kids on the Right Track Out of the Slums,” Smithsonian (August 1986) 95–103.
Johnson, Mary Ellen, ed. Crossroads. Vol. 1–20. Orphan Train Heritage Society of America.
——, comp. Orphan Train Riders: Their Own Stories. Vol. 1–4. Baltimore: Gateway, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1997.
——, comp. Orphan Train Riders: Their Own Stories. Vol. 5. Wever, Ia.: Quixote, 1999.
——, comp. Orphan Train Riders: Their Own Stories. Vol. 6. Concordia, Kan.: Orphan Train Heritage Society of America, 2007.
Langsam, Miriam Z. Children West: A History of the Placing-Out System of the New York Children’s Aid Society, 1853–1890. Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1964.
Magnuson, James, and Dorothea G. Petrie. Orphan Train. New York: Dial Press, 1978.
Milner, Anita Cheek. “Orphan Trains.” The Genealogical Helper, 35, no. 6 (1981) 7–9.
O’Connor, Stephen. Orphan Trains: The Story of Charles Loring Brace and the Children He Saved and Failed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001.
Patrick, Michael, Evelyn Sheets, and Evelyn Trickel. We Are a Part of History: The Story of the Orphan Trains. Virginia Beach, Va.: Donning, 1990.
Riley, Tom. Orphan Train Riders: Entrance Records from the American Female Guardian Society’s Home for the Friendless in New York, Vol. 2. Westminster, Md.: Heritage Books, 2006.
Sherard, Judy. “Last Orphan Train Rider Dies at Age 95.” The Hays Daily News (18 June 2001) A3.
Simpson, Eileen. Orphans: Real and Imaginary. New York: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1987.
Toepfer, Amy Brungardt, and Agnes Dreiling. Conquering the Wind: An Epic Migration from the Rhine to the Volga to the Plains of Kansas. Revised edition. Lincoln, Neb.: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1982.
Vogt, Martha Nelson, and Christina Vogt. Searching for Home: Three Families from the Orphan Trains. N.p.: Dickinson Bros., 1979.
Walters, George J. Wir Wollen Deutsche Bleiben: The Story of the Volga Germans. Kansas City, Mo.: Halcyon, 1982.
Warren, Andrea. We Rode the Orphan Trains. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001.
——. Orphan Train Rider: One Boy’s True Story. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1996.
Weinstein, Arthur. The Breitowichs on Division Street. Skokie, Ill.: Arthur Weinstein, 1984.
——. Our Exodus: The History of the Feit, Weinstein, Breitowich, and Fenig Families. Chicago: Arthur Weinstein, 1978.
Wheeler, Leslie. “The Orphan Trains.” American History Illustrated (December 1983) 10–23.
Young, Patricia J., and Frances E. Marks. Tears on Paper: The History and Life Stories of the Orphan Train Riders. N.p.: 1990.