Sherry Burton will be here April 8 from 6-8pm presenting the History of the Orphan Trains. Books will be available to purchase after the presentation.

Each book will tell one child’s tale. The reader will follow each child from their earliest memory and find out what caused them to be without a home.

The reader will journey with the children on the train and follow as they grow.

In the mid-1850s, there were over 30k children living on the streets of New York City. Children as young as four and five who had to lie, cheat, and steal just to survive. Some of the children were true orphans, others were not.  Either way, their situation was dire and something had to be done. So, between 1854 and 1929, over 250k children from New York and Boston were sent west on what was later referred to as ‘the orphan trains’ to find new homes.