THE ORPHAN TRAIN STOPPED IN ALBION

There were at least three such trains that stopped at Albion. One left NYC on May 21, 1857, with 30 children on board. Another left on June 30, 1857 with 31 children that arrived here four days later on July 3, 1857. Numerous children were placed from these particular trains at stops along the Michigan Central Railroad route at Albion, Marengo, and Marshall. Another train stopped here in 1886.

Many of these children were placed with area farm families, and thus began what became known as the "foster home" concept in America. All correspondence about these children had to go through the Aid Society. Each year the Society would publish an annual report, which included a survey of "what happened" to specific Orphan Train children. Only the first names were given, along with a brief summary of their lives.

A specific train manifest would include the name of the child, their age, their birth country, their religion, who placed them on the train, the person who took them in, and their location/city. When asked, the Aid Society would provide a descendant a copy of the train manifest with their ancestors' name and information, but would black-out the information about other children on the same page with a black felt pen. Some names, however, escaped the censors on occasion.

Through the years, yours truly has corresponded with several descendants of Albion's Orphan Train drop-offs. By piecing together their censored manifest charts with others not so fully-censored, I have been able to come up with a manifest of my own, adding additional information if possible. I discovered that the 1860 U.S. Census often listed these children (mostly boys) living with their foster family, but keeping their original surname.

For example, on line 5 of the June 30, 1857 manifest, we see that a boy named William, age 7, was placed with John Beers of Albion. I went to the 1860 U.S. Census for Sheridan Township, and found William Ryon (or Ryan), age 10, living with the family. The 1881 Children's Aid Society annual report, pg. 71 states that "William R., aged 7 in 1857, was placed with John Beers of Albion. He remained with him until he was 21, married, and is now living with his family at Nashville, Barry County, owns a farm and is engaged in the nursery business."

From our Historical Notebook this week we present my edited Orphan Train manifest of June 30, 1857 that stopped in Albion. This includes the information I've been able to compile about each child, in typewritten form placed next to the original handwriting. Placement locations written down include: Albion, Marengo, Eckford, Homer, Clarendon, Sandstone, Spring Arbor, Springport, Royal Oak, and Hickory Corners. If you would like a copy of this chart, please e-mail me at: Albionfp@hotmail.com and I can e-mail you one back. Please put "Orphan Train" as the subject line. How many of our readers are descendants of Orphan Train children?

	Frank Passic — Albion Historian An Albion native and 1971 graduate of Albion High School, Frank Passic has been researching and writing Albion history since 1976. He is the creator of the Albion Historical Notebook, with hundreds of articles appearing weekly in the Morning Star and The Recorder. Frank maintains an extensive personal archive including Riverside Cemetery records, family surname files, genealogies, photographs, city directories, and high school yearbooks. Support his 2026 research at the Historic Albion Michigan Facebook page. Historical Notebook \| From the Archives \| Subject List \| 100 Years Ago \| Alphabetical Index \| Frank Passic Home Page \| Albion History Books \| Contact Frank
	Michigan Prints by Maggie LaNoue Michigan Prints offers limited-edition archival Giclée prints, miniprints, notecards and boxed sets featuring Michigan landmarks, nature, resorts and nostalgia. Each print and card includes a legend on the back with stories about Michigan history. Albion scenes include the Kalamazoo River waterfall and the Blizzard of 1978. Find Michigan Prints online and at local shops. Michigan Prints \| Albion Scenes \| Custom Cards \| Zazzle Gifts
	AlbionMich.net — General Guide to Albion AlbionMich.net is a hub for community life in the greater Albion area, featuring current news, city council updates, river restoration stories, parks and trails. See Albion's beautiful Kalamazoo River waterfall as it looks today — and follow the story of its future restoration. Includes news from The Recorder and stories about Albion's 17 parks. AlbionMich.net \| Albion Blog \| Frank Passic on AlbionMich.net
	General Guide to Albion AlbionMich.net offers two General Guides to the Albion area — one covering community life including city council, veterans, history, youth and wellness resources, and one covering the outdoors including roads, rivers, parks, trails and downtown. Both guides feature stories by local writers including contributors to The Recorder, sorted by topic for easy reference. General Guide — Community \| General Guide — Outdoors
	Robin James — Indices Unlimited Robin James is the editor of the Albion Historical Notebook and has kept Frank Passic's thousands of articles organized and searchable for decades. A trained librarian and archivist, Robin specializes in back-of-book and online indexing, multimedia collection management, and corporate information distribution. He also enjoys strange music and is a contributing editor for Igloo electronic music magazine. For more about his indexing services, visit Indices Unlimited.
AlbionDesign.com — Communications Specialists Since 1981 \| Advertise on AlbionMich.com