ORPHAN TRAIN 1907-1910 - Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana BY: NOLA MAE ROSS American Press Writer Publication: American Press Publication Date: 09/16/1990 Page and Section: 1 4 Submitted By Kathy Tell ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ A cavalcade of ''orphan trains,'' each carrying about 50 children under the age of 2, ran from the Foundling Home in New York into Louisiana between 1907 and 1910. About 2,000 of the orphaned babies were reared by Louisiana families. Many live in Southwest Louisiana today and have begun still another venture, seeking their roots. The New York Foundling Hospital was opened in 1869 by the Sisters of Charity. Almost immediately, the Sisters had more children than they could care for. Thousands of immigrants were flowing into New York. Many had spent all their money on passage to the United States and simply couldn't support their children. There was a severe depression in New York, and housing was critical. So, many immigrant families left their babies at the Foundling Home for care. When the Foundling Hospital home began to overflow, Sister Mary Irene came up with a plan of finding suitable homes for the babies. An agent for the hospital was sent around the country to confer with pastors of churches in small towns. The pastors in turn asked their people to open their hearts and take in an orphan. Families who wanted the children had to fill out a lengthy questionnaire with their pastors' help, and also signed a promise to raise the children properly. It was estimated that by 1885, over 4,000 children had been placed, mostly in western states. In 1907, the trains began coming to Louisiana. Two sisters, two social workers and one agent would accompany the little ones as they left from Grand Central Station in New York. To insure a quiet trip for the babies, officials of Southern Pacific ordered wheels silenced and bells muffled in railroad yards as the ''Nursery on Wheels'' passed through the city. One baby train arrived in Opelousas on April 5, 1907. The Opelousas Courier stated, ''A party of six adults and 56 children of various ages are being placed in homes secured for them beforehand. It will reach New Orleans enroute to Opelousas, coming from New York City where children have been collected by the New York Foundling Home and placed in homes secured for them. Frank (Adeline) Langley, a long-time resident of Sulphur, was one of those babies. A lucky infant, she found a good home with Mr. and Mrs. Cornelious Hoffpauir of Crowley. 'I don't remember the long train ride south,'' says Mrs. Langley, ''but my mother said that on the day we came into the railway station, everybody for miles around gathered there, curious to see what the orphan babies looked like.' According to another eyewitness account, it was a big day, indeed. There was a band playing, coffee and pecan pralines were sold and there was a large welcoming committee. Several doctors had been recruited to examine the children before the new parents took them home. The Sisters of Mt. Carmel Academy had prepared baskets of food, and local boarding house gave free rooms to the new parents who had to stay in town overnight. 'My mother told me that most of the little children were pale and sickly looking,'' says Mrs. Langley. ''But after they got them home to plenty of sunshine and fresh air, most of them blossomed to good health. 'Like most of the parents, mine did not tell me that I was adopted. Then, one day, when I was eight, I was playing with a little girl next door when her mother suddenly turned to me and said, 'You know, Adeline, the Hoffpauirs are not your real parents. ''I was so shocked that I ran home crying. I looked into my mirror and I thought that I really didn't look like the Hoffpauirs. So I went and asked Mama. When she found out what the neighbor said, she was beside herself with anger. But she did admit that I was adopted. 'After that, I worried about who my real parents were, where they were from and what they looked like. In later years, I went to New York and found that my parents were John and Catherine Gasser and that they came to New York from Austria. Adeline had a happy life with the Hoffpauirs, and when she grew up, she married Frank Langley, who had come to Louisiana from Oklahoma. After their marriage, the Langleys lived in Sulphur for more than 45 years, rearing a daughter, Bonnie, who lives in Winston-Salem, N.C., and a son, Jimmy, who lives in Lake Charles. Mrs. Langley has now moved to Winston-Salem, where she lives near her daughter. Many of the babies who came to Louisiana had names like Hanna, Gasser, Kaplan, Fee, Sullivan, Koch, McGinn, Bray, Maudika and Greene. They were adopted by families with names like Hebert, LeDoux, Latiolais, Guillory, Fontenot and Boudreaux, many of whom did not speak English. But the children were loved and nurtured and blended into the life and culture of Acadiana. Even by today's standards, each step in the placement process was carefully planned. "Once a year, the Foundling Home sent a Sister south to visit families where the little ones were living,'' recalled Mrs. Mary Cormier of Lafayette, who was among the babies on an early orphan train. ''My parents never told me that I was adopted, and I never told them that I knew I was. One year, when the Sister came to check on me, my mother, as usual, told me: "Go play. Go play outside". 'But I slipped backed into house and overheard them talking, and then I knew. But I never told Mama, because she felt she was protecting me. 'William Brown of Lake Charles was on an ''orphan train'' that came to Louisiana in 1908 when Brown was two years old. Brown was taken home by a family but illness changed the course of his life. 'I became sick, so the first family gave me to Mr. and Mrs. Albert Latiolais, who raised me like their very own. They never adopted me, so I kept my own name,'' Brown said. 'I attended the Brothers School in Lafayette, and 50 years ago came to Lake Charles, where I went to work for Cities Service, staying there until I retired. 'William Brown is married to the former Selma Arsement. They live on Dean Street in Lake Charles. They have three sons, James, who lives in Florida, Richard of Oak Grove, and William Brown Jr. of Lake Charles. When Louisiana families applied for children from the New York Foundling Home, they would often write little messages like ''your agent has promised me a nice red-haired boy. I've a red-haired wife and five red-haired girls and we want a boy to match. 'When the children arrived, each wore a long white dress and high topped black shoes, and their name was embroidered on the hem of their dress. Each had a number, which corresponded to a number already given to the prospective parent. Since most of the Louisiana priests helped in finding homes for the children, it was only natural that some of the priests took little ones to raise. This was the case at the Immaculate Conception Church in Lake Charles when the Rev. Hubert Cramers took two-year-old named James Bray into the rectory, where he was reared under the supervision of the housekeeper, Mary Murray. Described as a quiet, humble and lovely lady, Mary Murray who was already up in age when young James Bray arrived, provided a loving home atmosphere for the child. Bray attended Immaculate Conception School, and then went to St. Mary's College in LaPorte. He later came back to work for Cities Service, where he was a guard until his retirementis wife, Anna Guidry Bray, now live in Lake Charles. Today, many of the Orphan Train children and their descendants are trying to learn more about their past. An organization named OTHSA (Orphan Train Heritage Society of America), headquartered in Springdale, Ark., is a clearinghouse for information on the train riders. The organization has a quarterly newsletter that is sent to 675 members and almost 600 libraries. In Lafayette, in July of this year, there was a convention of the former train riders, and many came forward to tell their stories. Ninety people attended the convention, and they intend to make it an annual event.