Distinctly Montana Magazine

D I S T I N C T L Y M O N T A N A M A G A Z I N E • S P R I N G 2 0 2 1 68 T HE METHODIST REVEREND CHARLES LORING BRACE STARTED THE CHILDREN'S AID SOCIETY IN 1853. He gathered children from the stoops of New York City's brownstones and man- sions and sent them west in 1854. The city's wealthiest residents— the Roosevelts, Carnegies, and Rockefellers (who conveniently owned the Milwaukee Railroad that moved 40,000 children to the upper Midwest and West where farm laborers were always need- ed) gave generously to Brace's cause to remove the "waifs of the city," as they were called. It was to be the greatest migration of chil- dren in the history of the world. One of those children was Richard Lonsdale. Little is known about Lonsdale's life as an orphan before Reverend Brace found him and sent him west on a train. In 1910, Lonsdale landed on a farm in Montana, indentured to work in exchange for room, board, clothing, and an elementary education. Leaving the farm, Lonsdale continued his migration to British Columbia, and then Australia. There, as the world was on the precipice of entering the Great War, he enlisted in the Austra- lian army. In a letter he wrote to Rev. Brace, he reported that, "All I can say for over three years' active service I have led a charmed life and am lucky to be able to sit here and write you this. Have been on four fronts, Mesopotamia, Western Frontier, Egypt, and France." By 1854, an estimated 34,000 abandoned or orphaned chil- dren filled New York City's streets. Many of their parents had immigrated to America, lured by the promise of free land out West. While many did homestead, many stayed in New York, becoming part of the impoverished masses. For lack of social programs, some of them discarded their children on the streets when they were unable to feed them. As a solution, as many as 350,000 children were "placed out" West from New York City and Boston from 1854 to 1929. Traveling by rail, the children later became known as Orphan Train Riders. Lonsdale was among the 83 documented orphans who came to Montana—there are surely many more who were undocumented or whose records have been lost to time. Placing children out West was viewed as somewhat contro- versial. According to Shaley George, curator of the National Orphan Train Complex in Concordia, Kansas, the West was considered less stable because of its boom-and-bust goldrush days. But more importantly, placing out required the advance of railroads. For Montana, that began in the late 1870s. orphan train riders out west by TERESA OTTO photos courtesy of NATIONAL ORPHAN TRAIN COMPLEX Orphan Train rider indentured to work as a housekeeper HOW "WAIFS" FROM NEW YORK CAME TO BE IN 19TH CENTURY MONTANA orphan train riders out west

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