GOD & TEXAS: Orphan Trains

In pioneer Texas, the family was under constant assault. Many fathers lost their lives in deadly battles including the revolutionary war against Mexico and the Civil War. Settlers in west Texas were often attacked by marauding Indians and wild beasts. Sometimes both parents died defending the homestead. And then there were rampant diseases that frequently left children as orphans.

Having few choices, these orphans had to fend for themselves and hope that someone would provide help. By the mid-19th Century, many abandoned children in the larger towns reverted to selling rags and newspapers to survive. Some formed street gangs to have protection and community.

Mercifully, there were others who found purpose in their unfortunate situation. Willian Levi “Buck” Taylor was born in Fredericksburg, Texas, in 1857. Several accounts claim that he lost his grandfather and two uncles in the Battle of the Alamo. His father succumbed to injuries in the Civil War, and his mother died following the war. As young teenagers, Buck and his two siblings were on their own.

Buck became a cowboy and quickly drew acclaim for his skills. Eventually, Buck met William Frederick “Buffalo Bill” Cody and moved to Cody’s ranch in Nebraska. With the help of ranch teachers, Buck learned to read and write, and soon joined Cody’s Wild West Show. Buck found success in show business and became known as the King of the Cowboys.

But everyone was not as fortunate. The increase in homeless children was becoming a national crisis. Charles Loring Brace, a Methodist minister in New York, became an advocate for abandoned children. He saw thousands of children with no home and scant clothing, begging on the streets. Hoping to help, Brace arranged for some children to receive a pair of new clothes, a Bible, and a train ticket out of New York to the Midwest states. He thought that the values of farmers out west would provide a better outcome for the children.

Between 1854 and 1929, it is estimated that over 200,000 children were travelers on what are being remembered as the Orphan Trains. From the crowded orphanages, filthy tenements, and congested streets all along the East Coast, neglected children were whisked away to an uncertain and occasionally tragic future. Some narratives estimate that by 1910, Orphan Trains had brought 1,600 homeless children to Texas.

But Texas was already struggling to cope with the burgeoning population of orphaned and abandoned children. The 1900 Galveston hurricane alone destroyed orphanages including the St. Mary’s Orphan Asylum where 10 nuns and 90 children died. Those that survived faced a doubtful future. Thankfully, many good Texans stepped up to rescue the helpless and to care for the abandoned.

Even today, there are orphaned and neglected children that need our assistance. May we all help and remember the scripture in James 1:27 NLT, “Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.”

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