The last true orphan train arrived in Sulphur Springs, Texas, on May 31, 1929. Advance placement had been made for all the children. There were many reasons why the Orphan Trains stopped running.

In the beginning the CAS's Emigration Plan seemed to be the solution to the problem of thousands of homeless and destitute children. At this time, poor children were commonly judged to be criminals who needed "correction" in institutions. The Emigration Plan considered destitution was no crime. Rev. Brace believed these children had virtues and strengths that could benefit the whole nation if nurtured in the right environment-the family. The CAS provided these children with jobs and parents and free transportation west, where they had the opportunity to build great futures for themselves. Some were successful; others were not.

But times change.Many people began to believe that no child should be removed from his or her family except as a last resort. The best way to help the poor was to work with their families and communities and keep them close to home. This is what the CAS does today.

Also, western states' populations had grown and they no longer welcomed these trains. The states passed laws preventing out-of-state children from being placed in their states. By Oct. 1927, when Charles Loring Brace retired after having a stroke, only five states-Michigan, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, and Texas-still allowed CAS to make placements within their borders. These states soon closed their doors as well.

The depression was another factor that contributed to the end of the Orphan Trains. Parents were struggling to support their own children and were no longer willing to take in orphans. The last party registered in the "Company Books" of the CAS left New York City on January 22, 1909. Orphan trains continued to travel west for more than twenty years, but they were different than they had been in the 19 th century. Smaller groups of children were sent. Most of the placements were made in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut rather than farther west.

The CAS was not the only organization that sent children west.

The Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent DePaul created the Catholic Charities of New York in 1869. In the foyer of their building stood a white cradle where mothers could anonymously leave their children to be cared for by the Sisters. It wasn't long before they had more children than they could provide for. They started what is known as the "mercy trains" or "baby trains." The Sisters worked with Priests throughout the Midwest and South to place these children in Catholic families. They did not send out their children to be randomly adopted, but families requested them ahead of time.

So some of what we're doing today is not new: giving mothers a safe place to leave the babies they cannot care for.

I had never heard of the Orphan Trains until the mid-1980s when I read an article in the Dallas newspaper. Many things then started to click in my brain. Leona Adele Chapter, my mother, seldom talked about her early life. I knew she was born in Brooklyn and have since purchased the picture of the tenement they lived in at her birth, the one on my earlier post.

She spoke little about her life in the orphanage, except to say she hated oatmeal, which it seems they had most every day. From what I have read, many of the surviving riders refuse to discuss their past. Sometimes it's easier to forget the pain of being unwanted by those who should care the most.

My mother came to Texas in January 1922. She was 9 years old. Her youngest sister arrrived in 1923. A lovely couple in Bowie, Texas, raised them. The remaining children stayed in New York.

This is how we came to be Texans, instead of New Yorkers.