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Local Woman Remembers Trip From N. Y. Foundling Home

Anna Hondaras Gattis (original birth name) Kunkel (foster/adoptive name) Willy (married surname NYFH rider to St Cloud, MN to the Kunkel family at the age of three - OrphanTrainRidersOfMinnesota

This page is about My Father's Mother and her trip on the orphan train as taken from a newspaper clipping... some names were omitted due to privacy matters.

Imagine the joy of a little orphan girl from the streets of New York who has a new doll and a new home.
That little girl has grown up, and like hundred of other orphans from throughout the upper-midwest, has lived much of her life far from the streets of New York City. She was able to do so because of the work of the New York Foundling Home.

Each year orphans who were "transplanted" in the upper midwest by the foundling home hold a reunion. The reunion, which was held in Mid MN. this past summer prompted Anna to tell us about some of her experiences as a five-year old making the trip west on a train in the 1900's.

"There were between three and four hundred children on the train." she said. "We went as far north as Canada and then we came down again. There were nuns right with the train. Some of the children were only 10 months old."

"On the train, we each had a little bag on the side of the seat with a tin cup and a plate. We had no knife; just a fork and a spoon."
"We stopped in a lot of cities, and the people just came to the train and picked us out. People from all of the little towns around here came to Mid MN."

She was adopted by a family from Mid MN . " They only had one girl, thats why they adopted me," Anna said. "When they adopted me, they were German and I was English. I could not speak any German, so we had quite a time."

When she was 21, She found that she had a sister. "It took her about 5 years, but she found me. She is 2 years older than I am... I found out that my mother had died, and my father had remarried--- my stepmother is still living; But she did not want any girls. So I went to the foundling home. I was lucky, my sister had to go out to work and quit school when she was in fifth grade."

This is the story that repeated over and over by the thousands of former orphans who were given a second chance at living a decent life by the work of the New York Foundling Home.

 

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Orphan Train Celebrates 36th Year

This is another excerpt from the Morrison County Record.Dated ?/?/?

From 1854 to 1929, It is estimated that 150,000 children rode the Orphan Trains.  36 years ago two women,  who rode these orphan trains from New York to the midwest in the early 1900's, sent a notice to the news media identifying themselves as Orphan Train Riders.

With the media's help, The two women asked other orphans to identify themselves and invited them to  a gathering where they could share their experinces.

To the women's surprise the response to their invitation was great! The very first gathering of the Orphan Train Riders was on July 1, 1961.  Sixteen orphans traveled to Wahpeton,  North Dakota, for a reunion.

Each year since, the group has gathered in various places. Each year seems to bring new folks to the reunion.
This year the group held it's annual meeting on September 30, 2006