By Josie Roberts
Medina, NY – A little known piece of history came to life in Orleans County over the weekend. Hundreds of people witnessed an orphan train re-enactment at the Medina Railroad Museum. From the mid-1800s to the early 1900s, orphan trains transported more than 200,000 children from New York City, from a life abandoned on city streets to new homes in the West -- 35,000 of those riders got off in Western New York.
"My name is Arthur F. Smith and I put the 'F' in because at one time that stood for my last name which was Fields and this was the name that was given to me by the authorities in New York City when they found me," orphan train survivor Arthur Smith said.
Smith came to Medina to share his story, to tell how one of America's first social services changed his life. He traveled from New Jersey to participate in the orphan train re-enactment and watched young actors, playing shoe shiners and street sweepers, portray what became his fate 70 years ago.
Darlene Bargmann did not ride an orphan train but said what she witnessed at Grand Central Station one morning changed her life.
"There were so many children you couldn't believe it," Bargmann said. "They were of all shapes and sizes and they were all frightened, they were all frightened and a great many of them didn't speak English and it was, I never forgot that and I'm delighted to be here for this. And because I remember being that little girl and feeling so drawn to these children I said when I grow up I'm going to do something and I've been a foster parent all my life."
"It is a story that draws you in forever," said Hollis Canham, who works with the Orleans County Genealogical Society. "We were helping people that were doing family research and they got to a brick wall and the paper trail just stopped."
Canham organized the orphan train reenactment after hearing the story of Barbara Cox Bacon. Bacon rode the train when she was nine-years-old and now lives in Lockport. She spent decades trying to track down her siblings.
"Nobody, none of the relatives knew where any of us where so they couldn't contact any of us because they didn't know where we were," Bacon said.
Bacon's father was killed in an accident and her mother suffered a mental breakdown. The family's four children were taken in by child services and sent out on different orphan trains. Bacon was adopted on the platform in Medina. At the reenactment the 83-year-old stood on that same platform. But Canham says back then it was a much different ride.
"They were not luxury tours like we're taking today," Bacon said. "Four days were spent, with mostly the children in their seats. They sat on wooden bench seats. The kids, if they fell asleep, would fall out of the seats so the agents got very little sleep over a four day trip."
"It was cold. It was December. Oooh cold," Smith said. "They took us in hand, they led us up to the Methodist Church, the United Methodist Church in town, and there was a big crowd of people there waiting to see us."
Arthur F. Smith got off the train in Clarinda, Iowa.
"People came from 40 miles around with their wagons and their horses and what not to see these children," Smith said. "There was a nice looking man there. I found out, I didn't remember, but I found out later by reading it in the newspaper that I apparently got up on the man's lap and said 'Are you going to be my daddy?' and it turned out that he became my daddy, and his name was Smith. Warley Smith."
Canham said orphan train riders typically grew up to be very successful people, even overachievers. Two of the riders became United States governors, she said.
Bill Oser was adopted in Michigan and found a long career working with -- what else -- but trains.
"I worked 42 years in the railroad industry," Oser said. "I worked for the New York Central as a young man. Then, I went into Amtrak when they came in. When I retired I was general supervisor at Grand Central in the mechanical department so I feel it's been a success story. I have no regrets. I love life.
"Who would know at the age of 3 that someday I would retire from Amtrak and Grand Central terminal?"
Oser sang off-Broadway for many years too. During the hour-and-a-half re-enactment train ride, he led the coach cars in song, just like the orphan train agents did for him so many years ago.
Canham wants the stories of Oser, Smith, Bacon and the hundreds of thousands other riders to be better known.
"It's sadly neglected in American history books and we would like to correct that," Canham said. "It's not only just neglected but omitted. This was the greatest migration of American people and it's just a story that can't be forgotten."