An encore broadcast of its most recent historical documentary, "Placing Out: The Orphan Trains," will be on Smoky Hills Public Television on Thursday, Nov. 29, at 7:00 p.m.
Among those interviewed for the documentary were actual orphan train rider Ann Harrison, Lincoln, NB, and rider descendants Francis Schippers, Hays; Doloris Pfeifer Pederson, Russell; Walter Straub and Kevin Lockwood, both of Great Bend; and Sharla Thill, Ellinwood.
Between 1854 and 1929 an estimated 200,000 orphaned, abandoned and homeless children, primarily from cities in the East, were put on trains headed for the Midwest in hopes of finding new homes.
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it is my bffs birthday today
I am following a difficult paper trail back through my paternal grandfather, Edwin James Hays (1902-1980). He and his little sister (Erma or Irma) were Orphan Train Riders according to a recently opened family journal. Their father was George Dillard Hays, who was born in Co. Cork Ireland and came to New York, via Queenstown, Ireland while in his mid-twenties. George Dillard Hays married Lelah Alice Mitchell of Illinois (Daughter of James W. Mitchell. He was born 1830). Both George Dillard Hays & Lelah Alice (Mitchell) Hays were born somewhere between 1857 & 1860. Their son (my grandfather) Edwin died in Mesa, Maricopa, Arizona in 1980. A Texas orphanage, that my grandfather spent his teen years in, re-assigned the same birth date to every orphan under their conservatorship including my grandfather... 25 December) and his last name was later changed from Hays to Hayes.
If you have access to any information regarding my grandfather Edwin, his little sister Irma, or their parents, George Dillard Hays and Lelah Alice (Mitchell Hays), please let me know.
Thank you!
Stu
H.R1b1c@gmail.com
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