This text was obtained via automated optical character recognition.
It has not been edited and may therefore contain several errors.

---

Search Continued
group. Philip and Elizabeth Rupp, an older couple with grown and married children took Gertrude.
m
Charlotte Barclay Cochran, RR 1, Box 134, Sullivan, IL 61951 wrote to OTHSA asking for information about an Orphan Train Rider.
“My father, Charles Barclay, was bom in Weldon, Illinois in 1887. About 2 years before he was bom, my grandfather, William Barclay, went to Clinton, Illinois when the Orphan Train came in. My grandmother wasn’t too well, and grandpa had to be out of the house working and wanted to get someone to be company for her. There were other people who wanted her and they had big families of children and wanted her to work. She went with my grandfather because he looked so kind. Her name was Lydia but I can’t remember her last name. She lived with my grandparents until she got married. I remember going to see her when I was about 8 years old. She married a man named Jim Bean and they lived at Eldorado, Illinois. She had two children that I know of, a son and daughter.
“Lydia had several brothers and sisters.
Their father had died and they were in the home and their mother was working trying to pay for their keep. They were not there for adoption, but they sent them out on the train and she never knew any more of her family. My father and his sister and brother always liked her really well. That is all I know about Lydia but she was lucky she picked Grandpa to go home with.”
If you have access to any newspapers in that area about 1885, please check for an article about a group of children arriving in Clinton, Illinois. Perhaps Lydia’s surname would be listed as she was taken by William Barclay.
If you can find such an article, please send a copy to OTHSA for the archives.
m
Carol Mott, 1217 Corrine St., Midland, MI 48640, is looking for information about her father, Francis (Frank) Sylvester Doherty. John and Mary Doherty died when Frank was 9 years old. He was taken by the Children’s Aid Society to the Brace Farm where he stayed until taken on an Orphan Train.
Mr. and Mrs. Ellsworth E. Benson of McLean, Nebraska raised Frank and gave him a good home. Mrs. Benson contacted the Children’s Aid Society giving reports on Frank as being an “exemplary young man.”
Frank passed away when Carol was 6 years
Orphan Train Heritage Society
old, one year after her mother died. Her grandfather Benson told her all he knew about her father.
Carol knows the family is Irish and her father was taken off the train in either Sioux City,
Iowa, or Pierce, Nebraska. For awhile Frank was in an orphanage in Pierce, Nebraska.
Orphan Train Riders Went Back Home
Melvin E. Sharpe of Durham, California, sent information about two boys arriving in Charleston, Arkansas, in 1919. “My uncle, A. E. (Artie) Sharpe, met the train in Charleston. He picked out two brothers, Milton and Albert (aka Bill) Hall. My uncle took the older brother, Milton, and brought the younger boy to my parents, Charlie and Hazel Sharpe. The Hall boys ages were about fourteen and twelve years old.
“Apparently, previous to this time their father deserted their mother, leaving her with three boys and a girl. The mother managed to keep the girl, but had to place the three boys in an orphanage where one of the boys died. Later Milton and Albert were put on the Orphan’s train and eventually arrived in Charleston in May 1919.
“The lady who periodically checked on the welfare of these children was a Miss “Meg” Faulkner.
“After living with both our families for about twelve years, the boys received letters from their father who had somehow managed to track them down. Sometime in the summer of 1931 both Albert and Milton returned to Patterson, New Jersey. As far as I know these are the only two children who arrived on the train who ever returned to New York. In late 1938 and early 1939 I spent several months with Albert in Patterson, however since then have lost all contact with him. Several years ago I heard that Milton was living in Louisiana.”
OTHSA would be interested in finding Albert and Milton Hall.
Does your local library have a copy of CROSSROADS? Take them one!
Volume 9