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

---

Orphan Train Heritage Society
Placing Out History Preserved by OTHSA
The Orphan Train Heritage Society of America, Inc. (OTHSA) preserves the history of an era in America from the early 1850’s until 1929 when some 150,000 children, many of them orphaned, were “placed out.”
In the early 1850’s, institutions such as the New York House of Refuge and the New York Juvenile Asylum conducted programs to place juvenile vagrants with western farmers under an indentured apprentice system.
Charles Loring Brace, one of the founders of the Children’s Aid Society of New York City, devised a placing-out program in 1854 that developed into the largest in the United States.
Brace’s placing-out system involved taking groups of waifs, escorted by “agents,” aboard trains to rural America. At pre-selected stops, children would be inspected by prospective parents and perhaps chosen to live with new families. Thus the name, “Orphan Trains.”
Shortly thereafter, other institutions, such as the New York Foundling Hospital, followed the same general plan but altered the selection procedure by arranging in advance the families in which children would be placed.
OTHSA is a central clearinghouse dedicated to preserving all information on the children, institutions, agents, railroads, towns and families involved in the various placing-out programs.
Information is available to OTHSA members, teachers, students, orphan train riders and their descendants and other interested parties. Personal family information is protected according to family wishes.
Join OTHSA Today, Membership Form
Society membership entitles you to:
1.	Quarterly newsletter
2.	Annual newsletter index
3.	Research by mail
4.	“Update” letters
5.	Free queries in newsletter
Special membership rates for Orphan Train Riders.
Membership
(Orphan Train Riders only)..........$	10.00
One year membership....................$	20.00
Lifetime membership....................$100.00
Organization membership................$	25.00
Subscription to the
Newsletter ONLY (yearly)............$	15.00
Price per copy of newsletter...........$	4.00
jjNfeflBUEBUHk
Please send your check and this form to:
OTHSA, 4912 Trout Farm Road, Springdale, AR 72764
Name__________________________________________
Address. City-----
Telephone (AC___________
Amount Enclosed $_______
□	Orphan Train Rider
□	Interested Person
State.
-) —
Zip.
□	Rider Descendant
□	Other______________
Orphan Train Heritage Society of America, Inc. 4912 Trout Farm Road Springdale, Arkansas 72764
Ok
Non-profit Org. U.S. POSTAGE PAID
SPRINGDALE, AR PERMIT No. 597