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The Historian of July 2008- Hancock County H;«torical Society http://www.hancock'',‘'’intyhistoricalsociety.corn/newsletter/newsletter.. THE HISTORIAN OF HANCOCK COUNTY Page 3 These children are waiting to board the orphan train. Notice the placard hanging around each child’s neck. The number written there matched the child to the adoptive parents. JOHN KORCINSKY LAWRENCE DAMBORINO John Korcinsky Dam-bormo was born m New York City on December 10, 1906, to Annie and Michael Korcinsky, Polish immigrants who returned to Poland. He was admitted by the Sisters of Charity to the New York Foundling home on January 2, 1907. Mr. Damborino was one of the first groups of orphan children placed by the Sisters of charity in Bay Saint Louis. He was adopted by Alex Damborino and his wife, Lena, on March 12, 1910, at the age of three. He attended Ripp’s University and St. Stanislaus College and was confirmed at Our Lady of the Gulf Catholic Church. [Ripp’s University was a free night school operated by St. Stanislaus in the early 20th Century.] On June 18, 1927, he married Margaret Heitzmann of Bay Saint Louis at Our Lady of the Gulf. For twenty-eight years he worked for the Sea Coast Echo and then started his own newspaper, the Hancock County Eagle. He remained the owner/editor of this weekly paper for about twenty years before selling it to the Echo. When he was a teen, he suspected he was adopted and asked his mother about it. She firmly said, “No,” and then proceeded to burn his adoption papers. Admitting having an adopted child was not a socially accepted thing to do in the early 1900's. However, he continued to wonder about his adoption until he was grown. He wrote and visited the sisters of Charity in New York, and with their help secured a birth certificate from the Bureau of Records, Department of Health, New York City. Other than his parents’ names as listed on the birth certificate, he was unable to learn anything more definite than that his parents had probably returned to Poland. Mr. Damborino died on December 10, 1987, and is buried in Cedar Rest Cemetery. ANNIE RICHTNER ADAM GRAHAM Annie Richtner Adam Graham was born on December 9, 1906, in New York City to a German father and an Austrian mother. She was twenty-one months old when she arrived in Bay Saint Louis' and was indentured to and adopted by John Sherry Adam and his wife, Mary Bourgeois Adam. Also on the tram with her were Louis Roberts and William Adam, the latter of whom was adopted by John Sherry Adam’s brother, Tom. Little Annie had the number “205" sewn onto her underwear, and that was the number her adoptive family had been given to match. Years later when her husband chose a box at the post office, he chose #205. Mrs. Graham attended public school in Bay Saint Louis. Since her family spoke French, she learned French, and luckily her first grade teacher taught in French. She was in the second or third grade before she learned English She attended school until the eighth grade and then went to work in the Peerless Seafood Factory. In 1924 Mrs. Graham went to work for the Bell Telephone Co., located at that time in the old Echo building on the Beach. She worked for Bell for thirty-two years as a junior and senior operator and as assistant chief supervisor. She knew many citizens of Bay Saint Louis only as customers of Bell. When she left Bell Telephone, she was assistant supervisor of twenty-three operators. On July 4, 1931, she married William Bryan Graham. VOLUNTEER TO HELP WITH THE ANNUAL HALLOWEEN TOUR! 3 of 8 4/29/2014 12:23 PM
Orphan Train Riders of BSL Document (028)