A couple of months ago, I was listening to Mo Rocca’s Mobituaries podcast. He did an episode on the Children’s Aid Society and the Orphan Train phenomenon of the second half of the 19th century.
(An explanation for those not familiar: the Children’s Aid Society was based in New York City, and worked to alleviate the severe problem of orphaned children that cropped up there in the mid-19th century. The orphan trains were literally what they sound like: trains that would transport orphaned children from East coast cities to places in the Midwest, where they would be adopted by families. The adoptions could be a mixed bag: many of the homes were loving, but some were clearly using the system to acquire cheap labor. The trains operated for more than 70 years, eventually ending in the late 1920s after the advent of foster care).
The episode jogged my memory of a book series I read in elementary school, over 20 years ago. I can’t remember the name for the life of me.
The book plot consisted of a family of Irish-American children whose father has passed away. There were, I believe, five in total, three girls and two boys. The elder of the two boys (whose name was Mike, if I recall correctly) is arrested for pickpocketing a man. Rather than be sentenced to jail, he is sent west on an orphan train. The children’s mother then shocks the rest of them by requesting that the judge also send her other children west as well, as she is unable to care for them.
The series focuses on each of the children’s lives after being sent west, showing them with their new families. The first book depicts the journey west; it is told from the perspective of the oldest daughter (also the oldest of the siblings). The subsequent books are told from the perspective of the other children. The final book of the series shifts a little in structure; it focuses on “Mike” joining the Union Army and fighting in the Civli War, then goes to a third person perspective to show the children being reunited after a couple of years apart.
Amazing that I can remember all of these details of the series, but not the name. Can anyone help me?