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Orphan Trains and the George Miller Family

 
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roger.pape
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PostPosted: Tue Sep 09, 2014 9:37 am    Post subject: Orphan Trains and the George Miller Family Reply with quote

The use of so-called "orphan trains" was an effort that started in the US during the latter half of the 1800s and resulted in the relocation of a large number of children from the East to other areas, primarily the rural Midwest. It was a program that placed homeless, orphaned, and abandoned city children in foster homes throughout the country. The orphan train movement was started in the 1850s by Charles Lorning Brace, head of the Children's Aid Society of New York and continued until the end of the 1920s. In addition to Brace's organization, numerous other agencies nationwide placed children on these trains that traveled west to find foster homes. It is estimated that this activity placed at least 200,000 children in various homes. A picture of the children on one of the trains eagerly awaiting a new home is shown below.

The children ranged in age from about 6 to 18 and were generally homeless or neglected, or simply from families struggling to support the children. Most of the children were boys who were in demand for work on the Midwest farms although some were young girls who were generally selected as domestic help. (The second photo below shows the range of children that boarded the train.) While a few of them may have had prior arrangements to be taken in by a specific family, most of them had no assurance as to whether they would be selected and where.

A typical group might consist of up to about 40 children under the supervision of at least one “western” agent and traveled on trains to selected stops along the way where they were taken by families in that area. Towns along the railroad route were selected and posters like one shown below were distributed to advertise the arrival of the train. Each of these towns would have a screening committee to select possible parents for the children. The committee would approve or disapprove of a match on the day the children arrived.

Typically, there was a trial period of about six months to make sure the placement was suitable. The foster parents agreed to a number of conditions, such as providing suitable room and board, schooling the children up to age 14, and possible providing wages to the older children. While many of the placements resulted in adoptions, some were not successful. Not all were docile children from orphanages. Some were "street-wise" urchins who knew how to "game the system". They would demand higher wages or move on to other locations. On the other hand, some of the parents considered the children simply as servants.

Many people were critical of this program, primarily because of the impersonal way in which the children were assigned. However, the intent was not to treat the children as servants but as potential adoptees. Some of the foster parents would check the children over as they stood on the train platform or auditorium stage. They would examine the teeth, pinch the arms, poke and prod them to determine their physical condition. The process was somewhat reminiscent of, albeit slightly more humane than, the slave markets in earlier years. Actually, it was a continuation of a previous practice in Europe (especially England) that placed orphan children in other locations, such as the colonies. It is generally recognized as the beginning of foster care in America.

A considerable amount of information can be found posted on the web about the orphan train program. In fact, Concordia's "sister city" of Concordia, Kansas has a museum devoted to it. The National Orphan Train Complex, also known as the National Orphan Train Museum and Research Center, is located in Concordia, KS. If you have an ancestor whom you believe might have been part of this program, you might be able to locate more information about him or her from that organization. (See http://orphantraindepot.org/.)

George Miller Family

One of Concordia, Missouri's prominent businessmen, namely tinsmith George Miller, came to the area as part of this program. According to family history, he was selected by the Louis Scharnhorst family from a lineup at the train station north of Concordia [Alma?] during the early 1900s. At the time the train arrived, Louis was 65 years old and his wife Dorothea was 50. They had four older daughters, Bertha, Marie, Flora, and Hulda, but no sons. (Their only son Louis Jr. died as an infant ten years earlier.) Since there was little prospect for another son, Louis was obviously looking for a boy to help on the farm and possibly take it over in later years. So they picked George out of the lineup and brought him home to their farm just north of Concordia at the intersection of Rte. 23 and Davis Rd.

The first record of George in the Concordia area can be found in the 1910 Freedom Township census records shown below. Note that George was listed as a "boarder", not an adopted son, It was probably still during the trial period for George's adjustment to his new home. In the 1920 and 1930 census records, George is listed as the "adopted son" of Louis. It is not known if the Scharnhorsts went through the official adoption process, but they considered George to be their adopted son.

George next shows up in the 1914 confirmation class of St. Paul's Lutheran Church.

The most enlightening record was George's 1918 World War I draft registration card. (See below.) While he listed that he was working for Louis Scharnhorst, he gave his nearest relative as Richard Miller in Chicago, IL. So it is not clear if Louis had officially adopted George, or whether George was thinking about his birth family when he filled out the form; What is clear is that George still maintained contact with his birth family at age 19.

This entry provided a clue as to George's original family. Checking the 1900 Chicago census records, the Miller family can be found in the following entry shown below. It shows that George's parents Louis and Lottie (Moberg?) Miller emigrated from Germany during 1885 with their first two sons, Richard and Ernest. Being from Germany, their surname was probably Müller, but they appeared to have anglicized the spelling. After arriving in the US the family grew to the point that, by 1900, there were nine children, seven boys and two girls. They were Richard, Ernest, Edward, Carrie, Louis, Charles, John, Mary, and George. George was the youngest child at that time, born in Aug. 1899.

The family reappears in the 1910 Chicago census records (see below). Note that the parents Louis and Lottie are not listed in the family grouping. While no death records were found for them in the Cook County records, it would appear that they had died by then. Note also that there were two more children born after George, Irene and Elmer. Richard is listed as the head, keeping the family together at that time. (George obviously had considerable respect for his oldest brother, listing him as the nearest relative on his WWI draft form.) The older boys were all employed, while older sister Carrie was probably caring for the two youngest children. Interestingly, brother Louis was working in a tin shop. (Was that a family skill?)

However, missing in the list are John, Mary, and George. Note that these three were in the age group most common for children on the orphan trains, so the three of them may have left Chicago together. Children from a given family were not normally adopted together, but were separated. The foster families were normally looking for only one child. So it is difficult to trace siblings who traveled together. Interestingly, the 1910 Lafayette County census records list a John "Mueller" as the foster child of William Kempfe in Higginsville, MO. He was born in Illinois and was the correct age. Was he George's brother?

Meanwhile, back in the Concordia area, one can trace the Scharnhorst family and George in later census records. In the 1920 Freedom Township census, 74 year old Louis is still living on the farm with his wife Dorothea (65), 35 year old daughter Maria, and 19 year old George Miller. George is listed as the adopted son of Louis and as a farm laborer.

By the time of the 1930 census, Louis is listed as 85 years old, retired, and now living in Concordia on the north end of Gordon St. with his daughter Bertha and her husband John Hinck. George was still single and living with them there. George had no interest in continuing to farm. Instead, he started a tin shop in Concordia.

In 1932, George married Saverna Kirchhoff. They built a house at 506 Orange St. where they raised their family.

George operated the Concordia Sheet and Metal Works in the 500 block of Main St. in Concordia for many years in partnership with Gus Oetting. One of George's specialties was manufacturing cupolas for barns. The last photo below shows an example, loaded on their delivery truck, that he built for the Otto Marth barn. Wendell Olson says that he can identify a George Miller cupola by its unique style of construction. There are probably a number of George's creations still sitting on top of barns in the Concordia area. Wendell has preserved one of them at his art park on Runge Rd.



OrphanTrain.jpg
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Orphan train headed West.
(From the National Orphan Train Museum and Research Center archives.)
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Line of children waiting to board an orphan train.
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OrphanTrainHandbill.jpg
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Poster advertising the arrival of an orphan train.
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1910LouiaScharnhorstFamily.jpg
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1910 Freedom Township census record showing the Louis Scharnhorst family with George Miller listed as 'boarder'.
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GeorgeMillerDraftRegistration.jpg
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George Miller's WWI draft registration.
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1900MillerFamily.jpg
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1900 Chicago census record showing the Miller family with George as an infant.
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1910MillerFamily.jpg
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1910 Chicago census record showing the remainder of the Miller family.
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MillerCupola.jpg
 Description:
Barn cupola manufactured by George Miller ready for delivery. (From the Concordian "Out of the Past" series.)
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Last edited by roger.pape on Sun Mar 15, 2015 5:32 pm; edited 1 time in total
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 27, 2014 12:41 pm    Post subject: George Miller's brother John Reply with quote

As noted above, the 1910 Lafayette County, MO census records show that there was a John Mueller living in the Higginsville, MO area with the William Kempfe family. This census record is shown below where he is listed as a foster son of the Kempfes, born in Illinois. (Note that he used the German spelling "Mueller".) The only other record located for this John Mueller was his World War I draft registration, also shown below. After this point, John appears to have moved on since he does not appear in later Lafayette Co. census records.

Note that, in his draft registration, John listed his birth as Mar. 5, 1895 in Chicago, IL. This matches the 1900 Chicago census record of George's family shown in the earlier posting. Therefore, it is highly possible that John was George Miller's brother and had come to Missouri in the same orphan train as George. If they were both on the same train, John may have been selected at the same train station lineup as George or at the next station down the line. (Mary was not found in the 1910 census. She may have adopted the name of her foster family or possibly had died before 1910.)

The Kempfe family continued to live in the Higginsville and Alma areas. William's death certificate indicates that he died Oct. 31, 1934 and is buried in the Blackburn Cemetery. William was also born in Illinois, but in St. Clair County (St. Louis area) so he probably did not know John and George's family before he adopted John.

It is not known if George ever indicated that he had a brother living close by. Perhaps someone in the Miller family or Kempfe family may know.



1910JohnMueller.jpg
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John Mueller in 1910 Middleton Township census records.
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JohnMuellerDraftRegistration.jpg
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John Mueller WWI draft registration.
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JohnMuellerDraftRegistration.jpg


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PostPosted: Tue Nov 11, 2014 7:45 pm    Post subject: John Miller Back in Chicago Reply with quote

It appears that George Miller’s brother John returned to Chicago by 1935. This is based on later records for John.

John registered for both the WWI and WWII drafts. His WWI registration was shown in the previous post and his WWII registration is shown below. Note that the first and middle names and date of birth are identical and the signatures are very similar. However, he did change the spelling of his surname back to Miller. He can also be found in the 1940 Chicago census records where he is living with his older brother Louis. (See below.) Since it indicates that he lived in the same place in 1935, he must have moved there by then.

The later draft record indicates that he was working for hotel and the census records show that he was a chef’s assistant in the hotel. Interestingly, older brother Richard worked for a number of years as a butcher in a hotel, perhaps the same hotel.



1940JohnMiller_excerpt.jpg
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1940 Chicago census record showin John Miller living there.
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JohnMillerWWIIDraftRegistration.jpg
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John Miller's World War II draft registration.
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Last edited by roger.pape on Sat Feb 28, 2015 2:23 pm; edited 1 time in total
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 28, 2015 2:17 pm    Post subject: Miller Family Immigration Reply with quote

The immigration record for the Louis Miller family was finally located and is shown below. What made it difficult to locate was that the last name was spelled as 'Moeller'. Being from Germany, one might have expected it to be 'Müller' or 'Mueller'. (Did people with the surname 'Möller' or 'Moeller' eventually anglicize their name to 'Miller'?) In later census records, some of the children are listed as 'Mueller'.

This record is consistent with the 1900 census record shown in the listing above. Louis is listed with the German spelling Ludwig and Lotta by her full name Charlotte. The mother-in-law is listed as as Christine rather than Johana and her last name is misspelled in one or both of the records. (Moberg or Momberg are reasonable German surnames.) Note that Ludwig is listed as a shepherd. That's probably why he became a day laborer when they came to Chicago. (Not too many sheep in downtown Chicago.) Their home is listed as what looks like 'Dalzow' but I was unable to find any community by that name in any German maps or directories.

Note that, in addition to the two sons Richard and Ernst, there was an older son Franz. He does not appear in the 1900 census; however I found the death record shown below for a five year old Franz Moeller who died in Chicago on 16 Dec 1885 (a month and a half after arriving in the US) which would explain why he does not show up in the 1900 census. Again, that is consistent with the ships record and note that the last name is spelled 'Moeller'. Was that the actual German surname for the family? His birthplace is listed as 'Ruegen, Germany'. That is an island off the northeast coast of Germany in the Baltic Sea. While there are communities on that island named Lietzow, Zirkow, Thiessow, and Gustow, I couldn't find any that seemed to match the spelling in the passenger list. However, I have seen records where a person was listed as being born or died in Dalzow, Ruegen, Germany. There are also a number of Mueller families still living on Ruegen. Therefore, it would appear that they were from Ruegen. Note that Ruegen Island is know for its Heidschnucke, heath sheep, shown below. So, being a shepherd would be a reasonable occupation.

One final note. The Miller family immigrated to the U. S. on the ship Neckar, the same ship that my grandfather Jacob Pape had sailed on the previous year.



1885-10-31(Neckar)MoellerImmigration.jpg
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Entry for the Ludwig 'Moeller' family in the passenger list for the 31 Oct 1885 arrival of the SS Neckar.
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Cook County, IL death record for Franz Moeller.
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Ruegen Heidschnucke.jpg
 Description:
Fine Art Photography: Sheep, Heidschnucke, heath sheep, Ruegen island, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany, Europe

Author: Jürgen Müller
Date: 2009-09-11
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Ruegen Heidschnucke.jpg


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PostPosted: Sun Mar 15, 2015 1:32 pm    Post subject: Where is Datzow? Reply with quote

After looking more closely at the passenger list for the 1885 Neckar voyage on which the Miller family immigrated to the U.S., it became obvious that their home was 'Datzow', not 'Dalzow'. A close search of a map of Rügen Island showed that Datzow was located 1 ½ miles north of the village of Poseritz and 2 miles southwest of Samtens. (See an expanded view of the area below. The lat/long of Waldpark Datzow is 54.319547N, 13.250664W.)

If one is interested in searching the church records for the family, they would probably be located in one of the four following places: St. Mary's Church or Gustow Village Church, parish of Poseritz; Samtens Church or St. John's Church, parish of Rambin. All of them are Evangelical (Lutheran or Reformed).



Datzow overhead.JPG
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Expanded view of Datzow area on Rügen Island, Germany. (From Google Maps.)
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