BY DARCY DOUGHERTY MAULSBY
As we head into the holidays, ‘tis the season for family gatherings. The descendants of Ethel Staley got a head start in early September in western Iowa, and I was invited.
No, I’m not a Staley. I am interested in the family’s orphan train heritage, though. I had reached out to Ethel’s son Russell to see if I could interview him about his mother’s life-changing journey to Iowa.
He invited me to the Staley’s chicken dinner (oh, that delicious broasted chicken!) at St. Patrick’s Church in Dunlap on Sunday, Sept. 7, followed by a program about Ethel and her siblings’ orphan train history. He even invited me to the Staley family reunion on Sept. 6 in Denison. “My oldest sister, who is 101 years old, is flying in from Longview, Washington,” Russell added.
When I walked into the lobby of the Cobblestone Inn that Saturday evening, I felt right at home. Within minutes, Russell’s younger brother Roger invited me to join the family photo and listen as the relatives (including four of Ethel’s children) reminisced about their family’s unique heritage.
Ethel’s story started decades before in the tiny village of Cold Brook, New York. Her parents, George and Eva Barney, had six children. Eva died in childbirth with the last child in 1903, and George didn’t have the resources to raise his young family alone. He contacted the Children’s Aid Society (CAS) in New York, which took in four of his children in February 1904.
By March 10, 1904, the Barney kids (Elmer, 11; Alta, 9; Ethel, 7; and Edgar, 20 months) boarded a west-bound “orphan train” with other children and Rev. H.D. Clarke, a CAS agent. The Barney kids, along with 11 other children, arrived in Dunlap a few days later.
Recalling Iowa’s orphan train heritage
The orphan train movement transported roughly 200,000 orphaned, abandoned and impoverished children from crowded East Coast cities to rural communities in the Midwest from 1854 to 1929. Some, like the Barney children, were technically “half orphans,” who had one parent still living.
The goal? Provide these children with a better life and offer a source of labor for the growing West. Orphan train children were “placed out” in nearly every state. Roughly 10,000 orphan train children arrived in more than 300 Iowa communities during the 75-year history of the orphan train movement.
When an orphan train arrived, the children were presented to the community. When a family selected a child, the orphan train agent and the head of the household signed an agreement that the family would take full responsibility to care for the child until he or she reached adulthood.
A story of second chances, hope and resilience
Resin and Elizabeth Malone selected Ethel and took her home to their farm. The Malones later took in Elmer, as well. (Alta and Edgar were also taken in by families in the Dunlap area.)
When Ethel was a teenager, she met a local boy, Leo Staley, who was playing baseball with the Willow Township team. The couple married on Sept. 14, 1915, at St. Boniface Catholic Church in Charter Oak. The local newspaper reported that more than 500 guests attended their reception.
The young couple farmed south of Charter Oak and had 10 children. The Staley family members I met in western Iowa this past summer are among the estimated 2 million orphan-train-rider descendants alive today.
While most orphan train riders’ stories have been lost to history, the legacies of Ethel (1896-1990) and her siblings live on. They remind us of the incredible power of resilience, courage and love. For that, I’m grateful.
Darcy Dougherty Maulsby lives near her family’s Century Farm northwest of Lake City. Visit her at www.darcymaulsby.com.
