Orphan Trains and Google Books

My paternal great grandmother is one of my family’s enduring mysteries: Who she was? Where did she come from? How did she happen to come here?

Her Hoosier prehistory has been the source of speculation throughout my lifetime, and at holiday dinners her survivors compare what they know, what they think they remember, and what they speculate. Talk at Thanksgivings and birthdays and family visits has often cycled back to her—if only briefly—for much of my 50-some years. The same liturgy, over and over.

Here is what we know we know:

• She was our great-grandmother (there are no surviving children or grandchildren, only great-grands).
•  Her maiden name was Kate Higgins.
• She married Clint Cunningham in Martinsville, Indiana, on Christmas Day, 1873.
• She died in 1899, leaving behind her husband and three not-yet-adult children, including my grandfather James Theodore Cunningham, who died the year I was born—1957.
• Oh. And she was the only minor living in the household of James and Sarah Douglas of Martinsville, Indiana, in 1870. The Douglas’s were in their 40s in 1870, and she was 17. Kate’s birthplace is listed on that Census as New York. I learned that this year, and I’ve got proof.

Here is what we have heard or what we think we have heard:

•  She had a brother who was also adopted into a family that lived in a nearby town in Indiana.
•  She may have come to the Midwest from NYC on an “orphan train.”
•  An uncle from NYC came to visit Kate one day when she was an adult, but she refused to see him. There is longstanding family speculation that an uncle took unfair advantage of Kate and her siblings after the death of their parents, but there is no proof. Just intimation.
• While living in Martinsville, she may have been threatened by the Ku Klux Klan because of Irish-Catholic heritage.
• She died of tuberculosis.

Here the letter I sent today, based on information found late last week through Google Books, after typing the following into the search field: “Kate. Cunningham. Martinsville.”

Dear Mr. [New York Children’s Aid Society Archivist],

My name is Anne Cunningham Robinson, and I am searching for information on my paternal great grandmother, Kate Higgins, who apparently was placed by the Society in an Indiana home in 1860 or 1861 (the letter below indicates 1860, but I have seen other data that indicates it could have been 1861) . I’m specifically interested in learning the names of her mother and father, if known, and any other information on the circumstances of why and how she came to the Society. I am happy to pay associated fees.

We believe she was born about 1853 and first appears in the U.S. Census in 1870 as the only other person living in the household of James and Sarah Douglas in Washington Township of Morgan County, Indiana (Martinsville). We always had heard she had a brother who was adopted into another family in Indiana, and that there was an uncle in NYC who had something to do with her being placed out.

Last week I found the following letter in the Appendix of the 1883 annual report of the Children’s Aid Society (which I have transcribed; I found it online):

I.—Children in the Country

A STREET BOY’S SUCCESS
 

BROOKFIELD, Ind., Feb. 5, 1883.
Dear Sir—Not having heard from the Society since I’ve been grown, I thought I would write you a few lines. Mr. Macy was Superintendent when I last heard from there. I did not know whether he was yet or not. I and two sisters left that Society in 1860; was brought to Franklin County, Indiana. I was taken by a Mr. Job Parkhurst, had a good home, lived with him about five years, and his wife died, and he got me a home, and a good one too, with Mr. Benjamin Branch. He gave me a fair education, sent me to school in winter, and learned me to be a farmer.

He sold the farm and moved to a small town. There I learned the painter’s trade and that is what I am working at now, trying to support a wife and one little blue-eyed boy, four months old. I’ve been married three and a half years, am 28 years old the 25th day of December, according to Mr. Macy’s account.

I write to you to see if I could find out anything of my folks in New York. My father and mother are supposed to be dead. I can recollect some of my father and uncle and the Children’s Aid Society—a grand place it is, and may God bless the managers and all connected with it. My father’s name was Thomas Higgins; my uncle’s name was Thomas Bryant. I was born on Elizabeth Street. Dec. 25, 1854, I’ve two sisters—one older and one younger than myself. My oldest sister’s name is Kate Higgins—now Kate Cunningham. My youngest sister’s name was Ella Higgins. Kate lives at Martinsville, Morgan County, Ind. Ella lives at Indianapolis with a private family.

The way I know my uncle, I was begging something to eat; I called at a house in New York, asked of them to give me something to eat, and the man asked my name. I told him, and father’s also, and where I lived in Elizabeth Street. He then said: “I am your uncle,” and that is about all I can recollect. Seems like I was taken that night.

Now if you can tell me of any of my folks I would be ever so much obliged to you. I would like ever so much to hear from any of them. I will never forget the Children’s Aid Society. It did good work for me and a number of others that I know of. So I will now close, hoping to hear from you, if not too much trouble. So hoping God will bless you,

I remain yours truly,

Michael Higgins

Thank you in advance for any assistance or information you can provide.
Anne Pearce Cunningham Robinson

And thank you, Google Books.