By Kent Dinnebier
Guests bring Orphan Train re-enactment to life
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A Re-Enactment of the arrival
of the Orphan Train in Clarinda in December of 1922 was presented by First
United Methodist Church on Sunday morning, May 11. Members of the Youth Choir portrayed the 12
orphans who arrived in Clarinda on that day and made the walk from the depot to
the church in hopes of finding a new family.
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History came to life in
Clarinda on Sunday, May 11, as the members of First United Methodist Church
recreated the arrival of the Orphan Train in Clarinda in 1992.
The Orphan Train arrived on a cold winter
morning in December and a group of 12 orphans made the walk from the train
depot to First Methodist Episcopal Church, hoping a new family would be waiting
for them when they arrived.
On Sunday morning, a group of 12 members
from the First United Methodist Church Youth Choir portrayed the orphans and
recreated that walk. The event was help
as part of the church’s year-long 150th anniversary celebration,
which also coincides with the Clarinda Sesquicentennial celebration this year.
Three special guests
also attended the festivities. Sunday
morning, including Arthur Fields Smith of Hamilton, N.J., who was one of the 12
orphans that arrived in Clarinda in 1922.
“The day we made the walk it was very cold,
but it didn’t really bother us because we were so excited about the possibility
of finding parents,” Smith recalled.
Also attending the event was Linda Beavers
Carlson of Glendale, Calif. Her father,
Walter Calowski, and uncle, Alexander Calowski, were also among the 12 orphans
who came to Clarinda. Walteer was taken
in by the Roy Beavers family and was known as Harold Beavers, while Alexander
was initially taken in by the John Baker family and known as Alexander Douthit.
“I’m a little overwhelmed with this weekend,”
Carlson said, “I went to this church as a child and my grandmother went
here. So, when I found out they were
going to do the reenactment, I was really happy.”
Finally, Mary McLain attended the
event. Her mother, Viola Volkert, and
two aunts were riders on the Orphan Train in 1912 that went to Clear Lake. While McClain is not related to the orphans
who arrived in Clarinda 10 years after her mother rode the Orphan Train, she realized
the importance of preserving the local history of the event.
“To me, it’s very important that this
history be kept. This was probably the
largest migration of children in the world,” McClain said. “I think it’s a very, very marvelous thing
that the community decided to honor not only the Orphan Train children who were
adopted, but any children who were adopted.”
Smith and Carlson were also pleased that
First United Methodist Church and Clarinda was willing to honor the arrival of
the Orphan Train.
“In a small town like this, especially,
everything is so intertwined. It just
all works together, whether it’s the cultural history or the historical
history. Everything meshes together and
it’s all intertwined,” Carlson explained.
“I was very pleased at the very idea that
they would remember it in this way, particularly on their 150th
anniversary,” Smith agreed. “They’ve had
a long history of being interested in orphans and I’m sure that its probably
one of the reasons they opened their arms and their buildings to accept the
children who came in on the train.”
Smith also felt it was very appropriate that
the celebration be held on Mother’s Day.
Carlson was raised by her grandparents and
didn’t really know her parents because they died when she was only 3.
Therefore, learning about the Orphan Train
has allowed Carlson the opportunity to learn about her father.
“It’s been real interesting for me to find
out things about my dad,” Carlson said. “It’s
a journey for me, too.,”
Following the death of her parents, Carlson
said her father’s parents traveled to Kentucky to adopt her and her brother and
returned to Clarinda to raise the two grandchildren.
“The adoption thing kind of came full circle
for us as a family and I was very blessed,” Carlson explained. “My grandparents instilled in me a real sense
of spirituality and the idea that you can do anything in your life. That has really helped and been good for me
and I think they instilled that in my father, too.”
Since 1971, Smith has presented countless
presentations on the history of Orphan Train and his personal experiences.
By sharing those experiences, Smith is
hopeful he can help the children of today with the problems they are facing.
“I’ve really enjoyed talking about it and I
realize I survived an unusual experience.
But, it wasn’t the worst thing in the world that happened to me. When I talk to these kinds in schools, they
have much worse problems. Sometimes I
think, maybe, the Lord had me go through this experience so that I could be
useful in talking to people and explaining to them that there was a way of
surviving these things,” Smith concluded.
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