Dowagiac focus for ‘America’s first foster kids’

Published 7:58 am Wednesday, June 25, 2003

By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
With Dowagiac being the site of the first group of children sent west on "orphan trains" by the Children's Aid Society in September 1854, the town became a test for the program.
Orphan train riders are recognized as the first documented foster children in America, according to Mary Ellen Johnson, executive director of OTHSA Inc. (Orphan Train Heritage Society of America Inc.) in Springdale, Ark.
She founded the organization 17 years ago to preserve " a piece of America's history that was almost lost."
Johnson, who communicated with the late Stanley Hamper about Dowagiac's involvement with the orphan trains when the local historian and author was the founding director of Southwestern Michigan College Museum, said in a letter to Dowagiac City Council that she has waited many years to approach the community with a formal request that the first riders be honored with a special celebration in September 2004 upon the 150th anniversary.
The Michigan Foster Parents Association wants to be involved with the celebration.
Labor Day weekend 2004 "was selected as the date for your consideration because your new governor (Jennifer Granholm) had an opening that weekend when she was first elected and this event is one she has been informed of and is very much in favor of it being held," Johnson wrote.
www.orphantrainriders.com