This Month in St. Louis History

"Orphan Trains" came to Missouri

One of the unusual events in Missouri's long and varied history was the period of the "orphan trains." Thousands of homeless kids from New York City were loaded on trains and shipped west to find homes with Midwest families.

Another September landmark in Missouri history was the founding of the first school of journalism in the country. The University of Missouri's School of Journalism opened on Sept. 14, 1908.

Each month, the Missouri History Museum staff searches out past reports of people and events that made our history. This article is of things from past Septembers.

Young Saint Louis.com brings you these reports in the hope that they will encourage you to take more interest in the area's varied and interesting past.

(For more about Missouri history, visit the museum's website at www.mohistory.org.)

"Orphan trains" to the Midwest

One of the most unusual answers to the problem of homeless children was discovered by Charles Loring Brace in the mid 1800s. His Children's Aid Society of New York worked to find homes for thousands of street kids from New York City.

One of Brace's answers was the famous (or infamous) "orphan trains," which began in September, 1854. For many years, these trains brought New York orphans to the Midwest in search of new homes. Missouri was one of the destinations.

For instance, a meeting was held in Troy, Mo., on Feb. 25, 1910. A local committee was in charge of finding new homes in Troy for orphans being shipped west by Brace.

Such local meetings were scheduled throughout the Midwest for a period of 75 years. Estimates put the total of orphans brought to the Midwest at up to 400,000. Of those, as many as 100,000 were said to have been sent to Missouri.

(Several websites give different versions of the "orphan train" movement. They include: http://soundprint.org/radio/display_show/ID/635/name/, http://www.rootsweb.com/~mogrundy/orphans.html,
http://www.kancoll.org/articles/orphans/or_hist.htm )

The Frisco Railroad was incorporated

The St.Louis and San Francisco Railway was incorporated in Missouri on Sept. 7, 1876.

The Frisco was formed from the Missouri and Central divisions of the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad. This new railroad went bankrupt and re-emerged at the St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad in 1896.

In the beginning, the Frisco had two main lines: from St. Louis to Tulsa to Oklahoma City and from Kansas City, to Memphis to Birmingham, Ala. The junction of the two lines was in Springfield, Mo.

During this period in the later 1800s and early 1900s, there were dozens of ownership changes of railroads in the U.S. For instance, the 1876 incorporation of the Frisco had been preceded by three other railroads.

And the Frisco acquired 25 different railroads, many of them small regional companies. In addition, it acquired partial or total assets of 18 other railway companies.

In 1980, the Frisco itself was acquired by the Burlington Northern Railroad.

(For more, visit http://thelibrary.springfield.missouri.org/lochist/frisco/.)

Nation's first School of Journalism

The first school of journalism in the United States opened its doors at the University of Missouri-Columbia on Sept. 14, 1908. A Columbia, Mo., newspaperman Walter Williams was the first dean.

Enrollment in the first class was 64, with 53 of them being freshmen. Eight others were special students but not candidates for a journalism degree. The other three were College of Arts and Science students who were going to work in journalism.

Of those first 64 students, six were women.

From the first day of classes, the school published its own newspaper, named the University Missourian. (The paper got its present name, The Columbia Missourian, in 1923.)

The first classes were held in Academic Hall, which is now Jesse Hall, the headquarters of the Columbia campus.

(For more, visit http://mulibraries.missouri.edu/journalism/jhistory.html)

The Missouri Athletic Club opens

The Missouri Athletic Club opened its doors on Sept. 13, 1903. Since then, it has become one of the nation's best city clubs in the country. Its first members had a hand in hosting, officiating and even competing in the 1904 Olympics, held in conjunction with the 1904 World's Fair.

The first MAC building burned down in March, 1914. But, the present quarters have been operating since March 1, 1916.

The main building is located at 406 Washington Ave. in downtown St. Louis. The Missouri Athletic Club West is located at 1777 Des Peres Rd. in Town and Country. The West location was opened in 1995 to offer more programs such as tennis and outdoor swimming.

One of the MAC's premier events is its annual athletes dinner. That includes selection of a MAC Sports Personality of the Year award.

(For more, visit http://mac-stl.org/auhistory.htm.)

Missouri's last Civil War veteran

The man who lived to become the last Missouri Civil War veteran enlisted in September, 1964. When John Hutchison died in March, 1951, the State of Missouri designated him the state's last Civil War veteran. He was 104.

Hutchison enlisted in the Union Army when he was underage at 17. His motivation was that he had seen Confederate soldiers kill his uncle in a field near this home in Ozark County.

He was assigned to Company I, which was given the job of patrolling the border between Arkansas and Missouri. These patrols were to stop Confederate raids into Missouri, which were on the increase.

For Hutchison, his Civil War service turned out to be nearly in his own backyard.

(For more, visit http://www.watersheds.org/historyl/hutchinson.htm.)