Curtis Varnell, PhD. As the train pulled to a stop, dozens of children exited the passenger cars and stood on the platform nervously looking over the crowd gathered to greet them. The long trip from New York city was over but the people waiting to welcome them were total strangers. Many of the kids were dressed in ragged, cast-off clothing, and their small bags contained everything they owned. These were the kids of the Orphan Train. The trains arriving in Clarksville, Paris, Booneville and Fort Smith contained dozens of the more than 200,000 kids sent from New York, Boston, Chicago and Philadelphia to be adopted. Most were children of the millions of immigrants pouring into the major cities. Immigrant families often had many children, but if accident or illness took the father, the entire family was left poverty-stricken and destitute. Others were just products of illegitimate affairs, neglect or desertion; children unwanted by those that chose to bear them.