A Thomas Family and the Orphan Train

Day bittersweet for ‘Orphan Train' riders 

 

By SANDRA MYERS smyers@kentuckynewera.com

Jun 16, 2001

CADIZ, Ky. — Ethel Flowers remembers the fall of 1934 as if it was yesterday and every Father's Day since has held bittersweet memories for her.  She was 7, it was the tail end of the depression, and times were hard.  It was a chilly October day; she and her two brothers and a younger sister, along with 10 or 20 other children were placed on a train leaving from the Kentucky Children's Home at Lyndon.  It was hoped by the children's home that by sending the "orphans" on the trains to find new "families," they would have a chance to lead a better life than if left in the home or left to fend for themselves.  Stories of events surrounding the "orphan trains" recount how brothers and sister were separated in the process, sometimes never to see each other again.

Flowers was one of a family of five children whose father had been killed in an accident, leaving their mother with little schooling and no means of support.  It was those circumstance that led her mother to place all except the youngest sibling, a 10-month-old baby, and her oldest child, in the Kentucky Children's Home.

A committee had been at work before the arrival of the train in Hopkinsville, trying to arrange potential families for the expected children.  Advance notices of "Homes Wanted for Orphans" were placed in key newspapers by the home. The community would be allowed to "visit" with the children and if a match was made between the adult and child, and the local committee approved, the child would leave and go to his or her "new home."

After the train pulled into the Hopkinsville station, Flowers and the others were taken to the courthouse for "inspection."  Hubert and Vada Thomas, of Cadiz, had driven into Hopkinsville to meet the train, hoping to find an infant to take in. They had recently lost their only child, a little girl who had lived but one day.   As the children paraded around the courthouse, the Cadiz couple noticed a cute little girl named Ethel, and they decided to take her to lunch.

"I latched on to Hubert and wouldn't let go. I wanted to stay with them," Flowers recalls. "She (Vada) had taken a special interest in two of the babies before we went to lunch, one with light hair, and one with dark. During lunch, she asked him which one of the babies they should take home. He answered by saying, Why don't we just take the one we have here?' "

They bundled the 7-year-old up for the trip to Cadiz and her new life.  Flowers has never forgotten that day.  "I have always remembered that they chose me over the baby they had come looking for," she said.

The effects of the Depression made it very difficult to make a living in Trigg County. By the time Flowers turned 10, Hubert Thomas was preparing to go to Detroit to find work.

Anticipating the move to Detroit, and knowing Flowers would not be permitted to leave Kentucky, the Thomases arranged for her to return to her birth family.  They took Flowers back to the train station in Hopkinsville. "I remembered it from before, but I remember it best for that night. It was pouring down rain, and the beginning of the 1937 flood," she reflected.  Flowers was taken to her maternal grandmother's home, where she lived for several years. She eventually moved with her mother to Fairmount, Ind.

In the ensuing years, Flowers and the Thomases lost touch with one another. In 1951, shortly after she married Cecil Flowers, she returned to Trigg County, determined to find her second family, the Thomases.  It was a joyous reunion for all concerned.  By 1997, Hubert Thomas had died, and Vada Thomas — not wanting to be alone — encouraged Flowers and her husband to move back to Trigg County.

Flowers remembers with mixed emotions the good and the bad of the orphan train ordeal. While it was a traumatic experience for a small child, she is grateful for the many experiences she had and the extra attention, and privileges she experienced as a child with the Thomases. "I have no bad feelings about any of it," she said. "Vada and Hubert are gone now, and I have lost my husband, but I couldn't ask for a better extended family".

"I have always thought how Hubert changed my life so dramatically, choosing to take me home, instead of the tiny baby they had come for. With my father dead, and Hubert's generous heart, I always thought of him as my father, and I always will."

By anybody's standards, the solution devised to solve the problem of crowded orphanages during and after the depression is fascinating. Unofficial reports indicate that during a 70year period, there were more than 350,000 children dispersed throughout the United States by way of "orphan trains." Not all placements were successful, but many "orphan riders" felt they were very fortunate.  And for many of the "orphan" children, their stories have yet to be told.

Three who still live in Cadiz are Charlie Butts, now 80, and his sisters Alice, 79, and Naomi, 75.  Alice was barely 7 when she arrived in Cadiz on the train. Today, she still remembers the cold December train ride. "It was Dec. 15, when my 5yearold sister, Namoi, and I came to Cadiz from Kentucky Children's Home. It was just before Christmas, the home was overcrowded with kids," she recalls. "There was no way to keep all of us warm," she said. "Naomi and I were two of a family of 10 kids. We got off the train at Cadiz courthouse and promptly paraded in front of those willing to adopt' us.

"The Litchfield brothers owned joining farms, and took us in," she said. "Some time later, my older brother, Charles, came up from the home, and was taken in by the Mathis family. He was a teenager when he arrived at the Mathis farm." The fact that the three farms joined one another brought the sisters and brother together often.

"It was the best thing that ever happened to me to come to Trigg County. We had nothing where I had come from. When I walked into the Litchfield home, I couldn't believe my eyes," Alice said. "I didn't know people had things like that."

 

 

THE LINEAGE:

(Hubert Jackson "Tige" Thomas was the son of Lucian M. and Inez B. Crews Thomas and the grandson of Jonathan Starkie and Julia Dyer Thomas.  Jonathan Starkie was the third child of William Bridges and Nancy Jane Rogers Thomas.  William was the first child of Starkie and Mary Bridges Thomas.  Starkie was the fourth child of James and Mary Standley Thomas.  Mary Bridges was the fifth child of Drury and Charity Cohoon Bridges.)