Charles and Maggie Dunnaway of Benton County, Arkansas, went to see the orphans brought by the train from New York by the Children's Aid Society on October 16, 1916.

A fiesty three - year old, named Willie, caught the attention of the childless young couple.

"We were taken from the train to the Methodist Church. Speeches were made and folks were asked to take an orphan home for dinner. Later that afternoon we were brought back for the selection process," Willie recalled.

During the selection time, the Dunnaways asked for him.

"I felt sorry for the others because some of them were not chosen. I know now how it must have hurt them to feel that no one wanted them," Willy said.

The "placing-out" program had been going on for 62 years (started in 1854) by the year Dunnaway was taken out of a New York orphanage, along with several other children, and placed on a train headed for Arkansas.

"My folks gave me a good life," Dunnaway said. "I went to school, church and had as good a life as anyone around me. There seemed to not be anythng different about my being an orphan. I'm proud of my family. I grew up in a caring home."

Dunnaway says he often wonders what nationality he might be as his "real" name was Czik.

Willie married Fleeta Galyean on November 18, 1931. A bond that is as strong today as when they took their wedding vows.

Parents of five children, Willie and Fleeta are proud of their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren laughing about how this little "orphan" has grown and multiplied.

Community and church work occupy much of their time.

Attending basketball games, selling fruits and vegetables, exhibiting Fleeta's exquisite handwork, and driving around the countryside visiting folks fill the rest of their waking hours.

Willie assisted Evelyn Sheets, Evelyn Trickel and Michael Patrick of the University of Missouri, Rolla, and the Gundy County Historical Library, Missouri, in their efforts to preserve the history of the Orphans, giving them his life story.

Letters, photographs, newspaper articles are among some of the precious mementos stored in the Dunnaway home.

A Charter Member of OTHSA, Mr. Dunnaway has served as President of the organization's Board of Directors.

"I do all I can to help in anyway I can," Dunnaway quietly said. "I think it is just wonderful that the Orphan Train Heritage Soiciety has been formed and all the information they can gather will be kept in one place."

One reason that two articles have been printed in Arkansas newspapers about Willie, is his open, honest, and joyful spirit.

Mr. Dunnaway recently passed away [1999]. While living, Mr. Dunnaway was a popular speaker, who closed his talks with a poem that stirred the hearts of all who were lucky enough to be in the audience.

Local civic organizations, church groups and clubs frequently called upon Dunnaway to present a program on the Orphan Trains. Mr. Dunnaway scheduled his public speaking during the winter months so that he could turn his full attention to vegetable production in the spring and summer.

The train ride three year old Willie took in 1916 may have, indeed, fulfilled Charles Loring Brace's dream of taking orphaned, abandoned and neglected orphans out of institutions to good, wholesome, caring new homes in rural America.

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