Editor's Note: Today's column continues the experiences of Junction Citian Mamie Gunderson Rose, who was one of the many children transplanted from orphanages in the East to new homes with farm families in the Midwest via "orphan trains," This program operated by New York’s Children's Aid Society continued from 1854 to 1929 when the last train unloaded its homeless passengers in Missouri.

The train bearing the three Gunderson children and 17 other orphans from New York City arrived in the little town of Rock Port, Mo. on a chilly morning in January 1905. A notice had been placed in the newspapers prior to its arrival informing residents of the area on what day the children would be arriving and where they would be available for "inspection."

According to one of these notices printed in the Lebanon, Mo. Daily Record in 1909, the only terms required for the placing of the children were that they were to be given schooling and religious training and were to be "treated in every way as members of the family." There was no effective way of screening these foster parents and if efforts were made to do this, they were only cursory . As a result, some of these children were taken only to work as less than hired hands and were badly mistreated. Others were given loving homes and were adopted almost immediately by their foster families.

This traumatic selection process was vividly described by Mamie in the history she wrote when nearly 90 years old. "we landed in Rock Port, Mo., a small town in the northwest part of the sate. We went to the Opera House as soon as we arrived which was about noon. The Opera House was full of people who had come to look us over and to take us home with them. It was lunch time so our chaperones asked the people to take us to their homes for lunch and return to the Opera House where they would then choose who they would take and give homes to. All of the children sat in rows on the stage. Next to me was a girl named Sarah Connet. She had a twin brother, Sammy. When the people were called to come up to the stage and make their choice there was a real old looking man who had a long white beard and bushy white hair. His name was E. J. Million

"When Sarah and I saw him", she said. "I hope I don't go home with him" and I said the same thing. But he did pick out Sarah. She started crying and said. "I won't go without Sammy, my brother. So it happened that another man who was near said "I'll take them both," so then the old man Mr. Million took me I didn't show any signs of being disappointed. I went with him. His wife was a very large woman and was crippled up so bad that I didn't see her until we got in the buggy."

"I rode with them to their home which was at the edge of town. It consisted of an acre or more and had a big barn where they kept the horses and a cow, They also had chickens and hogs. An orchard was in one corner of the lot. The barn had a hay mow which connected it to the buggy shed, There was lots of room to play and I was so happy to be free and go all over the place. I climbed the trees and anything else to climb such as the barn and sheds. After being pent up in the orphanage for nearly five years, it was like heaven.

Unfortunately Mamie's new family was not as kind to her as some of the foster parents in the neighborhood She recalls that the Millions, who were wealthy farmers from the Tennessee hill country. took some getting used to. Mrs. Million smoked a corn cob pipe and chewed tobacco and Mamie recounts how shocked she was the first time she saw this huge woman take out her pipe and bag of tobacco and spit her tobacco juice into the stove. She also learned very quickly that when riding anywhere in the buggy she must stay on the opposite side of the vehicle and act as ballast until Mrs. Million had gotten out or the buggy would over-turn.

Sadly, Mamie's foster parents were not too concerned about keeping the terms of the orphan train contract. She tells how much it hurt her to see the file which had been prepared at the orphanage giving information about her birth, her parents, and her training at the orphanage just tossed into the stove by Mr. Million after they arrived home that first day. This was the only record she had of her past and was the final link with her family in New York.

The promised opportunity to go to school was the thing which Mamie wanted the most. She had a bright quick mind and enjoyed very much attending school in Rock Port and made many friends there. However, after two years, the Millions moved to a farm out in the country and Mamie then had to attend the country school. "My younger brother, Joe lived with a family now just a short distance from where I lived and we would walk the one and a half miles to school together each day. After School, I always had a lot of chores to do before supper time. I had to feed the chickens, gather the eggs, pick up the cobs and chop the kindling to start the fire in the cook stove. Then I had to fix the supper and do the dishes and clean up the kitchen before I could start my lessons."

According to son, Chuck Rose, Mamie's foster parents didn't care much about schooling and this caused lots of problems for the learning-happy girl. When Mamie graduated with honors from the country school, she wanted to go on to high school but the Millions opposed this and so Mamie wrote to a Mr. Clark, who was an early-day social worker hired by the orphanage, who lived in the area. He immediately came to see her and look over the situation. "He had had similar cases to mine before where the children had been forced by, the foster parents to stay home and work instead of attending school. So Mr. Clark asked me a lot of questions, but the most important was would I like to care for two feebleminded children. I said I would do anything to go on to school. So I left there in July for Milton, Wisc. where I would be able to live with this family and care for the retarded children and attend high school. I was 14 years old that month."

Mamie completed high school in Milton first in her class and was awarded a scholarship to attend Milton College where she worked in the dining hall and library to pay her way. At the end of her first year of college, she was invited back to Rock Port for a visit by her brother's foster family. While she was there several of her friends gave a party for her and one of the guests was a young man who was going to watchmaker’s school--Vern Rose. They talked all evening long and before her visit was over she and Vern had decided to get married. On Sept. 2, 1915, Mamie became Mrs. Vern Rose.

All Mamie had ever wanted in her life was a home of her own and finally this was possible. The Roses moved to Junction City in 1924, and here Mamie and Vern at last purchased the home she has always dreamed of. Two sons, Charles and Bob, blessed their family and grew to manhood here, and after living 65 years in Junction City, Mamie Gunderson Rose can definitely call this place "home."