Maggie Dickenson James was a resident of Rogers Townhouse residential care facility at the time of her death. Johnson interviewed her shortly before Mrs. James passed on. Below are excerpts from that interview, used with permission.

 Margaret Dickenson as born the middle child of Frank and Brigette Dickenson. When she was 5 years old her mother died. In 1900, it was not an unusual happening for mothers to die young, leaving hard-working husbands to care for small children.

Frank was a ship-hand which meant long hours of hard labor. Feeling unable to care for three girls he turned to the Children's Aid Society for an answer. "My father was holding our little sister on his lap and crying when the people from the Christian Children's Home came to take us away. I guess he knew he would never see us again," Margaret (Dickenson) James said.

The three sisters were only in the orphanage for a few weeks when they were taken on an Orphan Train bound for Iowa.

Maggie was picked by Frank and Cora Ellis right away. The other sisters were taken by families in the Griswold, Iowa, area. Maggie was encouraged to forget about her early childhood ride on the orphan train as it seemed to hold some sort of stigma at that time. The Ellis family shielded her from any taunts or insecure feelings connected with her adoption.

'It seems a long time ago and sometimes, another world, when I rode the orphan train. From what I have learned, there were several train loads of children brought from New York City to the Midwest to find homes,' James said. 'We thought we were the only ones for awhile...'