Betty Glidewell and Marge Stuber always knew that their mother had been adopted by her parents, but in 1997, more than twenty years after her death, they learned that she was part of a fascinating chapter in American history—the orphan trains. Between 1849 and 1926, at least 200,000 homeless children were brought west from eastern cities to be placed in homes of families who would agree to care for them.

There were so many orphan children in the cities that the orphan trains were devised as away to get children in need of homes out of the crowded cities to homes in the west where there were families who wanted more children. In some cases, the children were overworked and mistreated, but, in most cases orphan trains seemed to have given children better lives.

Stuber and Glidewell have learned that their mother, Blanche Melinda Thomas, was born in 1911 Brandon, New York. In 1917, she and her two younger sisters were taken to the United Helpers Asylum, an orphanage, in Ogdensburg, New York, by their father. He had to be away from home for long periods of time to work and had come home several times to find his wife gone and the children not being taken care of properly.

Three months later, the Thomas sisters were taken from Ogdensburg to the Children’s Aid Society in New York City. The Society, headed by Charles Loring Brace, organized many of the orphan trains over the years. The sisters--Blanche, age six; Olive, age four-, and Ruth, age two--were sent to Sulphur Springs, Texas, on an orphan train in March of 1918.

Olive, because she "clammed up" and wouldn't talk, was assumed to be retarded and was sent back to New York and raised in an asylum. However, she later married and had a family and was known to be living in New Mexico at one time. Ruth was placed with a family in Weatherford, Texas, and later married and moved to California.

Blanche was placed with three different families--the Coffeys, the Millers and the Larsons-before she finally went to live with John E. and Kate Braxton two years after arriving in Texas. Glidewell and Stuber feel that their grandparents, the Braxtons, may have wanted Blanche to "replace" a daughter who had died earlier. But, whatever the reason, Blanche, who then was called "Linda" or "Lindy" had a happy life after becoming the Braxton’s daughter in 1920.

She grew up as the only child in the Braxton family, and they moved to Silver City, New Mexico, in 1922, then to a ranch five miles outside of Tucson several years later. She was officially adopted when she was fifteen years old.

Stuber and Glidewell have wonderful memories of their grandparents--that grandpa had been a justice of the peace, that he was a terrible driver, that they had wonderful holidays at the Tucson ranch and that grandma always called her husband "Mr. Braxton."

In 1930, Blanche Melinda Thomas Braxton was married to Ray Barnhart, a Kansan who had come to Tucson to work on a hotel that was being built. They met in the elevator of the department store where Blanche was employed and were married just a few weeks later. The Barnharts remained in Arizona for many years, but later lived in California and Minnesota. In 1957, they and their daughters (Stuber and Glidewell) moved to Wichita.

Blanche died in 1965, and Ray died in 1969. Stuber and Glidewell say they just wish their parents would have told them about Blanche's orphan train experience. Through re-search, they have come to realize that they lived just a few miles from their mother's sister Ruth when they were living in California. They are in touch with her and also with another aunt Alta, who was their mother's older half sister. Alta cared for the three little girls when she didn't have to be in school. Marge Stuber feels certain that's why her middle name is Alta, although her mother never told her so. They have also learned that their mother's natural father lived until 1959, and they wish they had had a chance to meet him.

Betty Glidewell will be attending the Orphan Train Heritage Society of America reunion in Fayetteville in October. Marge Stuber says "Betty does all the research. I just get on the phone and talk to the people she finds!" Glidewcll says she now has the names of 320 Thomas relatives in her computer, and she says she just loves researching the orphan trains and her family.

Marge Stuber lives at Viola. She was widowed ten years ago, and she has two children, Her son Greg, a KSU graduate, is an engineer and lives in Salina, and her daughter Janice, a graduate of Kansas Newman College, works for Big Brothers and Big Sisters in Wichita. Betty Glidewell and her husband Loran are both retired from Beech, and they live north of Clearwater.