Mary Brown/Toni Weiler
How The Orphans Lived
Historical News
ADAMS COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
JANUARY, 1981, VOL.14 NO.1
The frightened two-year-old youngster known as Mary Brown who got off the train in McCook in 1913 became the only child of George and Nellie Martin and acquired a new name. Although she was never legally adopted she went by the name of Antoinette Martin from then on.
When she was nine years old, the Martins moved to Hastings, where she grew to maturity, a bubbly, inquisitive child. Eventually she married Leo Weiler, a shoemaker, and as Toni Weiler became the mother of eight children, grandmother of several. While her own youngsters were growing up she was a Scout leader, active in PTA, and involved in other activities related to child-development, determined to be the best mother possible to her youngsters. After they grew up and since her husband's retirement, she has done secretarial work at Hastings College and for the Hastings Catholic Schools. Her life has been full.
For years Toni made light of her unknown genetic heritage, joking that since she had no knowledge of her background she could claim to be whatever she wanted--German, French, Irish, whatever seemed logical for her slight stature, dark eyes and dark hair. All her life she had a vivid imagination and has fanaticized about her blood family, her real mother.
When Toni Weilers' foster parents died, she did not share in any inheritance, but a few years ago when some of their nieces died, Toni found in their effects the Indenture document which her foster had signed on that long ago day in 1913.
None of the other orphans from the orphan trains seem to have known about such documents; apparently foster parents did not want the children to know about them. In Toni's, the last part was inked out so that it was not legally binding. It read "If the (parents) shall die leaving a last will and testament, such shall contain provision or provisions giving, bequeathing and devising to said child at least as large a share of the estate, real and personal, of the testator, as she would have received if said testator had died intestate and said child had been the natural and legitimate child..."
Through the years she tried to get information from the Foundling Home about her identity, but it was not until the Freedom of Information Act was passed that she was able to find out for sure who she is. Three days before Christmas, 1980 she learned that her parents, married and with a child older than Toni, were Irish immigrants to this country, named Murphy, and that her father worked as a stevedore on the New York docks.
Who her sibling is, what happened to him/her, and why her parents placed her in the Foundling Home are questions she has no answers for yet, but she is still making inquiries, searching for clues. The most important answer, though, she finally has, for her Christmas gift in her 70th year was the knowledge of who she is!
As an orphan from an orphan train, Toni has been widely interviewed, not only by newsmen but also by psychologists and welfare officials eager to gain an understanding of the feelings and attitudes of displaced children. She has also made many speeches about her life as an orphan, including one for the Adams County Historical Society fall meeting in October, 1980.
Editor's Note: Toni Weiler passed on since the writing of this article.It was my pleasure to have known Mrs. Weiler.
