VIENNA — In Maries County, the orphan train is not a distant history. It is woven into the fabric of the county itself, preserved in church records, family trees and gravestones in towns like Freeburg, Vienna, Argyle and Brinktown.

More than a century ago, children stepped down from railcars onto Missouri platforms carrying little more than the clothes they wore and futures that were uncertain. They did not arrive as visitors, but as lives that would take root.

Maries County Historical Society Director Lisa Jones said many people don’t realize children from the orphan trains found homes in Maries County.

“These children became part of families that shaped this community for generations,” Jones said. “Their stories are still felt in our towns, our schools and our churches.”

Some of the children brought to central Missouri became sons and daughters, workers and parish members, neighbors whose names blended into the rhythm of small-town life. Father John Fugel of the Vienna Catholic Church became a central figure in those arrivals. He organized placements for children who reached the county, coordinated with families and prepared homes so that no child was left standing alone among strangers.

“Father Fugel had a way of making sure each child found a place where they could thrive,” Jones said. “He was insistent that these children be treated as part of the family, and that had a lasting impact on the community.”

There are 14 documented children tied directly to mid-Missouri through the orphan train, out of an estimated 200,000 children relocated nationwide. Yet those 14 represent a powerful intersection between national history and local identity.

• Katherine Blasch was born in New York in 1899 and lived until 1969, and was taken in by Kasper and Rosa Kaiser. She later married Francis Shirley.

Jennie Coleman was born in 1899 in New York and became the adopted daughter of Henry and Elizabeth Koerber in Vienna.

• John Elkins entered the world in 1892 and was raised by Fritz and Clara Fatler of either Vienna or Freeburg. His life continued for many decades before his passing, preserved largely through family history records.

• Harry Fields was born in 1897 in New York and arrived in Vienna in 1901 as a young child. He grew up with Elias and Sybilla Zeilman and later continued his life in Cole County.

• Dorothy C. Otto Haggerty was born around 1899 or 1900 in New York and grew up with John Otto and Margaret Buschmann Otto in Vienna. Her life with her husband, Walter Haggerty, carried her into the early 1960s.

• Katherine “Katie” Hoeller was born in either 1898 or 1899 and was adopted by Joseph and Margaret Hoeller of Brinktown. She later settled in Washington, Missouri, with her husband Lawrence Volmert and lived out her years there.

• August “Gus” Hoffman was born in 1898 in New York and became the adopted son of Anna Brink of Brinktown. His long life came to an end in 1984 in Missouri.

• Mary A. Smith Kegler was born in 1899 in New York and lived until 1971. She came to Missouri in 1900 with Helen Meronerl Weidinger. She grew up in the home of John and Bernadine Buschmann, later married Joseph Kegler.

• Ugene Lekow was born in 1898 in New York and found a home with John and Agnes Richter in Vienna. His early years are documented, though the details of his adulthood and death remain unrecorded.

• Marie S. Steinman Redel was born in 1907 and adopted by Joseph and Anna Steinman near Argyle in 1911. She passed in 1984 in Missouri.

• Bernard “Ben” Smith was born in 1882 in New York and became one of two orphans adopted by Anna Brink of Brinktown. His life continued well into adulthood.

• Lester Soulier was born in Manhattan in 1897 and was raised by Christina Volmert of Vienna. He later worked as an optometrist in St. Louis.

• Martin Lawrance Zellman was born in 1897 in New York and was adopted in Vienna in 1901 by Mary Zimmer. He remained connected to Missouri throughout his life.

Among these stories, the most detailed belongs to Helen, also known as Lena Meronerl Weidinger. Born in 1896, she arrived in Freeburg in 1900 at the age of four and was raised by Father Fugel in the parish rectory, with housekeeper Anna Westhoff guiding her early years. Her daily routine included sweeping parish halls, tending linens, assisting with church tasks and ringing the parish bell at 6 a.m., noon and again at 6 p.m. to call parishioners to the Angelus prayer. She later married Gerhardt “Jerry” Weidinger and ran the Home Advisor newspaper with him.

“Helen was a remarkable presence in the community,” Jones said. “She worked tirelessly in the church and later with the newspaper, and everyone remembered her. Her story embodies the spirit of the orphan train in Maries County.”

The Maries County Historical Society still has the clothes that Weidinger wore when she stepped off the train over a century ago.

“Holding that dress,” Jones said, “You can imagine the hope and fear of a small child stepping off the train into a completely new life. It’s tangible history for our community.”

Father Fugel placed other children in Argyle, Freeburg, Vienna and Brinktown. Jones said that many of the families who adopted them still have descendants living locally. The orphan train is often described in numbers, but when narrowed to a single child stepping down onto a Missouri platform, the story has new life. In Maries County, those children became roots. Their descendants walk the same roads, attend the same church festivals, vote in the same town halls, and send their children to the same schools. Stories that began far from Missouri continue through generations.

According to the New York Genealogy and Biographical Society, by 1850, an estimated 30,000 children were homeless in New York. Newspapers called them vagrants and reformers called them a crisis. Charles Loring Brace was among the few who could not look away. In 1853, he formed the Children’s Aid Society. His vision was not simply to house children but to change their circumstances entirely. If the big city could not provide what a child needed, perhaps the countryside could.

Over the next 75 years, the orphan train system expanded across Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri. According to the Social Welfare History Project out of Virginia, roughly 200,000 children were relocated through the system. Some found families who cherished them, some were treated as workers, some stayed for life and others left when they turned sixteen.

The first group of 45 orphans boarded a train on Oct. 1, 1854. They traveled under the supervision of early social workers. Their destination was Dowagiac, Mich.

By the late 1800s, orphan trains had reached Missouri in earnest. The New York Foundling Hospital, a Roman Catholic Church facility founded in 1869, worked with priests nationwide to place children in Catholic homes. Father Fugel corresponded with them, bringing children to Maries County and placing them with willing families on farms or in small towns.

“The intention was always to give these children a chance,” Jones said. “Even though the train carried them far from New York, these kids found homes and became part of the local community.”