The Plainview Historical Society, partnered with Humanities Nebraska, will be bringing a special guest speaker, Charlotte Endorf, and a program about the Orphan Train to Plainview on Tuesday evening, May 20.
The event will be held in the Pirate Auditorium at Plainview Public Schools, and will begin at 2 p.m.
The full title of the event is “Excess Baggage: Riding the Orphan Train.” The historic story of the orphan train in American, and the Midwest is if parents were unable to feed or house children in the larger cities of America, they could put their children on the orphan train, which traveled west and put kids up for adoption at many stops.
Endorf has traveled more than 15,000 miles seeking the last surviving riders and descendants to document the real-life stories of the children who rode the Orphan Trains between the years of 1854 and 1929.
Dressed in period attire, she entertains and educates audiences of all ages about this little-known Nebraska history. She found she was related to an Orphan Train rider after thousands of miles of speaking about the subject – could you be, too?
Endorf has written four books, produced two DVDs and a CD about the subject.
She also took a 94-year-old Orphan Train rider to New York City to open her records that dated back to 1917. The rider, who lived to be 100, traveled with her as she spoke.
She was one of the last Train riders Endorf knew, and she passed away in 2014.
The Orphan Train is one of approximately 300 programs offered through the Humanities Nebraska Speakers Bureau. The more than 165 available speakers include acclaimed scholars, writers, musicians, storytellers and folklorists on topics ranging from pioneer heritage to ethics and law to international and multicultural issues, making it the largest humanities speakers bureau in the nation.
Each program lasts 30 minutes to an hour, plus a question-and answer period.
This presentation will be made possible by Humanities Nebraska, the Nebraska Cultural Endowment and the Plainview Historical Society as part of the Humanities Nebraska Speakers Bureau.