Faced with a crisis of orphans on New York City streets, Charles Brace devised a solution--send these children out for adoption in towns across the Midwest. By the end of the Orphan Train program, over 200,000 children had been placed with new families over the course of 75 years.  After Divinity school, Reverend Charles Brace came to New York in 1848  and worked at Five Points Mission that also became home for orphan children. In 1853 Brace founded the Children's Aid Society, six percent of New York's population was orphan children at the time. In 1854, he hatched a plan to put six year old and older orphans on trains going to several midwest farmland locations. The hope was that they would not have to go to asylums or juvinile detention prisons locally but become members of families and have a happy childhood.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Only one child for each family was allowed so often family members were seperated along the route. Agents would put up posters and announce that the children would be up for adoption at the local courthouse. They were put up on a stage or pedistal and poked and proded by potential parents. Six years old was the legal working age back then. The program produced two future governors who traveled on the same orphan train, John Brady (Alaska) and Andrew Burke (North Dakota). The notorious outlaw Billy the kid also traveled on an orphan train. Most learned farming skills but some were treated as endentured servants almost always unchecked by the Childrens Aid Society.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          In 1910, a survey said that 87% of the orphan's had done well. In 1920 the orphan trains stopped running as new child labor laws were established. Charles Brace's work lived on. The program laid the ground work for the modern foster system that cares for over 400,000 today.