The Making of Orphans

THE MAKING OF ORPHANS

On August 27, 1913, the Francese brothers separately boarded the passenger ship VERONA п‚Ñ* destination Ellis Island. Following the pre-arrangements of the fraternal grandmother, Rosa Vassetta, nine-year-old Alfonso had a first class ticket and would stay in the Captain’s cabin.

Eight-year-old Turzo, also traveling under the name of “Alfonso,” was nicely tucked away in steerage, with other Chieti residents. Because only one ticket was purchased, neither could see the other during the fourteen-day voyage, but both knew they would soon be with their father, Filippo Francese, who left Italy in 1907 with a promise to send for them soon.

The brothers, old for their years, had already experienced sadness with the death of their mother, Carmina De Vincenza, in 1908. Carmina had five children and lived in cohabitation with Filippo, in Cupello (Chieti,) without the benefit of marriage. After her death the family was scattered among relatives. Alfonso lived with maternal cousins. Turzo and his older sister, Maria Carmine, were sent to Vasto to stay with Rosa Vassetta.

Filippo had been in America for over six years, when Rosa would make “arrangements” and send Maria Carmine five months in advance of the brothers. The oldest, Emilio stayed behind with the youngest, Quarto вЂ"вЂ" never to leave Italy.

Filippo, as expected, was there when the VERONA docked. He gathered both his sons and took them to an Italian/Jewish section of the Bronx, NY to meet his new “wife”, a sour-faced woman who smelled of tomato gravy and garlic. When Turzo asked where Maria Carmine was, she responded that Carmine was lazy and lived on her own now. She provided a dirty mattress in the entrance hallway of the three-room apartment, above the restaurant she owned. She informed them they would have to earn their keep п‚Ñ* “no easy ride.”

This new life with their father provided п‚Ñ* working in the restaurant mornings, before school and after until bedtime, while eating only the scraps left by others. They gave up a good life in Italy. One can only speculate that after their mother died, their grandparents were too old to raise a second family of so many young children.

Filippo was oblivious to everything. Always enjoying the high life, he owed considerable debt, and worked at the restaurant full time in order to guarantee that the “wife” continued to pay his debts. He could not afford to be on his own, so when she wanted the children gone, in May of 1916, Filippo wrote to the Children’s Aid Society of New York, asking if they could find a home for his two sons. Two days before he received the answer from the Society, the boys ran away.

Alfonso and Turzo lived on the streets, by day going to school and by night running with other street urchins.

The only good thing that happened was school. They both attended P. S. 31, in the Bronx, at least on paper, from 1913 to 1917.

They were arrested after several months, and in kindness were taken to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. During processing, the SPCC called Filippo, but he said he could not take care of his children. Since the boys were Catholic, placement was with the Dominican Sisters in Sparkill, NY, on July 12, 1917. Filippo was not pleased with the news, because the Dominican Sisters agreed to accept the boys as boarders п‚Ñ* for a modest fee.

After fourteen-months, the Sisters insisted on some payment. Filippo retrieved the letter from the Children’s Aid Society and on October 8th, 1918 he signed his sons over to them. In addition, he announced that he had very liberal religious views and he was perfectly willing to have them placed in Protestant homes.

On October 9th, he delivered them to the Society and they were sent to the Brace Farm School.

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Charles Loring Brace, a Methodist minister, founded the Children’s Aid Society in 1853. Wandering the city of New York, he was obsessed by the plight of thousands, impoverished “Street Arabs,” as they were called. At first, he established, “industrial schools” and tried to teach the boys a trade. Female volunteers taught the girls how to dress and behave. But starving, homeless waifs needed much more. He decided to send as many children as possible “west,” to find homes with farm families. The first “Orphan Train” went to Dowagiak, Michigan, in 1854, with forty-six, ten-to-twelve-year-old boys and girls п‚Ñ* all successfully placed in new homes.

Between 1854 and 1929, two hundred fifty thousand children moved by railroad to foster homes in Michigan, Nebraska, Iowa, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, Illinois and Texas.

The rules were simple. The children would not be placed in institutional homes, but placed with good families. The parents must agree to surrender the children, and that relatives or friends would not be able to see them, or know where they were, until they reached the age of eighteen.

On March 11, 1919, Turzo, now called “Mike” and Alfonso, later to be called “Al,” were put on a train and sent to Texas.

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The children sat in their seats for the five days ride to the Texas border. Once they transferred to the Santa Fe Railroad, they exited at every stop; walked single-file to some community building, or sometimes just stood next to the train.

The Society had run ads in the local newspapers, announcing the arrival of the train and promoting the homeless children. Farmers and ranchers would come to look the children over, taking the strongest boys and prettiest girls.

Five days later, after all the stops, the train arrived in Denton, Texas, with twelve or so children left out of the original sixty-five. Alfonso and Mike were at the end of the line for this trip.

It was the practice of the Society to stay in a boarding house for a couple of days, to see if the last children could be placed before returning to New York. It was during this time that one of the children became ill and the local doctor was called. The doctor was introduced to all the remaining children and he had pity for their plight. He called his nephew, Hazen Armstrong, telling him to come to town and take home one of those orphans.

Hazen