A Last Survivor of the Orphan Trains

From 1854 to the early 1930s, the American Orphan Trains transported 250,000 children from the streets and orphanages of the East Coast into homes in the emerging West. Unfortunately, families waiting for the trains weren’t always dreams come true—many times they were nightmares.

William Walters was little more than a toddler when his sister deposited him and his brother on an Orphan Train heading to destinations unknown. Separated from his brother and handed over to a cruel New Mexico couple, William faced a terrible trial. Through his strength and resilience, however, his life became a remarkable adventure.

Whether he was escaping his abusers, jumping freights as a preteen during the Great Depression, infiltrating Japanese-held islands as a teenage Marine during World War II, or courting the woman with whom he would finally build a loving home, William’s astonishing quest paralleled the tumult of the twentieth century—and personified the American Dream.