The New York Juvenile Asylum

By the mid-1800s, the streets of New York City were home to an estimated 30,000 homeless, truant or orphaned children. These poor unfortunates were destined to commit petty crimes, be truant from school or home, or enter into prostitution, creating a tremendous drain on city resources and society in general. Magistrates committed the youthful offenders to asylums by the hundreds, one of which was the New York Juvenile Asylum, established in 1851. Overcrowding became a problem almost immediately. For the New York Juvenile Asylum, relief came with the implementation of a western indenturing plan in which companies of children were sent west, at first in partnership with the New York Children's Aid Society, later with Reverend Mr. Enoch Kingsbury of Danville, Illinois, and finally, independently by the Asylum itself. At the time, the American West was in critical need of laborers in both agriculture and industry, and many families were eager to take in a child who was willing to work in exchange for food and lodging, or to learn a trade. Indenture papers were signed stipulating boys would stay until age twenty-one and girls until age eighteen. At the completion of their indenture each child received a cash payment, new clothing, and a bible. The Asylum chose the state of Illinois to indenture the vast majority of its children in, later establishing a permanent western agent and agency house in the state. In 1861, the Illinois State Legislature passed a bill recognizing the indentures of the Asylum as legally binding documents. The orphan trains of the New York Juvenile Asylum were sent west from 1854 until circa 1921. By the time the practice ended the Asylum had indentured over 6,600 children in Illinois and a few surrounding states - chiefly Iowa. Volume one of this set chronicles the history of the New York Juvenile Asylum (later named The Children's Village) from its earliest history until circa 1923. Volumes Two through Volume Six are comprised of lists of all known names of children sent west from the Asylum, including dates, where sent, and with whom they were indentured.

The New York Juvenile Asylum (NYJA) was founded in 1851 by a group of prominent businessmen and professionals concerned about vagrancy among poor children in New York City. It was designed to house, educate, reform, and indenture children who were homeless, truant, or convicted of petty crimes in New York City. The NYJA being an alternative to the punitive House of Refuge where more hardened young criminals (incarcerated alongside much older adults) were being sent. Most children accepted into the NYJA were between the ages of seven and fifteen, but children both younger and older were accepted at times. The NYJA relocated to 176th Street between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues in 1856. By the end of 1919 over 42,000 children had been admitted to the Asylum. About 6,000 were sent West on orphan trains in what is now referred to as America's Orphan Train Movement. The names in this volume represent over five thousand children who lived in the New York Juvenile Asylum, as well as its House of Reception (where applicable), between 1855 and 1925. The names were extracted from the following enumerations conducted at the Asylum and House of Reception: the 1860, 1870, 1880, 1900, 1910, and 1920 federal censuses; and the New York State censuses of 1855, 1905, 1915, and 1925. The censuses are arranged chronologically and the children listed alphabetically for each census. The descriptions vary from census to census; however, in virtually all cases they provide the individual's name, race, sex, age, and state or country of birth. Also included for several of the censuses is the state or country of birth for the parents of each child. In a couple of the censuses the "residence when admitted" (to the Asylum) is listed for each child.