Description

An original one-act play which outlines the history of Orphan Trains and tells the life stories of five children who found homes in Bay St. Louis in the early 1900’s. Hancock County Historical Society of Hancock County, MS has been awarded a $2,500 grant from the Mississippi Humanities Council. It will be used to produce three performances of Mercy Train: Next Stop Bay St. Louis, an original one-act play which outlines the history of orphan trains and tells the life stories of five children who found homes in Bay St. Louis in the early 1900’s. In the mid-1800’s, the streets of New York and other eastern seaboard cities were filled with homeless children. Reverend Charles Loring Brace, a Protestant minister, founded the Children’s Aid Society and devised a plan to send these children by trains to farming families in the midwest who would welcome the extra help on the farms. In 1875, Sister Mary Irene Fitzgibbon and the Sisters of Charity in New York organized their own orphan trains. Five children arrived in Bay St. Louis on their “Mercy Trains” in the early 1900’s and found homes there. Orphan Trains ran from 1854 until 1929. During the seventy-five years of operation, orphan trains carried an estimated 250,000 children to new homes. Mercy Train: Next Stop Bay St. Louis will be performed at the Bay St. Louis Little Theater, 398 Blaize Av., Bay St. Louis, MS on Saturday, September 9, 2023 (2 pm and 7 pm) and Sunday, September 10, 2023 (2 pm). Admission is free. Donations are appreciated. Following each performance, a question and answer session will be conducted by Dr. James Keating, Society board member.