Beginning in the 1850s, there was a great increase in urbanization. Movements like the Great Migration lead to huge populations in newly industrialized cities. Furthermore, there has been a sharp increase in immigration, especially from families of Eastern and Southern European origin. The purpose of the Orphan Train Movement was to give the thousands of New York City children left homeless by increasing urbanization and industrialization a new family in the West with good living conditions and values ​​and to increase the number of agricultural workers . Most children were placed with good families, but some children were treated like slaves by their families. Furthermore, most of the children were enthusiastic about working; however, some were incapable of doing farm work and were more harmful than helpful to their new family. The founder of the Children's Aid Society, the driving force behind the orphan train movement, was Charles Loring Brace. Brace first became aware of the number of homeless children while working at a mission center. Brace wanted to provide a home to the more than 30,000 children living on the streets in the 1850s. Speaking about the situation at hand, Brace noted, “There were a large number of people who had nothing to do. Nobody was at fault. It was not possible to find work for them. But they must be raised. Their children must be saved; and they cannot save themselves. ”He believed that Protestant families in the West living on farms would give children the fresh air and morals they needed to grow up to become upstanding citizens. Thinking about how best to transport children from cities like New York to the western part of America, the Children's Aid Society decided to take advantage of the more than 30,500 miles... middle of paper... at the New York Foundling Hospital and Children's Aid Society. Still other children were welcomed by these organizations from schools or orphanages. Teachers at a child's school would contact a faculty member at the Children's Aid Society or the New York Foundling Society to make arrangements for the child to be placed in the care of either. When orphanages were overflowing, they began to send children who had been there for a long time to these organizations to find a new family. The last way the children could have been placed in the care of the two companies was to be recruited by an agent. Often the children brought by the officers were those who were prostitutes or those who lived on the streets. In any case, all these children were the ones who probably could not have succeeded in their lives living in New York.