Some of the "orphan trains" in US history were populated with children stolen from urban hospitals & orphanages. Poor, unwed and/or Catholic mothers were told t

Some of the "orphan trains" in US history were populated with children stolen from urban hospitals & orphanages. Poor, unwed and/or Catholic mothers were told the child was stillborn, but it was instead sent "out West" to be raised Protestant. 19th Century America was extremely anti-Catholic. Many immigrants from predominantly Catholic countries were treated as "not white" or "not white enough" and discriminated against.