Road Claims Baby

Railway officials claim that if a baby is left on the train, it becomes property of the company to raise as their own child.

Railway Officials Lay Claim to Waif Left on a Train.

Will be Reared and Educated at the Expense of Choctaw, Oklahoma & Gulf Railway Company--The Girl’s Story.

From Wichita, Kan., comes the admonition that if you should forget and leave your baby on the train the child thereafter legally belongs to the railway company unless you can prove your ownership in a very forcible way.
The Choctaw, Oklahoma & Gulf Railway company has adopted a six-months-old baby girl left on one of their passenger trains and refuses to give it up to anyone laying claim to it, and the child now has the proud distinction of being the only baby that ever had a railroad for a parent. A man in Paris, Ill., claims that the child was given him by its mother. A woman has appeared at the children’s home in Wichita and says she is its mother and wants her baby back. But the railway officials hold on tenaciously to their foundling and say they will raise it even better than any mother could do.
One of the finest wards in the Wichita children’s home is set apart for Miss Okla Choctaw-Gulf, as this six-months-old foundling has been named. She has a special nurse, fine lace dresses, hoods and shoes, and, in fact, everything that money can buy. The children’s home officers have been instructed to send the bill to the general office of the Choctaw route, where the same will be honored and paid as one of the items in their expenses.
Last Friday a young woman boarded a Choctaw train at Parkerbury, Okla. She carried a large market basket, seemingly filled with bundles. The basket was placed on the seat beside her, and she left the train at Weatherford without taking the bundle along. James Grimes, 1147 North Washington avenue, Wichita, was seated behind the young woman when she arrived in and left the train. He said:
“I noticed the bundle she left on the seat, but paid no attention to it until a slight sound came from the bundle. I unwrapped the bundle and found a very bright baby girl, apparently six months old. A bundle of clothing was also attached to the basket by a heavy silken cord. On removing the baby from the basket I found a note reading:
“I was born December 12, 1901. I have no father or mother. Please take me to Wichita, Kan. to the orphans’ home.’”
According to this not the baby was but two months old, but it is certainly six months and perhaps older, said the nurses at the hospital;. The finding of a baby naturally created a great deal of excitement and a number of passengers wished to adopt it. The conductor seemed more anxious to have it than anyone should it prove to have been a boy, but as it was a girl he gave it over to James Allison, of Paris, Ill. The conductor then wired headquarters, and before Mr. Allison had left the cars with his charge he was notified that the company refused to give it up. The conductor then took the child in charge, and, acting upon advice from the main office, brought it to Wichita and placed it in the home.
As yet no officer of the company has taken it upon himself to act as personal sponsor for the child, and all orders emanate from the road as a corporation. Therefore it would seem that Miss Okla is to be a child of a corporation.
Two days after the child was placed in the home at Wichita a strange young woman made her appearance and demanded that the baby be turned over to her, as she was its mother. The deaconess refused to give the baby to her and she went away sobbing.
It is quite evident that the Choctaw route intends to rear the child and make her the daughter of their destinies. She is what might be called a very pretty baby and will be a brunette. Her eyes are dark, but not black. She is a thoroughly healthy youngster, and looks as if she would grow up to be a credit to their benevolence.

“Road Claims Baby,” Black Virginia: The Richmond Planet, 1894-1909, accessed June 17, 2025, https://blackvirginia.richmond.edu/items/show/271.