Charles Loring Brace

Charles Loring Brace (June 19, 1826 – August 11, 1890) was an American philanthropist who contributed to the field of social reform. He is considered a father of the modern foster care movement and was most renowned for starting the Orphan Train movement of the mid-19th century, and for founding Children's Aid Society.

Early life

Brace was born on June 19, 1826, in Litchfield, Connecticut. He was named after his uncle, the lawyer Charles Greely Loring, a defender of fugitive slave Thomas Sims. His mother died when he was 14, and he was raised by his father, a history teacher.

Education

He graduated from Yale College in 1846. He pursued divinity and theology graduate studies at Yale, but left to study at Union Theological Seminary, from which he received his graduate degree in 1849. He was drawn to New York because it was viewed as the center of American Protestantism and social activity. His best friend and brother of his roommate at Yale, Frederick Law Olmsted, the landscape architect, also lived in New York.

Career

In 1852, at the age of 26, Brace, who had been raised as a Calvinist, was serving as a minister to the poor of Blackwell's Island (now known as Roosevelt Island) and to the poor of the Five Points Mission, when he decided he wanted to pursue his humanitarian efforts in the streets rather than in church. Brace was aware of the impoverished lives of the children in New York City and for this reason he concentrated on improving children's situation and their future. In 1853, Brace established the Children's Aid Society.