Orphan Train survivor was a pioneer in life insurance

One of the last known Orphan Train survivors in Illinois has passed away.

Of all of the mementos cherished by family members of Helen Macior, one holds a special place in national history: her indenture agreement, signed by her adoptive family.

Mrs. Macior was put aboard a train in 1915, which carried her from a foundling home in New York to an adoptive family in Chicago.

Her trip came near the end of a rescue effort organized by Charles Loring Brace to find homes for orphans in New York.

As an idealistic young minister, Brace's intent was to find healthy homes for New York's street children, now seen as a precursor to today's foster care system. Between 1854 and 1929, more than 150,000 of these children were sent westward to new homes.

She passed away Friday. The former longtime Rolling Meadows resident, most recently of Palatine, was 95.

Family members say that while Mrs. Macior had some early memories of her years in the foundling home, and of the nuns who cared for her, she never successfully obtained the records of her birth.

"The records were sealed for 100 years," says her daughter, Karen Inselberger of Rolling Meadows. "I really thought she'd live that long."

She did, however, hang onto the three-page "indenture agreement," which outlined the duties she was expected to perform in her new household. Until she came of age, her life would be less that of a daughter and more like an unpaid servant.

Mrs. Macior had been adopted by Stephen and Caroline Jazwiec, a Polish immigrant couple on Chicago's Northwest side, who had four sons but no daughters. Named Rose Green by the orphanage, her adoptive parents renamed her Helen.

In an interview with the Daily Herald five years ago, Mrs. Macior recalled a relatively stark childhood.

"They never beat me, but they constantly made me do things. Get up at 5 in the morning and get the bread from the bakery," she related. "Take the trash out. Clean up."

To punish the child she would be forced to kneel on beads.

Historian Marilyn Irvin Holt, author of a 1992 book on the orphan trains, explained that in Illinois in the early 20th century, indenture agreements were the rule, not the exception.

"I actually found court records showing that when children were placed out in Illinois, they had to be indentured," Holt said. "It was required. The reasoning was that if you took an orphan -- a high risk child -- you could set him on the road to right by teaching him the value of work."

Mrs. Macior's two daughters said their mother's upbringing contributed to her strong-willed personality and spirit of independence. As an adult she attended night school and earned a license to be a certified insurance broker.

When the family moved to Rolling Meadows in 1954, she sold life insurance out of her home, before eventually adding property and casualty insurance. Her daughter, Lois Hutchison of Rolling Meadows, now runs the business, called Macior & Co., based in Buffalo Grove.

"She was a pioneer, selling life insurance at a time when women didn't do those things," Hutchison says. "When she'd attend meetings at the Union League Club in Chicago, she'd have to enter through a side door."

Besides her two daughters, Mrs. Macior is survived by six grandchildren and three great grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her husbands, Louis Macior and Dominic Kotar.

A funeral Mass will take place at 10 a.m. today at St. Colette Church, 3900 Meadow Drive in Rolling Meadows.