Dowagiac’s ongoing Orphan Train Mural project will make its next stop at the local history museum, as organizers hosts a reunion for descendants of riders of the historic train later this month.

The family-style reunion will be at 1 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 23, at the Dowagiac Area History Museum, at 201 E. Division St. People whose family members were once adopted through the famous program, as well as members of the general public, are invited to attend the event, which will be capped off by a presentation from Shaley George, curator at the National Orphan Train Complex in Concordia, Kansas.

The event will give descendants of Orphan Train riders a chance to not only learn more about the historic program, which ran from 1854 to 1929, but to also record the tales and experiences of their ancestors who made the arduous journey from New York City to their new home across the Midwest and beyond.

“As the generations pass and the stories become more and more removed from the original family member who experienced it, we fear we may lose them forever,” said Bobbie Jo Hartline, one of the committee members of the Orphan Train Mural project.

Hartline said the reunion is modeled after similar meetings organized in other communities across the U.S. that were hubs for the Orphan Train program, which made its first stop in Dowagiac in September 1854. Since the committee began working on the program last year, planners have met with around four families who had relatives who once rode the train, all of whom will be in attendance at the reunion later this month.

According to Hartline, there are 4 million descendants of orphan train children living in the United States, and nearly one in 25 Americans has an Orphan Train rider connection. Since she began promoting the event, Hartline has run into several people, including one of her longtime friends, who told her they have someone in their family tree who was adopted through the program.

“Growing up in Dowagiac, I knew all about the Orphan Train, and learned more and more about it as I grew older,” she said. “However, I didn’t realize until we started doing these programs just how many people I know have the Orphan Train as part of their heritage.”

The reunion is the penultimate festivity planned for this year’s celebration of the Orphan Train.

The series of events will culminate in the unveiling of a new mural, depicting the train’s first voyage and the impact it had on the children and Dowagiac, which is currently being painted on the brick wall beneath the local post office facing Pennsylvania Avenue downtown. The painting’s public debut is set to take place at 1 p.m. Oct. 14, in conjunction with the city’s Under the Harvest Moon Festival.

The project is funded by a grant from the Michigan Humanities Council as well as more than $4,500 worth of donations from the community.

“They will be surprised by what they learn,” Hartline said, encouraging people to attend the reunion. “They will find out they have more connections with people than they knew, just like if they attended a traditional family reunion.”