Catching up with a third wife and a 29th child
More about the minor characters who populate the Lost & Found Story Box
The First Anniversary Month celebration continues!
As we continue to celebrate the first anniversary of The Lost & Found Story Box here on Substack, I thought it might be fun to take a second look at some of the people who didn’t get a lot of attention in the stories shared, but maybe should have, folks like Julia Emaline Mitchell, the third wife of bootlegger John George from The Incorrigible John George and Adelphine Regina Leon Novachelski, the 29th child of Blanche Pouche and Joseph Leon from The Show Must Go On: A Circus Story of Motherhood and Resilience, two women who overcame odds to create lives worth celebrating.
If you’re new to The Lost & Found Story Box or just missed these two serialized stories, I’ve included links to the first part of each one.
Next week, I’ll be sharing more about William Eckman, the other adventurer in The Epic Canoe Journey of George W. Gardner, including his connection to one of Lake Erie’s most enduring — and fascinating — legends! You’re not going to want to miss this incredible story!
And, don’t forget to hop onto the chat this week. I’ll be hosting a Lost & Found Reader Wall, where I invite you to share some of the images, documents, and names you’ve rescued from history’s lost & found story box and brought back to life. I can’t wait to see what shows up!
Release Date: June 17, 2025
Julia Mitchell George after the death of her incorrigible husband, John
When convicted murderer John George died in Alabama’s Kilby Prison on June 19, 1935, his wife, 35-year-old Julia Emaline Mitchell George, was pregnant with the couple’s fifth child, a son whom she would name William.
Julia’s life had always been hard — with John and without him. And his death likely didn’t change much about that life, other than Julia became the sole owner of the farm which John and his second wife, Susan Ross, had acquired decades before she herself had even been born.
The responsibility of eeking a living out of that land would have fallen on Julia.
Her children, Woodrow, Jeff, Mary Sudie, John and little William, were too young to help, and, since John had murdered Julia’s father, Walter, in cold blood back in 1933, she didn’t have him to help, either. Her mother, Annie, still lived next door on property John had deeded to his in-laws in 1930, so there was that.
There are no records, but it’s possible Julia hired local men to work the farm, perhaps even leasing parcels of land to other farmers to supplement her income. Ownership would have given her options the region’s many tenant farmers and sharecroppers didn’t have, even with the Great Depression going on.
When the federal census enumerators came to the door on April 5,1940, Julia, still unable to read or write, was listed as the head of household for a family which included her mother as well as all five children, the oldest three of whom were attending school. The family’s reported income for the year was zero, although their property was valued at $200, about $3,400 in today’s money, and considerably more than most of her rural neighbors, many of whom set the value of their property at $50 or less. 1
On April 17, 1945, some ten years after John’s death, Julia married 57-year-old John William Hood, a lumberman from the next town over. John’s wife had passed in 1933, leaving him with four daughters ranging in age from nine to 14. By 1945, all four were married, including Retha Inez, who had married Julia’s eldest son, Woodrow, the previous December. 2
Julia’s three youngest children, Mary, John and William, were still at home, each attending school. Jeff’s whereabouts are. unknown.
By all accounts, John Hood was a good man. His name appears in local papers as having contributed to worthy causes, helping out in the community, raising prize-winning vegetables, and opening his home to family members facing hard times.
Julia and John eventually moved to rural Bibb County, AL, not far from the place Julia had been born, where they lived together for 27 years until John’s passing in 1972. Julia lived another 18 years, dying in 1990 at the age of 87. They were buried side-by-side at Mount Ivah Bible Methodist Church Cemetery in North Perry, AL.
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Adelphine Leon after the media blitz of 1895
Born October 11, 1890 in Manhattan, NY, Adelphine Leon was the 29th child of Blanche Pouche and her husband, Joseph Leon, and one of only seven of their children still alive in 1895 when the family’s tenement on East Ninety-ninth Street was visited by reporters from local papers.
At the time, four-year-old Adelphine was described by her older sister, Marie, as “a little bum” due to her preciousness and lack of manners, even though she could speak perfect French and German in addition to English. 3
By the spring of 1900, the Leon family had moved to a different tenement a few blocks away at East 101st Street. Adelphine’s dad had finally quit the circus and was working as a cork inspector, her older brother, Joesph JR, was away fighting in the Spanish American War, and Maria had gotten married. Both Adelphine and her younger sister, Josephine, were attending school. 4
Later that year, however, tragedy struck when Blanche succumbed to stomach cancer. She was just 52.
It’s not known what happened to Adelphine and Josephine immediately after the loss of their mother. Their brother, Joseph JR, was still in the military, and their father, Joseph SR, has not been found in the records.
By 1905, however, 15-year-old Adelphine was working as a live-in servant in the Manhattan home of James and Mary Gibson and their two daughters, Mary, 24, and Lillian, 22. 5
Sometime over the next two years, Adelphine met and married a Jersey City, NJ express driver named Joseph Murphy, and in June of 1908, the couple welcomed their first child, a daughter they named Blanche, after her maternal grandmother. Despite both Adelphine and her husband coming from large families – Joseph was one of 13 children – it would be another ten years before their next child was born, and five years separated that child from the next, perhaps an indication that, like her own parents, Adelphine and Joseph knew the hollowing pain of losing a child.
The Murphy family put down deep roots in Jersey City. Adelphine’s children were born and raised there, Joseph made a career with the railroad there, and it was where Adelphine passed away at the age of 60, and was laid to rest in 1951.
As for Josphine, after working as a servant for a family outside of Chicago in 1910, she returned to New York, married and had two children. She died in 1947.
And finally, Joseph JR. made the Army his career, serving in both the Spanish-American War and World War I, and retired at the rank of Master Sergeant. He never returned to New York, however, did marry and raise a family in Massachusetts where he died in 1935. 6
Copyright 2025 Lori Olson White
Have you read the incredible true story of Aimee Henry and Mary Martha Parker? Call Me a Bastard is my longest serialized story to-date, and the one that started it all here on the Lost & Found Story Box. Check out the story from the beginning.
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End Notes
1 Year: 1940; Census Place: Brush Creek, Perry, Alabama; Roll: m-t0627-00073; Page: 5A; Enumeration District: 53-9, Julia George.
2 “Marriage Licenses for April”, The Centerville Press, Centerville, AL, May 24, 1945, P. 7.
3 “Mother of 33 Children: The Wife of Barnum’s Old “Solemn Clown” Abandoned and Destitute. Brave Inspire of Poverty - Four of Her Bairns Left Dependent on Her for their Sustenance, A Most Remarkable Record, Married at 13: Five Years She Bore Ten Twins Nearly All Have Died: She is Now 47”, The Evening World, New York, NY, January 8, 1895, P. 5.
4 Year: 1900; Census Place: Manhattan, New York, New York; Page: 13; Enumeration District: 0893, Adelphine Leon.
5 New York State Archives; Albany, New York; State Population Census Schedules, 1905; Election District: A.D. 29 E.D. 04; City: Manhattan; County: New York; Page: 42
6 Ancestry.com Blanche Pouche family tree.
Wow, this is like watching the final scenes after a movie, where they reveal what happened to the characters you've grown to care about so much.
I appreciate these stories of the women behind the men who tend to hog all the attention. With all those babies, no wonder most women didn’t have time to seek the limelight—though of course some did, and your excellent storytelling brings it all to light! Thanks, Lori, and congrats on reaching the one-year milestone!