Isidore Mendelsohn
Although the Home’s records do not reveal what caused the deaths of Julius Mendelsohn and his wife, the former Amalia Meyer, in New Orleans in 1878, yellow fever is a likely culprit. The epidemic that summer had claimed the lives of more than 4,000 city residents.
In the months that followed, the Home admitted 45 orphans and half-orphans; among them were Julius and Amalia’s three children: five-year-old Isidore and his younger sisters, Pauline, age 2, and nine-month-old Sarah.
Julius Mendelsohn, c. 1870. All photos courtesy of Lydia Fazende Mendelson (widow of Julius’s great-grandson) and her daughter, Lisa Mendelson Vicknair.
Amalia Meyer Mendelsohn, c. 1870, wife of Julius Mendelsohn.
Isidore Mendelsohn, 1894, at age 21.
Isidore lived in the Home until 1887, when at age 14 he was discharged to his uncle, L. Marks, in Port Hudson, Louisiana. He married Sadie McCurdy, with whom he had one child, a son. Isidore died in New Orleans in 1932.
Less is known about Isidore’s sisters, who lived in the Home until 1880. Home records reveal only that Pauline was discharged to E. Plonsky of Washington, Louisiana, while her younger sister Sarah was discharged to Mrs. N. Bloom of Mexia, Texas.