Juliette van Hovenberg was born in July, 1858 in Baltimore, Maryland. She was the fifth child of Martin Henry van Hovenberg and Mary Theresa O'Connor. Tradition usually ascribes a birth date of July 25, however, according to the unpublished transcript of baptisms at Trinity Church in New York City, where she was baptized May 5, 1870, she was born July 13, 1857. The date may be correct, but the year is contradicted by most other known records, and in addition would conflict with the birth dates of others born at that time, that is, the brothers Charles Augustus and George Dennis, who preceded Juliette and died in infancy.
Although she had an evident preference for the name Juliette, all of her census entries list her name as Julia. In the 1880 census she is listed as keeping house, which at that time comprised her father and five brothers, Martin Henry, Alfred, Robert, Frank, and James. On October 26 of that year, she married John Henry Leonhard. (The coincidence of that date with her brother James' 14th birthday is noted.)
Juliette had seven sons with John Henry Leonhard: John Henry, born 1881, who died around 1888; Julian, born 1884, who died in 1903 (a particularly grievous loss for her); Frederick, born 1887, Edwin, born 1891, Charles, born 1895, Herman, born 1898, and Theodore, born 1900. All of the other boys survived her.
In addition to being the wife of a successful business man, the mother of seven sons, and very active in church activities and social work, Juliette also was very active in the raising of James Jacob's girls after their mother's death. Even after they left New Jersey, they fondly recalled Aunt Julie. This led to frequent contacts and even some cross country trips: the three photographs above all stem from a visit to the San Francisco Bay Area by Julie and her son Herman in about 1923. The photo below, is which Julie is addressed by John Vodvarka, the husband of her niece Gertrude, was taken in 1936 during a trip Gertrude made to New Jersey.
Juliette lost her husband in the 1920's, and died April 23, 1940. She is buried in the Leonhard family plot at Laurel Grove Cemetery in Totowa, New Jersey.
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