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Mr. Gower: Where's Mrs. Blaine's box of capsules? What kind of tricks are you playing anyway? Why didn't you deliver them right away? Don't you know that boy's very sick? You lazy loafer!

George Bailey: Mr. Gower, you don't know what you're doing. You put something wrong in those capsules. I know you're unhappy. You got that telegram and you're upset. You put something bad in those capsules. It wasn't your fault, Mr. Gower. Just look and see what you did. Look at the bottle you took the powder from. It's poison! I tell you, it's poison!                           -Edited from the screenplay of "It's A Wonderful Life"

In 1913, the population of Houston was about 80,000, surely more than the mythical town of Pottersville depicted in the perennial favorite, "It's a Wonderful Life." According to the 1911 Houston City Directory, the Magnolia Pharmacy was located at 1621 Congress Avenue, which was in the heart of downtown. Frank Capra's nostalgic story of smalltown America, and Jimmy Stewart's earnest portrayal of young George Bailey in the famous scene above might lead some of us to believe that the job of a drug store delivery boy was rather benign. But in 1913, Hine wanted us to believe otherwise. In one of his captions for another photograph of a drug store delivery boy, he wrote: "He works from 9:30 A.M. to 10:30 P.M. Goes to the Red Light every day and night. Says that the company could not keep other messenger boys; they work them so hard."

According to Year Book: A Record of Events and Progress (1911): "The Seabrook School for Boys (Seabrook Reform School) was opened by the authorities of Harris County (Houston) in July, 1910. Arrangements are made by the authorities at Galveston to board delinquent boys at the Seabrook School. This school is interesting because it was organized without any state legislation or any state appropriation, under the general power of the county to care for delinquent boys coming from the juvenile courts." The school changed its name several times before finally becoming the Harris County Boys School in 1955.

It didn't take me long to find Jeff in the 1920 census, listed as Jeff J. Miller, about 21 years old, living with his mother and sister. His occupation was given as a railroad fireman. In the 1930 census, he is married and living with wife Bessie and two children, son Jimmie and daughter Ozella. I couldn't immediately find Jeff in any death records, so I searched for Ozella, given her unusual name. Up popped a family history site posted by a Lillian Champagne, who identified Jeff as James Jefferson Miller. I contacted her, and she turned out to be Jeff's granddaughter. She hadn't seen the Hine photo, and has since posted it on her family history site.

Jeff was born in Montgomery County, Texas, on December 8, 1899. He was the son of John Thomas Miller and Pearsie Susan Simmons Miller. His father died in 1905, and his mother died in 1937. Jeff was married three times, to: Bessie Mae Haberlie (1925), Vera Viola Poteet (1937), and Lucille Ethel Blair (1970). His first two wives predeceased him. He had three children, all with Bessie. The first one, George, died at birth in 1926. Son Jimmie (called Sammy) died in 2007, and daughter Ozella died in 2009.

James Jefferson Miller died in Houston on March 12, 1980. He was 80 years old.