The Amazing Destiny of Forest Bixler – Part 4

/ Kimberly

Wilhite was very eager to see Bixler but ill health made it impossible for him to travel to Ohio. Forest Bixler and his wife agreed to come to Kansas instead. Three weeks after the Beacon Journal’s initial article ran, the two men came face to face in the parlor of Wilhite’s small home at 101 S. 22nd Street in Kansas City, with their wives standing by.

The instant Wilhite saw Bixler’s face, he burst into tears. “My baby, my boy,” he cried and held out his arms to his grown son who had disappeared so mysteriously 37 years earlier. Bixler, too, was convinced Wilhite was his father. He decided then and there to resume the name given to him by his real father: George Wilhite.

“The connection between the grandmother, who disappeared at the same time George did, and Alfred Bixler may never be solved but A. A. Wilhite and the Forest H. Bixler—who today becomes George Wilhite—do not care,” the Beacon Journal wrote.

Well, that wasn’t exactly true. On March 21, the Beacon Journal ran the last story in this amazing story. “The last link in the chain of evidence identifying Forest Bixler, Kent farmer, as George Wilhite, kidnapped Kansas boy, has been supplied,” they wrote. Only one unsolved, mysterious circumstance remained in the strange life story of the three-year-old infant: what was the connection between the boy’s grandmother and Alfred Bixler?

The man now known as George Wilhite and his father traveled from Kansas City to Emporia in search of answers. They learned two important facts. The first was that Alfred Bixler had, at one time, lived in Emporia. Residents recognized his photograph when the Wilhites showed it to them. He had, in fact, lived two doors down from the home where little George was living with his grandmother. Alta had never met Alfred Bixler and he always believed Sarah Lewis had stolen his son. The second important fact that they learned was that Mrs. Lewis; her daughter, Mrs. Susie Pyle; little George; and Alfred Bixler departed from Emporia at the same time.

Alfred Bixler

The reunion that was so long in coming did not last long. Alta Wilhite passed away in 1933, and his son George died twenty years later, in 1953. The story about Alta searching for his son for all those years and never giving up on him is a beautiful one. That his son was finally persuaded to act on his intuition and memories is amazing. The fact that after an absence of 37 years, it took just three weeks to reunite the father and son is remarkable!

Of course, the story leaves a lot of questions unanswered. Some of the big ones are who were the Bixlers? What was their connection to Sarah Lewis and her daughter Susie Pyle? Who was the little girl?  And most importantly, why did they kidnap George?

I did a little research, which I’ll share in a follow up post. In the meantime, I’m anxious to hear your thoughts!

13 thoughts on “The Amazing Destiny of Forest Bixler – Part 4”

  1. Pingback: The Amazing Destiny of Forest Bixler – Part 3 | old spirituals

    • I totally agree about the picture of Alfred Bixler. It looks like a police sketch! I looked into Mrs. Lewis as much as I could find. I’ll post my research in a just a little bit… I couldn’t find much though. it’s up to us to figure it out based on what they published at the time.

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  4. First let me say, I am intrigued by the ease someone could disappear in the early 20th Century by simply changing their name. Ergo, the life and plight of “Forest Bixler” was not uncommon.

    During the early 1900s and well into the mid-1900s, unwed and/or under age parents were often forced to give-up a baby for adoption because of the stigma associated with giving birth “out of wedlock.”

    There is a British TV series, “Long Lost Family (UK)”, now streaming on TubiTV, that follows cases of adults who were adopted as an infant and are searching for their birth mother or father, even their twin, without success. The British series, through the work of research specialists, finds and reconnect a parent with their child, a sibling with a sibling, etc. Frankly, it is an emotional series to watch.

    Also streaming on TubiTV is an American production titled, “West By Orphan Train.” It delves into the little known history in America when, during of the late 1800s and into the early 1900s, orphan children living on the streets of large cities or in orphanages were transported to America’s heartland to be selected by an adult or adults for adoption. It is difficult to imagine that occurring today.

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    • How funny you mention the Orphan Train, Jax! I was talking to my mom yesterday and she mentioned it!
      To your other point, writing true crime from this period, I notice a lot how often and easily people disappeared! Today such a feat would be all but impossible.

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  5. My maternal grandmother and I were very close and she told me so many of her family’s stories. One time we were looking at a picture of her and her brother when they were very young with an older child. I asked my grandmother about the young girl and she told me that she was their aunt. The young girl went missing one day and they never did find her. This would have occurred around 1904 I’m estimating. I wish I had asked her name and more about her, but I think it shocked me since I was so young.

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