Jennie

Jennie Smith - Photo given to me by her son, my grandfather, Frank Utpadel

Jean "Jennie" Smith was born in 1891 to James Smith, an immigrant from Ireland, and Ida Daugherty who was born in Kentucky.

In 1900 she lived at 904 W. 17th Street in Anderson, Indiana, a house her father rented by working as a day laborer. She lived with her parents, her younger brother Frank and her 3 older half sisters from her mother's first marriage to George White (May, Minnie and Emma). According to the census her mother, Ida, had given birth to 2 other children who died but there is no information as to when they were born or died.

Ida died some time within the next decade, probably around 1905. The older girls were married and Frank lived with their father in a boarding house. Jennie was first sent to live with her father's brother, Joe, at Loon Lake in Illinois By 1910 she was living with with her cousin, Mae (Buntin) Busch in Vernon Township in Lake County Illinois. Mae was the daughter of Jennie's father's sister Eliza. Jennie worked for them as a household servant.

Vernon Township is only about 6 miles from Wheeling, where the Utpadels lived and grew up and at some point Jennie met Otto Utpadel and married him on November 29, 1911.

Otto Utpadel and Jean Smith marriage certificate

Otto and Jennie lived in Wheeling the rest of their lives. Otto's obituary said they had 7 children. I have documentation verifying 6 of them and was told by my grandpa, their son Frank, that there was a boy born after his sister Lorraine, before he was. Their children were:
Lorraine Jean 1912-1998
Baby Boy who was born and died in about 1914 (unverified)
Frank Albert 1915-1996
Arthur Robert 1916-1921 
Richard Orville 1920-1969
Warren James 1922-2016
Baby Boy Stillborn on February 23, 1923

In April 1919, Jennie was appointed Postmistress of Wheeling.

The Daily Herald 

(Chicago, Illinois)

  11 Apr 1919, Fri  • Page 9

Otto was one of the census takers for the 1920 census in Wheeling. He recorded his family on January 21, 1920. He and Jennie lived with their kids Lorraine, Frank, and Arthur on a farm they owned, not rented. It lists Jennie's occupation as "None". Maybe she was no longer the postmistress because she was pregnant and would give birth to Richard the following month. Otto was a butcher who owned his own shop at the time, but according to newspaper ads, the following April he sold all his stock and leased the store to the Co-Operative Society of America.

On February 14, 1923 Dr. Edward Larsen started to care for Jennie when she contracted pneumonia. She was also pregnant again and a baby boy was stillborn on February 23. The following Friday the newspaper, which came out once a week, reported that Jennie had been very sick with pneumonia and other complications but was slightly improved. This improvement was short lived, however, as she died 6 days later on March 8, 1923.

Jean Smith Utpadel death certificate

It's really hard to read this copy of her death certificate that I ordered from Salt Lake City. It says the informant is Frank Forke, the undertaker. I'm not sure if he just signed in the wrong spot of if he really did provide details about her. Whoever did provide the information got her mother's name wrong though. The certificate says her mother was born in Ireland and her name was Jennie Cardlewood or Catherwood. It was actually her paternal GRANDMOTHER who was named Jennie Catherwood, not her mother.

Richard's son Jerry sent me this picture. He was told it is Jennie.