Benard Schmiett (1888-1949) 52 Ancestors #13

The subject of this week's blog post is my maternal great grandfather, Benard "Ben" Schmiett.

Two pictures of Benard Schmiett

Benard Schmiett was born October 5th, 1888 to Antone (or Anton) and Marie Utzinger Schmiett in or around San Antonio, Texas. His parents immigrated to the United States in the early 1880s from Alsace-Lorraine, France/Germany. Benard had at least 5 siblings (Mary, Kate, August, Ferdinand, and Irene) and one half-sister, Louise Fox Staughton.

Benard was born in Texas, but moved sometime in the late 1880s or early 1990s to California. It seems they lived for some time in the San Bernadino area, but were in Los Angeles by 1900. Benard's father, Antone, was out of the picture by then. I'm not sure if he died or what happened to him. I found a newspaper article that indicates that a person with his name was accused of poisoning his business partner and would likely be sent to San Quentin, but I'm not sure if this is the same person or what actually happened to him.

I don't know much about Benard's life growing up, other than he was a baseball player, and his occupation is listed in various census records as "peddles fruit", butcher, and blacksmith. Ben was a baseball player in the Utah Copper League, which may have been where he met his future wife, Hester Abiah Beckstead. They were married May 12, 1914 in Salt Lake City. My grandfather (Bennie Schmiett) was born January 30th, 1915. I'm not sure if my grandfather was born a little early, or he may have been conceived out of wedlock. In any case, I'm sure that the Beckstead family (devout Mormons) were not all that excited that their daughter was marrying a gentile baseball player from California.

A Photo of Young Ben & Hester Schmiett

After Hester and Benard were married, they lived for a short time in California, where my grandfather was born before moving back to the Salt Lake Valley near Hester's family and settled in Midvale, Utah.

Ben and Hester raised three children: Bennie (my grandfather), Fay, and Stan. Ben was a moisture foreman at the U.S. Smelting plant, and played on and managed the baseball team there. Hester passed away in 1938. Ben passed away 11 years later of a heart ailment at the age of 60. He is buried in the Midvale City Cemetery.

My mother was young (about 6 1/2) when he passed away, but she does remember him and that he would wave goodbye to her by putting his thumb to his nose and waving his fingers to her.