Hester Abiah Beckstead (1890-1938) 52 Ancestors #14

The subject for this week's blog post is my maternal great grandmother, Hester Abiah Beckstead.

Hester Abiah Beckstead was born August 21, 1890 in West Jordan, Utah to Hyrum Beckstead and Abiah Russell Robbins Beckstead. She was the 6th of nine children born to Hyrum and Abiah.

I know very little about Hester or her family. She met a baseball player from California (Ben Schmiett) and 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. I have a letter written by Hester to one of her brothers back home, where she talks about meeting the LDS missionaries in Los Angeles and Ben's folks not being very excited about her blessing my grandfather in the LDS church, but he did give her permission because that was what she really wanted.

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 at a young age (48) of chronic endocarditis and myocarditis in 1938. Ben passed away 11 years later of a heart ailment at the age of 60. Ben and Hester are both buried in the Midvale City Cemetery.