I have always wanted to know my great grandfather. In part because somehow I have felt robbed of him. He was born in Centerville, Utah on June 2, 1889 and died on February 9, 1941 in Ogden, Utah. just two months before my father was born. My father was his first grandchild- A grandchild he never met. Little is known about his dash- what happened between his birth and death. Records indicate that he stood about six feet two inches tall and weighed nearly 200 pounds.
Edwin Cleveland Stoddard's parents were Hyrum Franklin Stoddard and Evangeline Cleveland. His parents were pioneers. His father, Hyrum was born in Council Bluffs Iowa.
Edwin was quick to smile and had kind blue eyes, and he was a regular at youth dances with his buddy Art Anderson. It was at one of these dances that he met her.... he met Jennie.
The railroad in Utah’s North
brought Edwin and Jennie together… it is this great steam horse which also tore
them a part. Nestled in the mouth of Ogden Canyon where the tracks meet, it was
only natural that Edwin became a railway man. The tracks connected Uintah to Logan, together,
and thus Jennie and Edwin, on the Bamberger Railroad.
The two fell in love on the
brink of World War I. They married June 24, 1914- four days prior to the
assassination of Franz Ferdinand of Austria.
This bullet triggered World War I.
The Great War shaped their lives and the lives of their future
generations- in ways unimaginable to these two young hearts.
Letters- A few relics is all
that remains of their lives together.
Words penned by their young hands and hopeful hearts. They are but etchings- a mere echo of
Jennie’s short-lived life.
On March 2, 1914 Edwin wrote
from Pocatello, Idaho Depot (The Oregon Short Line and Utah Northern Railway
Railway):
My Dear Jennie,
“…Isn’t it the most glorious
thing this love one gets for another. It
appears most heavenly in its mission, and dear I enjoy it more and more every
day. And it is getting most unbearable. Can’t you come, won’t you come dear, as you
have stolen into my life and it appears that you have become a part of it, to
leave as silently as you entered would nearly break my heart, I do believe.
I will try and bear it until
the spring dear, and then won’t you come to me, as I have stated you are the
missing link of the chain, to my happiness…”
Jennie, the daughter of
prominent Logan citizen, Thomas X. Smith, was her father’s darling. As the youngest child of a large polygamous
family, she was the pet. Uncommon in her
day and especially for women, she was also a scholar having received two years
of college education.
Jennie and Edwin’s letters
continue but were few. Jennie fell for
this eloquent railway man as they communicated via letters through their
courtship, early days of marriage, and the birth of two children, Cleve and
Ruth. While the war drew to a close in
Europe, another disaster struck as the Great Flu Epidemic of 1918 raged hitting
Edwin on the railway. The story goes
that “Ed” returned for a short visit and unknowingly infected Jennie. He returned to the railway and fell ill.
The last letter of
communication between the two shares the tale of their “almost happily ever
after.”
The letter was post dated
October 14, 1918, 2 pm Salt Lake City Utah:
Mr. E.C. Stoddard
C/O Columbia Hospital
Butte, Montana
Salt Lake City, Utah
October 13, 1918
My Dear Bug,
“No one can tell how I felt
when I heard you were ill. I would give
anything if you were here and I could care for you. O. Bug!
Why did you go? I’m just heart sick.
Ever since you left I’ve been so depressed and felt as if something
would happen. If you were only home…”
The letter is signed, “with bushels
of Love and Kisses
From Babes and myself,
Jen
Jennie’s mother, Annie was with her during her
illness. Annie had gone out to get more
medicine for Jennie and returned to find her near death. Edwin received word of
Jennie’s imminent death while he lay in a hospital in Butte, Montana. He arrived in Salt Lake City on a stretcher
stricken with the flu himself.
Jennie made one last request
on her deathbed to Edwin- The promise that her children would not be raised by
a stepmother.
Edwin kept his promise. Jennie's sister Marie and husband Leo raised Cleve and Ruth and later adopted them. Edwin or "Ed" as he was known later married Edna Weise. They had three children, Carl, Maxine, and Ronald. Edna and the children- they are all dead now. And they took with them their memories of Edwin. Perhaps, we will never know what he did with his dash and
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| Stoddard Corner, Uintah, Utah near Ogeden |
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| Stoddard Home, Uintah Utah |
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