Nina Ruth (Bernheim) Stearns Smith (1882-1910)

I first learned the story of Nina Ruth Bernheim, my grandmother’s mother when I was a young boy.  Here is what I remember: 

“Grandma, is that a picture of my mother?” I said, pointing to an old photo on her dresser.

“That’s not your mother, Jerry. That’s my mother!” Grandma explained.

“Wow, they look just like each other!”

“Yes, they do, let’s see if we can find some more pictures, and I will tell you all about my mother.  She is your Great-Grandmother.”

 

Grandma gathered her album of old photos, yellowed newspaper clippings, and faded letters   “Let’s go see what we can find,” she said.

 

“I never knew my mother,” Grandma said, as she carefully opened her treasured album. “She died when I was a baby. Her name was Nina, the same as mine.  She grew up in Colorado and her parents died young."   Grandma used a few pictures to help tell the story.

“This is my mother, Nina, as a girl," she said. "She is holding her little brother Arthur, who is fast asleep."

Little did they know, a series of tragic events was about to disrupt their peaceful lives.  On April 20, 1893, their mother, Hattie, died unexpectedly at age 40. That was the first of several heartbreaking events that would strike over the next two years. 

A Diphtheria outbreak the following year took the life of little Arthur on October 23, 1894, at age 5.   Two months later, 12-year-old Nina nearly lost her life to Scarlet Fever.  She survived only to lose her father eight months later.  William Bernheim died of a “broken heart” on August 18, 1895, at age 41.  

The challenge of being orphaned at age 12 was made more difficult by separation as the children were taken in by families.  Her brother Julian and sister Irene went to live with Aunt Maggie in Holt Missouri, while her brother John stayed with friends in Denver.

"This is my mother in her college graduation photo." Nina was welcomed into the household of her older cousin A.B. Demuth and his wife Lena.  Unable to conceive, they welcomed Nina into their home and loved her dearly.  They assured Nina went to college, where she graduated with honors from Park College, Missouri.  

At Park College, a friendship with classmate Grant Stearns-Smith turned to romance after their freshman year.  They dated throughout college and were married after their graduation in 1906.   They traveled about the region working for various newspapers in Oklahoma, then shifting to accounting work with a mining company in Arkansas.  They were young, in love, and living life.  After three years, Nina became pregnant with their first and only child.  

Her final joy and biggest challenge is told by Grant in a letter to his daughter 36 years later as follows: 

 

“We were sublimely happy and ambitious.  On March 26, 1910, you were born, about 7 o’clock in the morning, the day before Easter, at Denning, Franklin County, Arkansas; the first and only child.   We were filled with joy, of course; though cautiously anxious about your little mother, but confident.  Then, eight days later, complications appeared.  My mother and sister, and your uncle Julian, came to my side.  My mother took you away through part of the following weeks, where you could be under the best of care, returning with you in a thriving condition in hopes that the sight of you might encourage your mother.  She made a courageous and valiant fight to live.  The attending physician, Dr Post, fresh out of Johns-, and special nurses from Fr. Smith together with several consultation visits by a leading physician from there could not stem the tide.  April 28^th in the early afternoon she was taken from me.”  

Back: Julian Bernheim, Grant Stearns-Smith,
  front: two nurses and Nina in black, Grandma
    is the baby being held. Denning, Arkansas, 1910.

"This is the only picture we have of me and my mother," she said, pointing out her father, her mother, and Uncle Julian.  

I remember leaving that conversation with a feeling of sadness and a sense of gratitude.   Grateful that I still had my parents.  Grateful for having my sister and brothers to grow up with.  Grateful that childhood disease and childbirth were not as deadly as they were in Grandma’s time. 

Sixty years later, I remain fascinated with the Bernheim family of Ft Collins.  I will share more stories about them in the future and about how her death shaped my grandmother’s childhood. 

Jerry Grandon at the gravesite of Nina Bernheim Stearns-Smith (lower left headstone), Smith family plot, Girard Cemetery, Girard, Kansas. 2023.   The cross headstone marks the site of her sister-in-law, Helen Smith Mason who also died related to complications of childbirth with her first child.