Click on windmill to return home
Click for interactive tree
Contact me at:
asmits@smitshistory.com
e Smits Family History f
Theodora Smits (1877-1963)
|
Dora (Smits) & Peter Mathey c. 1930 |
Parents:
Christina Baeten (1856-1893)
Siblings:
Peter Jacob Smits (1885-1978)
Theodore Smits (1893-1893)
Spouse: Peter John Mathey (1881-1958)
Children: Christine Mathey (1898-1976) Johanna Mathey (1899-???) Petronella A. Mathey (1901-1996) Gertrude Josephine Mathey (1903-1990) Leonard J. Mathey (1905-1984) Fred B. Mathey (1906-1998) Henry M. Mathey (1908-1998) Jacob Joseph Mathey (1909-???) John William Mathey (1912-2006) Dora M. Mathey (1914-2001) Kathryn Elizabeth Mathey (1915-2004) Peter F. Mathey (1918-????) |
.jpg)
Theodora Smits was born on January 31, 1877 in De Pere, Wisconsin, the first child of Jacob Smits & Christina Baeten. She was named after her paternal grandfather, Theodore Smits (1804-1867). In June 1880 the family (then composed of Jacob, Christina, and children Dora & John) were living with Christina's father, Godfried on Eleventh Street in West DePere along with Godfried's wife, Petronella, and their other children: Leonard, Nellie, & Peter along with many other borders who were working in Godfried's brick yard.
In October 1888 Dora's father purchased land which would become the Smits farm in Ashwaubenon and moved the family there. When Dora was 16 years old, Christina, her mother, died from complications from childbirth leaving the family to be raised by Jacob and probably Dora & younger sister, Hattie.
On January 18, 1898 the 20 year old Dora married Peter John Mathey, the 16 year old son of Leonard Mathey & Petronella Willems who arrived in New York on March 18, 1892 from Limburg, the Netherlands. Peter & Dora's first child, Christine, was born in DePere, Wisconsin on March 23, 1898. Johanna, their second child followed on March 20, 1899.
By 1900 the family was living on the Smits' farm including Peter Mathey, Dora's husband. Although the family of three (Peter, Dora and daughters Christine & Anna) were also shown as living on Main Street in DePere where Peter was working as a brick maker. Shortly thereafter the family moved to Alger County, Michigan.
|
|
From 1901-1910 Peter & Dora had six more children at various townships in Alger County, Michigan. At the time of the 1910 census in April, Peter & Dora along with their family were living in Mathais Township, Alger County, Michigan where Peter was a farmer. Dora's brother, John, was also living in Alger County, Michigan at that time where he was working as a foreman in a lumberjack camp. John had married Peter Mathey's sister, Helen, in 1903.
They had four more children while living in Michigan: John W. in 1912, Dora M. in 1914, Katherine E. in 1915, and Peter F. in 1918. In 1920 Peter was still working as a farmer in Mathais Township, Alger County, Michigan and was living there with Dora and the family with the exception of their two eldest daughters, Christine & Johanna who had moved out by that time. In 1919 Johanna had married John Koenig and Christine would marry Alfred Swanson in 1921. |
|
|
By 1930, Dora & Peter had moved to a dairy farm on North Winfield Road in Winfield, Herkimir County, New York. Their daughter, Johanna, her husband, John Koenig, and their children lived on another farm just down the road.
Eventually, they retired to Florida, where Peter died in Sarasota on December 25, 1958. Dora moved back up to Winfield, New York and died there on November 28, 1963.
|
Mathey House, Winfield, NY |
|
.
r.jpg)
Dora Smits & Peter Mathey family circa 1930