Young Mother Dies From Influenza Pandemic

Marie Jennie DeRosier Stiles
(1885-1918)

The year was 1918 and the deadliest virus known as the Spanish Flu was spreading like wildfire around the world.  World War I which had began in 1914 was still in need of men.  So on March 4, 1918 Jennie Stiles kissed her husband Harry good-bye as he prepared to leave for Camp Greenleaf in Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia. Harry Stiles would enter the artillery along with the six additional men making up the quota from Menominee.  Jennie was barely a month pregnant at the time of Harry's departure with their fifth child. In November as the baby's due date approaches the news of the Armistice being signed is encouraging as she prays that Harry will be home in time to witness the birth. On the morning of November 25, 1918 Jennie goes into labor and later gives  birth to a baby girl.  Sadly Jennie is ill and her infant girl appears sickly too.  Baby Girl Stiles has a cough and would be nursed back to health. Tragically twelve days later Mrs. Harry Stiles would succumb to the deadly influenza and pneumonia.  

Taken from the Escanaba Morning Press ...

Menominee, Mich., Dec 9, - Mrs. Harry Stiles is dead at the St. Joseph hospital following a siege of illness. Pneumonia caused death.  In addition to the husband who was called for at training camp, Mrs. Stiles is survived by five children. 

Harry Stiles is prominently known through the upper peninsula and Northern Wisconsin as a horse racer.  He drove his own horse "Alice" several seasons at the Northern State Fair. 

Per her death certificate Jennie DeRosier Stiles was ill on November 25, 1918, the date she gave birth to her fifth and last child.  Dr. Walter R. Hicks, M.D. of Menominee signed the death certificate and the informant who signed his name to the death certificate was Jennie's father-in-law, Judge John W. Stiles.  The cause of death listed was pneumonia and influenza.

Marie Jennie DeRosier Stiles - Death Certificate 

Young Mother is Buried This Morning

Taken from Marinette Newspaper December 10, 1918 - The funeral of Mrs. Harry Stiles, whose sad death occurred a few days ago, was held this morning from Saint John's church in Menominee, the Rev. Father D. Cleary officiating. Interment was made in Riverside cemetery.  Mrs. Stiles' death is unusually pathetic, leaving, as she does a number of little children, the youngest a baby of two weeks. 

If a formal obit had been written it would probably read as follows:  Mrs. Harry Geary Stiles, the former Jennie DeRosier died yesterday morning at St. Joseph's Hospital in Menominee, Michigan.  Mrs. Stiles is survived by her loving husband Harry Geary Stiles and children: Marjorie, Jack, Helen, Mary and an infant baby girl born two weeks ago.  Additional survivors include her parents Orvid and Mary DeRosier; and siblings: Marjorie,  Joseph, Wilfred and Rosanna DeRosier all of Oconto, Wisconsin. 

Marie Jennie DeRosier was born in Montreal, Canada the oldest child of Mary Louise Belongia and Orvid DeRosier's seven children.   At age four years, Jennie immigrated with her family to Oconto, Wisconsin.  The 1900 census record lists Jennie as attending school. On both the 1910 census and her marriage record, Jennie's occupation is listed as "dressmaker". Reverend Dennis Cleary married Jennie DeRosier and Harry Geary Stiles on June 10, 1911 in St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, Menominee, Michigan.  They would take up residence above the J.W. Stiles Cigar Factory at 435 Main Street, Menominee, Michigan.

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