Jesse Nathaniel Smith, III

His headstone reads Nathaniel Jesse Smith, Arizona ACMI, USNRF (U.S. Navy Reserve Force), World War I, September 27, 1882 to January 11, 1954, however his death certificate lists his name as Jesse Nathaniel Smith. He was the son of Jesse Nathaniel Smith, Jr., and Mary Ann Mitchell. Jesse married Lydia Jane Savage January 20, 1913, the daughter of Leroy Mathers Savage and Lydia Lenora Hatch. Jesse and Lydia had two daughters, Lenora born in 1914, and Mary born in 1916 in Holbrook, and they divorced 1919. In the 1920 census for Heber, Navajo, Arizona, Lydia S. Smith, 27, divorced, was living with her two daughters, Lenora, 6, and Mary, 4 years, 2 months old, and Lydia was working as a public school teacher.

Jesse N. Smith was living in Pioche, Lincoln, Nevada in the 1930 U.S. Federal Census. He was 48 years old, single, renting a house for $25.00 per month, working as a carpenter, and had two lodgers living with him, an A.G. Wisler, 35, and Frederick Kent, 30. A.G. and Fred were working as laborers in the mining industry.

Lydia Jane Savage Smith married Joseph Peterson in 1924 and they had more children. In the 1930 census for Snowflake, Lydia was living with Joseph and were listed as follows: Joseph Petersen, 56, Lydia, 36, Leora, 29 (Joseph's daughter from a previous marriage), Earland, 23, (Josephe's son from a previous marriage), Lenora, 16, (listed as Petersen, but really the daughter of Jesse Smith), 16, Wanda, 16, (another of Joseph's chidlren), Mary,14, (Lydia and Jesse's daughter), Charles, 3 years, 2 months old, and Roald, 2, Joe and Lydia's children. Joseph was working as a school teacher, his daughter, Leora, was working as a stenographer in an office and his son, Earland, as a laborer doing odd jobs. Joseph owned his own home which was valued at $1,000. He was first married at the age of 23 and Lydia at age 19. Lydia, born December 21, 1892, passed away in December of 1985 in Snowflake, Arizona.

An Ancestry.com page for Jesse indicated that he also married Joice Socedge on January 20, 1913. It doesn't seem possible that he would have married two different women on the same day in 1913 in Holbrook, Arizona, because by then the LDS Church was no longer promoting plural marriage.

On July 5, 1957, an Emma Smith Payne applied for a headstone marker for Nathaniel Jesse Smith's grave. The application shows a birth date of Sepember 27, 1882, and a death date of January 11, 1954. It also shows that he served from June 28, 1918 to February 21, 1919, but that was changed to read September 30, 1921. The application also shows he was buried in the Virden Cemetery in New Mexico.

Jesse and Lydia's daughter, Mary, born January 3, 1916 in Holdbrook, Arizona, passed away March 8, 2006 in Bakersfield, Kern county, California.