52 Ancestors #2: Irene & Elizabeth, Mother and Daughter

Irene Rose Pfiffner was born on January 8, 1897 in Belleville, St. Clair, Illinois. The eldest child of Charles J. Pfiffner, a miner, and Emily Anderson. Irene was a quarter English and a quarter Swiss. She is my 2x great grandmother.

Charles died in 1910, leaving Emily to raise their three children. Emily eventually remarried Charles’ older brother, Louis L. Pfiffner.

Irene married John Douglas Jenkins prior to 1913, they had four children. First Elizabeth, followed by Harry, then Dorothy, and last born was Kenneth around 1921. Irene and John fought often, and eventually were divorced by 1930. Harry lived with his father in Illinois, the girls with their mother, and Kenneth was sent to Belleville to live with his twice widowed maternal grandmother Emily.

Irene and the girls moved from St Louis to Chicago following the divorce. In April 1930 she was married to Joseph (Jesse) Preston Bender, born in Mercer, Ohio in October 1892.

This is where Irene’s story becomes more confusing and difficult to tell. By the time of the census in 1930, seventeen year old Elizabeth was the mother of Jack Bender… Her stepfather’s son. Jack was not listed with the family on the census. It’s unclear how or why this family became such an odd family unit, even to Jack.

On May 9, 1932 a little girl named Irene Bender was born in Chicago. On her birth record her parents are listed as Irene Jenkins born St. Joe, Missouri and Joseph Bender. I know that Irene was born in Illinois… But Elizabeth was born in St. Joe. It’s possible the record was falsified as part of a coverup… Or that Elizabeth’s middle name was Irene. Irene Bender passed away on May 11. Due to family stories I know that Elizabeth did give birth to a daughter during the depression, she never saw her baby and claimed Joseph had sold her or had her taken away. Baby Irene was buried in an unmarked grave somewhere in or outside of Chicago.

Irene must have eventually decided enough was enough, she divorced Joseph Bender and married Louis Dominick, moving with him to Wisconsin where they operated a boarding house in 1940 before moving to Hollywood, California. Irene’s youngest daughter Dorothy eventually followed them and was laid to rest in the same cemetery as her mother and second stepfather.

By the time Irene left for Wisconsin, Elizabeth and Joseph had five living children; Jack, Harold Eugene, Charles Michael, Richard, and little Helen.

For more about the family of Elizabeth and Joseph, and to learn about how they tragically lost their only living daughter and youngest son read Richard and Helen’s Story.