Draft:Edna L. Smith

Edna was born in Mount Pleasant, Iowa 3 Mar 1885, the daughter of Captain Charles Hamilton Smith and Selma Charlotte Teuscher. Her father was one of the founders of the Western Wheeled Scraper Company that moved to Aurora, IL in 1891 and later merged with the Austin Company to become Austin-Western.

She was elected a director of the Western Wheeled Scraper Company to succeed her father, after his death in 1910, giving her the distinction of being the only Aurora woman to hold a seat on the controlling board of any big corporation. She was only 23 years of age. Source: Chicago Tribune Oct 19, 1910.

In 1914 Miss Smith founded the Juvenile Home for abandoned and neglected children. She had certainly known what it was like to be helpless with no adult to turn to and her staunch advocacy was a lifeline to many children over the years. Unfortunately tragedy struck again and Edna was killed in an automobile accident.

In 1944 the last surviving sister and her husband (Stella and Charles Sencenbaugh) donated the former family mansion to the Juvenile Protection Association. In 1948 they named it the Edna Smith Home for Children, dedicated to continuing her efforts to provide a safe and comfortable haven for orphans and children from broken homes.

The property was purchased in 1996, by Mutual Ground, an agency of the United Way, as a twenty-four-hour emergency shelter for victims of abuse. As the first and sometimes the only haven in Kendall and southern Kane Counties for women and children suffering from domestic violence and sexual assault, Mutual Ground provides temporary shelter, advocacy, education and counseling. Selma, Edna and her sisters would have wholeheartedly approved.” Source: Haunted Aurora, Diane A. Ladley

Edna began her education with a tutor, and then attended the Kent Place School, a college preparatory school in Summit, NJ. Source: 1902 Aurora Directory; Kent Place School. She graduated from Vassar College in 1907. She was greatly interested in social work. Miss Smith traveled around the world twice, in 1913 and 1914. During the war she and her sister Genevieve served with the Y.M.C.A. Canteen Service in France. She was the founder of a school in New York to provide educational facilities for poor children. She later founded another in Carmel, CA. She earned a master's degree in botany from Columbia University in 1921 and was studying for her doctorate prior to her death in 1922.

Miss Smith helped found the Juvenile Protection Association (JPA) in 1914. She also provided a boarding house for working girls. She and her sister Genevieve were killed when their car was struck by a passenger train near Lakewood, New Jersey, 15 Apr 1922. Edna and her mother had just returned from Florida where they had spent the summer. Edna had gone on to New York to take a course in botany. Her sister had joined her in New York, the two were driving to a New Jersey resort for the weekend where they were meeting Genevieve’s husband Leo Nash. Source: Aurora Daily Star 17 Apr 1922.

Edna Smith and sister killed in a tragic rail crossing accident. The funeral will be held Wednesday afternoon at the home of the mother of the sisters, Mrs. C.H. Smith, 125 West Park Avenue. The services will be strictly private. Friends are requested to omit flowers. Interment will be in Spring Lake Cemetery. Mr. Nash and Miss Emily Dwight, a cousin of the deceased, who has been with Miss Smith in New York will accompany the remains here. Source: Aurora Daily Star 18 Apr 1922

Aurora Mansion given for Children’s Home: Charles W. Sencenbaugh of Aurora, chairman of the board of the Austin-Western Road Machinery Co. and his wife, Stella (Smith), have announced the gift of a brick and stone mansion here to the Aurora Juvenile Protective association. The estate, which is valued at an estimated $25,000, will be a home for more than 50 children. Donald Defrates, chairman of the association, said. Source: Decatur Daily Review 20 Dec 1944. The Edna Smith Home was named after Edna Smith, co-founder of the Juvenile Protection Association and sister of Stella Sencenbaugh.