Jean Gertrude Hippach was a passenger on the Titanic.
Jean Gertrude Hippach in 1912.
Background and early life[]
Jean Gertrude Hippach was the youngest daughter of Louis Hippach and Ida Sophia Fischer. Officially she was born as Agnes Gertrude on October 1, 1894. Her place of birth is Chicago in Illnois, USA, where her father was a glass dealer. His business was named Tyler & Hippach, which he founded with Albert S. Tyler. Hippach was the Vice President. Both parents had German blood, the father stemmed from Michigan and the mother was Chiageon from birth. They were a prominent, wealthy family and the people of Chicago knew them well. They had gained a lot of popularity.
Ida and Louis Hippach were blessed with three other children next to Jean; Robert Louis in 1889, Albert Archibald, or "Archie" in 1892 and Howard Henry in 1896, who was Jean’s younger brother.
Jean’s brothers, Robert and Archie Hippach, were involved in big tragedy remembered by many Chicagoans: the Iroquois Theater fire on December 30, 1903. While the musical ‘Mr Blue Beard’ was playing. There was too large a crowd when a light caused the ignition, which ravaged the theathre from a curtain. 'Mr. Blue Beard' had drawn up to 2200 people that night, while their were technically only 1500 seats. The exits were blocked and many people were trampled.
By incredible coincidence, these numbers resemble the numbers of souls on board Titanic with the number of fatalities from the sinking of this ship. The number of dead in the theater was smaller, although still massive: it ranged from 575 to over 600 people. The real count was never officially established.
Ida Hippach was deeply bereft over the loss of her two sons, who were just 13 and 11, before she also lost her mother, Julia Fischer, some years later, in 1907. In September 1904, Ida had applied for a passport. With it, she was traveling to Berlin, Germany for two years while Jean and Howard went with her.
In January 1911, it was decided that she and Jean should take another extended European vacation. It was thought that a further change of scenery might do them some good. Louis Hippach couldn’t leave his business while Howard had gotten an internship with an engineering company in North Carolina so they had other things to do.
She and her mother were still touring through Europe in 1912. In April, they were ready to leave France behind to get back home.
Titanic[]
The Hippachs sailed on the Titanic from Cherbourg. They were among the First Class passengers that boarded her in the evening of April. The Titanic lay waiting, ablaze with light as she couldn’t come closer due to the shallow waters and her size. The tender Nomadic brought the Hippachs and others to this majestic steamer. Jean was 17 years old when she walked the plank to the First Class Entrance. They were allotted cabin B-18.
Jean and her mother were both asleep when the Titanic struck the iceberg on the late night of April 14. Ida thought the shock of the collision was mild. Her daughter continued sleeping until the roar of the steam escaping through the funnels woke her. Out of curiousity they dressed and got onto the hallway to be promptly sent to bed by a steward, who meant well as he didn’t want the women to catch a cold. It was not long after that, that instructions arrived to get lifejackets and appear on the Boat Deck. The Hippach ladies obliged, got fully dressed and soon they were up top.
Jean and Ida kept wandering around, as they were steadfast in their conviction that Titanic would be safer than getting in one of the lifeboats, so they waited a long time before they got into a lifeboat and were on the sinking liner until very late. They followed the example of most of the passengers, seeing how lifeboats were being lowered half-full on port side, as many others were also underestimating the peril that the ship was in.
Soon after, they were floating away, and Hippach looked back to see the horror of the Titanic. There was an “fearful explosion,” and the ship started cracking. She then saw all of the lights on the Titanic go out as the men and women on her boat rowed frantically to escape the suction of the sinking cruise liner.[3] If Hippach and her mother hadn’t been on that lifeboat, they might have been still been on the Titanic and probably would have died.
They were walking in the vicinity of lifeboat 4, to be spotted by Mr. Astor who had just seen off his wife. Astor assured them there was nothing wrong with the ship, but said it would be best if they took a seat in this lifeboat. Jean always that John Jacob deserved credit for saving her.
The women rolled their sleeves and helped with the rowing. Further away from Titanic, they could see the state this once deemed unsinkable mammoth was in. Jean witnessed explosions and a break-up. It was 2:20 A.M, when Titanic was no longer there. She left lots of people in the water, swimming for their survival. Thanks to boat 4, an extra 8 people were spared from a gruesome fate as they were given a hand and pulled aboard out of the water. Many of Titanic’s travelers lost their lives. Some drowned, but most were just frozen to death.
Later in the morning they saw the Carpathia and they rowed about two miles to the ship. Mrs. Hippach was taken aboard in a swinging seat.
After the sinking[]
The Chicago Daily Tribune from April 16, 1912 while reporting on the sinking of the RMS Titanic, Mr. Hippach was waiting anxiously for more news while he was at the Illinois Athletic Club as his residence was closed. He kept hope up as a report told that the women and children were put into the boats first. He didn’t have to wait long to have his optimism been proven right, as on the 17th, a day before Carpathia was in New York, the survival of the Hippach ladies was confirmed in the newspapers. A sweet reunion would follow not long after that.
Later life[]
Jean was back in Europe in late 1913. In November that year, she had reinstated herself on American soil.
The Hippach family had to experience another shock in 1914. On 28 October 1914, her brother Howard was in car in Wisconsin which was flipped on its head into the Geneva Lake. How this accident could happen is unsure. All that was known was that Howard had died. Jean had her own scare in the summer of 1915, when an 8-year old boy was run over by her butler accidentally, which killed him.
Jean thought she had met the love of her life when she was in the chapel of the Fourth Presbyterian Church, where she said yes to Hjalmar Egil Unander-Scharin on the third of January 1920. He was Swedish and had come from another marriage to a Swedish woman. He was made into a US citizen in 1917, three years after his immigration to this country. His owned many businnesses and he had lots of money as they were run very well.
Jean and Hjalmar made their home in Chicago and had three children: The first two children shared their parents names. Howard Hjalmar was the first to arrive in 1921, before their first daughter was named Jean in 1925. In addition, Louise Diane sprung from their marriage in 1929. The family were inhabitants of Chicago in early part of 1930, but they are believed to have made excursion to England, where they had their own recreation house in Somerset.
Her marriage with Hjalmar didn’t last. It was cruelly broken and officially over in June 1930, as he had not been loyal to her. After the divorce, he moved away from her back to Sweden, to his native town.
Jean’s new spouse was Dr Budd Clarke Corbus Jr, an army man. Their ceremony was on 25 January 1942, but Jean tried to draw as little attention as possible to this ceremony, as it was held in Lake Forest, Illinois. In the army, he did the medical part and had the rank of senior lieutenant. It had only been a year of marriage when the happiness was suddenly over. In February 1943, she officially broke her ties with him and restored her surname to Hippach again. Corbus had left her for Colorado.
Throughout her long life, Jean took voyage on a large list of impressive liners and floating palaces to do a lot of oversea travelling. Though the famous disaster of Titanic hadn’t put her off ocean travel, she kept her cards to her chest when the topic of Titanic was involved. This was something she could only talk about in the exclusitivy of close family.
In 1940, she still hadn’t parted ways with her mother, as their home was Evanstown, Illinois. That year, her mother passed away. Following the dead of Ida, Jean moved to Osterville in Massachuchetts.
Jean Hippach became 80 years old whens she lived out her life in Osterville, On 14 November 14, 1974, she drew her last breath when she was in Wianno, Massachuchetts. Her body was brought back to Chicago, to join her parents in the Rosehill Cemetery.