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Funk, John Fretz (1835-1930)
Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1930 Jan 15 p. 1
Birth date: 1835 Apr 6
text of obituary:
PIONEER MENNONITE PUBLISHER DIES AT 94
Elkhart, Ind., January 9. The Rev. John Fretz Funk, age ninety-four, one of Elkhart's oldest residents and pioneer leader of the Mennonite church in America, is dead at his home here. His body was found in bed today.
A resident of Elkhart since 1867, the Rev. Mr. Funk was sometimes called the dean of Elkhart business men. He was president and active manager of the Mennonite Publishing Company during the fifty years of its existence. the company printed Sunday School and Church literature for churches of that sect throughout the world. The corporate affairs of the company were ended in 1925 and Mr. Funk had conducted the remnant of its mail order business under the trade name of John F. Funk.
Despite his advanced age, he made daily trips to the office of the company until last May. He became bedfast last Friday.
Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1930 Mar 5 p. 5
text of obituary:
OBITUARY OF PIONEER MENNONITE PUBLISHER
John Fretz, son of Jacob and Susanna (Fretz) Funk, was born April 6, 1835, in Bucks Co., Pa. His education, beyond that of the public schools, was received in a private school conducted by the Baptist denomination, and as a student in Freeland Seminary, now Ursinus College. at the age 18 he became a teacher in the home school. This vocation he followed for three years. he then went to Chicago, Ill., arriving there in 1856. He made his home with his half-sister, Mary Ann Beidler and was employed for some time by her husband in the lumber business. Later he engaged in the lumber business by himself, being very successful.
While yet in Pennsylvania, he came in contact with the Baptist Church, but he was not able to reconcile some of their doctrinal teachings with the Scriptures, especially on the subject of baptism. In his study of this subject, he was largely guided by a booklet written by his great-grandfather, Heinrich Funk, who had migrated from Holland. In Chicago, with the Beidler family, he worshipped at the Third Presbyterian Church and it was during a revival in that denomination that he was converted. He applied for membership in that denomination, but after studying their creed, he was unable to reconcile with the Word the Calvinistic doctrine of predestination and infant baptism. There was only one thing that he could honestly do, and so he made a trip back to his home in Bucks Co., Pa., at his first convenience and was received into the Mennonite Church at Line Lexington congregation. To his knowledge, he was then the only Mennonite in the city of Chicago.
His ten years in Chicago were active ones religiously as well as in a business capacity. He worked where he was able to do anything for the Lord. At one time he was superintendent of one Sunday School, a teacher in a second, and a pupil in the third. in this work he was associated with Dwight L. Moody, who latter became the great evangelist and the founder of Moody Bible Institute.
During the Civil War of 1861-65, Bro. Funk saw that many of the young men of Mennonite parentage went to war. This grieved him much and he started to prepare an article on non-resistance to be published in tract form. This was not published until he received some encouragement in May 1863, from a visit by Bishop John M. Brenneman, Elida, Ohio, and Peter Nissley, an aged minister from Lancaster Co., Pa. He then quite regularly worshipped with the small brotherhood in Grundy Co., Ill. The encouragement that he received finally led him to venture upon the publication of two religious monthly papers, The Herald of Truth, and its German counterpart, Herold der Wahrheit, the first issues coming out January 1, 1864. He still continued in the lumber business, and there were days when he worked as many as 20 hours. the Lord prospered him and by the end of the year the circulation had exceeded 1,000 copies and surpassed his hopes at the beginning of the venture.
After getting out the first issue of the papers he made a journey back home, where on Jan. 19, 1864, he was married to Salome, daughter of Jacob and Mary (Myers) Kratz, who lived on an adjoining farm and who as a girl had been one his pupils.
With his bride he returned to Chicago, and with characteristic energy threw himself into the work of the Church. On May 27, 1865, he was ordained to the ministry in the little church in Grundy Co., Ill., as an English preacher. Bro. Funk, however, preached in the German language often very acceptably. He now made regular trips to Grundy county on Saturday nights to serve the congregation, going on a freight train.
During the next few years it became increasingly apparent to him that his publications and other Church work would require his entire time. He therefore sold his lumber interests and on April 6, 1867, his birthday, he moved to Elkhart, Ind., then a city of 3,000 population, he and Sister Funk being the first Mennonites in the city. He set up a small printing establishment in temporary quarters and soon afterward purchased the lot at 320 South Main St., erected the brick building still standing, and moved into it on Jan. 1, 1868. shortly after, his brother Abram K. became associated with hm under the firm name of John F. Funk and Brother. In 1875 the business was reorganized under the name of Mennonite Publishing Company. this corporation had the unique distinction of continuing its existence for the full duration of its fifty year charter, of having the same president, and of remaining in the same building. Besides the two papers already mentioned, the company published The Young People's Paper, the Words of Cheer, the Rundschau, Sunday School Quarterlies, and other Sunday school supplies, besides hymn books and other religious papers in the German and English languages. two of the most notable achievements of the company were the translation of the martyr's Mirror and the Complete Works of Menno Simon and their publication in the English language.
In 1870 he bought a lot on Prairie Street and built the year following, largely at his own expense, the original church house which is still in use. He had the satisfaction of seeing the original congregation of eight members grow to its present membership of about three hundred and of seeing the house twice enlarged. Not satisfied with this, he made many journeys at his own expense throughout the United States and Canada holding meetings. He and Pre. Daniel Brenneman held the first revival meetings tin the Mennonite Church, in Bishop Nicholas Johnson's congregation in Fayette Co., Pa. He spent much time in indoctrination, for which he was especially gifted. He had a large place in the establishing of the Sunday school throughout the Church through his personal efforts and by the supplying of needed literature.
It was through his recommendations that the Indiana-Michigan conference in 1882 inaugurated the Evangelizing Committee which was the forerunner of the present Mennonite Board of Missions and Charities and that the Mennonite Aid Plan was organized. He was also a great advocate of a Mennonite Gen3eral Conference, as the minutes of the Indiana-Michigan Conference bear record. In the great work of the immigration of the Mennonites from Russia to the United States and Canada in 1874, Bro. Funk devoted many months of time and much means in helping them in every way possible, making many long trips. Hundreds of these Russians had the name of John F. Funk in the highest esteem and affection, a feeling which is still cherished by their children and grandchildren. On June 1892, he was ordained bishop over the congregations west of Goshen, Ind., and again this occupied a great deal of his time.
In his later years he was also to know severe trials. One of these was a financial loss partly due to a serious bank failure; but with the aid of kind friends, he took up the burden of carrying on as best he could, although past the age of 70. The other was that of difficulties that arose in the local congregation and spread to other congregations. Our brother was not without his errors and weaknesses. To have been without them would have been superhuman. He had the bitter experience of being misunderstood and was relieved of the active duties of bishop. He was a good forgetter and forgiver, and a worthy example to us in this. Again, he faced the future with that unfailing fortitude and cheerfulness which was a constant wonder to those who did not understand the inner source of his strength. Our brother's attitude as viewed by those unprejudiced and not connected with these troubles is far better understood now and the Church in his later life held him in the highest esteem.
In 1908 it seemed best to sell the printing business to the James A. Bell Company and the publications to the Mennonite Publishing Board, which had just purchased the printing plant of the Gospel Witness Company of Scottdale, Pa. He still continued the mail order department up to 1923, when, at the expiation of its charter, the company was dissolved. He went on with the business, however, to within six months of his death under the name of John F. Funk, successor to the Mennonite Publishing Company.
In May, 1929, he was stricken with an affliction from which he never fully recovered. Although retaining to the last his cheerful spirit, he gradually grew weaker until early in the morning of Jan. 8, 1930, he passed away peacefully in his sleep at the age of 94 years, 9 months, and 2 days. He outlived all the members of his own family and his wife (who died in 1917). Of his six children, four died in infancy, and one daughter, Phoebe (Mrs. Abraham B. Kolb) passed away in 1918. He is survived by one daughter (Miss Martha Funk), four grandchildren, Helen (Mrs. Donald Gates), Jacob Clemens Kolb, John Funk Kolb, and Constance (Mrs. William A. Sykes); and one great-grandchild Barbara Jane Sykes.
A few months before his death, he called one of his granddaughters to him and earnestly requested that the following be repeated at his funeral. "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his." "Trusting in the salvation and redemption of our Lord Jesus Christ, through the sufferings of Christ."
Funeral services were held at the late home and at the Prairie Street Mennonite Church, Elkhart, Ind., on Saturday afternoon, Jan. 11, 1930, in charge of Jacob E. Bixler, assisted by the brethren D. A. Yoder, D. J. Johns, J. S. Hartzler, and Daniel Kauffman. Text (chosen by the family), II Tim. 4: 6 - 8. The large concourse of brethren and sisters present showed the large place that our brother held in the hearts of the Church, and he is gone but not forgotten. Interment in the Prairie St. cemetery near the city. —Gospel Herald.
Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1930 Jul 16 p. 4
text of obituary:
By Aaron Loucks.
The death of John F. Funk, January 8, 1930, ended the earthly career of a man who was an outstanding character in the history of the Mennonite Church for more than sixty years. He was born in Berks County, Pa., April 6,1835, and reached the age of 94 years, 9 months, and 2 days. His ancestors came to America from Holland in 1717. He was a great-grandson of Heinrich Funck, the first Mennonite bishop at Franconia, Pa. The ripe old age which he reached shows that he was endowed with a rugged constitution, which enabled him to carry on for over seventy-five years the arduous duties of school teacher, business man, minister of the Gospel, editor, and organizer of church activities.
In his early life he taught school in his home community for three years. During the summers he attended Freeland Seminary, now Ursinus College. In 1857 he went to Chicago, where he worked for his brother-in-law in the lumber business, and later conducted a similar business of his own successfully. Early in his business career he became interested in spiritual things, and during a series of revival meetings [at] one of the churches of Chicago, he confessed Christ as his Savior. While on a visit to his former home in Pennsylvania, in the winter of 1859, he was baptized and received into the Mennonite Church at Line Lexington, Pa.
From this time on the fire of his newly found joy in salvation from sin quickened in him the desire to tell the Gospel story. He became active in Christian work and assisted, in the capacity of a teacher, in one of the mission Sunday schools organized by D. L. Moody. His Christian zeal soon led him to enter service in the Mennonite Church, although there was no congregation in the city at that time. While he was in full accord with the doctrines as held by the Mennonite Church, he nevertheless recognized the inertia of the Church in the work of carrying the Gospel to others outside their own immediate circles. In a sermon which he preached in 1925 on the ninetieth anniversary of his birth, he stated: “In my younger days the Mennonite Church was a different institution from what it is now. We had at that time no periodicals and very few books that were of true Mennonite character. We had no continued meetings, no prayer meetings, no missionary work, or anything of that kind. . . . Our literature was printed in the German language, so that the German people could read it, but at the time I became active in the Church the German language was worn out, so to speak, and was to be laid aside and to be exchanged for the English language.”
With this vision of the needs of our people we can readily understand the urge that led him to launch into publication work for the Church. He began by publishing the Herald of Truth, and the Herold der Warheit, the first English and the second German, as monthly church papers. He was a pioneer in this work, especially in the field of English Mennonite literature. The fact that he printed an English paper, even though of a religious character, aroused suspicions in the minds of many well-meaning brethren. He was looked upon as a trouble-maker and his work was opposed by those who did not see the need as he did of making the language transition in preaching and literature..
Looking back over the past we well remember how eagerly we, as a young Christian, awaited the semi-monthly appearance of the Herald of truth, and how anxious we were to have it become a weekly visitor in the home. In this we were not disappointed, for from the humble beginning of a four-page monthly, issued for the first time in January, 1864, in Chicago, it developed into a semi-monthly paper in 1882 and then in 1903 began to appear as a weekly publication.
For three years the work was continued in Chicago, but as it grew and found favor with an increasing number of strong, active leaders in the Church, because of the good influence which it exerted wherever it was read, Brother Funk saw the advantage of locating the publication work in a Mennonite community. Accordingly he gave up his lumber business in Chicago, and in 1867 moved to Elkhart, Ind., where he set up his printing establishment. The work continued to grow and Bro. Funk not only devoted all of his time to it, but found it necessary to have assistants to help share the business and responsibilities. Able men, from various sections of the Church, east and west, who were in sympathy with his endeavors, became associated with him, thus binding together and strengthening his publishing institution as well as the Church at large. Besides the two papers already named, the Mennonite Publishing Company, which grew out of the private interests of Bro. Funk and was founded in 1875, published The Young People’s Paper, the Words of Cheer, the Mennonitische Rundschau, Sunday School quarterlies and other Sunday school supplies, besides hymn books, and other books in both English and German languages. Two of the most notable works of the Publishing Company were the publication of the Martyr’s Mirror, containing over 1100 quarto pages in both German and English languages, and the printing of the complete works of Menno Simmons. Both of these works were either translated directly from the original Dutch language or, where German translations had previously been made, they were carefully revised and corrected by comparison with the original text.
The translation and printing of books for the benefit of the young people who could not read German, often imposed heavy financial burdens on the institution, for the reason that the Mennonite Church was a small denomination and the people were not given to reading as they are today. Naturally the demand for books was not very great. Sunday school literature was furnished as fast as the demand arose for it, but in the early period of Sunday school work in the Church, there was not sufficient volume of this kind of business to make it very profitable.
Because our church publications were issued at Elkhart, Ind., it naturally became the center for organized work in other lines of Church activities. The first organized evangelistic work had its headquarters there. Relief work during the famine in India in 1897 was directed from Elkhart. A representative from there was sent to India with a shipload of food for distribution. it was also from Elkhart that funds were collected and forwarded for the India famine sufferers and for the orphans who had to be supported after the famine was over. In all of these activities Bro. Funk was a prominent figure.
Brother Funk gave freely of his service and means during the Russian Mennonite immigration to the United States and Canada in the seventies. He was a medium between the immigrants and the railroad companies in helping the former to get permanent locations. He assisted them in many ways in securing homes in America.
He lived to see the publishing work of the Mennonite Church expand until it became in the fullest sense of the word, a church publishing house, owned and controlled by the Church, with assets of nearly $300,000.00, publishing a large line of periodicals and books, for the home, the Sunday school, and the patronage of the Mennonite Publishing House is due to the pioneer work that he did in laying the foundation upon which another generation builded.
In April, 1908, the Mennonite Publication Board purchased the church publications of the Mennonite Publishing Co., Elkhart, Ind., and merged them with those of the Gospel Witness Co., Scottdale, Pa., and thus established the Mennonite Publishing House a church owned and controlled institution.
Bro. Funk was married to Salome Kratz, of his home community in Pennsylvania, on January 19, 1864, the same month that saw the appearance of his first publications. On May 7, 1865, he was ordained a minister in the Mennonite Church near Gardener, Grundy Co., Ill. Here he served as long as he was in Chicago. On June 16, 1892, he was ordained to the office of bishop to serve the following congregations in Indiana: Elkhart, Yellow Creek, Holdemans, Olive, Salem, and Nappanee. His was a long life, filled with many and varied activities but he will probably be best remembered as the pioneer publisher of Mennonite periodicals in America. — Christian Monitor.
Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1958 Apr 10 p. 11
