Harder, John (1836-1930)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1930 Feb 28 p. 6

Birth date: 1836

text of obituary:

LOCAL

— Friends have received word Tuesday morning that John Harder, 93, of Hillsboro, passed away Monday. He had been quite low for some time. The funeral will be held Sunday. he is survived by many children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. His son, Prof. D. E. Harder, of Freeman College, Freeman, So. Dakota, is well known here in Newton.

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Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1930 Apr 2 p. 1

text of obituary:

John Harder

John Harder died at the Salem hospital Sunday night February 23 at 7:30. He was sick for one week. The funeral was held at the M. B. Church and he was buried in the Gnadenau cemetery on the side of his first wife. He was born August 20, 1836 in the village Blumstein, Molotschna Colony, South Russia. His father was Elder of the Ohrloffer Church. He was converted and joined this church about 1844. He was married November 8, 1858. to Elisabeth Fast of Schoenau. He taught school in Russia seven years and in America four years. In 1865 he moved with his family to Crimea where they lived nine years. Here they joined the K. M. B. church through baptism. In the year 1871 our father became a mainstay of this church, and served it nearly fifty years. His sermons are a blessing to many.

In the year 1874, our parents moved to America and settled in Marion County, Kansas, where they lived until his death, forty-two on the farm and twelve and a half years as citizen of Hillsboro. In the year 1898 December 30, his first wife, our Mother died. He therefore lived with her forty years and there were born to them eleven children, two of whom died in infancy and another two in later life age. In the year 1900 the father was married to the widow Renetta Schultz in Russia, who came with her four daughters with him to America. In this marriage he lived twenty-nine years. He was ninety-three years, six months and three days old.

He leaves to mourn seven living children with their famiies and the famiies of the two children who have died, the mother with her daughters and families, one brother in Russia, one adopted daughter, forty-eight grandchildren, and forty-six great grandchildren, a host of relatives and one great-grandchild are dead. This remembrance will be a blessing to us all the time. — Hillsboro Star.