Harms, Harold (1898-1959)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1959 Dec 10 p. 6

Birth date: 1898 Aug 31

text of obituary:

. . .

— Word has been received here of the death of Harold Harms, 61, prominent farmer of the Great Bend community, who died Dec. 5 in a Larned convalescent home after a long illness. He was a native of the Whitewater community. Funeral services were held Tuesday at the Methodist church in Great Bend. Mrs. Harms was the former Addie Siebert. Also surviving are a daughter and three sons, his mother, Mrs. J. J. Harms of Whitewater, three brothers and two sisters.

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Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1959 Dec 24 p. 10

text of obituary:

HAROLD HARMS

Harold Harms, son of Jacob and Anna Ewert Harms, was born August 31, 1898 at Whitewater, Kansas. Here he completed grade and high school and grew to manhood. At the age of 14 he was baptized and received into the Grace Hill Mennonite church.

For a time after graduation from the Wichita Business college he worked in Wichita. Then he returned to the farm at Whitewater.

On July 28, 1921, he was married to Addie Alice Siebert. To this union were born Kenneth K., now of Los Angeles, Calif.; Lila, now Mrs. Lila Rogers of Great Bend, Kansas; Ernest of Wilson, North Carolina; and Gary of the home, now a student at the National Theological seminary in Kansas City, Mo.

In 1923 the family moved to the Siebert farm near Great Bend, Kansas. During this time he was active in many community enterprises, taking an active part in the Bergtal Mennonite church, where he taught a young boys Sunday school class for many years.

Being a man of sterling qualities, integrity and ambition, he was successful in farming and sheep raising, and later in his work in the Federal Agricultural Program. He served in various capacities including chief clerk in Baton County, state fieldman, and then as a specialist in the Manhattan office of the State P. M. A.

Mr. Harms was one of the promoters of rural electrification in the Great Bend area and was instrumental in its growth and expansion. He served as first treasurer of the Central Kansas Electric Cooperative for many years.

After the family moved to a newly purchased home in Great Bend, Kansas in 1942 their church membership was transferred to the First Methodist church where he held various offices and dedicated himself and his talents.

His health failed in September 1954 when he was stricken with a cerebral hemorrhage from which he never recovered. He was bedfast and hospitalized for more than five years and suffered much.

He passed away on Dec. 5, 1959 in the hospital wing of the Holiday Rest Home in Larned, Kansas.

Members of the family who remain are: his wife Addie Alice; the four children; his aged mother, Mrs. Anna Hams of Whitewater; five grandchildren, three brothers, Edwin of Burns, Gilbert of Wichita, and William of Whitewater; two sisters, Mrs. Clarence Wilmot of Wichita and Mrs. Isaac Harms of Whitewater; also other relatives and many friends wherever he worked throughout the state.

Funeral services were conducted by Rev. Oren McClure in the First Methodist Church of Great Bend on Dec. 8, 1959, and he was laid to rest in the Hillcrest Memorial cemetery. — Mrs. Harms & Family.