If this site was useful to you, we'd be happy for a small donation. Be sure to enter "MLA donation" in the Comments box.
Sperling, Henry (1870-1971)
Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1970 Mar 26 p. 9 (bio)
Birth date: 1870 Mar 17
text of obituary:
Russia to Kansas to California
(Henry Sperling, a guest at the Pleasant View Manor in Reedley, Calif., observed his 100th birthday on March 17, when about 100 relatives and friends joined him for a brief program and a reception. This account of his life portrays experiences shared by many of the immigrants who left Russia in 1874 to settle in the Midwestern United States.)
IN THE EARLY 1870s the Mennonites in Russia began to see that the days of their religious freedom were numbered. Representative were sent to America to investigate the possibility of emigration to the United States. Their report was favorable. Some decided to go. In this group were Peter Sperling, his wife Anna Heidebrecht Sperling, and their five children, Anna, Nellie, Henry, Peter, and baby Helene. Henry was four years old, having been born March 17, 1870.
They left Russia in the summer of 1874. Arriving in Hamburg, Germany they were taken aboard ship with all their baggage, which was considerable. They knew not what to expect in America so they brought everything they would need for farming, including a shovel.
THEY WERE transported by a small steamer out to where the larger ship lay at anchor. It was a steam powered sailing vessel. They had been promised beds, but none were on the ship. Everything was covered with black coal dust. They cleaned as best they could, but soon another peril — seasickness — attacked them. Many were affected, and their cramped quarters became even more uncomfortable.
The food was to be supplied by the Captain, but it was spoiled and almost uneatable. One calm day they were all made to stand on the deck while their quarters were fumigated. One night they were informed that there was a fire in the engine room and those in the middle of the ship must move forward. Sincere prayers for their safety rose to God and the fire was put out after a desperate fight by the crew.
FINALLY they arrived in New York. Here they exchanged their gold for American currency and boarded a train for Kansas. They arrived in Topeka on Sept. 8, 1874 at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. Their trip had taken 37 days. The railroad provided them a large warehouse where they could stay a few days until they moved to their own farms.
Peter Sperling moved his family to a 160-acre farm six miles east and two miles south of what is now Inman, Kan. Here they built a "dugout" in which to spend their first year in America. They built wooden beds and placed straw on them. Meals were cooked on a tripod from which a large zinc kettle was suspended in the fireplace. Ovens were built outside for baking. These were made of sod bricks and iron plates.
They dug a well by hand. Before long their son Peter, while playing nearby fell into it and was killed. They were also very ill with malaria that first year.
THE LAND was sod plain and a hand plow was used to turn the sod. The land was rich and brought good crops, mostly wheat and rye. The first year they cut holes in the sod with an axe and planted corn and watermelon in these holes. They raised good fat livestock.
Later they built an adobe house with a straw roof, and this was later replaced by a frame house.
The family grew, and eventually there were 12 children.
Henry's education was received at the Sparta school a half mile south of their home. During the winter school was conducted in English and in the spring in German. A Mr. Shotwell was his teacher. From 1892 to 1894 he attended McPherson College. Here he studied history, physiology, and penmanship.
IN 1889 when the United States government opened up the Cherokee Strip in Oklahoma for homesteaders, Henry Sperling and a friend, Jacob Koehn, decided to go where the action was. They took a covered wagon and spent some time there, although they did not stake a claim.
About 1895 he purchased a farm from his former teacher, Mr. Shotwell. It was 160 acres, with 40 acres that had been planted to trees — mulberry, oak, lucust [sic], black walnut, cottonwood, etc. — as required by the original Homestead Act. It was located four miles east and two miles south of Inman. Henry Sperling was now a farmer with an income of his own. He bought a small house and moved it onto his farm. Later a second floor and new kitchen were added.
ON JUNE 11, 1895, he was baptized and became a member of the Ebenezer Mennonite Brethren Church near Buhler, Kan. One of the members of this church was Elizabeth Koehn. They were married on April 8, 1896 in the home of her parents, Jacob and Anna Unruh Koehn.
Their first two sons died in infancy, as did a fifth son born in 1907. Those who grew to adulthood were Samuel (born 1900), Anna (1903), Herbert (1905), and Bernice (1914).
For many years Grandpa Sperling was active in his chosen church. In 1903, it was the custom in the churches to elect ministers from the laymen, and he was elected to the ministry. However, he did not feel called to this work. In 1906 he was elected to be a deacon and served in that capacity until 1920.
IN 1920 the family came to California. The trip took two weeks. They left about the middle of September. The first day they drove to Garden City, Kan. and stayed with the J. B. Ratzlaff family for the night. Mr. Ratzlaff rented the farm which Henry had purchased near there. The next night they tried the wooden cots he had made for the trip, but these proved unsatisfactory so the rest of the trip they slept on sacks filled with straw that they laid on the ground.
They followed the original Santa Fe trail which was the pioneer wagon trail to the West. It consisted of two tracks that ran across the terrain. Some hills were so steep that Sam would drive in low gear wide open, and the other five would push and they would barely make it. Going downhill was just as steep, and this was hard on the 1915 Ford touring car. In Santa Fee [sic] they replaced all the transmission bands.
ONCE THEY were stalled on the road about two hours, so while the men fixed the car, Grandma went down to the river and did the laundry. In those days no one ever passed a car in distress and about 20 cars stopped and gave what help they could.
In Oatman, Ariz. they again had to stop to replace the transmission bands. Because of the lack of proper signs they lost the main road and had to cross the Colorado River on a ferry upstream from the bridge. Finally they arrived in Shafter and lodged with Rev. Herman Janzen and Rev. Henry Voth, and then went to Reedley to the John Sperling home.
In 1921 they purchased a farm in the Sanger Riverbottom. They lived there for about five years. In 1925 they purchased the farm southwest of Reedley which a son, Herb Sperling, now farms. The farm's original house had a trap door with a pit under it in the front room. The previous owner, they learned, had earned a handsome profit in the bootlegging business.
THE FAMILY attended the Mennonite Brethren church which is now located in Dinuba. Henry was again chosen to be a deacon, and served in that capacity until about 1948. He is still a member of this church.
The four children all married and settled in the Reedley-Dinuba area. Sam, the oldest died in 1965. The others are Mrs. David (Anna) Krause, Herbert, and Mrs. Cornelius (Bernice) Enns. There are 14 grandchildren, 31 great-grandchildren, and two great-great-grandchildren.
About 1942 Mr. and Mrs. Sperling moved the homestead house from their farm to the farm of their daughter Bernice and family. They lived there until Mrs. Sperling died on March 18, 1950. Later Mr. Sperling lived with the children. In 1964, after suffering a stroke, he moved to the Penner Rest Home in Reedley. In about a year he was again hospitalized, but recovered quite quickly and has since lived at Pleasant View Manor in Reedley.
GRANDPA'S main interests have always been the church and politics. He can remember every president since Rutherford Hayes until now. He was a great admirer of Theodore Roosevelt. He has not failed to vote, and to this day does so by absentee ballot since he cannot get to the polls.
His children and grandchildren wish him God's continued blessings.
Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1971 Dec 16 p. 5
text of obituary:
Dinuba, Calif. — Funeral services for Henry Sperling, a 101-year-old native of Russia, were held recently at the Zion M. B. church, Dinuba.
He is survived by three children, 14 grandchildren, 29 great-grandchildren and four great-great-grandchildren.
Mr. Sperling was a retired farmer and long-time resident of the Dinuba area.
