Wedel, Benjamin Jacob (1887-1950)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1950 Jan 19 p. 3, 6

Birth date: 1887 Sep 10

text of obituary:

BENJAMIN JACOB WEDEL

On Sept. 10, 1887, Benjamin Jacob Wedel was born at Moundridge, Kansas to Jacob Peter Wedel and Mary Stucky, a sister of J. B., John E. and the late Chris B. Stucky, and also a sister of Mrs. D. Schrag, Mrs. Ed Schrag and Lydia Stucky, all of Moundridge. Kansas.

When he was very young, in 1889, his mother and two brothers, John and Jacob, all passed from this life. John was older than father, while Jacob was younger.

After this happened, Grandpa Wedel was united in marriage for a second time, this time with Lena Goering, a daughter of the late “Schlusser” Goering. To this union were born four sons, one of whom died during childhood (Rudolph Wedel), and six daughters, all living.

The J. P. Wedel family lived at Moundridge and Pretty Prairie, Kansas, until 1905, when they moved to Upland, Calif., where they lived for many years.

While on a trip to the Menno District, twenty miles west of Ritzville, Washington, in 1910, he met Rose Waltner, the oldest of the John J. Waltner family. On Nov, 10. 1910, Benjamin Jacob Wedel and Rose Waltner were united in marriage at the Menno Mennonite church, the Rev. J. R. Schrag performing the ceremony. Joe G. Schrag and Justine Dyck were also married at the same time and place by the same pastor, it being a double wedding. The Menno Mennonite church building had just been completed and put into use in 1910, so this double wedding was the first Mennonite wedding performed in the new building.

Following the wedding, Ben and Rose Wedel left for Upland, Calif., there to make their home until the summer of 1913. On August 30, 1912, their oldest son Clayton, was born, at Upland. In the summer of 1913, they moved to Porterville, where the family lived until January 1919. In November, 1913, a daughter Dorothy, was born to them.

In 1919 the Wedel family moved to Woodlake, where they lived for a number of years. In August 1922, another son, who was named after his grandfather, Jacob Peter Wedel, was born. In 1932 the family moved out of Woodlake, to live in the Lindsay-Strathmore District, Porterville. Woodlake and the Lindsay-Strathmore District are in Tulare county, in central California.

On August 5, 1940, his father, Jacob Peter Wedel, departed from this life to be with our Lord Jesus Christ. The J. P. Wedel family was living at Garden Grove, Calif., when he passed on. During the late war, Ben and Rose Wedel bought a home in Lindsay.

While in fairly good health for most of his life, during the past several years he was bothered with hay-fever and near the end, with asthma. But he was one who could suffer and would never complain, so one never knew how really sick he was.

A few days before the end, a friend and relative of the family, Edison Kaufmann of Pretty Prairie, Kansas, arrived in Lindsay and was visiting them when father died suddenly of heart failure on January 3, 1950, between 6:00 and 6:30 p. m.

The funeral services were conducted at the Assembly of God Church, Lindsay, Rev. P. T. King officiating, assisted by Rev. R. H. Gregory of Strathmore, Calif. The funeral took place at 2:00 p. m. on January 7, 1950.

Before his marriage, in 1910, he was baptized and admitted as a member of the Mennonite church in Upland. While he went to other churches at different times and places, yet he never joined any other church.

The deceased is survived by his widow, Rose Wedel, the oldest son, Clayton, of Spokane, Wash., Mrs. Dorothy Nelson and the youngest son, Jacob Peter Wedel, of Lindsay. Calif. He is also survived by three brothers, Phillip and Paul of Oakland, Calif., and Wilbur Wedel of Anaheim, Calif.; six sisters, Mrs. Marie Keller of Atascadero, Calif., Mrs. Martha Moore of Los Angeles, Calif., Mrs. Elizabeth Beale of Berkeley, Calif., Mrs. Frieda Collier of Pasadena, Calif., Mrs. Anna Brass of Fresno, Calif., and Mrs. Bertha Galloway of Garden Grove, Calif.

A loving one from us is gone,
A voice we love is stilled.
There's a vacant place in our home,
Which never can be filled.

— The Family.