Harms, Margaret "Maggie" Ruth Kliewer (1878-1959)

Revision as of 16:45, 1 March 2011

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 12 Mar 1959 p. 6

Birth date: 1878

text of obituary:

— Mrs. Maggie Harms, 81, former resident of Newton, died in a Wichita hospital Tuesday morning. She had resided in Wichita for a number of years. A number of children survive, including Mrs. John (Martha) Flaming and Dr. Edwin H. Harms of Wichita, and a daughter, Minnie Harms, who teaches at Crete, Neb. Funeral services are announced for Saturday at 2:30 p. m. in the Bethel College Church, North Newton, of which she was a member.

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 19 Mar 1959 p. 6

text of obituary:

— Funeral services for Mrs. Maggie R. Harms of Wichita were held Saturday afternoon at the Bethel College church. Rev. G. S. Stoneback of Wichita and Rev. Russell Mast officiated. Mrs. Harms, 81, died March 10 in Wichita. She and her husband, the late Dr. John H. Harms, lived for a number of years at Cordell, Okla. where he was a practicing physician. Surviving are five sons, three daughters, 12 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 26 Mar 1959 p. 8

text of obituary:

Margaret Ruth Kliewer Harms, known as "Maggie," youngest daughter of John P. and Aganetha Foth Kliewer, was born about ten miles east of Newton, Kansas, on Jan. 2, 1878. Her 81 years of life on this earth came to a close on Tuesday morning, march 10, 1959, in Wichita, Kansas, where she had lived with her daughter, Martha, for the last seven years.

She received her elementary education and grew to womanhood in the Gnadenberg Community in the care of older brothers and sisters, since her mother had died when Maggie was a young child.

As a young woman she united with the Gnadenberg Mennonite Church and has been a faithful worker in the various Mennonite churches wherever she lived. Her church activities included teaching Sunday school classes, mission work, and sewing for relief.

At the time of her death she was a member of the Bethel College Church, Bethel Hospital Auxiliary and the Bethel College Womens' Associatoin [sic].

On Sept. 20, 1896, she was married to Dr. John H. Harms. As the wife of a pioneer physician she experienced the difficulties connected with moving several times, until the year 1913, when the family moved to Cordell, Okla. where they lived until Dr. Harms retired in 1941. At that time they moved to Newton, Kansas, where her husband died in 1943. She lived alone until 1951 when, after surviving a severe illness, she moved to Wichita.

She is survived by her children Minnie of Crete, Neb.; Ruth and husband, Dr. D. S. Pankratz of Jackson, Miss.; Walter and wife Annie of Vallejo, Calif.; Dr. Edwin and wife Sadie of Wichita, Kansas; Martha of Wichita; John and wife Ruth of Midwest City, Okla.; Dr. Frank and wife Lois if American Falls, Idaho; and Dr. Harold and wife Maydell of Ruston, Louisiana; also 12 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Funeral services were held March 14 at the Bethel College Mennonite Church, North Newton, Kan. Rev. Russell Mast, pastor of the church, and Rev. G. S. Stoneback, pastor of the Lorraine Avenue Mennonite Church in Wichita, officiated.