Dyck, Henry Janzen (1880-1970)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1969 Dec 4 p. 6 [bio]

Birth date: 1880 May 31

text of obituary:

NO, THIS IS NOT a retired engineer taking a nostalgic pose beside his retired engine. Old Santa Fe engine No. 1880 in Newton's Military Park simply provided a convenient background for Rev. Dyck to indicate the year of his birth.

Now Elder Emeritus

89-Year-Old Minister Views Life 'In Retrospect'

"THIS IS is not to be a 'brag book' but rather an account of what God may have accomplished in and through my life."

With this sentence Henry J. (Janzen) Dyck begins the 40-page typewritten "Story of My Life" which he titles "In Retrospect."

Verifying the fact and date of his birth, he cites Birth Document No. 45, Fuerstenau, Germany, June 4, 1880, in which his father, "the landowner, Jacob Dyck, residing in Laakendorf, of Mennonite religion, reported (to J. V. R. Vollerthun, the Registrar) that of Sara Dyck, nee Janzen, his wife, of Mennonite religion, living with him in Laakendorf in his dwelling on the 31 of May in the year 1880 at two o'clock before noon, a child of the male sex was born, and had been given the first name, Heinrich."

IN A WARMLY personal account, the 89-year-old elder emeritus of the Zion Mennonite Church of Elbing, Kan., recalls memories of his early youth in the "open village of Unter-Laakendorf, West Prussia, Germany," of the "heart searching" evangelistic services "at our house," and of the emigration to America with his parents in 1893.

Dedication of his life "fully to God's service" in a revival meeting in 1903 led into various phases of church work and eventually into the ministry and 10 years of "serving the churches and groups in the Western District Conference" under the conference Home Mission Committee.

Experiences on the not-yet-fully-tamed Midwestern frontier are described with subtle humor, such as when at bedtime the host "brought a ladder into the room and set it up in a corner, opening a lid in the ceiling," then showed him to a mattress on the attic floor. Or, at another occasion, while also sleeping on a mattress on the floor, "I notices someone crawling in under the cover with me. I the morning I found out that it was one of the boys in the family."

The German services at the prisoners-of-war camp near Peabody, Kan. in 1943, and during the period of MCC relief work in Europe after World War II were highlights in an unique and always challenging career.

A BRIEF section of the story is devoted to the 32 years Elder Dyck served as pastor of the Zion church, from which he resigned in September 1952. For a portion of this time he also was chairman of the board of the Bethel Deaconess Hospital.

The account, written mostly for his children, close relatives and friends, concludes with several pages of "Echoes" compiled by daughter Dorothy.

Among these, one of the most intriguing concerns a letter received from Vienna, Austria.

"The writer was the recipient of a can of MCC relief meat canned by our church," Dorothy explains.

"We were puzzled about the address until we discovered that it had been copied from a can of meat. It read, 'Hamburger Zion church, Elbing, Kansas, General H. J. Dyck.' The label was:

"Contents: Hamburger

Congregation: Zion Church
Address: Elbing, Kansas
Conference: General

Pastor: H. J. Dyck"

REV. DYCK is now by far the oldest member of the Herald Publishing Co. board of directors, having served since the very beginning in 1920. His "Messages for the Heart" have brought spiritual enrichment to many readers of the Mennonite Weekly Review.

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Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1970 Jul 30 p. 2

text of obituary:

Aged Retired Elder, Board Member, Dies

Rev. H. J. Dyck, 90, for 50 years a member of the Herald Publishing Co. board of directors and writer of the widely read and appreciated Review Column, "Messages for the Heart," died Sunday at 5:20 p.m. in Bethel Deaconess Hospital after an illness of several months.

Rev. Dyck was yet able to attend the Herald Publishing Co. 50th Anniversary Observance in the Newton First Mennonite Church on Sunday afternoon, June 28, an occasion he had looked forward to with much anticipation.

Born May 31, 1880, at Unter-Laakendorf, Germany, he came to America with his parents in 1893 and grew up to young manhood at the family home near Elbing, Kan. He was elected minister, and later elder of the Zion Mennonite Church, a position in which he served until his retirement in 1952. He was active in various phases of District and General Conference work and was president of the Bethel Deaconess Hospital and Home for Aged board of directors for 10 years.

He is survived by his aged wife, an invalid in Bethel Home for Aged, Walter and Martha Dyck, Henderson, Nebr., and Dorothea of the home; also a number of grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Funeral services were held Wednesday morning at the Zion Church in Elbing, conducted by Rev. Harold Graber, pastor of the church.

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Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1970 Aug 6 p. 11

text of obituary:

H. J DYCK

Henry J. Dyck, son of Jacob and Sara Jansen Dyck, was born May 31, 1880 at Laakendorf, West Prussia (Germany). In 1883, due to the pressures of military conscription, Grandfather Dyck sold his farm and brought his family of five children including three sons, to America. Relatives provided transportation for them from New York and helped them get settled on a farm northwest of Elbing, Kan.

Here they affiliated with the Zion Mennonite congregation. On May 25, 1895 he was baptized upon confession of his faith by Elder C. H. Regier.

From 1887 to 1900 he attended the Bethel Academy and earned a teacher's certificate. At a revival meeting in 1903 he dedicated his life to God's service. Between January 1904 and April 1908 he served as a teacher in an orphanage at Birmingham, Ohio. On Oct 28, 1904 he married Katie Regier who then joined him in the work in Ohio, a home which cared for up to 120 homeless children.

Unofficially our father began his preaching at the turn of the century. Under rather unconventional circumstances he was ordained as a Gospel minister in the fall of 1908. This led to the fulfillment of his Grandfather Jansen’s expectation: “Heinrich, Du solltest Reise prediger warden” (Henry, you ought to become an Itinerant minister!)

For the next ten years he served spiritual needs of smaller groups in western Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma and Texas under the Western District Home Missions Committee. Later he also served in many other official capacities In the Western District Conference.

For some years our parents attended the Swiss Mennonite Church where they became members and where he served as an associate minister and later, on July 20, 1914 he was ordained as an Elder. In 1915 and 1916 our family lived In Hutchinson, Kan., where father assisted in the beginning of the General Conference Church there.

In 1920 the Zion Mennonite Church at Elbing requested him to begin serving the congregation once a month. The next year he served twice a month; and in 1922 he began what turned out to be a 30-year ministry.

His first interest centered in spiritual ministries, but to provide for the physical needs of his family he also turned to farming.

In 1920 he became a charter member of the Herald Publishing Company board and remained actively associated with it for 50 years. In recent years he wrote nearly 150 “Messages for the Heart” for Mennonite Weekly Review, the last of which was based on Psalm 90: 12, "Teach us to number our days and recognize how few they are. Help us to spend them as we should.”

For 35 years, 1927 to 1962, he served on the Bethel Deaconess Hospital Board. Since then he continued his interest as an honorary member.

Our parents spent a year, 1949-50, in a spiritual ministry to refugees in Germany. He served as an interim pastor in the Emmaus Church, also at the First Mennonite Church in Aberdeen, Idaho. Father never really retired from preaching. He served in many pulpits, conducted services in nursing homes, also was active in the Retired Christian Workers Fellowship of Newton. He was unable to meet the last scheduled speaking assignment at the Bethesda Home at Goessel the day he died.

In October 1967 our mother suffered a stroke and soon thereafter entered and remains a resident in the Bethel Home for the Aged in Newton.

About six months ago he and his daughter Dorothea moved to Newton. Two months ago, a week before his 90th birthday anniversary he underwent major surgery from which time his strength steadily declined. On Sunday afternoon, July 26, after a five-day stay at Bethel Hospital, he entered his heavenly home.

Immediate family members preceding him in death were: In 1911 a still-born son Herbert; In 1942, a 24-year-old daughter, Gertrude; In 1949, a daughter-in-law, Agnes; and in 1962 a great-grandchild, Randall. Surviving are his wife, Katie, one brother, Herman, a daughter Dorothea, with whom he made his home; a son Walter and his wife Martha of Henderson, Neb; five grandchildren, Gordon and Delia Dyck of Elkhart, Ind. Marvin and Delores Bartel of Goshen, Ind.; John and Evelyn Bertsche of Normal, Ill; Charles and Elvera Suderman of rural Newton, Kan.; Gerald and Edith Dyck at Chieng Mai, Thailand; 13 great-grandchildren, relatives and a wide circle at friends.

We will remember our father and grandfather as a man of quiet dignity dedicated to his God, to his life’s calling, and to his family, especially to his life's companion of over 65 years, even in these last years of illness. He was unperturbed in the face of hardship, patient, courageous and open-minded. In many ways he was a man ahead of his times, as shown by his early voluntary service pioneerings. He had wide interests and was widely read. Through his writing and preaching he inspired many and gained many friends. We are grateful that his life was characterized by a radical type of discipleship. One of the grandchildren wrote, “The younger generation needs models after which to pattern their lives. You are one of these people for me. “

Funeral services were held July 29 at the Zion Church in Elbing, Kan., conducted by Harold Graber, pastor of the church. — The Family.

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The Mennonite obituary: 1970 Aug 25 p. 511