Yoder, Silvanus Stoltzfus (1873-1963)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1963 Jul 25 p. 8

Birth date: 1873 Feb 8

text of obituary:

SILVANUS S. YODER

Silvanus Stoltzfus Yoder, son of Jonathan and Leah (Stoltzfus) Yoder, was born in Lancaster County, Pa. on Feb. 8, 1873. He died at the Goshen General Hospital, Goshen, Ind., on July 5, 1963, aged 90 years, four months, 27 days.

On Dec. 24, 1896 he was married to Susan Troyer, who died in 1936. To this union were born two daughters and three sons, all of whom survive. They are Rhea and Ruth (Mrs. Kortemeier), both of Goshen; Dr. Jonathan G., en route home after a three-year term of service with the United Christian Mission in Nepal; Dr. Samuel A., on a year leave of absence from the faculty at Goshen College, having taught a nine-month term in the University of Hue in Vietnam, and presently on a two-month lectureship assignment in Taipeh, Formosa; and Dr. Paton, Dean of Hesston College (Kansas).

Besides the five children he leaves 11 grandchildren, one great grandson, and two sisters, Mrs. Malinda King of Bellefontaine, O., and Mrs. Lucinda Hartzler, of Milford, Ind.

Father lived a long and rich life, spending his childhood and youth in Wayne County, Ohio, and his adult life in the Middlebury-Goshen vicinity. In spite of the fact that necessity called for frugal living and hard physical labor, father's first interests in behalf of his family were always spiritual interests.

He united with the Oak Grove Church in Wayne County in his youth, and was baptized as one of a group of more than forty young people. A major portion of his life was spent in the fellowship of the Clinton Frame Church near Goshen. In his later years, while residing with his daughter, Mrs. Ruth Kortemeier, he fellowshipped with the Goshen College Mennonite Church.

Funeral services were conducted July 9, 1963, at the College Mennonite Church by John Mosemann, assisted by Robert Detweiler. Interment was made at the Forest Grove Cemetery.