Wenger, Martha Anna Rock (1889-1975)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1975 Feb 27 p. 11

Birth date: 1889 Nov 30

text of obituary:

MARTHA A. WENGER

Martha Anna Rock was born at White Horse, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, on Nov. 30, 1889, the eldest daughter of William and Margaret Ann (Eshleman) Futer Rock. She attended the public schools of Lancaster County.

In her 17th year she accepted Christ as her Saviour and Lord and was received into the Old Road Mennonite Church by water baptism performed by Bishop Isaac Eby. The date was about February 1906.

On Dec. 23, 1909 she was married to A. Martin Wenger of the Weaverland District of the Mennonite Church, with the ceremony performed by Bishop Eby.

To this union, which lasted over 50 years, five children were born: John C. of Elkhart, Ind.; Ruth, Mrs. Andrew B. Rosenberger, Souderton, Pa.; Thelma, Mrs. Paul L. Hershey, Telford, Pa.; Rev. Warren M., Dover, N. J.; and Herbert C., Perkasie, Pa.

Until 1923 the Wengers lived in the Honey Brook, Pa., area, then located in Bucks County, in the heart of the Franconia Conference. She and her husband then transferred their membership to the Rockhill congregation where they remained until death except for the years 1926-29 when they farmed at Silverdale and were members of the Blooming Glen congregation.

Her husband died on March 17, 1960. She continued living in their apartment in the home of their daughter Thelma. In recent years she broke both hips, and also suffered a stroke from which she made a remarkable recovery. The last month of her life she was a guest in the Rockhill Mennonite Home a little over a mile from her home.

She peacefully fell asleep, Saturday, Jan. 25, at age 85.

Services were conducted in the Rockhill Church on Jan. 28 by Pastor Henry L. Ruth, with interment in the adjoining cemetery.

She lived for the welfare of her children, and for the upbuilding and extension of the church. One of her last audible prayers, overheard a few weeks before her passing, was: "Dear Jesus, please take me Home."