Ellenberger, Selma Emilie (1885-1963)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1964 Jan 2 p. 11

Birth date: 1885 Jun 25

text of obituary:

SELMA EMILIE ELLENBERGER

Selma Emilie Ellenberger was born June 25, 1885 at Monsheim, Rheinhessen, in Germany, the youngest of six children of the Mennonite pastor, D. Adolf Ellenberger and Anna Marie Landes Ellenberger. She passed away at Halstead, Kan. on Dec. 19, 1963 at the age of 78 years and six months.

When she was four years old her father passed away and her mother took the family to live with relatives in Gelchsheim, Bavaria, near Wurzburg.

Early in life she learned to know Jesus Christ as her best friend and a Saviour who forgives sins. Each Sunday she and others were given catechism instruction by her uncle John Landes. Later she received baptism preparation instruction from the elder of the Giebelstadt-Wurzburg Mennonite Church, John Hunsinger, and was baptized by him upon her confession of faith on May 31, 1903.

In 1907 she and her mother went to live with her oldest brother, Heinrich, in Wurzburg. When her mother passed away in 1911, Selma came to America to make her home with her sister, Elisabeth, Mrs. Jacob Mueller, on a farm near Halstead, Kan. Another sister, Lydia (Mrs. Samuel Mueller), also lived in this community. Later she moved with the family to Hamshire, Texas and Deer Creek, Okla., then back to Halstead in 1927.

When she first came to America, Selma transferred her church membership to the Garden Township Mennonite Church, then to the Deer Creek Mennonite Church. From 1927 until her death she was a member of the First Mennonite Church of Halstead.

In addition to her mother and father, one sister Emma and two brothers, Heinrich and Adolf, preceded her in death. She leaves to mourn her two sisters, Lydia (Mrs. Samuel Mueller), and Elisabeth (Mrs. Jacob Mueller); 13 nieces and nephews, 41 grandnieces and nephews, 11 great-grandnieces and nephews, also a number of other relatives, neighbors and friends.

Funeral services were conducted from the First Mennonite Church of Halstead on Dec. 21, 1963 at 1:30 p. m. with Rev. Arnold E. Funk officiating. Casketbearers were great nephews. Burial was in the Halstead Cemetery.

The Mennonite obituary: 1964 Jan 14 p. 28