Dirks, Eva Becker Schmidt (1856-1928)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1928 Sep 19 p. 8

Birth date: 1856 May 12

text of obituary:

Mrs. Eva Becker Dirks

Mrs. Eva Dirks, aged 72 years, who died at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Daniel C. Buller on Monday evening, September 3, about 7:40 o'clock, after an illness of only a few days following a stroke of paralysis, was born in the village of Antonofka, Russian Poland, May 12, 1856.

She was married on Dec. 22, 1876 to Henry H. Schmidt, which union was blessed with two children. In the fall of 1874 the family joined the emigration of Mennonites from Russia to this country, locating in McPherson county. The husband passed away the following year and the two children followed their father in death shortly after his passing away.

On Nov. 11, 1875 she was married to Benjamin Becker, a widower with three children, to which union seventeen children were born, seven of whom preceded her in death. They resided near Halstead for thirty years and in the spring of 1905 they moved to Goltry, Okla., where the husband died in December of that year.

She was again married on June 1, 1913, to Jacob H. Dirks, of Greensburg, where she resided until the death of Mr. Dirks in 1919, since which time she had made her home with the children in McPherson and Harvey counties.

Mrs. Dirks was converted and united with the Church of god in Christ, Mennonite in 1879 and had been a faithful attendant at the church services during all the years. She leaves to mourn her death ten children, three step-children, by the second marriage and eight step-children by her third marriage; thirty-seven grandchildren, three great-grandchildren, two brothers, two sisters and many friends. — Halstead Independent.