Hiebert, Katharina Warkentin (1877-1965)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1965 Oct 14 p. 8

Birth date: 1877 Feb 24

text of obituary:

MRS. D. K. HIEBERT

Mrs. D. K. Hiebert, the oldest daughter of Heinrich and Kathrina Gossen Warkentin. was born on Feb. 24, 1877, in Elizabeththal, Molotschna Colony, South Russia. At the age of four her parents moved to the village of Neukirch where she entered and finished the village school.

Her parents were among the first members of the Brethren and they faithfully attended services at Ruecknau in the first Mennonite Brethren Church of Russia.

In 1892 her father died and left her mother with five children. In fall of 1893, her mother became the third wife of Rev. Kornelius [Cornelius] Hiebert, a minister of the Ebenfeld M. B. Church near Hillsboro, Kan. Since he had become a citizen of the United States, he took her and the children along as his own. They arrived in New York on New Year's Day of 1894, and in due time came to live on the family farm near the Ebenfeld Church. With the addition of the five Warkentins Rev. Kornelius [Cornelius] Hiebert had a family of 20 children, five of whom were Poetkers taken in with the second mother and ten his own.

Here in America the only social life they had was connected with the family, church or the school. Her new brothers and sisters were believers who witnessed to her and also asked her to receive Christ as her own Saviour. As she read and prayed, light and peace entered her heart. She was baptized on May 5, 1895 and received into the membership of the Ebenfeld M. B. Church.

On Dec. 29, 1898, mother was married to David K. Hiebert, a son of her step-father. To this union were born eight children, Louise, the oldest, died when she was three and the rest all grew up. married and have families of their own. She had the great joy to see all of her children accept the Saviour in their youth and to watch them make themselves useful in the Lord's work. en Mother loved to read and study, and although she attended school only for three months in America, when she was 19 years old she learned to read and speak English. Most of her life she was a Sunday school teacher and many times she studied with a German-English dictionary at hand. As long as she was able, she read her Bible and prayed for her children. She was a lover of missions and had a heart for Christian higher education. Our parents left their nice farm at Corn, Okla. to move to Hillsboro, Kan. so the oldest children could enter Tabor College.

Father and mother lived on the farm at various places — Hillsboro and Buhler, Kan. Corn, Okla. and Ingalls, Kan. — until they retired to spend their last years together in Buhler. There they had the joy to celebrate their golden wedding anniversary and have all the children present. Here also father passed away on April 4, 1950. Shortly after this mother purchased another house and lived there until she entered Sunshine Home in 1955.

Her father, Heinrich Warkentin, two half-sisters, and seven brothers and sisters died in Russia, and her mother, her sister Anna, Mrs. G. S. Hagen, and a brother Henry J. Warkentin passed away in America. Our father preceded mother in death, as well as a daughter Louise, three grandchildren, one daughter-in-law, Edith, Mrs. John H. Hiebert, and one son-in-law, Niles Bestgen. She became ill during the last days of July and suffered much. She went to be with the Lord on Aug. 30, 1965.

She leaves to mourn her departure, two brothers, John H. Warkentin, and Jacob K. and Lena Warkentin, and one brother-in-law, George S. Hagen, all of Hillsboro; one sister-in-law, Mrs. Henry J. Warkentin of Corn, Okla.; three daughters and their husbands and four sons and their wives, 22 grandchildren and 29 great-grandchildren.

Her children are: Anna and Henry T. Esau, Edinburg, Texas; Dr. Paul W. and Adina Hiebert, Buhler, Kan.; Arnold R. and Elizabeth Hiebert, Dinuba, Calif.; John H. and Suzie Hiebert, Ulysses, Kan.; Dr. D. Edmond and Ruth Hiebert, Fresno, Calif.; Hulda and Campbell R. Bullock, Costa Mesa, Calif., and Elsie and H. J. Neufeld, Ingalls, Kan. — The Family