Hunsberger, Franklyn (1864-1968)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1964 Mar 26 p. 11 [bio]

Birth date: 1864 Mar 30

text of obituary:

Son of Conference Co-Founder

Wadsworth Church Honors Oldest Member

By Mrs. Rachel Kreider Wadsworth, Ohio

THE FIRSTMennonite Church of Wadsworth gave special recognition at Family Night services on March 15 of the birthday of their oldest member, Frank Hunsberger, who will be 100 years old on March 30.

A citation was prepared and read by Mrs. Arden Rohrer, which was presented to Grandpa Hunsberger, along with an appropriately decorated cake displayed on the serving table. The honored guest, however, could not be persuaded to be present, having avoided public meetings for a number of years. He said the pain in his head disappeared as soon as he decided to stay at home!

Frank, called “Wadsworth's grand young old man,” is the youngest son of the founder of the church, Ephraim Hunsberger, who is remembered also as a co-founder of the General Conference Mennonite Church and one of the founders of the Wadsworth Seminary, the first Mennonite college in America.

Frank was born in Civil War days, several years before Wadsworth was incorporated as a town, and he has lived here all his life except for a year spent with his brother at Halstead, Kan. He remembers that the growing season was so unfavorable that year that he wearied of a diet of peanuts and watermelon and was glad to get back to Ohio.

WHEN FRANK'S MOTHER, Elizabeth Overholt, married Ephraim Hunsberger in 1862, he was a widower with ten young children. Her only surviving children were Frank and Augusta, wife of Noah C. Hirschy, first president of Bluffton College. The two kept in close contact until her death in 1958.

Although the 13 children in this family lived together in an exceptionally fine relationship, their descendants are widely scattered and have lost knowledge of one another.

FRANK WAS BAPTIZED into the local church by his father on Oct. 22, 1881. He can remember the days of the Wadsworth school and the first little frame church building on Diagonal Road. He therefore also witnessed the great changes in the congregation as it moved into the historic building on College Street in 1892 and again to a new location in Trease Road in 1960.

As a young man his first employment was for his uncle Eli Overholt, postmaster. Later he became a clerk in his future father-in-law's dry goods store. After various intermediate steps he became sole owner in 1910. Twelve years later he retired. Asked why he had retired so soon, he remarked, “I didn't know I was going to live so long.” In the early days he played the flute in the city band.

HE WAS MARRIED in 1899 to Ethel Daykin. They lived with her parents, a block from the Square, until their own house next door was ready, a house where he still resides with his son Willard and family.

Mrs. Hunsberger passed away in 1953 at the age of 79. They had two sons: Willard, a history teacher in the local high school, and George, Professor of Economics at the University of Arkansas. His four grandchildren are in Willard's family: Deborah, who recently returned from two years' study and teaching in Europe and is now teaching German in Plymouth High School; twins Gretchen and Grace, the former teaching high school Home Economics in Iowa and the latter and the latter completing a degree this spring in Nursing Education at Western Reserve; and Franklyn, a high school senior.

The mother and daughters travelled together in Europe this summer, and a report on their experience was the basis for the first part of the Family Night services on Sunday evening.

ALWAYS INTERESTED in people and politics, Grandpa Hunsberger is the oldest voter in Medina County, never having missed a presidential election. He was one of Wadsworth's first automobile enthusiasts but gave up driving in 1930 stating, “It was a nuisance — always had to put the car in the garage for repairs.” He still follows the radio newscasts and the Cleveland Indians, and several years ago decided to reread the entire works of Charles Dickens.

His day begins at six o'clock and he can be seen making daily rounds at the Square early in the morning, exchanging political views and friendly banter, beloved by all who know him. Once when greeted by a sidewalk well-wisher with, “How are you, Dick?” he replied, “Well, I can't see very well anymore and can't hear so well — and I don't know much but I'm fine.

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Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1968 Mar 21 p. 11

text of obituary:

Called by Death at Age 103

Centenarian Shared in Wadsworth, O. History

By Mrs. Rachel Kreider

Wadsworth, Ohio — Franklyn (Dick) Hunsberger passed away Sunday noon, March 3, one month before his 104th birthday. He had entered the hospital four days earlier breaking his hip when he fell in his bedroom. He seemed to be recovering well from his surgery when he suddenly took a turn for the worse and quietly slipped away. Although his mind often wandered in the past year, he was up and about every day before his fall.

Frank was the youngest son of Ephraim Hunsberger, co-founder of the General Conference of Mennonites, and was born during the Civil War — in the year when the groundwork was finished and the foundation laid in Wadsworth for the first Mennonite college in America. By the time he was 15 the school was closed.

AT AGE 17 he was baptized into the local church fellowship, which by then was also waning, since the leadership was moving away and the young people were gravitating toward their English neighbors in town. He was a member of First Mennonite Church, however, for 87 years, during which time the congregation worshipped first at the site where the constitution of the General Conference was signed, then for 68 years in the former Congregational church near the Square (still the oldest building in town), and since 1960 in the new building on Trease Road.

When Frank was 30 he became a partner in a Main Street dry-goods store, which he operated for 28 years, retiring in 1922. When asked, "Dick, why did you retire so soon?" he quipped, "I didn't know I was going to live so long."

For years he made his daily rounds at the Square, stopping for coffee and spirited discussions along the way — appreciated everywhere for his ready wit, his genial spirit, and his lively interest in the world about him. Townspeople affectionately called him their "grand old man".

WADSWORTH was founded the year that his father was born (1814). Frank saw it change from an agricultural village to a mining town, to an industrial town, and then into a suburban area. For years he was the oldest active voter in Medina County but quit at age 99 when he could no longer read the names on the ballot. He had not missed voting in a presidential election since 1884, voting only once for a democrat — Woodrow Wilson. He had lived through the assassination of four presidents.

He was one of 13 children, whose descendants have scattered far and wide and have lost trace of one another. However the two sets of children and the second mother in Ephraim Hunsberger's household had always lived together in an exceptionally fine relationship. Frank and Augusta were the only surviving children from Ephraim's second marriage. ("Aunt Gustie" married N. C. Hirschy, the young student from Oberlin, who revitalized the church in Wadsworth and moved on to become the first president of Bluffton College.)

IN 1899 Frank married Ethel Daykin of Wadsworth and they lived all their remaining years in their house near the Square. They had two sons, who survive him. Willard, a history teacher in the local high school, and George, professor of economics at the University of Arkansas.

About 15 years ago Willard and family moved into his home, caring for him with filial affection and his same spirit of good humor. There are four grandchildren and one great-grandchild, all of whom are returning for the funeral services conducted by Rev. Lester Hostetler at First Mennonite Church on March 6.

Wadsworth will greatly miss this "grand old man" who was always young in heart.