Kaufman, Anna Gering (1871-1971)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1971 Apr 1 p. 6

Birth date: 1871 May 17

text of obituary:

Death Claims Last Of Swiss Emigrants From Russia to Dakota

Marion, S. D. — Mrs. Anna (Gering) Kaufman, last survivor of the Swiss Mennonite immigrant group which came to the Dakota territory from the Province of Volhynia in Russian Poland in the 1870s, died March 15 at the Freeman Community Hospital. She was nearing her 100th birthday.

Mrs. Kaufman was born in the village of Waldheim on May 17, 1871. When she was three years of age her parents were among those making the long journey to the untamed prairie region of the Dakota Territory. They settled in what is now Turner County. For 80 years before her death she resided on the Kaufman homestead in Childstown Township. Her husband, Jacob C. Kaufman, died in 1944.

Survivors include three sons, Emil, Walter and Orlando, and three daughters, Carolina Waltner, Ida Waltner, and Olga Kaufman, all of the Freeman-Marion vicinity.

Funeral services were held at the Salem-Zion Mennonite Church, with Rev. Wilfred Ulrich officiating.