Loewen, Peter C. (1874-1948)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1948 Sep 23 p. 5

Birth date: 1874

text of obituary:

. . .

— P. C. Loewen, who lived on a farm northeast of Newton for the past 30 years, died at the Bethel hospital Wednesday morning after a long illness. He was 73 years of age. Surviving him are his wife, Katherine, and three sons. Funeral services will be held at the First Mennonite church of Newton at 10:00 a.m. Saturday, in charge of Rev. Lester Hostetler of the Bethel College congregation, of which he was a member. The family requests that no flowers be sent.

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Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1948 Oct 7 p. 3

PETER C. LOEWEN

The parents of Peter C. Loewen were Peter Loewen, Sr. and Katharina Shapansky Loewen, immigrants from South Russia, who established their home on a farm near Peabody, Kansas, in 1874. The community came later to be known as Ebenfeld.

Since Pete, as he was familiarly called by everybody, was the eldest of a growing family and since those were pioneer times, he learned early to accept tasks and responsibilities which today come much later in life. Seed-time and harvest-time frequently interrupted his studies in school. Yet through the influences at home and at school he early acquired a keen interest in stories of adventure, in history and in political affairs.

This interest in human relations, whether they were personal or more widely social, he carried with him through life. Acquaintances, even in his later years noted with surprise the accuracy and vividness of his memory for legend and history. His several trips to the west and to the south of his home state, as well as his participation in local secular and religious enterprises, give ample evidence of his spirit of adventure which sought expression in many ways. Pete was a member successively of three Mennonite churches in Kansas: Brudertal, Hillsboro and Bethel College.

In the early days of Rural Free Delivery Pete carried mail, then he sold insurance, but farming was his main vocation. After his marriage in 1912 he managed the paternal farmstead near Peabody and then, during the last thirty years of his life he resided on his own family farm two miles northeast of Newton. To give their three sons all the educational advantages possible was always a dominant family ambition. After several years of disabling illness he answered the last call while at Bethel Deaconess Hospital on September 22, 1948.

The departed one leaves two brothers, David of Dallas, Ore., Herman C. of Peabody, Kans.; a sister, Sue, of Lawrence, Kans.; also his wife Katharina Riesen Loewen and their three sons, Roland Phillip, engineer with Monsanto Chemical Co., Anniston, Ala., Bruno Fritz, engineer with the Phillips Petroleum Co., Bartlesville, Okla. and Esko Walter, pastor, Mennonite church in Topeka, Ind.

The Mennonite obituary: 1948 Oct 26 p. 7