Ruth, Johann A. (1847-1919)

Christlicher Bundesbote obituary: 1919 Sep 4 p. 7

Birth date: 1847 Apr 16

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1938 Mar 23 p. 3

text of obituary:

FAMILY HONORS PARENTS BY A MEMORIAL DONATION TO BETHEL COLLEGE

A memorial contribution of $1000 in honor of their parents, Mr. and Mrs. John A. Ruth (pictured above), formerly of Hesston, Kansas, and Reedley, California, has been made to Bethel college by the sons and daughters of these two Kansas pioneers. A life story of Mr. and Mrs. Ruth, who resided in four different states after coming to America in early youth, appears in this issue of the Mennonite Review. it is the first of a series of such life stories prepared by the college to be printed in the Review.

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JOHN A. AND CLARA EYMANN RUTH

A Memorial Biography

"Ruth" may sound like a feminine name but there was nothing feminine about Johannes Ruth who with his wife, three sons and four daughters, left Bavaria, Germany, came to America in 1852. The family spent 52 days sailing across the Atlantic Ocean and another three weeks traveling form [sic] New York to Iowa where a new home was made.

One of the sons in this immigrant family was John A. Ruth, born on April 16, 1847, in Bavaria. In a small German Mennonite settlement in Lee county, Iowa, John, the five-year-old boy, saw the plains of the Middle West for the first time.

He worked in his father's fields, grew to manhood, and on November 10, 1870, married Miss Clara A. Eymann, a girl only four months younger than he.

The brides family, too, had come to America from Bavaria and had settled in Ohio in 1846 where Clara was born at Ashland on August 10, 1847. After several years the Eymann family moved to Iowa where she met John Ruth.

The same year that the marriage took place Mr. and Mrs. Ruth, in whose honor their sons and daughters have made a memorial gift to Bethel college, went to live on a farm at Summerfield, Illinois.

A brother and two sisters had already gone to Kansas and after fifteen years of residence in Illinois, the family sold its farm there and came to Halstead, Kansas. In Halstead for five years John Ruth with hiss brother Henry owned and operated a furniture store. Occasionally he did carpenter work in the little frontier town and for farmers living nearby.

Just as his forefathers had made their living from the soil, so Ruth again turned to farming in 1890 by purchasing 160 acres of land near Halstead and providing a new home for his family, consisting now of seven children with twins, Paul and Ernest, having been born at Halstead.

Poor crops followed. Corn sold for as low as thirteen cents a bushel. The father worked hard and after a few years came prosperity. When the end of the week would come and the day of worship arrived, the whole family would get into a wagon and drive four miles to church.

After several years of residence at Halstead the family moved to a farm near Hesston, Kansas. Here mr. Ruth continued farming, was president of the Hesston State bank for a number of years, and a member of the district school board. He served as deacon in the Garden Mennonite church, Moundridge, Kansas, of which both he and his wife were members for many years.

The father, besides his various interests had a great liking for music and was very fond of the melodies that his daughter often played upon the organ in the Ruth home.

In 1908 and 1912 the pioneer mother and father visited friends and relatives in California and upon retirement in 1915 moved to Reedley, California, to join a son, Ernest and a daughter, Mrs. Stella Dettweiler, who already resided there.

After living four years in California, Mr. Ruth passed to his reward on August 19, 1919. the mother, enjoying good health almost to the end of her life, went to her reward on March 25, 1937, at the age of eighty-nine years and seven months. When the mother died there were eighteen grandchildren and fourteen great-grandchildren living in Kansas, California, and in India. One grandson, a missionary, today lives in India with his wife and three children.

The highest ambition of Mrs. Ruth during her life was to raise her children in the admonition of the Lord because it was her wish they should become useful men and women.

One son, August H. Ruth, and a daughter, Mrs. Barbara Vogt, preceded their mother in death. August passed away in 1934 and Mrs. Vogt in 1928.

Five of the nine children of this family at the present have their homes at Reedley, California. They are Rudolph H., and Ernest E., owner of the Reedly [sic Reedley] Lumber company; Arthur, a fruit grower; and the two sisters, miss Emma Ruth and Mrs. E. A. Dettweiler. Paul E. Ruth lives at Hesston, Kansas, and Daniel 'E. at Larned, Kansas.

The Mennonite obituary: 1919 Sep 11 p. 6