Springer, Ben (1881-1968)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1968 Nov 28 p. 10

Birth date: 1881 Aug 23

text of obituary:

Retired Minister Of Schowalter Villa Dies at Age 87

Rev. Ben Springer, for many years minister of the Hopedale (Illinois) Mennonite Church and since 1963 a resident of Schowalter Villa at Hesston, died Monday evening at Axtell Hospital in Newton at the age of 87.

The body will be returned to Hopedale, where funeral services will be held at 10 a.m. Friday in the Hopedale Church, with Rev. Ivan Kaufmann in charge. The Miller Funeral Home of Goessel is in charge of local arrangements.

Rev. Springer's wife Clara died last August 12.

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Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1969 Jan 2 p. 11

text of obituary:

BEN SPRINGER

Ben Springer, youngest son of Joseph and Barbara (Naffziger) Springer, was born near Hopedale, Ill. on Aug. 23, 1881, and died in a Newton, Kan. hospital on Nov. 25, 1968, at the age of 87 years, three months and two days. After entering the hospital for observation, he suffered a stroke, succumbing three weeks later.

He married Clara Heiser on Feb. 27, 1905, and they shared life together for more than 63 years. Her death occurred Aug. 12, 1968. He is survived by the seven children born to this union: Howard of Hudson, Ill.; Elsie (Mrs. Leland Bachman) of Hesston, Kan.; Ina of Overland Park, Kan.; Glenn of Kansas City, Mo.; Nelson of Goshen, Ind.; Lorene of Lebanon, Ore.; and Loretta (Mrs. Paul Leatherman) of Akron, Pa. Also surviving are 14 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his companion, five brothers, two sisters, and one daughter-in-law.

Succeeding to the family farm after the death of his father in 1902, he continued in residence there until he and his wife moved to Hopedale in 1963. That same year the moved to Schowalter Villa at Hesston, Kan., remaining there until their deaths.

His interest in the welfare of the community around him is typified by the donation of a strip of his farm as right-of-way to the Illinois Traction System in the early part of the century. This railway provided ready access to markets for the immediate communities through which it passed. He also helped to organize the Mindale Grain Company and a small electric power co-operative, later sold to a larger utility company.

He served as a Sunday school teacher, superintendent and assistant superintended, before he was called to the preaching ministry in 1921, and he assumed the charge as minister with a dedication that marked his service through the years. The welfare of the church became his major concern.

The team ministry which he shared with the late Simon Litwiller and Dan Nafziger was marked by harmony. His own preaching was strongly Biblical exposition — a careful comparison of text with text. It was his regular custom to prepare his sermons by taking a full day from his farm work for study and prayer.

With the passing of the team ministry and the decision of the congregation to call Ivan Kauffman to the pastorate, he and his wife devoted many hours to a ministry of visitation among the older members and the sick. In the district conference he served on the executive committee of the Sunday School conference in 1924, 1925, 1926. He was a member of the local board of the Mennonite home for the aged from 1928 to 1946. For many years he was custodian of the Alms Fund for the Hopedale congregation.