Yoder, Delos Franklin (1879-1974)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1969 May 29 p. 12 (bio)

Birth date: 1879 May 25
Death date: 1974

text of obituary:

Long-Time Harper, Kan. Resident To Be Honored For 90th Birthday

Harper, Kan. — Delos Yoder, a resident of this community since 1905, will be honored at an open house in fellowship hall of the Pleasant Valley Mennonite Church from 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday, June 1, in observance of his 90th birthday.

All of his nine living children and great-grandchildren from various parts of the United States will attend.

Mr. Yoder was born near Howe, Ind. to Samuel K. and Barbara Yoder on May 25, 1879. In 1890 the family moved to Cass County, Missouri, settling between Harrisonville and Garden City. In 1902 he was married to Sadie Plank.

In May 1905 he traded his house for a horse and covered wagon, and with his wife and two children headed for Kansas. They stopped at Emporia, where he worked in the hay fields and where Mrs. Yoder came down with typhoid fever. In late summer her parents, the John Planks, moved from Missouri to Harper, and that fall Mrs. Yoder joined them in December.

Mr. Yoder worked at various jobs here, and recalls that wages were 75c a day. Later he helped build the high school here, and helped lay brick on the streets of Harper. He worked at the J. R. Williamson Elevator and Long's Station, and for 21 years before retirement was a salesman for W. T. Raleigh Co.

The children are Ethel of Harper, Ivan of Wellington, Wilbur of Wichita, Ora of Denver, Dorothy Schantz of Sheridan, Ore., Wilma Eck of Harper, Carl of Sheridan, Ore., Chester of Chula Vista, Calif., Flossie Fosnight of Wichita, and Venus Hensky of Hutchinson, a granddaughter who was raised by the Yoders. Mrs. Yoder died in 1946.

Ref. Gospel Herald Nov 5, 1974 p. 872