2014 Blessed Jesus, Hold My Hand. Travels in Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, moving from Scottdale, Pennsylvania, to Wooster Ohio, family gatherings and singing, Paul and Carol, Roy and Ruby, David and Brenda, Rhoda and Jon Mast, Miriam and Veryl Kratzer, Ruth and John Roth, being a Rip Van Winkle, a benevolent God.
Gloria, Elizabeth (our elderhostel guide), and I brought in the New Year 2014 on the balcony of a hotel in Buenos Aires with bright fireworks above in the sky and below on the sidewalk, a part of three weeks traveling in Chile, Argentina, and Paraguay. We have lived and traveled in the Caribbean and northern region of South America and always hoped to sometime visit the Southern Cone countries. This was a good introduction, and of special interest was Chile because we had many Chilean neighbors when we lived in Venezuela during the early eighties, the Pinochet-military ruled years. I wrote a piece on Chile which is available electronically at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Our last week was among the Beachy Amish and Mennonite communities in Paraguay with a memorable visit with the Laban and Emma Eichorn family about half way between Iguazú Falls in the east (Ciudad del Este) and Asunción, the Capital.
From there we took a bus up the Trans-Chaco highway where we visited the Mennonite communities called Neuland, Fernheim, and Menno. Elizabeth’s Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) friend Eduard Klassen was an excellent guide and host. Klassen had been an MCC administrator and now is administrator of the hospital in Filadelfia. These communities were legendary to me at least since the fifties through books on the Berlin Exodus (1948) and Emmanuel Erb from the Pleasant View Mennonite youth group (1960) working on the highway. And, of course, Peter and Elfrieda Dyck lived in our Scottdale community for the last years of their lives. What strikes one today is how much these Paraguay Mennonite communities have become a part of the cultural, economic, and linguistic landscape of Paraguay, at the same time retaining their Anabaptist Germanic uniqueness. Paraguay took the Mennonites in during terrible times, and now the Mennonites are providing the Paraguayans with most of their beef and dairy products.
Speaking of travel, we also went to the national school boards meeting in New Orleans and included some of the neighboring sites such as Little Rock's High School (integrated in 1957) and the Clinton Library. Arkansas, we'll note, was also number 47 on Gloria's state-to-state visit list. Number 50 Alaska is the goal. Still on family and travel, in September we spent a week at Ocean City, New Jersey, were we did our honeymoodn in 1968. But in 20014, all holiday travel was suspended until we completed the moving travel from Scottdale, Pennsylvania, to Wooster, Ohio.
The Scottdale to Wooster move turned out to be a year of down-sizing, land transactions and the final moving trips in July of 2015. It was a several year process which began with the realization that we should have more relatives nearby. I recognized that I needed the family, church and community more than they needed me. I had seen elderly friends in Scottdale without extended family nearby struggle with health, decisions and conditions. One learning for me was that aging may be eased with extended family nearby. I was becoming increasingly forgetful upon reaching my seventieth year and I run slower. My eyes are, as the biblical writers say, growing dim, which I need for the two things I have done best, reading and writing. My ophthalmologist son-in-law Anson Miedel said I need cataract surgery (which he has since provided).
For the past five winters, I have tried to write a chronicle of my life, and I’m reaching the end of that story from 1944 to 2014, at least in the sense of being able to remember well. I wanted to write before my glasses became too rose-tinged, and the readers can judge for themselves how well I have succeeded. I took time out to write several pieces for the church periodicals which I had not done for several years.
Our move was filled with emotional paradoxes; we wanted to move to Ohio but we did not want to leave out friends in Pennsylvania. We have been a part of the Scottdale community since 1970, so it has been our family home since 1970 and our children grew up there, and we have benefitted greatly from our western Pennsylvania neighbors. At the same time, daughter Hannah and Anson Miedel and our grandchildren Sadie, Aaron, and Mary moved near Wooster in 2007, and we would like to be closer. Our move to Ohio was greatly helped with the goodwill and flexibility of the new owners and long-time friends Ben and Angie Savanick of Scottdale.
At Christmas of 2014 we had a beautiful and musical Andrew and Mattie Miller family gathering at Kidron's Sonnenberg Mennonite meetinghouse which sister Miriam and Veryl Kratzer hosted. Sarah Kehrberg organized a chamber orchestra of the grandchildren, and we sang "O Beautiful Star" and "Up on the Housetop" (with the motions). This gathering came after sister Rhoda and Jon Mast had hosted a lively summer reunion at their place which they have continued as I post this in the summer of 2016. Joseph (the Geico commercial auctioneer) put on a fireworks display, and we had stories, games, square dancing and worship. At these gathering the cousins, now young adults and parents, usually sing "All the Way My Savior Leads Me" and "Comfort, Comfort Ye My People."
Gloria, Elizabeth (our elderhostel guide), and I brought in the New Year 2014 on the balcony of a hotel in Buenos Aires with bright fireworks above in the sky and below on the sidewalk, a part of three weeks traveling in Chile, Argentina, and Paraguay. We have lived and traveled in the Caribbean and northern region of South America and always hoped to sometime visit the Southern Cone countries. This was a good introduction, and of special interest was Chile because we had many Chilean neighbors when we lived in Venezuela during the early eighties, the Pinochet-military ruled years. I wrote a piece on Chile which is available electronically at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Our last week was among the Beachy Amish and Mennonite communities in Paraguay with a memorable visit with the Laban and Emma Eichorn family about half way between Iguazú Falls in the east (Ciudad del Este) and Asunción, the Capital.
From there we took a bus up the Trans-Chaco highway where we visited the Mennonite communities called Neuland, Fernheim, and Menno. Elizabeth’s Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) friend Eduard Klassen was an excellent guide and host. Klassen had been an MCC administrator and now is administrator of the hospital in Filadelfia. These communities were legendary to me at least since the fifties through books on the Berlin Exodus (1948) and Emmanuel Erb from the Pleasant View Mennonite youth group (1960) working on the highway. And, of course, Peter and Elfrieda Dyck lived in our Scottdale community for the last years of their lives. What strikes one today is how much these Paraguay Mennonite communities have become a part of the cultural, economic, and linguistic landscape of Paraguay, at the same time retaining their Anabaptist Germanic uniqueness. Paraguay took the Mennonites in during terrible times, and now the Mennonites are providing the Paraguayans with most of their beef and dairy products.
Speaking of travel, we also went to the national school boards meeting in New Orleans and included some of the neighboring sites such as Little Rock's High School (integrated in 1957) and the Clinton Library. Arkansas, we'll note, was also number 47 on Gloria's state-to-state visit list. Number 50 Alaska is the goal. Still on family and travel, in September we spent a week at Ocean City, New Jersey, were we did our honeymoodn in 1968. But in 20014, all holiday travel was suspended until we completed the moving travel from Scottdale, Pennsylvania, to Wooster, Ohio.
The Scottdale to Wooster move turned out to be a year of down-sizing, land transactions and the final moving trips in July of 2015. It was a several year process which began with the realization that we should have more relatives nearby. I recognized that I needed the family, church and community more than they needed me. I had seen elderly friends in Scottdale without extended family nearby struggle with health, decisions and conditions. One learning for me was that aging may be eased with extended family nearby. I was becoming increasingly forgetful upon reaching my seventieth year and I run slower. My eyes are, as the biblical writers say, growing dim, which I need for the two things I have done best, reading and writing. My ophthalmologist son-in-law Anson Miedel said I need cataract surgery (which he has since provided).
For the past five winters, I have tried to write a chronicle of my life, and I’m reaching the end of that story from 1944 to 2014, at least in the sense of being able to remember well. I wanted to write before my glasses became too rose-tinged, and the readers can judge for themselves how well I have succeeded. I took time out to write several pieces for the church periodicals which I had not done for several years.
Our move was filled with emotional paradoxes; we wanted to move to Ohio but we did not want to leave out friends in Pennsylvania. We have been a part of the Scottdale community since 1970, so it has been our family home since 1970 and our children grew up there, and we have benefitted greatly from our western Pennsylvania neighbors. At the same time, daughter Hannah and Anson Miedel and our grandchildren Sadie, Aaron, and Mary moved near Wooster in 2007, and we would like to be closer. Our move to Ohio was greatly helped with the goodwill and flexibility of the new owners and long-time friends Ben and Angie Savanick of Scottdale.
At Christmas of 2014 we had a beautiful and musical Andrew and Mattie Miller family gathering at Kidron's Sonnenberg Mennonite meetinghouse which sister Miriam and Veryl Kratzer hosted. Sarah Kehrberg organized a chamber orchestra of the grandchildren, and we sang "O Beautiful Star" and "Up on the Housetop" (with the motions). This gathering came after sister Rhoda and Jon Mast had hosted a lively summer reunion at their place which they have continued as I post this in the summer of 2016. Joseph (the Geico commercial auctioneer) put on a fireworks display, and we had stories, games, square dancing and worship. At these gathering the cousins, now young adults and parents, usually sing "All the Way My Savior Leads Me" and "Comfort, Comfort Ye My People."
This music is sung like a Mennonite choir at festive occasions (Christmas) and sad times (burials) since the grandchildren's childhood days, now almost three decades ago. In some mysterious way, the Christian, cultural, and Anabaptist ties remain strong in spite of our variations and distinctions. I note with gratitude that our crowd still gets together even after Andrew, Mattie, James, and Jakob gone. Which brings me to the extended family of brothers and sisters on which I’ve done a kind of roll call every 10 years (you can go back to 2004, 1994, 1984, 1974, 1964 to catch the earlier ones.
Paul age 72 closed his law office at Township Road 353
by the end of the year and he and Carol are moving to a Picket Place
apartment in Berlin. Daughter Amy and Mark Schlabach have added two children
Henry (2008) and Beatrice (2011) to join Will (2002) and Grace (2004). Daughter Laura and Erik Beun have moved to
the Township Road 353 property and now have three young ones Allison Noelle
(2005), Andrew Paul (2008), and Marcus Hendrik (2011). In 2016 Erik was name superintendent of the East Holmes School District. Ruth and Michael Yoder
have two young sons James Michael (2008) and Miles Joseph (2010) and moved from
Pittsburgh to Hartville, Ohio, in 2008. All three daughters and their husbands are employed in public education. By the end of 2019 Paul continued some
legal work with the Critchfield law office and had retired from leadership of Men’s One Sunday school class at Berlin Mennonite.
Roy age 71 continued his North America travels with Ruby visiting Burkholder relatives, Civil War sites, and New England autumns. His international travels to Honduras continued with men who can assist with funding the projects. Roy and Ruby hosted a beautiful 2015 summer wedding with daughter Susan and David Johnson while son Drew continues to lives in Columbus. As I post this, David and Susan moved into a new house within a half mile of Roy and Ruby and have a new baby Melinda. Among Roy’s local projects are serving free weekly breakfasts at a Wooster church and assisting a Native American rescue mission led by Roger Adkins at his tent village under the Route 83 bridge where the Wooster Livestock Auction used to be. The rescue mission has since been shut down by the city.
David age 66 left Walnut Hills
Retirement Community in 2010 where he had been administrator and then president
for 28 years from 1982 to June 30, 2010. He was there during the time Levi and
Lillis Troyer owned the Walnut Hills and left when it was sold to Greencroft
with headquarters in Goshen, Indiana. He joined Everence Financial Services
focusing on charitable giving. David remains physically strong, enjoys skiing
and biking, and occasionally we go together on a biking expedition. Abby and
Matt live near Hannah and Anson and now our neighbors and have two children
Claire (2004) and Samantha (2009). Ellen and Steve Rohrer built a new home
north of Kidron and have two children Isabelle (2009).and Alexander (2013). Kent and Lori and their family,
continue to live near Martins Creek Mennonite Church where Lori serves on the
staff as minister of discipleship and Kent continues with an expanding hotel
operation in Berlin.
Rhoda age 60 moved from the Mt. Eaton Public School to the Holmes County Training Center in 2011, rejoining the program where her Mother Mattie had been a bus driver for about 15 years. She and Jon Mast moved from the Mast family farm onto a house along 241 for a few years, and then settled into a new house along 7304 Township Road 604, right next to son Joseph and Maria and their three children Emma Grace (2003), Mattie Anna (2005), and Micah Joseph (2009). Meanwhile their family also grew out near Middlebury, Indiana, where Ben and Rachel Smucker had settled after Ben had completed his orthopedic medicine residency in Cleveland. The three Smucker children were Mary Elizabeth (2006), Anna Magdalena (2009), and Lydia Charlotte (2011). Jonathan Wade Mast and Hannah Kauffman Jantzi got married on June 6, 2009 under the trees by a stream near Lancaster, Pennsylvania, one comfortable Saturday afternoon. Jonathan continued to work with trees while Hannah studied to become a family physician. They currently live near in Klamath Falls, Oregon, where Magdalena Wren (2020) was born.
Miriam age 58 and Veryl Kratzer have the largest number of children which would make up about half of any family gathering by numbers alone. I listed all the children and grandchildren in the 2004 chapter and will not repeat them here. After the Sharp Run School closed, Miriam began teaching at Mt. Hope Elementary, both in the East Holmes County district. At Christmas time when the families gather, the Kratzers sometimes make a cassette disk of children’s songs and hymns. At this point we have three of them. Esther and Nathan Koontz are living in Newton Kansas and Esther has taken up math teaching in the public schools and in 2013 Nathan became a pastor of the area's Mennonite churches. Sarah and Kevin Kehrberg moved to Asheville, North Carolina, where Kevin took up teaching at the Warren Wilson College and Sarah has been a stay at home mother, music teacher, and columnist for the Mennonite World Review. By the end of 2014, the rest of the Kratzers, Amos and Amy, Hannah and Darrell Wenger and Martha and Chip Coleman were still living at Goshen, Harrisonburg, and Kidron, respectively.
Ruth at age 56 and John Roth continued living in Goshen, Indiana, both
teaching and hosting family and friends with four marriages in their
household. Sarah Roth married Luke Mullet on August 11, 2007 at Camp Mack,
Milford, Indiana, and since two babies have come along: Ana Florence (2013) and
Ruth Frances (2014). Luke worked with the family mower manufacturing business in Hesston, Kansas, and Sarah finished a
graduate degree in library science. They now live in Harrisonburg, Virginia. On July 5, 2009, Leah Rebecca and Peter
Nathaniel Miller were married at the Rieth Recital Hall in Goshen. Leah and Peter lived in Charlottesville, Virginia, for several years where he finished an English PhD program and she worked as a physician’s assistant; they have since moved to Goshen, Indiana, where he teaches at Goshen College. They have two children, James Ernest (2016) and Clara Sophia (2019). Hannah married Jacob Geyer on July 29, 2012, and they taught in public schools for a few years and spent a year in Spain. Since then, Hannah took an MBA and works in investments and finance and Jacob with Pearson, an educational curriculum and testing company; they live in Austin, Texas. Mary has
taken up poetry, editing, and massage. She married Katie MacKenzie and lives in Pittsburgh. In 2011 John began the Institute for the Study of Global Anabaptism
with Goshen College.
So the family with whom I began my life in 1944 has grown, and some of us (the cousins) do not see much of each other except at special events such as burials, weddings or other family gatherings. Still, we somehow feel connected by genetics, faith and some common experiences which go back to Holmesville and Holmes County. For our immediate family, we enjoy visits from Elizabeth in Pittsburgh and having Hannah and Anson Miedel and our grandchildren nearby. Mary, Aaron, and Sadie have studied at Triway School District elementaries and at Kidron’s Central Christian School. Most of my family and Gloria’s family are nearby, as are many friends from childhood and youth. We no longer need to drive three hours for family visits, reunions, school events, recitals, church and athletics.
For me, the transition years have been a Rip Van Winkle experience of often being several decades out of date regarding people and changes in the community, but people are kind and forgiving in helping one to adjust. The majority of the Amish are no longer farming; my once young school mates are aging grandparents, and a new generation of Dixes has sold the Daily Record. I know these things intellectually, but custom and the auto-pilot memory arrow often points to names, categories, and places of fifty years ago.
And the good earth remains for gardening, lawns, and backyard poultry and animals. Guinea fowl and Barred Rocks announce the dawn and dusk in northeastern Ohio just as they did in southwestern Pennsylvania. And both Gloria and I have found tennis friends on Wooster’s nearby courts and church friends at Oak Grove Mennonite near Smithville. I’ve more than carried out my father’s wishes when as a young father and aspiring writer and editor, he almost moved the family to Scottdale, Pennsylvania (1948). Although his die Bibel would become my la Biblia, we’ve both had English and Pennsylvania Dutch as our common languages, the latter again taking on special meaning here in this Amish and Mennonite community where it is widely spoken.
Meanwhile, I have learned from all communities whether in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico or Venezuela. All have been generous in teaching me about culture, religion, education, vocation, and friendships. And the church and a benevolent God remain for all the earth’s inhabitants to share. One works and hopes and on our last Sunday at Scottdale, we joined a quartet to sing one of my Albert Brumley favorites: “Blessed Jesus, Hold my Hand.”
This final
year come from recent memory, journal and datebook, and below are several recent
published pieces:
The later written
with my friend, the physician Daniel Miller of Walnut Creek, Ohio.
