OBITUARY. (FREDERICK SCHWARTZENDRUBER.) ­ On the 5th of July, 1895, in Johnson Co., Iowa, of general paralysis, brought on by rheumatism, Bishop Frederick Schwartzendruber, aged 70 y., 4 m., 2 d. On the 6th his remains were laid to rest in the quiet churchyard where his parents and the companions of two previous marriages are resting. Peace to his ashes. He leaves his widow, 4 sons, 5 daughters and a number of grandchildren to mourn his death, yet they mourn not as those who have no hope. Bro. Frederick Schwartzendruber was born in Mengeringhausen, in the province of Waldeck, Germany, on the 3d of March, 1825, and in 1833 he came with his parents, Jacob and Barbara Schwartzendruber, and their other children to America. They settled in Somerset Co., Pa. Seven years later they moved to Allegheny Co., Md., and in 1851 his parents, he and his wife and several other brethren, moved to Johnson Co., Iowa. The same year an Amish congregation was organized there under the care of Jacob Schwartzendruber and John Guengerich. One year later, 1852, Bro. Frederick Schwartzendruber was ordained deacon, and in 1863 the office which he held at death fell upon him. He endeavored to the best of his ability to fulfill his important charge faithfully, as long as strength permitted, yet in the last years of his life he was sorely afflicted with rheumatism which was attended with great pain and gradually rendered his limbs useless. But to his heart and mind he was vigorous until toward the last. He was always greatly interested in the spiritual welfare of his church, and when he could no longer attend public worship, he faithfully admonished the visiting friends, and often wrote admonitory letters to the brethren and ministers of the Word, and strove to keep the four congregations here in peace and unity (see Deut. 33: 6), yet not as a lordling but as an humble servant. Nevertheless his course was marked by many human weaknesses, and he could well say with Job, "Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes," Job. 42: 6, which he often did in secret prayer. He often said that in his state of suffering he could comprehend the sinfulness and the condition of the human heart, and how he too had sometimes stumbled and that he saw how he might have done better, and how he should have more earnestly admonished and warned the church. He felt it his duty to faithfully admonish and warn the church of the sure destruction which awaits the careless and sleeping ones, and this he did with word and pen as long as he could, and through his writings many formed his acquaintance. The tone of his preaching and his writing was that of the teaching of Jesus and the apostles. Crucify this mortal body together with the lusts and affections thereof. (Gal. 5: 24.) Realizing his weakness and imperfections, he once said, at a funeral occasion that when he died he did not wish any one to eulogize over his remains, for it might easily be that he might be "weighed in the balance and found wanting." He often said that it was alone through the grace and merits of Jesus that he could be saved, and not by his works. Appropriate services were held by Peter Brenneman and Peter Kinsinger, from John 5: 24, 25. He was the last one of the early ministers in the church here. A vast concourse of people followed the remains to the grave, to show the love and respect they felt toward this, the last remaining founder of the church here. ­S. D. GUENGERICH, CHR. J. SCHWARTZENDRUBER. Source: HERALD OF TRUTH , Vol. XXXII, No. 15, August 1, 1895, p. 236-239.
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