A Eulogy for Uncle Henry J. Epp

 

Henry J. Epp (1883-1965)  

(GRanDMA #433980)

A Eulogy: Translated from the German and annotated by George G. Epp, nephew of Henry J. Epp. The document appears to have been written to be read at Uncle Henry’s funeral but I personally don’t know who wrote it or read it there.

Henry J. Epp was born on October 3, 1883 in Gnadental, Baratow-Schlachtin,ⁱ Southern Russia. His parents were Jacob and Helena (Janzen) Epp. In 1893, he emigrated with his parents and siblings to Canada, spending an initial year in Manitoba. In 1894, they moved to what would become their homestead in the Rosthern area where Henry experienced with them a new beginning and the hard work that pioneer life required.

Because his three older brothers (Jacob, David, Peter) were able to manage the work on the home farm, his father would often send Henry to help out at neigbbours’ farms; this resulted in his being able to relate how he had once ploughed with oxen for an uncle. His education was obtained partially through private (Mennonite) schooling as well as in the newly-established Eigenheim School District public school and the German-English Academy in Rosthern.

In 1906, he made a decision for Christ,ⁱⁱ at which time also he and two of his sisters were baptized upon the confession of their faith by elder Peter Regier. They were received as members in the Rosenorter Mennoniten Gemeinde and in 1929 when the Eigenheim Church became independent, he transferred his membership there.

Henry’s siblings eventually left to establish their own families and Henry remained on the farm with his mother. His father, Jacob, had died in 1912. After his mother passed away in 1937, he was left alone on the farm, the marriage option having eluded him. His youngest sister, Susanna, and her husband, John Zacharias, lived with him for a few years before moving onto their own farm near Carrot River. Thereafter, willing nephews and others were generally to be found when help was needed. Iii

Henry Epp was a successful farmer and was furthermore generous with assistance and time for family and others. His generosity extended to the donation of money to the Lord’s work locally and beyond. In earlier years, he engaged in the Christian Endeavour program of the church as well as serving as a Sunday School teacher. For years he served as secretary of the Eigenheim School District,^iv likewise as a counselor for the Rural Municipality of Rosthern.

In 1944, Henry decided to retire, held an auction sale and passed the farm on to his youngest brother Gerhard. He moved into a small house in Rosthern in which he lived for five years.^v In 1961, he decided to move to the Altenheim, the Mennonite Home for the Aged where he lived until about one month before his passing. He was thankful for all the practical love and assistance he received there and participated gladly in the devotions and Bible studies that were offered, and was always willing when asked to lead in prayer.

But he grew weaker day by day until Housefather Cornelius Funk needed to transport him to the dining room and back in a wheelchair. On the sixth of November (1965) he was taken to hospital where Dr. Greve and the nurses cared for him as well as they were able. He spoke little during his final months but appreciated being spoken to or sung to by visitors.

He died on December 2, 1965 in the early morning hours. He’d lived to a good age, being eighty-two years and two months less a day at his death. Through God’s grace, he was ready to leave this world. When asked if he was prepared for the leaving, he would generally nod.

A hymn that was sung for him on the evening before his passing includes the following

words:

I’m traveling home, to my father’s house

Who knows, perhaps tomorrow

And, oh my heart, the grief will end

Good bye, all sin and sorrow.

Preceding Henry Epp in death were: one infant brother while still in Russia;^vi his parents and two brothers (Jacob J. and David) and two brothers-in-law (Frank Fast, husband of his sister Helena and Peter Dyck, husband of his sister, Judith).

He left to mourn his passing: Brother Peter J. Epp & family; his sister Helena Fast & family of Aldergrove, BC; Judith Dyck & family of Abbotsford, BC; Jacob and Katherina Janzen & family of Clearbrook, BC; Elizabeth Epp & Family, Laird, SK; Helena (Giesbrecht) Epp & Family, Rosthern, SK; John and Marie Fischer & Family, Rosthern, SK; Dietrich J. Epp & Family, Saskatoon, SK; Gerhard J. Epp & family, Rosthern, SK; John and Susanna Zacharias & Family, Carrot River, SK.

(A somewhat revised version of the hymn, Take Thou my Hand O Father is appended to the obituary/eulogy.)

You took his hand, O Father, and guided him

Until his life was ended, eternally

He couldn’t walk this world alone, not one, single step

You heard his pleas and walked with him, from birth until today.

-his family.

i Henry J. Epp’s father, Jacob D. Epp, was from a poor, landless family in the Chortitz Colony. He taught school on the Island of Chortitza for ca. 10 years until 1852 when Jacob D. Epp accepted a spot in the Judenplan where Jews and Mennonites were placed together in villages where the Mennonites were to model agriculture to the Jewish settlers, an experiment ending in frustration and failure. The family moved to Gnadental (1872) in a new Mennonite colony set up near the Judenplan villages and Henry was born there some ten years after the move. Jacob D. died in 1890 and his second wife, Judith (Dyck) Epp, and her children and step-children moved en masse to Canada in 1893.

ii “In 1906, entschied er sich zum uebergabe an dem Herrn,” is how the document puts it. Literally translated, it would read, “In 1906, he decided to give himself to the Lord.” What is commonly called “being born again,” or “accepting Jesus as your personal saviour” in evangelical circles was in Henry’s time linked very specifically to baptism. How one declares oneself to be a follower of Christ is most often expressed in literature of the Rosenort Church thus: “er war auf das Bekenntnis seines Glaubens getauft und in die gemeinde aufgenommen.” (He was baptised upon his confession of faith and received into church membership.)

iii Henry’s niece and Helena’s grandaughter, Rosella, recalls times when she as a young girl was compelled to spend time with her grandmother and uncle Henry. She says she was always happy to be going home to Danzig because Grandma was apparently quite stern and a bit cold.

ivRecords of the Eigenheim School can be found at the Mennonite Heritage Society of Saskatchewan archives in Saskatoon.

v The five-years figure was penciled into the typed manuscript, but from 1945 to 1961 is much more than five years; it’s around 15, actually.

vi I find no record of the brother who died in Russia, but infant death was common.

The ship on which Henry J. Epp crossed the Atlantic from Liverpool to Montreal, summer, 1893.