John J. Mendenhall

MENDENHALL, COOK, HADLEY, STANDING

Posted By: Pat Hochstetler, Volunteer (email)
Date: 2/23/2014 at 09:57:01

Earlham Echo – Earlham, Iowa
March 16, 1939

J.J. Mendenhall of the Bear Creek neighborhood died at his home Thursday evening, March 9, after an illness of several months. Funeral services conducted by Ben Harris, assisted by Nora Craven and Prof. McGrew of Oskaloosa, were held Sunday afternoon at the Bear Creek church. Interment was in the Bear Creek cemetery.

John J. Mendenhall, son of Joseph and Mary Ann (Cook) Mendenhall, was born in the Bear Creek neighborhood on December 9, 1862, and passed to his reward on March 9, 1939, at the age of seventy-six years and three months.

On the 3rd of March, 1885, he was united in marriage with Mira Hadley—a happy union which endured for fifty-four years and six days. All his life was spent in the vicinity of Earlham, except for one year spent at Paonia, Colorado, and two periods totaling about seven years during which he resided in Oskaloosa, Iowa, in order to promote the education of his children.

He was a birthright member of Bear Creek Monthly Meeting of Friends, and throughout his life he kept an intense interest in the work and welfare of the entire Society of Friends as well as that which he exercised in the local meetings to which he belonged. For many years he has been an elder in the Bear Creek meeting and has served as clerk of the monthly and quarterly meetings on ministry and oversight, and in various other church capacities.

He was a trustee of Oskaloosa Monthly Meeting while residing there. During this period he served on the entertainment committee of Iowa Yearly Meeting, and later was, for several years, a member of the Yearly Meeting’s finance committee. He also had served as trustee of White’s Iowa Manual Labor Institute and of Penn College.

He has always taken a keen interest in civic affairs, both local and national, and was in earlier years, president of the school board of Union township.

At the age of fourteen he found himself thrown entirely on his own resources, and he has made his own way in the world since that time. This did not leave much opportunity for schooling. Aside from a short winter term now and then in the Earlham or Bear Creek schools, he was—from that time—self-educated. However he was an extensive reader and possessed an eager curiosity which led him to seek knowledge from anyone who possessed it. In this way he acquired an education and understanding far beyond his formal schooling.

He was a man of intense convictions and a lover of truth and justice. He found it difficult to be tolerant of anyone whom he believed guilty of untruth or injustice. He did not change his position on any question until he became thoroughly convinced that his former position was wrong. He was an independent thinker, refusing to accept the conclusions of any party or faction until he had thought the matter through for himself.

He was a lover of home and family, and as he grew older his interest in his children and grandchildren increased; yet he had time for his church and for his special interests of temperance, peace, and the welfare of agriculture.

He was converted at an early age, lost his first ----- for a time, but soon returned and grew in his love for the Master. He departed from this mortal life in a firm and triumphant faith in a glorious immortality.

An infant son and two grandsons have preceded him to the Promised Land. He leaves to mourn his passing: his wife; one brother, Eli C. of Moreland, Oklahoma; two sons, Lloyd H. of Earlham; and Raymond E. of Westerville, Ohio; one daughter, Mrs. Bernard Standing of Dexter; a niece, Myrtle Cook, of -----, Illinois, who was a member of the home for fourteen years; eight grandchildren and two step grandchildren, besides many other relatives and friends.