GARBER, Samuel Reese

GARBER, BUNCH, RIDGEWAY, DALE, RYAN, STEPHENS, PETERS

Posted By: Sharon R Becker (email)
Date: 12/3/2016 at 10:02:54

Obituary ~ Samuel Reese Garber
March 06, 1890 ~ November 03, 1928

Leon Reporter
Leon, Decatur County, Iowa

Samuel R. Garber, only son of L. D. and Mary A. Garber, was born in Center Township, Decatur County, March 6, 1890 and died at home, November 3, 1928. His living sisters are Mrs. Garfield Bunch, Mrs. Ralph Ridgeway and Mrs. Roy Dale, of Leon, Iowa, Mrs. Calvin Ryan, of Corydon, Iowa, and Mrs. Clyde Stephens and Mrs. Henry Peters, of Pine Bluffs, Wyoming.

His entire life was spent at the parental home in Center Township. His mother died February 18, 1924. He graduated from the Leon High School in the class of 1911. While in school he was active in athletics, playing on the football team and participating in other contests of this nature. At the age of twelve years he was converted and united with the Brethren church at Crown Chapel, after a few years he became quite active in the work of the church and Sunday school, first as a singer then as Sunday school superintendent. Under his leadership the Brethren Sunday school in Leon became a great success and Sam is loved by hundreds of children and older folks who come in contact with him in the Sunday school. During his work in the Sunday school he was often called on to fill the pulpit in the absence of the pastor and later he became pastor of the Brethren church at Udell, Iowa. He served as pastor at that place until his death.

He was a forceful, logical speaker and was a devoted follower of the Master. He had very definite opinions and was fearless in expressing them, honest and sincere himself, he hated hypocrisy in others. To those of us who knew him as a baby in his mother's arms, as a child beginning to talk, as a school boy fearless and strong, as a Christian faithful and true, as a friend loving and kind. His death comes as a mighty sorrow and the memory of the times when we knelt with him at the altar of prayer or joined in the solemn ordinances of the church, or stood by his side while we sang the songs of comfort to those who mourned will remain with us as a sacred experience never to be forgotten.

He has been a great sufferer for the last four months and his greatest worry as he approached the end was the knowledge of the great grief which would come to his father and friends by his death, and while he longed to meet the loved ones on the other shore he held to the hands of those he loved here.

May the hand which led him through the dark waters be with us while we linger here and help us across death's river, where God grant that no more sorrowful passings will ever come.

A striking incident in his death was that he passed away while his Aunt Mattie was reading from his religious calendar the following: "Love worketh no ill to his neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law."

The funeral service was held at the home Monday, Nov. 5 at 2 p.m. and was attended by a large concourse of sorrowing friends and neighbors. His body was laid to rest by the side of his mother in the Leon cemetery.

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, December of 2016