RIEKENA, Amke 1846-1939

RIEKENA, BEVING

Posted By: Tammy (email)
Date: 9/8/2012 at 07:47:09

Oldest Resident Died On Saturday

Wellsburg's Oldest Resident Passes Away Saturday Evening At The Age Of Ninety-Two Years

Lived Here 66 Years

Funeral Services Are Being Held This Afternoon From The Wellsbug Reformed Church

Oldest resident of this community and one of the oldest in Grundy County, Mrs. J. W. Riekena, 92, died at her home here shortly after 7 p.m. Saturday following a year's illness attributed to a heart ailment and complications.

A native of Germany, Amke Beving was born May 7, 1846, and came to the United States and to Iowa as a girl. She was married March 23, 1871, to J. W. Riekena at Wellsburg and together they farmed near the city 40 years before retiring in 1913. The husband preceded her in death in May, 1933.

Surviving are five sons and one daughter, including a son, Wiard, and daughter, Miss Annie, at home. The other sons are Fred, Monroe, South Dakota; Benjamin, Missoula, Montana; and Treino and Evert, both of Wellsburg.

One daughter died in infancy. A son, Dick, died here in 1929.

Funeral services will be held today (Wednesday) at 12:30 p.m. at the home and at 1:30 in the Wellsburg Reformed Church, Rev. Wm. Landsiedel officiating. Burial will be in the church cemetery.

--Wellsburg Herald (Wellsburg, Iowa), 15 February 1939

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Mrs. J. W. Riekena Laid To Last Rest

Funeral Services Were Held Last Wednesday Afternoon From The Wellsburg Reformed Church

Was 92 Years Of Age

Her Passing Is Greatly Mourned By All Those Who Knew Her And Was Her Friends

Funeral services were held on Wednesday, February 15 for Mrs. John W. Riekena in the Wellsburg Reformed Church, with the Rev. Wm. Landsiedel in charge. The services were attended by a large number of the relatives and friends of the deceased who was the town's oldest resident, being almost 93 years of age at the time of her death.

The Rev. Mr. Landsiedel chose as his text Phil. 1:23; and spoke at length on the sterling character of the deceased who in her long residence in Wellsburg made friends of everyone with whom she came in contact.

Pall bearers were grandsons of the deceased; Jake, John, Willard and Raymond, sons of Trieno Riekena and John and Emery, sons of Evert Riekena.

Mrs. John W. Riekena, nee Amke Beving, was born May 7, 1846, at Holthusen, under the jurisdiction of Weener, Ostfriesland, Germany. In May 1867, at the age of 21 years she came with her parents to America and lived at Forreston, Illinois.

In March of the following year, 1868, they moved to Iowa and settled on a farm east of Cleves. On March 23rd, 1870, she was joined in holy wedlock with John W. Riekena, and together they established their home on a farm in Shiloh township, where they resided for 40 years. Since their retirement from the farm to Wellsburg, November 8, 1910, her faithful companion preceded her in death on May 27, 1933. God blessed their union with 8 children of whom one in earliest infancy and another, a son at the age of 56 years preceded the mother in death, and 4 sons and 1 daughter survive her.

During her early pilgrimage the Lord blessed the deceased mother with good health, especially during the 63 years of her married life, but in the last few years the infirmities of old age made themselves known particularly through the failing of her eyesight which deprived her of the privilege of reading her Bible and her daily calendar devotions, which she loved so much. Yet the environment of a Christian home and her early Christian training became a resource and a spiritual fountain from which to draw living water and comfort in her declining years.

The past year she was compelled to confine herself almost entirely to the house, due to her asthmatic condition affecting her heart. It was in March 1938 when her physical condition seemed to indicate her end, and I was permitted to impart spiritual comfort at her bedside that she confessed her inward joy after we finished praying together:

"Auf dem Lamm ruht meine Seele,
Betend voll Bewundrung an:
Alle, alle meine Suenden
Hat sein Blut hinweggetan."

Translated to English:

"My soul lean upon the Lamb
The Christ, who shed His blood for me;
My guilt, my sin forever be
Erased, atoned, in Him my peace."

Of this faithful care of her children in whom the departed had a kind and special support, she was granted to enjoy the coming of her ripe old age without any temporal worries. When for the last few weeks her health was expectedly announced himself, and it pleased Almighty God in His wisdom to bring the earthly pilgrimage of the deceased to a sudden termination on Saturday, February 11th at 7:15 p.m. She reached the age of 92 years, 9 months, and 4 days. By the grace of God she was privileged to enter into the rest with the people of God.

Her departure is mourned by her 5 sons and 1 daughter: Wiard at the parental home, Fred of Monroe, South Dakota; Ben of Missoula, Montana; Trieno and Evert of Wellsburg, and Anna also at home. The loss is also lamented by her only aged brother Dick Beving of Dooran, Minnesota, 21 grandchildren and 25 great-grandchildren.

The congregation, also of which the deceased was a faithful member for 27 years will preserve for her a loving memory. May the God of the covenant of grace and comfort, console the bereaved and soothe them with the balm of His Word, "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord." May He prepare every one for a blessed end.

Those from a distance who attended the funeral were Fred Riekena and George Dykstra, Monroe, South Dakota; Mr. and Mrs. Jake Riekena, Lewis, Iowa; Willard Riekena, Iowa City, Iowa; Joe B. Riekena, Renke and Mary, Woden, Iowa; G. B. Riekena and Gratus, Forrest City, Iowa; Mr. and Mrs. S. B. Aukes, Buffalo Center, Iowa; Wiard, Eilert, Fred and Margaret Aukes, German Valley, Illinois; Mrs. J. B. Roesingh, Lake View, Iowa; Mr. and Mrs. Peter Tjaden and Mr. and Mrs. Peter Huendling, Breda, Iowa; Dick Beving, Fostoria, Iowa; Mrs. Dick Janssen, Milford, Iowa; John Martin and Anno Ryken, Mr. and Mrs. R. Ryken and Mr. and Mrs. Ubbie Beving, Ackley, Iowa; Mrs. L. Lutjens, Grundy Center, Iowa; Mr. and Mrs. Ray Lilligridge, Rockwell, Iowa; Mrs. Meint Thomas and Mrs. Clarence Thomas, Marshalltown, Iowa; Mr. and Mrs. Eilert Flessener, Ackley, Iowa; Mrs. Anno Peters, Parkersburg, Iowa; Mr. and Mrs. Gerd Geerdes, Steamboat Rock, Iowa.

--Wellsburg Herald (Wellsburg, Iowa), 22 February 1939