ARENDS, John D. 1875-1923

ARENDS, STUMBERG

Posted By: Tammy (email)
Date: 11/11/2016 at 10:33:27

John D. Arends Dies Suddenly Last Friday After Brief Illness

Lived In County Lifetime

The sudden death of John D. Arends, of this city, about midnight last Friday night, was a shock to the entire community. While it was known among his close friends and neighbors that Mr. Arends had been suffering for a few days with throat trouble, his illness was not regarded of a serious nature until shortly before, and when the sad news was circulated on the streets Saturday morning that he had passed away during the night his friends were not prepared for it.

Mr. Arends had not been in the best of health for some time, but he was able to be around and attend to business up to within a few days of his death. He caught a severe cold a few days before at the Slutsky fire and it settled in the glands of the throat, causing them to swell so that he was scarcely able to partake of any kind of nourishment for several days. He was down town on Tuesday before his death on Friday night. His suffering for two or three days was terrible until death came to his relief.

John D. Arends was born in Beaver township, Grundy county, Iowa, January 2nd, 1875, and at the time of his death (March 24th, 1923) was aged 48 years, 2 months and 22 days.

Mr. Arends grew to manhood on a farm in Beaver township, and on December 13th, 1899, was united in marriage to Miss Ella Stumberg, also of Beaver township. To them were born three children, Dick, Margaret and Lillian, all at home.

They lived on a farm the first year and a half following their marriage and then moved to the little town of Fern where Mr. Arends was engaged in the hardware business for a time. Later they moved back to the farm for about ten years, and in 1915 moved to Grundy Center, where the family have since resided. For a while Mr. Arends was engaged in the grocery business here, but for the past few years he has been engaged in the real estate business, at the time of his death being associated with D. D. Dieken in the latter business.

He leaves besides the wife and three children enumerated above, two sisters, Mrs. Geo. Beenken and Mrs. John W. Arends, both of Beaver township.

Mr. Arends was a man of many friends. To know him was to regard him as an honest, upright man who believed in and practiced in his daily life the Golden Rule of "doing unto others as one would be done by." In the home he was a kind husband and an affectionate and indulgent father.

Funeral services were held in the German Presbyterian church of this city Tuesday afternoon and the house was packed with friends, neighbors and business associates who came to pay their last sad rites to a friend. Rev. H. F. Sinning, pastor of that church, of which Mr. Arends was a member for a number of years, officiated. Interment was in the cemetery west of town.

Besides a large number of relatives hereabouts, two cousins, Lou and John Dressman, from George, Iowa, and Lewis Beenken, Mason City, were present.

--The Grundy Register (Grundy Center, Iowa), 29 March 1923, pg 1