DIRKS, John S. 1886-1946

DIRKS, SMIT

Posted By: Tammy (email)
Date: 4/5/2017 at 09:27:54

John S. Dirks Dies At Home Saturday Morning

John S. Dirks died at his home in Grundy Center at 4:30 Saturday morning. He had been in failing health about four months. The last month he was confined to his home continually. He was afflicted with cancer. He was 60 years old four days before his death.

John S. Dirks was born on a farm in Colfax township. He was a son of Mr. and Mrs. E. H. Dirks. He grew up on the farm and attended the rural school near his home. On November 27, 1912, he and Henrietta Smit were married. At that time his parents left the farm and moved to Grundy Center and John and his wife began housekeeping on the home farm where they resided continually 4 1/2 miles north and a half mile west of Grundy Center. The wife died May 3, 1934. After his wife's death Mr. Dirks and his children continued to live on the farm until the death of his mother in August 1936, when he rented the farm and he and his family moved to town to make a home with his father. His father died in 1938.

In early life Mr. Dirks affiliated with the Colfax Presbyterian church and he remained a faithful worker and a regular attendant. He served as one of the trustees of the church for many years and held that position up to the time of his death.

Since moving to town Mr. Dirks devoted much of his time to looking after his farming interests and the farms of his sister, Mrs. Annie Franken, and his sister-in-law, Mrs. Ella Dirks. Mr. Dirks came from a family of three children. His only brother, Cornelius, died in 1931.

Surviving are one son and two daughters. The son, Rev. J. Edward Dirks, is Protestant chaplain at Columbia University, New York. The daughters are Harriett, who is at home, and Mrs. Claus Janssen, Wellsburg. There is one grandson and his one sister, Mrs. Annie Franken.

Funeral services were held at the home Tuesday afternoon and later at Colfax Presbyterian church. The services were conducted by Rev. George Swalve. Burial was by the side of the wife in the Colfax cemetery.

--The Grundy Register (Grundy Center, Iowa), 28 March 1946, pg 1