Tribute to Rev. Sebastian Gerig - 1924

GERIG, GOLDSMITH

Posted By: Ann Miller White (email)
Date: 4/24/2004 at 23:18:50

A SPLENDID AND WELL DESERVED TRIBUTE

Wayland News – April 10, 1924

Rev. Sebastian Gerig of Wayland was buried Saturday forenoon at Sugar Creek Church yard a mile east and a mile south of Wayland. He was a remarkable man in his denomination. For more than half a century he was pastor of the Amish church east of Wayland. He was a conservative in the church but not a radical, and he was one of the kindliest men we ever knew. He preached all these years without a penny of pay. He visited the sick, married the young folks, buried the dead, and never got a penny in his life. He not only did all this church work and pastoral work, but he ran a big farm and raised a large family. All are doing well and are fine citizens. The Lord surely prospered him, because all he had in his old age was what he had made as a farmer and he worked more for others than for himself. His wife was the daughter of Rev. Joseph Goldsmith who was his predecessor in the church. Rev. Gerig was born in Germany but came to this country by way of Ohio in his youth. He never learned to talk English very well, although he read and spoke it very intelligently. But he always talked brokenly. He perhaps never saw a grammar book in his life. His education was limited but he knew life. It is not at all likely that he new rhetoric from different calculus but he knew humanity. He never saw a book on psychology but he knew how to make and hold friends and the good he did cannot be measures. This writer has long had a great admiration for this pioneer preacher. His church held to the peculiar customs as to attire among their members. The women work hooks and eyes, where others wore buttons on ther garments, but he did not adhere to this very closely. He believed in progress and he went forward as the world went forward. But best of all, and over all, was his innate kindness, his high idealism, his fidelity to the truth. He saw good in every church. He was a devout Amishman or Mennonite, but he found no fault in others. If Rev. Sebastian Gerig has not gone to glory, then all the rest of us might as well hang our harps on the willow trees and mourn as those who have no hope. He was a good man.
By Alex Miller of the Davenport Democrat

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