This series on members of the family who appeared on the pages of The Mennonite has understandably focused on Henry and Bea, since their work with the MCC put them in the public eye in various ways. However, other family members also received at least passing mention in one or more issues.
After noting a final reference to Bea, this post will collect all other Buller references in The Mennonite, to give a sense of the type of news and information that was reported. But first, an additional notice about Bea’s deep involvement with Mennonite peace initiatives. In the same issue in which Bea’s “ The Christian and the Jew” appeared (see here), we read of her participation in a Mennonite inter-college peace conference.
The first Mennonite inter-college peace conference was held in Chicago on Thusday, December 30, 1948. The purpose of this meeting was to see what college peace organizations can do to work together more closely. To become more acquainted with the work of the Peace Section of the Mennonite Central Committee and the fellowship together also fitted into the purpose of the meeting. … After some introductory remarks, reports were given from the various colleges represented [Tabor College, Freeman Jr. College, Hesston College, Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Goshen College, Bluffton College, Messiah Bible College]. Beatrice Buller reported for Bethel College.…
Later in the article we read that Bea reported during the evening sessions for the “findings committee” that met during the conference. That committee offered twelve suggestions for further action, such as “That special emphasis be given to peace education for ‘teen agers’” and “That we help in establishing the Peace Center in Europe and that we encourage some students to study in some European universities a year, giving part-time service to the Mennonite Central Committee Peace Section.” I imagine that there is more to the story of Bea’s peace work, but for now the trail ends here.
One interesting feature that The Mennonite included was a report of donations given to one or another of the ministries of the General Conference of the Mennonite Church of North America. Several members of our family are mentioned in this context.
According to the 17 August 1943 issue (page 4 here), Peter P and Margaretha donated $3.00 to The Peace Committee and $51.00 to the Emergency Relief Board. Their donations would be equivalent to $54.37 and $924.33 in today’s economy. Peter P and Margaretha were not the only family members to offer financial support to Mennonite ministries. Maria donated to the Foreign Mission Board several months later, as shown in the extract below from the 19 October 1943 issue (page 3 here).
Maria’s donation of $20.00 would be equivalent to $362.48 today, but the size of the gift is not what is most striking. Rather, it is her location, which is given as the Mennonite Hospital in Beatrice, Nebraska. This reflects the fact, of course, that Maria received her nurse’s training at that hospital, a fact that had been previously announced in the 7 September 1943 issue (page 16 here, lower right column):
—Miss Marie Buller of Upland, California, and sister to Henry Buller, former relief worker in France, has gone to the Mennonite Hospital, Beatrice, Nebraska, to take a two-year course in community nursing.
Given the date of the article, 7 September 1943, the description of Henry as a “former relief worker in France” seems a little odd. Granted, Henry was not engaged in actual relief worker at that moment, but that was only because he (and Bea) were interned in the Baden-Baden hotel. The mention of Henry does serve as a useful reminder of the context in which Peter P, Margaretha, and Maria made their donations: they did so while their son/brother and his wife whom none of the family had ever met were held captive under the watchful eyes of the Gestapo.
Maria is also mentioned in 1946, 1947, and 1948 issues of The Mennonite. Her first appearance is an article and photo in the 9 July 1946 issue (page 8 here) announcing her graduation from the nursing program.
A little less than a year later, in the 17 June 1947 issue (page 9 here, upper right) we read of “thirty-six young people” serving in one of four General Conference summer work units. Listed among the group serving at the Canadian Youth Farm at Rosthern, Saskatchewan, is one Marie Buller of the First Mennonite Church in Upland, California. According to the 10 February 1948 issue (page 14 here, upper right), Maria volunteered to serve at the same Canadian Youth Farm the following summer.
The next two appearances of family members involve Peter and/or Margaretha. In the Jottings section of the 14 March 1950 issue (page 176 here, lower left), the First Mennonite Church of Upland, California, offers the following report:
Our congregation has recently been having the privilege of having a number of Estonian families attending our church services. Church night was held March 1. Our Estonian friends were invited as special guests. Mr. and Mrs. Peter Buller celebrated their sixtieth wedding anniversary Febraury [sic] 27.—Mrs. Fred Yoder, Corr.
The second notice, in the 18 September 1951 issue (page 595 here, lower right) reports sadder news:
MARGARETHA EPP BULLER, a member of the First Church, Upland, California, was born October 1, 1870 and died August 19, 1951
Her death was reported again in the 20 November 1951 issue (page 739 here, lower right).
Seven months later, another death (24 June 1952, page 416 here, upper left):
—Bethesda Church, Henderson, Nebraska: The Salem Male Chorus of Freeman rendered a special musical program on May 25, in the evening. Baptismal services were conducted Pentecost Sunday morning, June 1. Twenty seven candidates received baptism. Funeral services for Benny Buller Jr. were held on Monday, June 2. He was employed by the Gravel Co. as a truck driver. On May 28, 1952, he was taken very suddenly by drowning in a sandpit while at work. He had reached the age of 20 years. Holy Communion was observed on Sunday evening, June 8.—Mrs. P. L. Wall, Corr.
Benny was the son of Peter P and Margaretha’s fourth child (Grandpa Chris was child number eight), Benjamin.
The final mention of a family member in The Mennonite brings us back around to Bea. The 22 February 1955 issue (page 126 here, upper left) reports:
Bethel College will offer a total of seven courses in such varied departments as Bible, Education, English, History, Industrial Arts, and Health as night classes during the spring quarter, as announced by the office of the registrar, Eldon W. Graber. A new course will be “Methods of Teaching Foreign Language in Elementary School,” to be taught by Mrs. Beatrice Buller. … All classes will meet from 7:00 to 9:30 p.m., with most three hour courses meeting once each week. Classes are open to students and to the public.
While this end to our family’s appearances on the pages of The Mennonite might seem anticlimactic, I think it provides a fitting conclusion to this chapter of our family story. If you recall, this series began with a 1939 mention of twenty-three-year-old Henry beginning or continuing (we could not tell which) his studies at Bethel College (here). Now, sixteen years later, we find ourselves back where we began, with Henry’s wife Bea closing the circle, as it were, by teaching others at that same college.
During those sixteen years the family faced many challenges and changes: from Henry sailing across the Atlantic into the heart of World War II to Bea meeting and marrying Henry, then spending the first year of their marriage in German captivity, from family members back home serving in their own ways and giving what they could to Bea and Henry’s release and return and the warm welcome of Bea into the family, from Henry’s and then Bea’s return to MCC service in the European theater to the completion of their MCC appointments but not their service to the church, from the celebration of anniversaries to the inevitable mourning of deaths. Those sixteen years of our family’s story as glimpsed on the pages of The Mennonite enrich our knowledge of and appreciation for those who have gone before—and leave us hungry to explore other chapters of our shared history.
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