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Seeking a teaching job at Muscatine Junior College at Muscatine Iowa and wanted recommendation; gives lengthy suggestions as to what Bender might write.
Date on letter: April 18, 1933

Bender reply, that he was sending the letter; discussion of Hershberger thesis on the Quaker experiment [i.e., what became his Ph.D. Disseration, “Quaker pacifism and the provincial government of Pennsylvania, 1682-1756” (1935)]; faculty changes—mention of Paul Bender, Glen Miller [sic], Olive Wyse replacing Florence Bender, Sam Yoder [Samuel A. Yoder], Willard Smith, “Mr. Byers” [Noah Byers, Noah E. Byers?], Sanford Yoder [Sanford C. Yoder, S. C. Yoder], “Miss Shenk” and “Katy Yoder”; attached a letter to the Superintendent of Schools, Muscatine, Iowa,--about his “old friend and colleague” Hershberger, of whom he was “glad to say that I can unqualifiedly endorse” Hershberger’s application, emphasizing Hershberger’s public relations work as well as his teaching.
Date on letter: April 19, 1933

Bender to Hershberger: regrets that college finances would not allow a grant for the amount Hershberger had requested, but implying it could give some; mention of “Graber” and “Orie” [surely C. L. Graber (Chris Graber, Christian L. Graber) and Orie O. Miller]; list of specific questions about Hershberger’ program, etc. Hershberger next-day response, answering the questions, etc.

Bender telling Hershberger that cash was not available for Hershberger to be “taking [Willard] Smith’s place the second semester.”

Bender to Houghton Mifflin Company briefly endorsing Hershberger for one of the “Literary Fellowship Awards.”

Reference to Hershey’s recent letters [not extant in this folder]: disappointed Hershey had not returned to Goshen in Chicago, and regretted even more that he (Bender) had “failed to discovery your personal problems in thinking over some fundamental issues of life and its greatest values”; invited Hershey to stop in Goshen for a day so the two could talk; write from “Urbana”.
Date on letter: February 16, 1937

Hershey on why he was not returning to Goshen; strong words of appreciation for contacts there “with people of our church” and Mennonite young people and Mennonite principles, but to return would be “repetition of the old theme and . . . not very attractive”; etc.
Date on letter: July 29, 1937

Bender reply: glad to hear from Hershey; Hershey had done right about the ambulance drive, for the ambulance was “definitely a part of a military operation”;  the Sheppard-Hill Bill was indeed problematic for Christian pacifists; that Bender’s position, however, was that ordinary activities one did (or taxes one paid) in peacetime did not become wrong just because of an Act of Congress; also, my “attitude on non-violence strikes and boycotts [sic] has been that they contribute to conflict” and Christians should work to remove conflict; also they lead to violence; Bender elaborated at some length, including remarks about “inner light” and “inner experience”.

One letter, written same day as Bender’s, that Bender’s letter to “members of the [Mennonite Brethren?] General Conference Committee for Peace” had come to Hiebert’s hand, and he “rather” thought “our people would be willing to co-operate in the movement of signing the manifesto” though has he had not seen the document he could not “push the matter.” [nonresistance, pacifism, interMennonite ecumenism]; he had been planning to attend Mennonite World Conference but doubted the heavy cost was warranted if he had no contribution to make; he also wondered when Bender could tell him of steamship costs etc. for the Mennonites of Mexico moving to Paraguay--Orie O. Miller had advised that Bender had better information on those costs than Miller had.
Date on letter: March 9, 1936

Bender wondered what “your conference and peace committee had decided about “cooperation with the International Mennonite Peace Committee, and specifically” about signing the Manifesto, becoming a “supporting committee,” and naming a representative on the international committee.
Date on letter: December 31, 1936

[Note: in the name Mennonitisches Lexikon, throughout much of the annotation of Harold S. Bender correspondence the annotator mistakenly left the “s” off Mennonitisches; so researchers searching that name should also search for “Mennonitische Lexikon”.] ¾” stack. John Horsch (1867-1941) was of course both Bender’s father-in-law and a fellow scholar and historian of Anabaptism (for biographical sketch, see GAMEO). Bender consistently addressed him as “Dear Father Horsch,” Horsch returning with “Dear Harold,” and many letters refer to Elizabeth [Elizabeth Horsch Bender, Horsch’s daughter, Bender’s spouse, herself a fine scholar and collaborator], and/or to the Bender daughters [Nancy Bender, Mary Eleanor Bender], and/or to Horsch’s son Paul [Paul Horsch]. References to family members are too frequent to note in the paragraphs below. Bender owed much of his knowledge and view of Anabaptists to Horsch, even as sometimes he clearly differed with Horsch. On the whole the relationships between the two men were respectful and cordial, with a great deal of collaboration. On at least a few occasions, however, they differed noticeably, and a few times Bender wrote to Horsch quite forthrightly if not sharply. Although born, reared, and educated in Germany, by the 1930s Horsch had long since learned to speak and write English very well; the great majority of these letters are in English, consistently typed, and typed reasonably well. They have many references to getting out issues of The Mennonite Quarterly Review—too many such references to detail. The following notes cover most letters in the folder, excepting a few routine ones.

Horsch to Bender, mention of: “Prof. Deets”; Ernst Correll; the book on Hans Denck; Bon Homme colony [Hutterite, presumably]; a “Prof. Ewert” writing in Vorwaerts, “volume of Wuertemberger Taeuferakten”.

Bender to Horsch committee who wrote the Board of Education revision was Aaron Loucks, S. F. Coffman, C. L. Graber [Samuel F. Coffman, Samuel Frederick Coffman; Christian L. Graber, Chris Graber], and so Loucks certainly knew of the changes; Bender resented Loucks’ attempt to make someone else the [“nigger in the woodpile”] [sic; racism, African-Americans]; mention of Westerdijk booklets.

Horsch mention Elias Walter (an earlier letter had referred to an E. Walter); mention Correll not having sent the Foreword; “We regret” Smith’s attack, which would have been another matter had he written to Board members instead, rather than through a periodical.