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In George L. Bender’s rather short life (1867-1921)* he was a teacher. postmaster, and MC Mennonite church official at Elkhart Indiana. At that time Mennonite institutions were developing in Elkhart in the wake of John F. Funk’s work; and G. L. Bender served as the first treasurer of the Mennonite Board of Missions and Charities and as a deacon at Prairie Street Mennonite Church. Importantly, he was the father and a mentor of H. S. Bender.

{1} G. L. Bender to “Dear Harold”, September 10, 1916 [stationery of Mennonite Board of Missions and Charities, G. L. Bender as Treasurer and Financial Agent]: was headed for Young People’s Meeting [note: not to be confused with Young People’s Conference--“Meeting” implied the Sunday evening event at an MC Mennonite congregation]; D. S. Wendy had asked for Harold’s address, and had said Gladys wanted to write to Harold [Gladys Wendy ?]; more, regarding Gladys’ “running away from” Harold and Harold saying she never would get the chance again; family or community news--mention “Ether Murphy and B. S. Ebersole” [Esther Murphy ?]; ... hope things going well [for Harold] at Thornton... [Thornton Indiana, where Harold was a high school teacher].

{2} G. L. Bender to “Dear Harold”, October 19, 1916 [stationery of Mennonite Board of Missions and Charities, G. L. Bender as Treasurer and Financial Agent; Harold at Thornton Indiana]: glad for your letter [not extant here]; about dyeing his coat and problem of its shrinking; mentions of Harold’s siblings and some kind of grades they had gotten....

{3} .G. L. Bender to “Dear Harold”, April 21, 1917 [stationery of Mennonite Board of Missions and Charities, G. L. Bender as Treasurer and Financial Agent]: Aunt Cinda had left; four Lancaster boys who had stopped; Benders had planted potatoes...; mention of “the Ford”.

{4} .G. L. Bender to “Mr. H. S. Bender”--“Dear Harold”, June 20, 1918 [stationery of Mennonite Board of Missions and Charities, G. L. Bender as Treasurer and Financial Agent; Harold at Y.M.C.A., Akron Ohio]: personal matters--had received his letter and card [neither extant here]; about his getting a clock; glad Harold had “a position”; advice to be thrifty and pay debt; etc....

{5} .G. L. Bender to “Dear Harold”, July 12, 1918 [stationery of Mennonite Board of Missions and Charities, G. L. Bender as Treasurer and Financial Agent]: had Harold’s two letters [not extant here]; about date of Sunday School Conference, Harold to speak on “What I owe to the Young People’s Meeting”; about Florence [Bender, sister of Harold] sending the Hesston catalog [Hesston College and Bible School]...; on money raised for the college’s debt....

{6} .G. L. Bender to “Dear Harold”, July 19, 1918 [stationery of Mennonite Board of Missions and Charities, G. L. Bender as Treasurer and Financial Agent; Harold at a street address at Akron Ohio]: writing on Harold’s birthday, sorry he was not home, would have had fried chicken; had sent Harold some church papers; advice on getting a ride with “Bro. Smucker” to Sunday School Conference, saving money; about siblings Violet, John, and Robert having had tonsils removed [Violet Bender (later Violet Turner, Violet Bender Turner), John E. Bender, and Robert L. Bender]....

{7} .G. L. Bender to H. S. Bender--Dear Harold”, December 20, 1918 [stationery of Mennonite Board of Missions and Charities, G. L. Bender as Treasurer and Financial Agent; Harold now at Hesston Kansas]: on money, checks; on Chemistry books; about who had paid [likely dues of their Goshen College class ??--Harold had not paid]; about money still due on a loan; about some report [re Mennonite Board of Missions and Charities ??] to be considered at the Elida meeting; expected Uncle Dan [likely D. H. Bender, Daniel H. Bender] to attend the Elida meeting; regarding bad state of affairs at Goshen College, confidentially; if you don’t stay at Hesston, G. L. preferred Harold to be [? teaching ?] in Elkhart schools; do not write to “Wiggers” until “after I have my report” from doctors and have met with the Executive Committee [? of Mennonite Board of Missions and Charities ?]; the scourge of flu that was about, people dying; Christ Shantz had died of stomach cancer; other names with maladies.

{8} G. L. Bender to “Dear Harold”, January 16, 1919: about late reply to Harold’s letters; about “Lapp” inviting “Reiff” to come to assist [likely George J. Lapp, George Lapp, in one-year presidency of Goshen College; ?Vernon Reiff ?]; re getting Charles Shoemaker to help out temporarily [help where?]; on Shoemaker’s situation, including Mennonite Publishing House wanting him (? Charles B. Shoemaker, C. B. Shoemaker ?)]; on efforts to do relief work now that the war was over [Mennonite Relief Committee of Mennonite Board of Missions and Charities]--mention Armenia, Syria, “Bible Lands”; about finances available for relief; about negotiations with U. S. government... (more on relief situation); “...we made ... selections”--re Aaron Loucks, William Derstine to accompany workers over and organize relief; J. H. Detweiler, J. C. Myer [sic; likely J. C. Meyer, Jacob C. Meyer, Jacob Conrad Meyer], Jesse Smucker, John Werye, “Ori Miller” [sic; Orie Miller, Orie O. Miller], David Zimmerman, Leon Myers, Nolt, Ezra, Deter [sic; Ezra Deter ?]; comments about Deter going to France, perhaps “Graber” going somewhere; mention Silas Hertzler, Asa Hertzler, Willis Baer; had sent $25,000 to ‘the New York office”; letting “Natives” direct the work./ Reference to Harold’s teaching plans--they [apparently Hesston College and Bible School] would like to have him another year, preferable to G.L.; but glad to have Harold at Elkhart./ G. L. mentioned possibly coming to Hesston to talk to Reiff, if Shoemaker not available [? Vernon Reiff ?; likely Charles Shoemaker, Charles B. Shoemaker, C. B. Shoemaker]; by-laws did not provide for an assistant treasurer; on whether “Baumans” would go to South America [Argentina ?]....

{9} G. L. Bender to H. S. Bender--“Dear Harold”, April 24, 1919 [stationery of Mennonite Board of Missions and Charities, G. L. Bender as Treasurer and Financial Agent; Harold at Hesston Kansas]: on correspondence and accounts; glad about your plans to go to Yoder for the summer [? Yoder Kansas ?]; encouragement to visit a Bishop Beachy there, whom G. L. knew; Cecil’s ear trouble [Cecil Bender, Harold’s brother, later Dr. C. K. Bender]; advice not to overdo in heat of Kansas; wrote as if “Reiff” were in Elkhart [? Vernon Reiff ?]; mention Enos Mumaw and wife; re Goshen College--going quite well, H. F. Reist to be president next year, Christ Blosser dean [H. Frank Reist, Henry Frank Reist; ? Christian Blosser ?]

{10} G. L. Bender to “Dear Harold”, September 25, 1919: sending notes today; advised that Harold “make no fixed plans just now” but wait to see how G. L.’s “condition” developed [Parkinson’s disease -- see Albert N. Keim, Harold S. Bender, 1897-1952, pages 37-38, 86, 109-111]; had seen another specialist in Chicago, who said G. L. could become “entirely helpless...”; re a letter from “Boyd” [J. Boyd Cressman ?]’ remarks about Boyd’s ridicule of “Loucks” and of Harold’s remarks about Loucks [? likely Aaron Loucks ?]: reference to “the abnormal condition of his mind [whose mind? probably Boyd’s but unclear]; “I am so sorry for him...”; “And Harold I am so very grateful ... [to God] that you did not get to France...” [likely a reference to the French Reconstruction Unit, where its Mennonite young men had held a conference at Clermont-en-Argonne that was very controversial, being quite critical of current (MC) Mennonite Church leadership]: “Say Harold you reputation is good. I trust you will never mar it. Stand loyally by the church” with “confidence in the leaders...”./ Remarks about “the Thut article” and Thut’s apparent premillenialism; “I want you to have my view on this subject. I am neither PRE or POST.” [sic; (what of amillennialism ?); the church had no position on this, and the question was not “essential to salvation”, so neither side should call the other unorthodox, but should speak kindly; comments on Thut as “a deep student” and not “antagonistic”....

{11} G. L. Bender to “Dear Harold”, October 18, 1919: re correspondence; glad for your rise in salary...; muted financial advice; more this and that; mention Jesse Bechtel--and writing to him c/o his father’s office in Philadelphia... (implied Bechtel was a recent immigrant ?); Goshen College enrollment etc.; Florence was waiting tables for her board, Violet working in the library for her tuition [Florence Bender; Violet later Violet Turner, Violet Bender Turner]; mentioned J. M. Yoder paying for the girls’ expenses; did you get notes I sent?

{12} Another letter, G. L. Bender to “Dear Harold”, October 18, 1919: thanks for 2 checks; amount of Maple Leaf [college yearbook] debt; mention H. A. Yoder, Jancey Slabaugh, Ora Liechty, Arthur Hartzell, D. E. Lehman; leaving tomorrow morning for Youngstown.

{13} G. L. Bender to Dear Harold”, January 9, 1920 [stationery of Mennonite Board of Missions and Charities, G. L. Bender as Treasurer and Financial Agent]: mention Violet [later Violet Turner, Violet Bender Turner]; paid $1.50for tailor work on Harold’s suit; had lent Harold’s $400 to “brother Brunk”..., although had intended to use it to help the girls [likely Violet and Florence Bender]; about sending some money each month; about G. L. trip to Illinois and then [apparently] aborted going to California to a sanitarium upon finding out it did not have the equipment for the treatment he intended; about talking to the doctor at length about plans...; instead going to Battle Creek which had a very excellent sanatorium....

{14} G. L. Bender to “Dear Harold”, Jan 17, 1920 [stationery of The Battle Creek Sanitarium, Battle Creek Michigan; poorly written in pencil (possibly by someone taking informal dictation from G.L.)]: reference to leaving Elkhart; you probably have my letter re not going to California; on your questions-- G. L. had left “the active part of the Relief work... to the rest of the Executive for the times I am away”; for “first information... write to Levi Mumaw”; to work with Russian Mennonites, thought “the Ohio meeting” had wanted to get “several older men with Executive ability“ plus some “boys who are already across the Atlantic”; “of course ... personally we would not prefer your going” but you are of age to make that choice...; G. L. thought that if Harold wanted more schooling, now was the time...; on Goshen not paying much for summer teaching; G. L. would like to see Harold teach in Elkhart schools for a year./ Regarding “Vernon Reiff”, he would be rather expensive help for the Board, and, to G. L., Reiff’s replies indicated disinterest./ [The Battle Creek Sanitarium] was “a great place. Mostly rich people”; G. L. still being examined; yesterday a “fierce” diet of “nut bran”; talked here with all kinds of people, e.g. “a real Suffragette”...; friendly acquaintance with “Judge Lasey of Detroit--he much respected “the plain people” and his wife’s “folks” were River Brethren; G .L. was “the only plain person” among 500 patients [nonconformity, attire] and was called “Rev. right along”....

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cross-references from other files

{16} Delilah Roth (apparently a Goshen College student) to H. S. Bender, May 3, 1937: had finished biography of Bender’s father [G. L. Bender, George L. Bender, George Bender]; implied she wrote the biography under Professor Umble [surely John S. Umble]... [From Box 7 Folder 1, L miscellaneous 1930-1938].

1/4" stack mostly handwritten (even when on letterhead of journal The Sword and Trumpet), from the George R. Brunk who lived 1871-1938.

Half-dozen letters with church leader in Ontario.

Thin (1 item) folder.

5/8" stack. Ernst Correll (1894-1982) was a young German scholar who already in the early 1920s, when he met Bender, was knowledgable about Anabaptism; and he helped Bender become the Anabaptist scholar that he (Bender) would become. Very soon Bender helped him emigrate to the United States where he became part of the "Goshen circle" of scholars researching and interpreting Anabaptism. To identify Correll see his entry in GAMEO, and especially for his relation to Bender see entries listed for “Correll, Ernst” in the index of Albert N. Keim’s biography of Bender--esp. pp. 157-58. Correspondence in this folder between Bender and Correll was both personal and dense with matters of Anabaptist-related scholarship. Early letters are in German but in mid-1925 Correll began writing in reasonably good English (at first on Mennonite Historical Society, Goshen College stationery but from Newton, Massachusetts--telling what Anabaptist/Mennonite publications he had found in Harvard libraries and what he had advised librarians there to acquire). In an early letter (7 April 1923) Correll seems to be introducing his credentials.

¼” stack. Christian Hege was a premier German Mennonite historian, coeditor of the Mennonitisches Lexikon. The correspondence is a steady stream; extant here are mostly Hege to Bender items. All is in German except the first letter, Bender informing Hege that he has been given an honorary membership in Mennonite Historical Society. Much of the correspondence has to do with raising money in North America evidently for the Lexikon.

Five letters. 

1/4" stack of letters mainly about Burkhart's academic plans and progress as he pursued post-secondary education.  (He discussed and write an M.A. thesis, 1929, at the University of Pittsburgh, titled The historical signification of the thought of Menno Simons concerning the incarnation of Jesus of Nazareth.  In his life he wrote various items for the church, and among whatever else, served as a fund-raiser for Goshen College.  Canadian-born, he also got involved in a court case on pacifism of one who applied for U. S. citizenship.)  Letters of December 1929 are on Hesston College and Bible School stationery.

1/4" stack of letters mainly on local Mennonite history from the region of Markham, Ontario, where Burkholder was a minister and eventually a teacher at Ontario Mennonite Bible School. Menion especially of Wideman congregation and Reeser family. Some typed-out historical documents (translated?) including a German one by Benjamin Eby.

1/2” stack. As a way to travel abroad more cheaply for himself and fellow-Mennonites, especially to and from Mennonite-related destinations, Bender had gotten himself recognized as a travel agent. According to Albert N. Keim, on page 253 of his biography Harold S. Bender, 1897-1962, Bender formed the “Bender Travel Agency” as he arranged to be travel agent for a few North Americans attending the 1936 Mennonite World Conference (and, in addition, travel in Europe as tourists). Being the agent meant he could afford to attend the conference. However, already in 1929 he had led a group of Mennonites on a “Heart of Europe Tour”, after which he and a member of the group flew to Moscow in the interests of connecting with Mennonites in the Soviet Union. [See Keim’s book at pages 193-196.]

Russian Mennonite Requests, etc.