Akt Folder 4 - R - miscellaneous

This is a "miscellaneous" file. Rather than strictly by date, "miscellaneous" files have entries alphabetized by correspondent, then by date for a given correspondent. Also--
NOTE: this annotator’s German is not strong; so the descriptions of German-language materials may be incomplete and not fully accurate.

Medium-size file (about 55 items)

{1} H. H. Redekop to Bender, August 27, 1958 [Reverend Redekop, Winkler Manitoba]: Last year communications did not bear fruit [evidently for enrolling at Goshen Biblical Seminary]; now wanted to know costs; penciled note--“In Goshen Oct 5 in person”].

{2} P. K. Regier to Bender, September 9, 1959 [stationery of The General Conference Mennonite Church; Regier the Executive Secretary; GCMC]: sending copy of triennial report; invited reciprocation; had in hand a program of “your conference” in Goshen; if they were not in your report, wanted ones by Bender, J. Otis Yoder, Richard Detweiler, John R. Mumaw.

{3} James C. Spalding to Bender, April 3, 1961 [stationery of University of Iowa School of Religion; Spalding an Associate Professor]: Richard S. Reilly had applied for admission and given Bender as a reference; please send evaluation.

• • • REPLY, Bender to James C. Spalding, April 25, 1961: Reilly had come from a Bible Institute, etc.; evaluation; ATTACHED; thermofax of Reilly’s transcript.

{4} George T. Reimer to Bender, December 6, 1959 [three penned pages from Steinbach Manitoba]: appreciation for Bender visit; questions--why not kneeling in church for prayer, about husbands and wives sitting together, about patronizing Christian business people vis-à-vis others, and failure to patronize a poor sickly fellow....

{5} Donald Reist to Bender, April 16, 1958 [stationery of Mennonite Publishing House, Reist the Merchandise Control Manager]: the House had received 121 copies of a book it had not ordered and did not know what to do with; book was Die Rechtliche Behandlung der Täufer, by Horst W. Schraepler of Stuttgart, a book of the Mennonitischen Geschichtsverein series....

• • • CONTIGUOUS, Donald Reist to Bender, April 30, 1958 [Mennonite Publishing House stationery]: re Die Rechtliche Behandlung der Taeufer; with no reply to September 25, 1957 and April 16, 1958 letters to Bender, Reist had written to Mennonitischengeschichtsverein and gotten a reply from Paul Schowalter; now posed four questions to Bender about disposition of the books, price, any arrangement between Mennonite Historical Society and Mennonite Publishing House, etc. [Note: for more, check down to May 29, 1958).

{6} Copy of Donald Reist to Horst Quiring, note to Bender, May 6, 1958 [stationery of Mennonite Publishing House, Quiring at Evang. Missions Verlag (Protestant Mission Press), Stuttgart Germany]: a customer, Duke University Library, wanted the book by Wiswedel [Wilhelm Wiswedel], Bilder und Führergestalten aus dem Täufertum, Volumes I - III; Mennonite Publishing House had only one copy of Volume III and was informed by J. G. Oncken press that Volumes I and II were out of print; would the volumes be available later, and if not, could you name a book seller who could furnish them? [Penned note to Bender:

Duke University had bought Volume III, but wanted to return it unless it got I & II.

• • • REPLY, Bender to Donald Reist, May 10, 1958: would give a reply soon; sorry about overlooking your letters....

{7} Donald Reist to Bender, June 29, 1958 [stationery of Mennonite Publishing House; Reist--Merchandise Control Manager]: by June 20, wanted information on cost, etc. for marketing Jean Root’s book on Strasbourg Anabaptists.

{8} Penciled “Don Reist”; small note, “PS” [no address, no date; filed at May-June 1958]: had word that Daniel Trocme, son of Andre Trocme, had shot himself in Denver Colorado about January 17.

{9} Copy of Donald Reist to Paul Schowalter, June 3, 1958 [stationery of Mennonite Publishing House; Schowalter at Weierhof in the Palatinate, Germany; in German]: about John Howard Yoder’s work, presently at the printing firm of Schneider [Heinrich Schneider]; we are preparing our catalogue, and want to include Yoder’s book; cc’s to Schneider and to Bender, blind cc’s to Mervin Miller and to John H. Yoder.

• • • ATTACHED, Memorandum, Bender to Donald Reist, June 4, 1958: re John Howard Yoder’s thesis, Yoder had given information that it should be about 220 pages and on conversations between Anabaptist and Reformation leaders in Switzerland, 1523-1538; elaboration....

10} Donald Reist to Bender [date confusing--May 29, 1958?] [stationery of Mennonite Publishing House; Reist as Merchandise Control Manager; re date--original typing has it May 29, 1958, but that is marked out and the date 4 June 1959 (sic) is stamped under it as if letter were received on that date; but body of the letter states June 20, 1958 as a deadline for requested material]: enclosed check for $115 was to pay for the copies of Die Rechtliche Behandlung der Täufer, furnished us through “your mediator”; requested description of the book to use in promotion, by June 20, 1958.

{11} Donald Reist to Bender, January 12, 1961 [stationery of CONCERN pamphlet series, Reist as Circulation Manager]: John Howard Yoder had requested that Reist check whether Concern No. 8 had gone to Bender; it had not--Bender should have [and supposedly had ?] received a offer to send it upon receipt of advance payment; would welcome Bender as a subscriber with small payment in advance.

{12} Donald Reist to Bender, March 9, 1962 [stationery of Mennonite Publishing House]: had Bender seen Jean Séguy article “Problèmes Historiques et Sociologiques Actuels de l’Anabaptisme”, in Archives de Sociologie des Religions, 1959 #7? Reist had begun translating it; should he finish? might Mennonite Quarterly Review want to publish it? P.S. suggesting Bender get a telephone card, and why....

{13} Copy of Donald Reist to Horst Quiring, June 26, 1962 [stationery of Mennonite Publishing House]: that Bender was in hospital so Reist was writing directly to Quiring about Rembrandt painting Anslo and His Wife; check enclosed for $200, and expected Horst to turn over all remaining copies--at least 200, and that they would come aboard the Mennonite World Conference chartered plane to Kitchener; cc Bender.

{14} re Religion and Labor Foundation to “Dear Seminarian”, September 17, 1958 [Foundation’s stationery; signed by Clair W. Cook, Executive Director]: act quickly to register for Regional Seminary Conference in Cleveland, October 2-3;...(more).

• • • REPLY, Bender to Clair M. Cook, September 23, 1958: sorry, could not attend your Cleveland conference, although interested; speaking with Cook on the telephone, Bender had forgotten about something on the Goshen College calendar.

{15} C. J. Rempel to Bender, May 3, 1960 [stationery of Conference of Historic Peach Churches, Kitchener Ontario, “Corny” Rempel (Cornelius J. Rempel) as Secretary]: annual meeting of his organization would be October 29 at Niagara Christian College, Fort Erie Ontario; it was Mennonites’ turn to supply the main speaker, and committee was asking Bender for three addresses, topics not specified.

• • • CONTIGUOUS, C. J. Rempel to Bender, September 23, 1960 [stationery of Conference of Historic Peace Churches, Kitchener Ontario, “Corny” Rempel (Cornelius J. Rempel) as Secretary]: reference to the May 3 letter--to which Bender had responded Yes to Rempel at a meeting on other matters; would appreciate six topic suggestions very soon; on reverse side, in Bender pen--“The Price of Loving Our Enemies”, “The Lordship of Christ”, “Nonresistance and the Gospel”, “The Peace Witness and Our Foreign Missions”, “Romans Thirteen”, “Ceasar’s Claims and Christ’s Commands--Where is the Line of Distinction and What Shall We do [sic]?”, “What should Our Pc Witness be in the Present Troubled World Situation” [sic].

{16} Bender to Reverend G. S. Rempel, May 8, 1958 [to Steinbach Manitoba]: wanting Rempel to read and correct [Mennonite Encyclopedia ??] articles on the Steinbach EMB Church [Evangelical Mennonite Brethren] and Stuartburn Chapel.

{17} [unreadable, scanned to Joe Springer--Walter ___fried Rempel to ? John G. Rempel ? of Rosthern Saskatchewan]

{18} Edwin H. Rian to Bender, June 9, 1960 [stationery of Jamestown College, Jamestown North Dakota; Rian its President]: thanks for Bender booklet Biblical Revelation and Inspiration, which represented Rian’s own viewpoint very well; high words for his visit to Goshen; hoped Bender would visit “us” “in New York at Biblical Seminary”....

{19} Bender to Clarence Rich, March 21, 1958 [to Archbold Sales and Service {Ford dealer}, Archbold Ohio]: about enclosing payment (totaling $1000) and “Exemption Certificate”; much thanks for “unusual consideration”; this was first new car Bender had ever bought; car worked fine on drive to Goshen but right door closed only with a hard slam--what to do?

{20} Joe Richards to Bender, February 10, 1962 [? Joseph Richards? from Hokkaido Japan]: fond memories of year at Goshen and you; writing about Asian Mennonite Fellowship Conference; from India S. P. Miller [? Samuel P. Miller ?] had responded that India folks there hoped it could happen; from Java, Herman Tan had not responded; from Viet Nam James Stauffer was interested; in Japan both missionaries and Japanese were interested and had “cleared” it...; that Richards need not convince Bender; Asian churches “need to enlarge their fellowship, but have done nothing; MCC had done much...; need to work for “the whole area of peace” [pacifism, nonresistance]; need for leadership training; Richards thought personally that Anabaptist-Mennonites had much to offer Asia; reference to conversation during furlough that included Gene Blosser; ... “seek and broaden THE LORDSHIP OF CHRIST”[sic].

{21} Lore Rittmayer to Bender, September 2, 1958 [Dr. Rittmayer, writing from Tauberbischofsheim in Germany; in good English]: writer’s dissertation was complete; thanked Goshen College for all the help received during her year there 1950-1951; writer’s activities in the summer taking state exams and the doctoral exam, etc., to get teaching license for German high school; until Christmas would teach in Lörrach near Basel, “in Freiburg Br.”; had been asked to teach German at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania but then they were unable to employ a new teacher....

• • • ATTACHED, 5 sheets in German with an outline and an abstract of Miss Rittmayer’s dissertation and a one-page autobiographical statement (she born at Heidelberg in 1931 to teacher parents; mention importance of several teachers and professors, including at Yale University and Berlin).

• • • REPLY, Bender to Lore Rittmayer, October 31, 1958 [to Miss Dr. {“Fraulein Dr.”} Lore Rittmayer]: congratulations, thanks for kind words, greetings from Mrs. Bender [Elizabeth Bender, Elizabeth Horsch Bender]; other responses. // About Mary Eleanor Bender--she had completed doctoral work in German at Indiana University, planning to go to Germany next summer with a friend Miss Gloria Winslow; about Mary Eleanor and Miss Rittmayer making contact in Heidelberg, a bit on Rittmayer possibly helping Mary Eleanor find meals and lodging....

• • • REPLY, Lore Rittmayer to Bender, April 6, 1959 [from Freiburg Br.; in English]: apology for length of time before answering...; she was teaching at a high school for boys; had passed through Heidelberg and gotten a lead on a room for Mary Eleanor; mention Albert Meyer, John Yoder [likely John Howard Yoder, John H. Yoder]; about one Klaus Feine studying Nationalökonomie in University...; greeting to Mrs. Bender.

• • • CONTIGUOUS, Bender to Lore Rittmayer, March 11, 1960: thanks for a card [not extant here]; Mary Eleanor Bender would not get to Europe this summer as hoped; wanted address of Klaus Feine, a Goshen exchange student--possibility of an opening for him as design engineer and German speaker in a local Goshen factory; Bender to be in Germany July 23-August 1, if possible.

• • • REPLY, Lore Rittmayer to Bender, March 25, 1960 [from Konstanz]: regret news about Mary Eleanor Bender not coming, etc.; address of Klaus Feine, at Wittenburg--and some about him; some about “Huss” at Constance [?? John Huss ?]....

{22} Postcard, Harold Roe to Bender, July 12, 1962 [travel-picture card of site in Netherlands, Netherlands postal stamps; dateline “Pidoux IV”]: missed Bender at the conference, Mennonites well represented by Yoder, Coffman, Keeny [sic], and Dutch Mennonites [likely John Yoder, John H. Yoder, John Howard Yoder; “Bill” Keeney, William Keeney; John E. Coffman].

{23} Bender to Herman Ropp, April 10, 1958 [to Wellman Iowa]: knowing your interest in history, had submitted Ropp’s name to co-opt for two-year term on (MC) Mennonite General Conference’s Historical Committee, especially to represent Iowa-Nebraska Mennonite Conference district and territory west of Mississippi River; on what the committee did, especially the Archives of the Mennonite Church and probably taking over Mennonite Research Foundation; willing?

{24} Bender to Gerd Rosen, February 23, 1959 [to West Berlin Germany; in German; Rosen an Antiquarian]: with arrival of your catalog Bender had sent a telegram [stated German text]; about certain business with Rosen, including buying something on the Worms Prophets, 1527; mentioned his friend Willi van Delden, in Ahaus; about buying a whole collection which Bender’s good friend Roland H. Bainton of Yale [Roland Bainton] was ready to buy for Yale University; about possibly buying the second part of the collection.

• • • CONTIGUOUS, Bender to Gerd Rosen, July 15, 1959 [in German]: enclosed find a check for $137.20 which should cover our account...; Bender had not been able to make the arrangement with Bainton--reasons why; some apology; mention Gerhard Hein, pastor of the Mennonite Church in Berlin, whom he would soon visit.

• • • CONTIGUOUS, Bender to Gerd Rosen, October 28, 1960 [in German]: sending four 16th-century items with Pastor Hein [Gerhard Hein]; had spoken about sending his 16th-century duplicates in exchange for desired items...; about prices; thanks for the friendly services.

• • • CONTIGUOUS, Gerd Rosen firm to Bender, January 4, 1961 [in German; signed by Merkelbach]: confirming receipt via Pastor Hein [Gerhard Hein] of the four items (named).

• • • CONTIGUOUS, Gerd Rosen to Bender, January 6, 1961 [in German; stationery of Gerd Rosen Art and Book Antiquarian, West Berlin Germany]: one item of the four delivered by Pastor Hein [Gerhard Hein] was missing six pages; another such case, of three leaves; suggest sending photocopies of the missing ones; another question about authorship; about a catalog and a collection....

• • • REPLY, Bender to Gerd Rosen, January 6, 1961: seems to write that he had thought the problems and been fixed with photocopies, and apologies that they were not; enclosing new photocopies; some further explanation; had found the catalogs interesting.

{25} Gerd Rosen to Bender, September 18, 1961 [stationery of Gerd Rosen Art and Book Antiquarian, West Berlin Germany; in German]: please sign the already-punched contract paper in ink, and keep the copy and the list...; about the Wolkan books The German Church Songs of the Bohemian Brethren... [a paragraph]....

{26} Re Gerd Rosen firm, to Bender, 20, 1963 [stationery of stationery of Galerie Gerda Bassenge, West Berlin; signed by C. Kühn; in German]: perhaps you have already heard from Mrs. Rosen of the liquidation of her firm...; that writer now was in a position to offer Reformation literature under the rubric of Humanism and Reformation [rubric the Gerd Rosen firm had used];... (elaborated).

• • • REPLY, Nelson Springer to Carlos Kühn, March 28, 1963 [sic] [Springer as Curator of Mennonite Historical Library, Goshen College; in English]: Mrs. Bender had passed your letter to Springer--Bender had died September 21, 1962; Mrs. Bender did not want books marked as property of H. S. Bender returned--rather, mark them as property of “Mrs. H. S. Bender”, and she hoped you will sell them; send correspondence to Springer; cc Mrs. H. S. Bender [sic--Elizabeth Bender, Elizabeth Horsch Bender].

{27} TWO entries

James F. Ross to Bender, January 14, 1959 [stationery of Dartmouth College Department of Religion, Hanover New Hampshire; Ross as Chairman]: thanks for letter of December 11 [not extant]; sending selections from writings of Denck [likely Hans Denck]; would be glad to send two copies of the whole--write to Dartmouth bookstore; had signed a contract with Prentice-Hall to publish the whole Source Book....

• • • REPLY, Bender to James F. Ross, January 23, 1959: appreciation for the selections; was ordering the entire work; glad for your arrangement to publish.

{28} Bender to Kenneth D. Ross, July 14, 1959 [to Roaring Spring Pennsylvania]: reference to “my last letter” [not extant here]; re “Memorial Addresses on the Life and Character of Rev. Herman Snyder”, you stated only one copy had been printed; if the booklet was not large, request having it for a few days for us to make a copy.

{29} TWO entries

Vernon E. Roth to Bender, September 8, 1958 [from Washington Iowa]: aware that many in the “Old Mennonite Church” [sic--i.e. MC church] felt strongly in favor of “closed communion” [sic--? “close communion”?]; writer gives a rationale, from Old Testament, for open communion; writing because a new work in writer’s community had brought in some Methodists who were asking about frequency of communion; what was practice for communion at Mennonite World Conference?

• • • REPLY, Bender to Vernon E. Roth, September 11, 1958: World Conference attendees were mostly Mennonite, but not all, and Bender had “attended”; reference to Bender article in Gospel Herald a few years back; Bender saw “no reason to be harsh or rigid” on this... (elaborated).

{30} Memorandum Bender to Mary Royer, May 22, 1962: about Christian Education materials Royer had collected, now in a certain file for Ross Bender’s use in the Seminary; would need to be moved with moving of Ross’ office, before Mary went west.

{31} TWO entries

W. L. Rundel to Bender, July 3 [penciled 1960] [handwritten cover note]: was making living [sending clippings, apparently] this way after polio following Navy service in the South Pacific; invited a contribution.

• • • ATTACHED, two (same) clippings, “Mennonite Parley Opens at Springs”, from Denver Post July 2, 1960, reporting on Southwestern Central Mennonite Conference held at a college in Colorado Springs with Bender as main speaker, clipping having the standard Bender photo.

{32} E. G. Rupp to Bender, June 9, 1961 [stationery of University of Manchester, Manchester England; Rupp the Dean of the Faculty of Theology]: responding to your letter to Professor Brandon, previously the Theology Dean; what his faculty expected for a Ph.D. in Theology....

{33} Bender to E. C. Rust, February 16, 1962 [to Professor Rust at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville Kentucky]: was send copy of book The Recovery of the Anabaptist Vision, it being “one of the best ways to become acquainted with our Anabaptist-Mennonite heritage...”; permanent welcome to Goshen campus and Bender home.

{34} TWO entries

Melvin L. Ruth to Bender, December 8, 1960 [stationery of Sunnyslope Mennonite Church, Phoenix Arizona, Ruth as a pastor: a neighbor, member of Pilgrim Holiness Church, had emphatically warned of Communism in North American churches, and had given Ruth a Carl McIntire booklet with a picture of Russian Baptists taken from Mennonite Weekly Review... (elaborated); expressed faith that Mennonite contacts with fellow-Mennonites behind the Iron Curtain were well-motivated; mention Jakov Zhidkov [? Jakob Zhidkov ?]....

• • • REPLY, Bender to Melvin Ruth, December 16, 1960: advised that Ruth “simply ask the good lady to stop bothering you”; six points to answer Ruth’s specific questions--including “I have no misgiving about Zhidkov or the other five top Baptist leaders”....

{35} TWO entries

Paul L. Ruth to Bender, March 28, 1961 [stationery of Menno Travel Service, Akron Pennsylvania; Ruth the Managing Director]: projected details and cost of air travel to New Delhi in 1962, with options of going directly or “via Moscow and Tashkent”...

• • • REPLY, Bender to Paul L. Ruth, April 3, 1961: thanks, would reply soon about whether Bender would go to India.