I Wish I'd Been There . . .

I wish I had been at the Sugar Creek Mennonite Church in Wayland, Iowa when the one-armed preacher from Kansas preached. That was almost one-hundred years ago--about 20 years before I was born. My mother was ten or twelve years of age, but she never forgot the experience.

The preacher was Joseph F. Brunk (1865-1943). Joseph's father, Henry G. Brunk, was a native of Virginia. During the Civil War, in order to escape military service, he left Virginia and moved to Illinois where he and his family remained until they moved to Marion, Kansas in 1873. Eight days after arriving on the plains of Kansas Henry died of typhoid, at the age of 37, leaving his wife and seven children. Eight-year-old Joseph F. was one of those children. His younger brother, George R. was two years old. The family later moved to McPherson County, Kansas where Joseph grew to manhood.

Young Joseph "worked out" to help his family survive. When he was twelve years old his hand was caught between the rollers of a cane mill and his arm had to be amputated below the elbow. However, he continued to help his widowed mother with the farm work.

After his marriage to Marietta R. Gray in 1888 he farmed until 1903 when he became superintendent of the Orphan's Home near Hillsboro, Kansas. From there he and his wife moved to Kansas City to help organize the Mennonite Mission. He served as superintendent of the Kansas City Mission for a number of years. In 1905 he was ordained to the ministry by Daniel Kauffman.

Brunk was a "starter" of things. He assisted in establishing the Mennonite Sanitarium near La Junta, Colorado. A few years later he had charge of the Old People's Home near Rittman, Ohio. He also helped start a mission in Hutchinson, Kansas. Then for a number of years he served as pastor of the Catlin Mennonite church. In 1936 he and his wife retired at Newton, Kansas where he died in 1943.

Brunk did considerable traveling, promoting and preaching. One of his trips took him to Wayland, Iowa, my mother's home community in 1897 or 98. It had been announced that Joseph F. Brunk would be coming to the Sugar Creek Mennonite Church on a certain evening and that he would preach in English. My mother had never heard an English sermon. So she was thrilled when her father decided to take the family. My mother was Mary Ann, the oldest daughter of Ella and C.H. Roth. She had three younger siblings: Jesse, Lena and Seth. The family was loaded into the spring wagon and transported the several miles in the gathering darkness to the new meetinghouse, which had been built in 1891.

Evening meetings were not common. The building had no electricity. It was dimly lit with kerosene lamps. The poor lighting and the flickering shadows produced an eerie effect. This was the first evening service Mary Ann had ever attended.

The speaker was impressive. Joseph Brunk was a large man with a booming voice. And to make him more impressive he had only one arm. That night he preached on the second coming of Christ and my mother came under conviction.

Several years later, in July of 1904, at the age of 16, she was baptized by Sebastian Gerig, her great uncle, in the same 1891 meetinghouse where she had heard the one-armed preacher.


--Russell Krabill is a retired pastor and founding chair of the Michiana Anabaptist Historians