A Nice conundrum

Unlike professional historians/researchers, before I started my Batum Story editing project over a year ago, I never imagined how obsessed one could get with tracking down isolated historical facts/people.

One of my major objectives for the reedit of Oma Mary Dirks Janzen's book was not just to correct her hooked-on-phonics spelling/the typing skills of her church acquaintance who typed the manuscript in 1974, what I consider a mechanical level of edit. My editing objectives have far exceeded that simple goal. I think with my fairly speedy typing, it took me maybe a few days in February 2008 to retype her mimeographed original electronically. Since then, over a year now, I have been enthralled with researching geographical and cultural items, and adding photos and footnotes. However, the major objective I refer to is to track down information on the American sponsors of the immigrants from the Ukraine, without whom the story would not be a story, and I most likely would not be here.

So, slowly, I tracked down the descendants of the American sponsors of most of the original authors whose memoirs were compiled in the 1974 book. These include:

• John L. Ruth of Harleysville, Pennsylvania, Mennonite historian, great-nephew of my great-grandparents Heinrich and Agatha Dirks's sponsors Henry and Lizzie (Landis) Clemens of Telford, PA. He provided a wonderful combination of photos, e.g., one of Lizzie, one of great-grandfather Heinrich posing in front of his wood-chopping, and several of Oma and her sister Katharina, historical information (e.g., it may have been Lizzie's parents Samuel and Sarah Landis who actually supplied the money to sponsor at least some of the Dirks family), and humorous "culture shock" anecdotes about Oma's brother Heinz as heard from his sponsors, the Abe Moyers.
• Abe Buller of Henderson, Nebraska, grandson of my grandfather Peter Janzen's sponsors Peter P. and Margaretha (Epp) Buller, who provided photos of both his grandparents and the family farm in Lushton, NE in the early 20th century.
• Violette Mathis of San Clemente, California, daughter of Benjamin and Elnora Kaufmann of Kouts, Indiana, sponsors of my great uncle and aunt Carl and Agatha Rempel, who during a 2008 visit with her older sister Lois, born 1915 (who suffers from memory loss of nearer times, but recalls her childhood), heard Lois's memories of Agatha's outstanding sewing talents and Carl's difficulty working due to his suffering from malaria before reaching the U.S.
• Amos H. Hoover of Ephrata, Pennsylvania, grandson of the sponsors of the Jacob and Maria Koop family, Benjamin Franklin and Annie (Nolt) Hoover, who provided a photo of the historic 1806 house in New Holland where the Koops ate their first meal upon arrival in PA as well as recollections (written in longhand and snail-mailed), and made sure I corrected the original text that stated the Koops were picked up from the train station in a *car* to say they were picked up in a *wagon* since they are Old Order Mennonites!

However, what has long obsessed me and still does, is trying to determine the full names of the "Mr. and Mrs. Nice" of Souderton, PA who sponsored or at least took under their wing Oma Mary and her sister Katharina "Katja" Dirks. They were associated with the Eastern Mennonite Home, today evolved into the Souderton Mennonite Homes. In the story, it is Mr. and Mrs. Nice who as a gift bought the material to make the Sunday dresses the girls are wearing in the photo at http://www.personal.psu.edu/mja11/blogs/family/Katja_Henry_MaryDirksTelford.jpg

Ways I have so far tried to obtain the Nices' full names to no avail:

• Asking Dad. (He did respond, last year, to suggest contacting John Ruth, so that inquiry was not in vain!)
• Searching the Web, e.g., a GAMEO article saying two people involved with the startup of the Eastern Mennonite Home were John Nice and Garret Nice; I have no way to tell if either of them is the one I'm searching for.
• Writing to the office of the Souderton Mennonite Homes: no reply
• Writing to the Souderton Mennonite Church: no reply
• Writing to historian John L. Ruth: he postulated it might be one of the same two listed in the GAMEO article
• Posting on a "Mennonite Game" Facebook group: no reply
• Posting on a discussion forum at http://genforum.genealogy.com/: no reply
• Posting on a message board regarding the surname Nice at ancestry.com
• Asking Tanta Katja's son and my father's sister and brother: replies, but no new info
  

I just don't know what other sources to try before I give up. I believe giving up would make me quite depressed, just because I've made this such a major hunt/quest. I guess the issue is, Oma is the one who actually did the compilation, so I really feel her sponsors should be highlighted.

Gee, how easy it would have been to ask her about the names anytime prior to her death in 1995, but I guess I just had not revisited her book or thought about such things in any way, shape, or form, back then.

Batum Story excerpt (PDF)