Edna Thimes

Edna Florence Thimes (1914-1995). Missionary Nurse. Evangelist. Edna was born to Henry J. and Martha (Son) Thimes on September 26, 1914, fourth child of five, in a loving, but unchurched family. They lived on a farm near Emporia, Kansas. Henry and Martha taught the children high moral standards and a reverence for God. Edna was fourteen when she first attended a Church of God congregation and was saved within two months.

After graduating from high school, she attended Anderson College, Anderson, Indiana, graduating in 1940 with a Bachelor of Theology. She trained to be a registered home nurse at the St. John’s Hospital School of Nursing at Anderson and at the former Bethany Hospital in Kansas City, Kansas.

She served as a Sunday School teacher and Superintendent in her home church and spent her vacations as a resident nurse at the Anderson Church of God campmeeting.

Edna served in the mission field in Kenya, East Africa for 22 years at the Mwihila Hospital at Kisumu and in Kima. She once said that half the babies born in Kenya were named “Edna” in her honor. Her special interest were babies whose mothers had died in childbirth. She often kept them until they were two, sharing the love of Jesus with them and returning them to their fathers when they could eat regular table food.

When Edna retired from the mission field, she returned to her home in the United States, next moving for a time to California to live near a niece, and finally returning to Kansas City.

Edna’s big heart gave out on June 22, 1995. Her “heavenly graduation ceremony” was conducted at the former First Church of God and her body is buried in Emporia.

* Near the time of my birth, the ladies at church, including Edna, had a baby shower for my mother, presenting her with a hooded baby towel embroidered with their signatures. We considered her family, as she shared an Uncle William and Aunt Lillian with my mother's maternal Aunt Nadine. Furloughs from the mission field were five years apart and she stayed with us or my grandparents during her deputation visits to churches nearby. I corresponded with her during my teen years and once sent her $5.00 out of my allowance. She wrote a thank you note, stating she had purchased an apple as a treat in the local market. Apples didn’t grow in the climate there and she had been hankering for a taste of home. My mother played the organ for Edna’s funeral service. She’s rejoicing in heaven!

More to Read:

1. Anderson University Alumni, alumni@anderson.edu

2. Church of God Missions Magazines, various issues from 1961-1978.

3. US Federal Census

4. Ancestry.com
5. "Bethany Hospital." History of Wyandotte County, Kansas: and its people. Edited by Perl Wilbur Morgan, p. 413-415.  Vol. 1
6. Edna's Embroidered Signature
7. Findagrave #116965706

Places to visit in KS.

1. New Life Family (formerly First Church of God), 4835 Shawnee Drive, Kansas City, KS. 913-262-8048
2. Bethany Methodist Hospital  (org. 1892) stood at the corner of 12th & Reynolds, Kansas City, KS until July 2001 when it closed. Stand at that corner and imagine all the babies born there! 
3. Providence Hospital's Medical Museum in the Main Entrance Lobby. (Contains two cabinets of Bethany Hospital & Nursing School memorabilia.), 8929 Parallel, Kansas City, KS.

4. Maple Woods Memorial Lawn Cemetery, Emporia, KS


Citation: "Edna Thimes." Written by Dolores J. Rush. 12 August 2018. History Nut of Missouri, USA. 

Daniel Lewis LaRue

 Daniel Lewis LaRue (1867-1934) = Farmer. Stonemason. Born to Amos Tiffin Davis "AT" (1830-1900) and Sarah Ann (Stroud) LaRue (1831-1891), Sr. in Madison County, Indiana on August 22. He was their 7th child of eight and he moved to Burr Oak, Rooks Co., Kansas when he was seven with his parents. His siblings names were: Amos, Jr., Elizabeth, Mary, John William, Jacob, Joseph, and Sarah.

Daniel married twice and had a total of thirteen children. In 1890, he married Amanda Jane (Moon) (1870-1891), daughter of Jonathan D. (1846-1916) and Harriett (Wall) Moon. Amanda died the following year giving birth to Earnest Preston (1891-1972). Daniel, then 22, was unable to care for his newborn son and left the little tyke in his sister, Sarah's (1870-1952) care until he was nine. Four years later, Sarah married Amanda's brother, Linton Henry Moon (1871-1950), producing seven children of her own.

Meanwhile, Daniel met Deliah "Della" E. (1879-1943) in Hebron, Nebraska. She was there caring for her sister, Belle, who had married one of Dan's cousins, Marion LaRue and contracted tuberculosis. Dan & Della tied the knot on August 27, 1898 in Stockton, KS. Della was the daughter of James A. (1828-1903) and Hester Ann (Morris) Bailey (1844-1925) of Stanberry, MO. Since Dan was a stonemason, they moved where there was work. Their first five children were born in a different towns every two years. Eventually, when number six came along, they had reached Hill City, KS where they lived a number of years. In 1920, they moved to Topeka, KS where Ernie was residing at the time.

Following a broken neck caused by a drunk driver in a head-on collision, Daniel died in Bell Memorial Hospital, Kansas City. Both he and Della rest in peace together in the Waverly, Kansas cemetery.

More to Read:

1. Ash Rock Church

2. Captain Osborn's Legacy. By Patsy Redden. (Biography of first pastor of Ash Rock Church, Rev. R. S. Osborn).

3. Ash Rock and the Stone Church. by Leo E. Oliva

4. Woodston: The Story of a Kansas Country Town. by Leo. E. Oliva.

Click to Enlarge.

My great-grandfather repaired the walls of this historic stone church house,

Ash Rock Church (org. 1878; stone bldg. built 1883), near Woodston, Rooks County, Ash Rock Twp., KS. in 1900.

Citation: "Daniel Lewis LaRue." Written by Dolores J. Rush. 6 February 2013. History Nut of Missouri, USA. 

Rev. Millard Merle Akers

Photo courtesy of Aker family.

Rev. Millard Merle Akers (1890-1945) = Carpenter, School teacher, Farmer, Minister. Millard was born to Oliver and Clara Isabelle (Shaffer) Akers in Linn County, Kansas near Mound City on August 7. The Akers emigrated to Seward County, KS. Millard learned the carpenter trade from his father and then became a school teacher when he grew up and taught two years after he married his wife, Ethel Julia (1890-1974; great-granddaughter of Elder Martin White) on November 6, 1910 at her parent’s home, Alfred Jefferson and Fannie Viola (Bogart) White, east of Liberal, KS.

To this union, six children were born – Richard, Alfred, Fannie, Nellie, Arlene, and Donald. Richard, Alfred, and Don owned menswear clothing stores in Kansas – Richard, Pioneer Men’s Store in Elkhart; Alfred, Al’s Clothing in Kinsley; and Don in Dodge City. Fannie worked in the canteen at the Veterans Hospital in Wichita, KS; Nellie was a nurse and Arlene was a teacher and pastor’s wife.

Millard and Ethel moved to Baca County, Colorado after his school teaching days to a claim about fifteen miles west of Elkhart, Kansas. During this period of time, he felt God calling him to ministerial work. He pastored Church of God (Anderson, IN.) churches in Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Missouri, and Florida. He was the pastor at the Liberal, Kansas church when his youngest daughter, Arlene was born. Millard filled the pulpit of the Pleasant Prairie Church of God near Satanta, KS. from time to time during the year of 1938-39 when the church was without a pastor. He was in Beaver County, Oklahoma at the time of his death with cancer on November 4, 1945. He was buried in Liberal’s city cemetery and Ethel was laid to rest next to him.

More to Read:

1. Ancestry.com

2. Haskell County, Kansas. 1887-1987. 100 Years Beneath the Plow, A Historical Anthology. Ed. By Janice Lee McClure, Haskell County Historical Society. Mennonite Press, Inc., Newton, Ks. 1988.

3. “The Old Timers: As I Remember Them” by Chester C. Tucker. Printed c. 1963

4. White’s Family and Their Kin. Mrs. Gladys Esther White O’Neal and Elma Leota White Stoops. Paper Graphics, Garden City, KS; 1983.
5. Gospel Trumpet, the Church of God (Anderson, IN) publication: Google Books and Internet Archive.  
6. 1937 Dust Storm Photograph of Elkhart, Kansas 
7. An ad of Richard Akers' Pioneer Men's Wear & Department store on this sheet

8. Findagrave #10328566
9. Elkhart Today, Episode 23

Places to Visit in KS:

1. Church of God campgrounds, Liberal

2. Pleasant Prairie Church of God, Satanta
3. Morton County, Kansas Historical Museum, (Pioneer Men's Store exhibit), US Highway 56,  Elkhart 

Citation: "Rev. Millard Merle Akers." Written by Dolores J. Rush. 7 January 2012. History Nut of Missouri, USA.