The Hometown Treasure November 2012 | Page 19

member of the Topeka Mennonite Church, but Yoder also had ties to Maple Grove Mennonite and was instrumental in its founding. When his estate was settled generous gifts of $25,000 were given to both churches. According to Topeka Mennonite’s history their funds were used in 1926 to construct their current meetinghouse on the corner of Lake and Harrison in Topeka. How ironic that these two churches with pacifistic roots should be the beneficiaries of a Civil War veteran. Nancy Stoltz Sutton says that her father John C. Stoltz loved to tell the story of what Grandpa Yoder said about buying a gravestone. Yoder was financially blessed and owned the farmland around what locals call “Buttermilk Corners” (State Road 5 and the LaGrange-Noble County line). According to Nancy’s father, old Jonathan said that “he didn’t know whether to buy a small monument and be called a cheapskate or a big one and be called a spendthrift……so protecting him and the others. But, Dana never shared any details of the hardship they suffered for their convictions. It is said that several World War I local leaders went to Kansas and On June 5, 1918, Secretary of War talked with the commander. The Newton Baker drew the first number of commander was promised that if the World War I draft. Some 1,374,000 Hartzler and several