BIOGRAPHY OF A KANSAS PIONEER PREACHER

THE REVEREND PAUL GERHARDT TONSING

January 3,1870-March 1,1936

Ernst F. Tonsing, Ph.D.

Thousand Oaks, California
August 8,2008

INTRODUCTION.

I have always felt a certain void in my life in that I never had the opportunity to
know my grandfather, Paul Gerhardt Tonsing. Furthermore, other than a meager outline
of his life, I knew little about his work and about his personality. It is fortunate, however,
that his wife, Grandmother Ruth Martin Tonsing, followed her mother's custom of
making scrapbooks. One of her volumes covering the years from June, 1935, to April,
1939, contains a number of items about him.1 In addition, my father, the Rev. Ernest F.
Tonsing, showed me a brief Autobiography that was written by Paul during a hospital
stay. I copied the longhand pencil text on tablet paper sometime in 1954 or 1955.
Another short diary kept when Paul was a pastor in Beloit, Kansas, was informative.
Also, in 1962 and 1993,1 interviewed my father and took rapid notes about the family. A
telephone conversation in 1979 with my father gave me additional parts of the narrative.
From these I have gleaned some interesting anecdotes that illuminate grandfather's life
and person.

INDECENT PRAYERS, BEER AND PRETZELS.

Paul Gerhardt Tonsing was born at 40 Burton Street, Cleveland, Ohio, January 3,
1870, to Anna Maria Gertrude Walker and Ernst Frederick Toensing.2 He always said

1
This scrapbook was among the items brought to California in June, 2008, by Dorothy Linn from our
cousin, Virginia Tonsing's estate. Virginia was the daughter of Bess and Evan Tonsing, who was the eldest
son of Paul and Ruth. The cover is in good shape, but the brittle pages are crumbling at the edges.
2
Rebecca Chaky and Ruth Martin, Ruth Martin Family Tree 1995 (Friendswood, Texas: Never Done
Press, 1995), pp. 84-5. Paul's father, Ernst Frederick Toensing, was born September 27, 1827, in Linz,
Hanover, Germany, and came to Baltimore, Maryland, October 15, 1845, to work as a cabinet maker.2 He
married Anna Maria Gertrude Walker (born May 5, 1835, died August 15, 1908, or, August 1, 1910) on
February 26, 1852, and moved to a farm at "Newberg" (possibly Newburgh Heights, Ohio). They had
eight children, twin girls, Marie Sophie and Clara Elisabeth 0x>rn December 6, 1853) who died in infancy
during the cholera epidemic,2 Dora (died September 3, 1909), Minnie O^orn 1854, died January 20, 1925),
John F. (born September 4, 1858, died February 1,1919), Carolyn Eleanor (born October 4, 1860, died
January 29, 1916), William H. (born March 23,1863, died January 18, 1933), and the youngest, Paul
Gerhardt (born January 3, 1870, died March 1, 1936).2 Ernst Frederick died at the age of forty-seven on
April 12, 1873, in a manner noted below.2 With his death, Anna Maria married Frederick Mylander (born
August 23, 1823, Germany, died August 4, 1899) and moved to Oak Harbor, Ohio. Mylander had had a
that he liked being born in a "0" year since it was easy to calculate his age. He
remembered little about his father:

He died when I was 3 years old.4 He was drowned in a mill pond about 6
blocks south-east of 40 Burton st. and was buried in the [Monroe] street
cemetery.5 He had been a cabinet maker for many years, was in business
for himself and was burned out without insurance seveal [sic] times. The
only recollection I have of him is the riding to the cemetery in a closed
hack. This one event alone is indelibly stamped on my mind in connection
with my father.

His widowed mother sent the younger children to school while the older ones
worked. She sewed vests for stores, but later kept boarders. Thus, she was able to pay
off the indebtedness on the home, improved it, and built a barn at the alley. He went to
the nearby Lutheran parochial school on Jersey Street two years, 1875-77, where the
school teacher was Mr. Arnold, who was related to him somehow. As he gave Paul
special attention, this earned the jealousy of the other boys who beat him up a number of
times. Also, for certain misdeeds, Paul would be punished by Mr. Arnold who held his
hand at the wrist, palm up, and hit his hand hard with a ruler. He recalled that it would
"swell and feel as if it were cracked in the middle." The teacher thought much of Paul,
however, and wanted to adopt him. For his first five years he only spoke Low ("Plat")
German. Mr. Arnold was a good teacher, and Paul learned to read and write High
("Hoch") German very well, a skill he later used in his parishes.8

Paul remembered another incident when he was about six years old. One of his
classmates was found with a paper of fine cut chewing tobacco in his pocket. Paul was to
take it out to the outdoor toilet to throw it away, but instead, he hid it in the barn. He and
his friend, Willie Rische, would take it out and that is where he learned to "chew like
pirates." It was a tough neighborhood, and his school let out at 3 p.m. so that they could
get home before the "free" or public school and the Catholic school kids were out.
Before this, there were a series of disastrous fights, and Paul had "a broken arm, a busted
head and other injuries sustained in the fights."

He also had other problems at home. Especially troubling to a little boy was that
his sisters were "always chasing me to kiss me. I would crawl under the bed and under

daughter, and three sons from a previous marriage. To these were added a son, Lewis (born August 3,
1879, died 1926).
3
Paul Gerhardt Tonsing, Autobiography.
4
Ernst Frederick Toensing was forty-seven years old when he drowned on April 12, 1873. Chaky and
Martin, p. 81.
5
Lot 9, sublot E-l/2, Monroe Street Cemetery, Cleveland, Ohio. Chaky and Martin, pp. 81, 85.
6
Autobiography.
7
There were eight children born to the couple, twin girls Marie Sophie and Clara Elisabeth (born December
6, 1853) who died in infancy during the cholera epidemic, Dora, Minnie, John F. Carolyn, William H., and
Paul Gerhardt. Information supplied by Kathy Ott, Cleveland, Ohio. Cf. Chaky and Martin, pp, 80 ff.
8
Ibid.
9
Ibid.
the table when they had me cornered and fight them off."10 Another time, when his
mother hitched up the wagon to go to visit his sister Dora, he got under the wagon and
slid along in the dirt, his feet trailing in the deep dust. However, one of the wheels ran
over his right foot and he was "laid up for some time."11

Mother's boarders entertained the young boy, but also got him into all kinds of
trouble:

One evening they taught me a very indecent prayer. I remember it well.

When I went to bed I asked my mother if I couldn't say a new prayer they
had taught me. She said, go ahead. When I was in the midst of it she
yanked me up and spanked me good. I did not even know the meaning of
the words.12

Not all of the men were so mischievous, however. Fred Buhrweioter [sic] was more
kind. He worked in some brass factory and made the four-year-old boy a brass top that
he kept for many years. Also, another boarder gave him a triangle with which he amused
his own children later.13

Some of the events in his young life were quite dangerous. When he was about
four years old:

I wandered away from home and was lost. I was gone several days. The
police of the entire city were looking for me and advertisements put in the
paper. I was taken in by a saloon-keeper who kept me closely hidden in
his house. He fed me all the beer and pretzels I could eat and drink. The
back yard had a high board fence and so I was let out in this enclosure. A
number [of] people in a wagon were making the most dismal noises with
bells and shots and I peaked through a hole in the fence. I saw Gerhardt
Jasper who was boarding at our house and others I knew and made my
presence known. I was overjoyed to see them. I'm certain the saloon-
keeper and his wife tried to kidnap me.1

In his brief Autobiography, Paul relates another perilous event:

Another incident I remember was when Eddie Teckemeyer and I made a

fire in the upstairs of our barn in some paint pots. We were playing some
game. When the fire spread we crawled under the new house [the]
Dresees [?] were building near the alley and did not crawl out till night.

10
Ibid.
11
Ibid.
12
Ibid.
13
Ibid. This triangle, measuring 12 inches a side, with two arms having an outward curve at the very ends,
still is used to accompany group singing at my home in Thousand Oaks, California, at Christmas and other
celebrations.
14
Ibid.
 As far as I know my folks never knew how the fire started as this is the
first time I ever told it.15

With the drowning death of his father, I am sure that his mother was dismayed with the
following episode:

When 5 I was nearly drowned. A larger boy of 17 coaxed me to go on the

ice on the mill pond in which my father was drowned. Unbeknown to him
[the] ice had been cut and the water was slightly frozen over. I was sliding
a little ahead of him when I plunged in. I distinctly remember opening my
eyes when I was down in the water and seeing the sun. I came up twice
and was caught by the hair by the young man who pulled me out. I lost
consciousness and remember their rolling me on the ice when I came to.
They carried me to Freese's grocery and saloon where they had to thaw
my clothes off before they put me to bed. They did not tell my mother till
they were ready to send me home. I anticipated a glad welcome, but
instead my mother had a stout stick waiting in the corner by the door, and
I sure got a good whaling. Somehow I have never felt just right over the
reception I received.16

Vivid in Paul's memory was another event:

When I was about 4 I witnessed a strike in active operation. In the back

yard of the second lot to the south of us was a shop. I often went
to see the men work. Once when I went over only about half the old men,
whom I knew, were at work. The rest were new. While I was talking to
some of them a big crowd came and the doors were filled so I could not
get out. The men out on strike had come back with clubs and attacked the
new men. I crawled under a bench. One of the old men who knew me
pulled me out and put me through a window, and said, "run!" Did I? I
17

believe I did.
Paul's mother was widowed about four years. Paul recalls the meeting with his
new step-father:

When I was seven years and a half old a man came to visit us.18 My
mother told me this was to be my new father and that we were to leave
Cleveland in two days. The carpets were already taken up and they were
boxing the dishes, etc. I spent the two days sitting on a pile of rag carpets
in the kitchen and crying my eyes out. When they wanted to start they had
a time making me go. I was promised a colt and that I could ride to and
from the fields on the horses. This mollified me somewhat. When we

15
Ibid.
16
Ibid.
17
Ibid.
18
Ibid. This was Frederick Mylander.
 arrived at Oak Harbor my first remembrance was seeing a large bell on a
high pole. I ran and rang it and the men came in % hr. too soon for their
dinner. My mother being deaf did not hear the bell and the others were all
out in the fields putting up hay I believe.19

Anna Maria Toensing and Frederick Mylander, also a widower, remained together until
his death August 4, 1899.20

SEEKING HIS FORTUNE "OUT WEST."

Paul Tonsing came to Kansas in 1886 after attending public school in Oak
Harbor, Ohio. He and his step-brother, August Mylander, wanted to "seek their
fortunes," taking a train west as far as their money would take them. Arriving in the
eastern city of Topeka on an extremely hot day, they decided to continue to a cooler
place. WaterviUe, Kansas, some eighty-five miles west, sounded just right, and they left
the train there. The two boys were wandering down a street when they encountered the
Lutheran pastor, the Rev. James A. Lowe, who got them odd jobs. Lowe had become
pastor of the German-American congregation in September, 1883. 2 Paul tried his luck at
farming, living with a Mr. Hersey, and his brother tried house painting. But, Paul's
brother soon left and returned to Ohio to marry a girl he had known before leaving, and
Paul was "taken under the wing" of the pastor.

Lowe recognized that Paul was a very bright young man and urged him to go on
in his schooling. Paul explained that he had no idea of going to college, let alone of
completing high school. So the pastor began to tutor him, and in a while, he and the
townspeople sent him to Atchison, Kansas, to three years at the "Midland Academy" and
four years at "Midland College. He was one of the nine entering freshmen entering the
new school,23 and participated in all of the college's activities.24 He was quite a football
player, and used to brag that he had played as center seven years on a college team.25

The last year of his work at Midland counted as the first of his three years at
Western Theological Seminary (later to become Central Seminary when the college and

19
Ibid.
20
Paul's mother, Anna Maria Gertrude Walker Mylander died August 1, 1910. Chaky and Martin, pp. 80-
1. Dorothy Linn, interview August 8, 2008.
21
An account of these years was written by Ruth Tonsing, and is included in Ruth Mellenbruch Martin,
Family Tree: Challiss, Harres, Martin, Tonsing, Otis (Fort Worth, Texas: Paul Tonsing, 1979), pp. 63-4.
Most of the materials following are from other sources cited below.
22
H. A. Ott, A History of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of KansasfGeneral Synod). Published by the
Authority of Kansas Synod (Topeka, Kansas: F. M. Steves & Sons, 1907), pp. 170-1.
23
"The Nineties," Atchison Daily Globe (November 30, 1935). "Paul G. Tonsing is Dead,"
Kansas City Times (March 2, 1936).
24
"Paul G. Tonsing is Dead," Kansas City Times (March 2, 1936).
25
Notes from an interview with The Rev. Ernest F. Tonsing, by Ernst F. Tonsing, December 23, 1962.
seminary moved to Fremont, Nebraska). At this time the seminary consisted of a staff
of four and two visiting lecturers, with only six students enrolled.

Paul had to work hard to earn enough money to pay his tuition and other
expenses. He washed windows and cleaned buildings.28 One of his jobs was as a
reporter on the Atchison Champion, owned by the Governor of Kansas, John A. Martin.29
After the death of Martin on October 2, 1889, it was run by Luther C. Challiss.30 Paul
also worked for the Atchison Patriot. The well-known publisher and founder of the
Atchison Globe, E. W. Howe, remarked that, "he should enter the newspaper business
because of his unusually clever 'nose for news' and editorial ability."32

Carl J. G. Brown, a youth in the Beloit congregation served by Paul, later

associate editor of the Atchison Globe,33 noted that he had heard that the college student
was "an energetic, ambitious, tousle-headed youngster—on his own."34 Paul was the first
to deliver the Kansas City Times to residents of the Atchison, and, according to Brown,
"carried papers and used a cart and horse. He was a familiar figure in those days—and
gave his subscribers the best of service." Brown wrote that, "The man—young or old—
was always anxious to give good service. Such integrity was always one of his good
qualities."35

THE GOVERNOR'S DAUGHTER.

Paul graduated from Midland College in 1892, and married the eldest daughter of
the deceased Governor Martin, on September 7, 1893. A family tradition is that he first
noticed the woman who was to become his wife when he stood on a street in Atchison as
the funeral procession of Governor John A. Martin passed by. He asked his friends who
the girl was in the family coach. They responded that she was Ruth, the daughter of the
Governor. He then declared that she was going to be his wife. While they laughed, he
took off running through lots and over fences, arriving at Mount Vernon Cemetery before
the procession. When the family carriage arrived, he stepped forward, let down the step,
opened the door, and extended his hand to the girl.36 He and Ruth had a long, happy
marriage, and are now buried in the same spot beside the road in which they had met near
the tomb of the Governor.37

26
The seminary formally opened November 12, 1895. Jennie Small Owen, Annalist, Kirk Mechem, editor,
The Annals of Kansas 1886-1910 (Topeka, Kansas: Kansas State Historical Society, 1910), vol. I, p. 199.
27
Ott, p. 60.
28
Ruth Tonsing, p. 63.
29
"Death Claims Paul Tonsing" Atchison Daily Globe (March 2, 1936).
30
"Newspaper History Here," Atchison Daily Globe (June, 1935).
31
"Death Claims Paul Tonsing."
32
"Paul G. Tonsing is Dead."
33
"Here And Hereabouts In 1891," Atchison Daily Globe (May 17, 1937).
34
Carl Brown, "Paul, The Preacher Man," Atchison Daily Globe (March 2, 1936).
35
Ibid.
36
Ernest F. Tonsing, 1962.
37
Observation made while visiting the cemetery in July, 1997.
 Paul graduated from Western Theological Seminary in 1895, and in June, the
couple moved to Beloit, in north central Kansas about sixty miles northwest of Salina,
where he became pastor of the Lutheran church there.3 The church, located in the Blue
Hills of Mitchell Country, was organized by the Rev. J. G. Trefz, September 1, 1886.
The language was German, and it first remained independent of any synodical
connections. The congregation displayed such zeal that it proceeded at once to build a
solid stone church, thirty-two by sixty feet, with a vestibule and belfry, at a cost of
$3,000. A few months later, on July 23, 1887, it was dedicated.39

In the fall of 1894, the Zion congregation made application and was received into
the Kansas Synod. Pastor Trefz resigned in December. The congregation was quite
careful in selecting its next pastor. After two visits (March 23 to April 2, and May 19),
and after hearing the new pastor preach both in English and German, the congregation
issued a call on May 19, 1895, to take effect on June 1. Pastor Tonsing arrived in time to
preach and celebrate the Eucharist on June 2. He went back to Atchison to get his wife,
but, just before they were to depart for Beloit, their horse and cart was stolen. All they
had left was the buggy and harness. Horses were loaned to him for the transfer, and they
arrived twenty days later, on Saturday, June 22 in Beloit. But, Paul spent the next day,
Sunday, in bed, too sick to preach! Later, Paul went to Nebraska and obtained a bay
mare, "half broken to harness," which they called "Dolly."40

THE PRAIRIE PREACHER.

While most of the services at Zion Lutheran were in German, English was
gradually introduced as the "new" Americans tried to adjust to a strange, wild country.
But, the youth group, The Luther League, held all of its meetings in English, the young
pointing to future directions for the congregation.

The years preceding 1895, however, were years of disasters. By the beginning of
1895, crop failures had brought suffering to western Kansas. In the northwestern county
of Cheyenne, 1894 saw no crops, and '93 only seed grain.42 Towns in eastern Kansas
responded by sending aid to the distant counties and provisions came even as far as
Pennsylvania43 and Santa Ana, California.44 Severe storms and zero temperatures
increased the hardships, and at Lebanon in the adjoining Smith County, a fourteen-hour
sand storm blocked the movement of all traffic, especially trains carrying needed coal.45
Tornadoes46 and hail as "big as hen's eggs" compounded their plight.4 Then, in July

38
Ernest F. Tonsing, 1962.
39
Ott, p. 60.
40
Ruth Tonsing, p. 63.
41
Ott, p. 60.
42
Owen, February 4, 1895, p 189.
43
Ibid., January 24, 1895, p. 189.
44
Ibid., February 12, 1895, p. 189; May 21, 1895, p. 194.
45
Ibid., February 6, 1895, p. 189.
46
Ibid., May 1, 1895, p. 193; July 5 and 7, 1895, p. 195.
47
Ibid., May 6, 1895, p. 193.
came floods, driving five hundred people from their homes in Salina to the south of
Beloit. To complete the cycle of terrors that year, on October 31, an earthquake shock
was felt throughout most of the state.49

Yet, despite natural tragedies, Paul's ministry continued. He kept a little diary
called Private Church Book during these years, carefully listing the titles and Biblical
references of the sermons, the topics reflecting the concerns not unlike congregations
today: June 2, "The Outpouring of the Holy Ghost (Acts II 17); June 16, "Prayer" (Luke
XVIII 9-14); June 30, "God's Love" (Jno. Ill 16), July 7, "The Bible"; July 14, "The
deceptiveness of Sin" (Heb. Ill 13). On August 4th, "The Destruction of Jerusalem," was
for the English members, and to the German gathering he preached on "The Christian as
Citizen," meeting the divergent concerns of the two groups. The notes, "house filled"
(Oct. 6, 9, et al), indicates that the pastor was well received. One sermon, however, on
"True to our Confession," was left undelivered. Engaged to preach on the evening of
June 9 ' , a terrible electric storm dissuaded all but the pastor to come to the church.50

The status of women received attention at the November 17th evening service:
"The new woman" (Prov. XXXI 10-35). One wonders what was said. On February 10,
1887, the Kansas Legislature passed a bill signed by Paul's father-in-law, Governor
Martin, to allow women to vote in city and school elections and for school bonds, and
opened the possibilities for women to hold municipal offices.51 Yet, it was to be thirty-
three years later (1920) until full suffrage was granted. A note in the Annals of Kansas
for March 5, 1896, states that the "Women's fencing drill at Kfansas] Ufniversity] was
cancelled because school officials objected to bloomer suits."52 A note on June 29, 1895,
stated that "Mary E. Lease, who had taken up bicycling, threatened to call on M. M.
Murdock of the Wichita Eagle, who was "anti-new woman," in a fancy bloomer suit."

Concern with Kansans' drinking habits led to opening the church doors to Union
"Temperance" meetings beginning November 24 . That concerns were justified is
confirmed by the report that between April, 1895, and April, 1896, that "the Veteran's
Keeley League at the Soldiers' Home, Leavenworth, had treated 1,359 men for
alcoholism, opium addiction and the tobacco habit."54 Pastor Tonsing made regular visits
to the Reform School and the Girls Industrial School in Beloit, and these visits inspired
sermons on "The Race of Life" (Oct. 13, 1895) and on the "Cure of Evil Friends" (Jan.
19, 1896). "Education," (Jan. 26, 1896), "Martin Luther" (Nov. 10, 1895), "Home Life"
(Feb. 18, 1896), "Foreign Missions" (March 28, 1896), are representative of the interests
both of the pastor and the congregations.

Long lists of pastoral visits and frequent notices of funeral sermons interposed in
the record of sermons preached give evidence of those difficult times on the prairies, of
48
Ibid., July 10, 1895, p. 196.
49
Ibid., October 31, 1895, p. 198.
50
Paul Tonsing, Private Church Book, 1895-1896. Pages in the little book will appear in brackets.
51
Owen, February 10, 1887, Vol. I, p. 31.
52
Ibid., March 5, 1896, p. 210.
53
Ibid., June 29, 1895, p. 195.
54
Ibid., April 3,1896, p. 212.
Kansas winters with severe energy and food shortages. A September 13 , 1895, sermon
on "Death, Disease, Poverty. Man's three enemies," no doubt prepared those who,
exhausted and disheartened by a meager harvest, were anticipating a difficult winter in
1895-6.

Ecumenical contacts were few, but there is a note that, on September 29, that Paul
heard a Rev. King of Minneapolis, Kansas, Baptist Church preach on "Little Things."
Life was not any easier for the Baptists. On January 19, 1896, the German Baptists at
Abilene had to cut the ice on the Smoky Hill River to immerse their converts.55

The first Lutheran baptism which the new pastor conducted was proudly
announced in bold letters in his diary, emphasizing by the broad strokes of the ink pen:
"Evan Walker Tonsing born October 21 st '94. Only son of Paul G. & Ruth M.
Tonsing/baptized Aug. 4th 1895 in the Lutheran church of Beloit, Ks. Mrs. Tonsing
sponsor & mother brought EW forward" [p. 37]. One adult baptism, of a fifteen-year old
girl, is then noted [p. 38], and, thirteen entries later is the note on April 5th, 1896, of the
baptism of Orpah Tonsing, daughter of the pastor and wife, born January 8th [p. 40].

Offerings were meager. At the service of October 6th, 1895, $15.50 was received,
with $6.00 for Home Missions, $4 Sunday treasurer, and $5.50 for Beneficent [?]
Education. "Luther Day" expenses, November 17, brought $10.55 for home missions [p.
49].

Accessions to the church listed thirty-six for June 10, 1895 to July 26, 1896,
twenty-four by renewal, four by letter, eight by confirmation [pp. 57-8]. The pastor's
wife, Ruth Tonsing, was added to the church "by letter" on October 6, 1895. The
complete roll of the congregation (October 15, 1895) listed sixty-five members [pp. 77-
79]. Losses that year of two men, aged seventy and twenty-three [p. 67], reduced the list
by two.

As there was no parsonage, the family lived in a small, five-room house a block
northwest of the church. Not mentioned in the little book is the salary. It was not much,
only $500 a year, from which was paid a monthly rent of $5.00. Their food was
supplemented by a flock of hens which supplied fresh eggs, and, later, a cow for milk.
Members brought vegetables for their table.56 While the denomination is not mentioned,
The Annals of Kansas contains the humorous note that a "Wabaunsee county farmer
donated two rows of potatoes toward the preacher's salary. 'If the Lord wants you to
have $20 from me,' he said, 'He will water them well.'"57

Confirmation class attendance patterns, I suspect, have not changed in a century.

Of nine persons entering, four missed the first class (August 23), three the second, with
two not returning after the third class, and only four being confirmed after the ninth

Ibid., January 19, 1896, p. 209.

Ruth Tonsing, p. 63.
Owen, May 31, 1895, p. 194.
meeting on October 5 [p. 47]. Carl Brown, for many years later the Editor of the
Atchison Daily Globe, displayed the lowest attendance of three meetings.

Besides preaching, visiting and catechetical instruction, the pastor notes

additional duties of teaching the "young ladies classes," playing the violin for Sunday
School [p. 87],58 conducting YPSCE meetings [p. 91], speaking on "Church Union" at a
picnic celebrating the Fourth of July in Woods Grove and on "Midsummer Rallies" to the
Luther League Convention at Abilene on October 19' 1895 [p. 97]. There were also
"socials," such as the "soap bubble party at pastors residence for little folks" on October
12, 1895 [p. 123].

Church council meetings had troubles familiar to today's congregations, of failing

to achieve quorums (Sept. 2), discussing insurance (July 6), preparing reports to the
Synod Offices (Sept. 8), examining candidates for Confirmation and receiving members
into the congregations (n.d.), and electing delegates to Synodical conventions. Heat, then
as now, received special attention. A council committee was "appointed to see after
getting a stove and coal" for the church sanctuary [pp. 107-9]. Congregational meetings
adopted a new constitution as given in the Formelbuch, and an appeal to the Board of
Home Missions for aid was made (July 21) [p. 117]. The aid, in the amount of $200,
received prompt attention and was granted on July 31 st [p. 1].

Three entries concern attendance at services. Records showed nineteen persons at

the eleven a.m. English service on June 2, forty-five at the eleven a.m. German service
October 6th. The latter had a "collection" of $9.61. The English service on October 6 at
four p.m. had an attendance of nineteen, and a "collection" of $1.74 [p. 121].

Two absences of the pastor from the services were for sickness (July 16) when
"Bro Evan read a sermon from the Christian Herald," and because of his attendance of
the Kansas Synodical convention in Abilene on October 20th [p. 127].

Grand events of the congregation were the "Union picnic" of the Sunday Schools
of the surrounding Lutheran churches in the woods Grove of Beloit, July 4, 1895, and the
annual S[unday] S[chool] picnic in Dan Kochs Grove. "Over 100 present. Everybody
had a good time. Good feelings prevailed throughout. Fine cool day. Rendered quite a
large program" [p. 129].

Death notices recorded the diverse origins of the members of the congregation.
They had come to Kansas from various eastern states as well as Europe. Typical was the
following entry: 4. Augusta Gnatkovski. Wife of Carl Gnatkovski, died 26 Oct. 1895,
after an illness of over 3 years of a complication of diseases. She was born in Fahowark

I have that violin, a 3A size instrument with the label indicating that it was patterned on the famous
maker's instrument.
Stradiuarius Cremonentis
FaciebatAnno 1720
Having studied music in high school and college, occasionally I take it out and play grandfather's violin for
groups and church services.
[?] in Konigsberg Ger. On the 10th of May 1831. She was married to Carl G in 1850 &
came to this country in 1871. The marriage was blessed with 11 children, 4 of whom
mourn her death. The rest having died while children" [p. 132].

When the Spanish-American War broke out in 1897, the nation was swept with
patriotism. Paul thought of entering the service as a chaplain. Ruth thought otherwise,
however, and convinced him that the needs of his wife, three babies and his church were
greater. By that time, anyway, most of the battles were over and the recruits saw only
Florida.59 "

THE KINDHEARTED PASTOR.

Pastor Tonsing was very much beloved in this parish. Brown recalled that, "All
the children of the town liked him—because he liked them."60 He helped everyone.
According to Brown:

Indeed, some folks out there good naturedly said that Paul spent so much
time doing good that he didn't have much time to work on his sermons.
Which inferences were somewhat true, but not discreditable to him. Real
eloquence is in the good deed.61

For example, Brown recalled Paul's mechanical skills:

I had a bicycle. When this bicycle became broken, who do you supposed
fixed it? The young preacher who live up on the hill. All the boys took
their bicycles to Paul when repairs were needed and the girls took their
tricycles. And if any child offered Paul a quarter for the job, he, Paul,
would redden and then instruct the child to tell the child's parents not to
put funny ideas into the child's head. The young preacher man loved to
fix bicycles because he loved children.

Not only did Paul endear himself to the children, he was liked by the adults as
well. Noted Brown:

He did more than niceties—he did manual labor for the sick and helpless
and the poor. I recall this incident that describes the great heartedness of
the man: Mr. and Mrs. Dan Koch, who belonged to the little stone church
in Beloit, had 10 girls and no boys. Needless to say that Dan, the
gardener, had to work hard to support his family. Came time for the
annual Sunday school picnic, and Dan casually remarked that he would be
unable to attend, for the very good reason that his sweet potatoes had to be

Ruth Tonsing, p. 63.

Ernest F. Tonsing, 1962.
61
Ibid.
62
Ibid.
 hoed. Instead of verbally deploring the predicament in which Dan found
himself, Paul, the young preacher man, grabbed a hoe, and for two days
hoed sweet potatoes, so that Dan's hearty laughter would not be missing
from the Sunday school picnic. And that's the kind of preacher Paul
was—he preached the whole Bible with a hoe, for a fellowman."63

There were other good deeds remembered by Brown:

As pastor of the church at Beloit, Preacher Paul did a good turn every day.
I recall that a young lady, the sole support of her mother, needed a position
as school teacher. But she had no conveyance in which to get to the
country school boards. So Paul hitched up his horse and spen[t] days
seeking for a teaching position for the young lady—and finally he
succeeded. He was always preaching great sermons by doing such fine
things for folks.64

Brown had a much more personal memory of Paul in those days in Beloit:

My mother was a widow and seamstress. She had to work hard to support
herself and her careless boy, and give him a fair education. In addition to
sewing she rented out rooms. I can now see Preacher Paul running around
in Beloit in search of tenants for my mother. Small wonder that I have
always liked the man, and feel a choking sensation as I pen these lines.
He helped my mother.65

HARD TIMES.

In 1900, Ruth and Paul moved to Hardy, Nebraska, about 175 miles west of
Atchison and just north of the border between that state and Kansas, where he served in a
church that drew its members from both states. Times were hard, and the congregation
there offered a salary of $500 a year with a parsonage. But the life in Nebraska was
harder than Beloit. There were two more years of drought when all of the crops failed.
The Tonsing family did not even have enough feed for their horse, Dolly, and were
forced to sell her. The pastor's bicycle now was their only transportation.

Tragedy struck on June 10, 1902, when their little son, Cyril, died. After
struggling long to make ends meet when the church could not pay the salary either in
money or in kind, after a bout with typhoid fever and upon the medical doctor's
recommendation, Paul submitted his resignation from the congregation and from the
stresses of the parish ministry. He was prepared to travel down to the opening of the
Oklahoma Strip to homestead free land. However, the mother of Ruth, Ida Martin, came
from Atchison to take Ruth, the three children, and the body of Cyril to Atchison, and

63
Ibid.
64
Ibid.
65
Ibid.
Paul followed. They rode with the lead coffin between them. The dead baby was buried
in the family lot at Mount Vernon Cemetery. Shortly after, another baby, Robert Lowe,
was bom.66 They lived in a house for a while before Ida Martin invited them to join her
in the family home at 315 North Terrace.67

THE PRINTER.

Discontinuing his pastoral work, Paul entered the printing business. But, true to
his great energy and intelligence, he set up his own shop and solicited ads to support a
city directory for the town. He continued publishing directories from 1902 until his death
so

in 1936. Paul was already acquainted with printing not only through his part-time work
during college, but through a chance purchase of a press. The story was told by Brown in
this way:
Paul Tonsing did not have any intention of entering the printing business
when he acquired the press. A few weeks before his unexpected death he
told this reporter how he happened to come to own the press. His mother-
in-law, the late Mrs. John A. Martin, owned a business building here
[Atchison] and the tenant was in arrears on his rent. She asked Mr.
Tonsing to speak to the renter and ask him to pay up. The renter agreed to
pay but wanted some repairs made to the basement of the building. He
took Mr. Tonsing down into the basement to show him what he wanted
done. Mr. Tonsing in the dark stumbled over an object on the basement
floor. It was the hand printing press. "I am going to sell you that press for
$5 and take it out of the rent money," the tenant said. In order to keep the
man in a paying mood Mr. Tonsing accepted the press.69

With that, Paul purchased some type, all italic face, from the Atchison Champion, his
father-in-laws' old newspaper and brought it back to Beloit. As a "natural bom
mechanic," he taught himself to set type, and soon he was in business. Paul set up a
little office in a bam behind the parsonage where he printed the church paper, the Good
Seed, calling cards, bill heads, letter heads and handbills. Recalled Brown:

One day Julius Johnson, my chum, and I were loitering in Paul's printing
office and observed that Paul had a little hand press apparently not in use.
The young preacher noticed the fond looks we two boys cast on that press.
"Do you boys want that press?" Paul asked. The affirmative reply came
with alacrity. "If you can get me 12 orders for calling cards, you can have
the press," said Paul. We got the orders. Mr. Tonsing threw several old

66
Ruth Tonsing, p. 63-4. Robert was born on September 20, 1903.
67
"Death Claims Paul Tonsing." In family circles, the house always was referred to simply as "315."
68
Ibid.
69
"Old Printing Establishment to Be Carried on Here by Founder's Son," Atchison Daily Globe (May,
1937).
70
Ibid.
 fonts of type into the bargain. And the world had two more young printers
• 71
and potential journalists.

At Hardy, Nebraska, Paul used the small foot press to publish a directory listing every
adult and child in town.72

In Atchison, Paul published city directories and telephone directories for

Arkansas City, Kansas, Joplin, Missouri, and Winfield, Kansas. The directories were
carefully compiled. He called on every home, every business, and everything else in the
city, and through this, became acquainted with the entire population. Said Brown:

Always he was well mannered. He was a close observer, and gave

hundreds of news items to the Atchison reporters—but never betrayed a
confidence. Many times he was as hard up economically as a man could
be, but he never whined. He was cheerful in word and gesture. He kept
his troubles buried in [h]is own bosom.74

FLOODS AND FINANCES.

The opening of the Tonsing Printery in 1904 was financed in a characteristically

resourceful way. With the immense flood of that year, there was no train service
between Atchison and Kansas City, and therefore, no newspapers could reach Atchison
or go out on the Central Branch of the railroad to other cities in Kansas. Paul thought
that if he could get some of the Kansas City papers to Atchison, and then out on the
trains, he could make some real money. He rigged a bicycle with a third wheel and after
obtaining permission from the railroad authorities, he pedaled the contraption thirty miles
to Leavenworth. From there he caught a freight train to Kansas City, Kansas, and rowed
across the flooded Kaw (Kansas) River to the Missouri side. He then bought several
hundred copies of the Kansas City Star, and loaded them aboard a launch to cross the
river again.

However, misfortune struck. In midstream, fast currents nearly swamped the

boat, and the newspapers were thrown overboard to make it more buoyant. After being
carried downstream quite some distance, the launch finally was secured safely on the
Missouri side of the river. When the Star learned of Paul's calamity, they printed the
same number of papers he had lost but which contained a feature on the front page of the
paper describing Paul's efforts to obtain the newspapers, and had them delivered to the
Kansas side of the river.75

"Preacher Man."
"Old Printing Establishment."
"Death Claims Paul Tonsing."
"Preacher Man."
"Old Printing Establishment."
 Once Paul got the papers, he loaded them on a coal car and got them to Atchison
on the first freight train to arrive at the city from the south since the flood. He peddled
the papers at 25 cents each and they "went like hot cakes." He went to the Central
Branch with those he had not sold and climbed aboard the mail car. In the towns in
which the train stopped he sold them for as much as 50 cents each. He was so successful
that he was able to purchase the machinery for his shop, and the Tonsing Printery was
launched. Between 1904 and 1910, all the type was set by hand. In 1910, he obtained a
linotype machine but did not know how to operate the complicated piece of equipment,
so he took a temporary job at the Kansas City Gazette, and within a couple of days,
learned how to work on a linotype and to repair it.76

In his thirty-two years of business, the Printery flourished, taking orders from
schools, lodges and churches. Among them were publications of:

The Western Chief, publication of the Redmen lodge; the Optimist; The
Midland; The District News (Methodist); a Presbyterian paper, and the
Kansas Synod Lutheran. At one time the shop printed five different
church bulletins weekly. One year it got out the big Harwi Hardware Co.,
catalogue.77

The plant was quartered on the second floor in two rear rooms of the Martin
building, 500 Commercial Street.78 An article in the Atchison Globe recalled that, "It
was a workshop of practicability, efficience [sic] and dependability."79 The success was
such that there was no sign outside the shop until after Paul's death. Brown noted: "He
always said: 'Why put up a sign. We seem to have plenty of customers without one.'"80
All seven of the children of Ruth and Paul were put to work in the Printery, providing
them valuable skills that supported them throughout their own lives. The earnings also
were sufficient to enable six of the seven children to attend college.81

THE COURAGEOUS EDITOR.

Prohibition was of great interest to Paul, and he edited and published The
Atchison Church Visitor devoted to that subject. Brown said of it: "It was frank as frank
could be, and drew fire as well as praise, and attracted much attention." Paul's antipathy

77
ibid:
78
Ibid. Later the Tonsing Printery was moved to 502 Commercial Street in Atchison.
79
Ibid.
80
Ibid.
81
"Here And Hereabouts In 1891," Atchison Daily Globe (May 17, 1937). As of May 17, 1937, Evan
Tonsing had followed his father in the business; Orpha Tonsing Mellenbruch, lived in Springfield, Ohio,
the wife of a Lutheran pastor; Luther M. Tonsing, was a linotype operator and machinist in Los Angeles,
California; Robert Tonsing was telegraph editor of the Wichita Eagle, Kansas; the Rev. Ernest Tonsing
was pastor of St. Paul's Lutheran Church, Valley Falls, Kansas; Ida Tonsing Denton was living in
Atchison, but later worked for the San Francisco Chronicle; Paul Tonsing, Jr., was an employee in the
composing room of the West Milton Record, West Milton, Ohio.
towards liquor developed in his youth, as several stories he told about his childhood
reveal.

I remember one Sunday morning [mother's boarders] sent me to Mr.

Freese's grocery with a note. It told him to give me all the beer I could
drink and they would pay for it. I was so drunk that I was away off for a
long time. My mother was told where I was and she ran down and found
me lying in Freese's yard drunk. She took me home and thrashed me, not
knowing that the boarders should have been punished instead. I was about
four when this occurred but I remember the whole incident well.

With the circumstances of the drowning death of Paul's father, possibly under the
influence of alcohol, she was distressed to discover that Fred Mylander also had some
problem with drink. Recalled Paul,

After my poor mother had been in the country 3 weeks she took all the
packing boxes she had brought and refilled them with her things. When
she was about ready to leave step-dad plead so earnestly and vowed
vociferously he would quit his drinking that she again unpacked her
boxes.83

Thus, in the days in which Atchison "fussed and fumed over prohibition," Paul
was outspoken, according to Brown.

Mr. Tonsing became a leader for the "drys" and his medium was a little
publication that he published, "The Church Visitor." In that little paper
Mr. Tonsing jumped onto the "wets" in rough shod manner. He showed
real bravery. Several times he was assaulted by men who did not agree
with his ideas and editorials. But through it all he did not lose his good
nature, and his personal greetings to the men he editorially lambasted were
cheery. While Mr. Tonsing may have been a bit radical in those days, we
can't say that anything has since transpired to prove him wrong.

According to his son, Ernest Tonsing, Paul always pursued his subjects with a
passion.85 During the deepest days of Prohibition, a stand holding the Sunday Visitor
papers stood across the street from the Elks Lodge. From there, Paul could see people
going in and out of the building, and he discovered that the lodge was operating a bar for
its members. He wrote the Kansas State Attorney General reporting the violation of the
law. When he received no response, he wrote again, threatening to expose the lodge in
the paper he was publishing. This was enough to move the Attorney General, and the bar
was closed. He then proceeded to publish a story on the incident.

82
Autobiography.
83
Ibid.
84
Ibid, "Preacher Man."
85
Ernest F. Tonsing, Notes, 1973, 1993.
 The men involved were prominent men of the town, including the Police Chief,
and when their names appeared in the paper, they were understandably upset. One day as
grandfather left the Atchison Post Office, four men, the sheriff and three of his cronies,
obviously inebriated, tumbled out of the door of the nearby lodge and began to pursue
him. One of the men named Billinger had a very large frame which towered over the
very portly Tonsing. He was able to trip grandfather, holding him by the leg. Only by
kicking him in the head was grandfather able to escape. He then ran down the street and
pounded on the door of the Telephone Office. The operator let him in at the last minute,
and locked out the Chief.86 It is ironic that it was liquor itself that had prevented the men
from catching and thrashing him!

Possibly connected with the same closure was another event late one evening.
Grandfather was walking home over the viaduct that went over the railroad tracks in
Atchison. Part way over the bridge he noticed a large black man walking behind him.
When he quickened his steps, the man did the same. Grandfather went down the steps
alongside the automobile road on the viaduct, going toward Commercial Street, and the
man again followed. When grandfather broke into a run, the man did also. It was then
that grandfather saw the flash of a knife, and there was no question about the man's
intentions. Grandfather ran to Commercial Street and rounded the corner to the office of
the newspaper, The Globe, and began to pound on the door. Fortunately, there was
someone working there at night who opened the door. The man did not follow him
inside. After a long while, grandfather called a taxi, and thus returned home safely.88

It seems as if the mayor of Atchison, a medical doctor named Frazer, had known
of the illegal activity in the Elks Lodge but did nothing to intervene even after
grandfather had brought it to his attention. When grandfather went over his head, this
was noted in an article in The Church Visitor. Additional evidence of misconduct by the
mayor was reported by Paul who discovered that he had used city horse teams and drivers
to level and haul dirt to a series of terraces in Atchison upon which the mayor had built
the "Frazer Apartments." With this revealed, the mayor was removed from office.89

Irony played its tricks. Atchison was still a small town, and grandfather was
known by everyone. He was respected even by those who had felt his sharp pen. When
Grandmother Ruth gave birth to her children at 315, the attending doctor was Dr.
Frazer.

Another irony occurred when Paul recommended to his mother-in-law, Ida

Martin, a staunch Baptist, that the Eagles Club would make a good church building for
the Baptists. It is still the church. The game rooms for cards have become the Sunday

Ernest F. Tonsing, communication 1979.

Ernest F. Tonsing, Notes, 1973, 1993.
Ernest F. Tonsing, Notes, 1998.
School rooms, and the sanctuary floor still has the springs under it for dancing.
Publication of The Church Visitor was discontinued at the outbreak of World War I.92

Although Paul had given up his parish ministry, he never ceased to preach. He
conducted services frequently at the nearby towns of Lancaster, Bendena and Valley
Falls. He was the supply pastor of St. Paul's Lutheran in Valley Falls for seven years.93
This congregation was chartered June 14, 1857, and was the first Lutheran church of any
synod to be organized west of the Missouri River, and its original building was
constructed by lumber milled by Isaac Cody, the father of "Buffalo Bill" Cody.94

There are many stories from people of the Lutheran church in Valley Falls. They
recall his long conversations after the services, when he would suddenly remember the
time and run off, huffing and puffing, to the railroad station. Invariably, he would arrive
as the cars were pulling away, and he would reach up to catch the hindmost handle and
last step of the train as it gained speed.95 There were times, however, when he missed the
train. A note in the bulletin of Valley Falls Lutheran Church, July 12, 1923, says that,
"Last Sunday Fred Littleton and family and Miss Flora Staub our church organist, took
the pastor home to Atchison. Thank you." Many years later both the son of Paul
Tonsing, the Rev. Ernest Tonsing, was named pastor of the church, and his son, the Rev.
Ernst F. (Fred) Tonsing supplied the same pulpit.

ACCUSATIONS OF DISLOYALTY.

There was another part of the life of Tonsing that only to light only recently from
the files of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.96 It involved an allegation of disloyalty
to the United States against him during World War I. While focused upon the
accusations against a single individual, this Case number 2272939 reflects the attitudes of
Americans during the war ranging from pacifism and isolationism to militancy, and
against not only the nation of Germany, but of any American of German descent.

In interpreting Tonsing's attitude to the war, it is significant that President

Woodrow Wilson's portrait had occupied a wall in his printing office. On April 2, 1917,
before the incident described below, Wilson addressed Congress in response to the
declaration by the German government to lay aside all treaties and to use its submarines
to sink any ship that approached a harbor belonging to a nation Germany considered an
enemy, whether British, Irish, western European, or Mediterranean. In his speech,
Wilson explained that: "I was for a little while unable to believe that such things would

Ernest F. Tonsing, Notes, 1993.

92
"Death Claims Paul Tonsing."
93
Ibid. By chance, the son of Ruth and Paul Tonsing, the Rev. Ernest Tonsing, was chosen as pastor of the
Lutheran church in Valley Falls the dame day as his father's death.
94
H. J. Ott, A History of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Kansas (General Synod) (F. M. Steves and
Sons, Topeka, Kansas, 1907), pp. 12, 163. "Old Church Still Stands," Kansas City Star, January 19, 1937.
95
Personal communication from members of Valley Falls Lutheran Church.
96
1 am indebted to Richard Tonsing, Sacramento, California, for calling this to my attention and sending
me the documents from his research.
in fact be done by any government that had hitherto subscribed to the humane practices
of civilized nations. International law had its origin in the attempt to set up some law
which would be respected and observed upon the seas, where no nation had right of
dominion and where lay the free highways of the world."

Previously, Wilson had called for neutrality: "I thought that it would suffice to
assert our neutral rights with arms, our right to use the seas against unlawful interference,
our right to keep our people safe against unlawful violence." Now facing what Wilson
called a "war against all nations," the President called upon Congress to "accept the
status of belligerent which has thus been thrust upon it, and that it take immediate steps
not only to put the country in a more thorough state of defense but also to exert all its
power and employ all its resources to bring the Government of the German Empire to
terms and end the war." That Tonsing first sought to be neutral, then affirmed the pursuit
of the First World War, echoed the evolution in thought of the President of the United
States himself.

For all those of German heritage, the betrayal of human morality and civility by
one's ancestral homeland must have been an excruciating trauma. Caught between
loyalty to one's country of birth and citizenship, and pride in one's heritage from one of
the most progressive and cultured nations of Europe, the psychological distress no doubt
would have caused one to be cautious and to withhold public display of any sentiment.
Further, as a Lutheran Pastor pledged to hold up the Gospel of Peace of Jesus Christ as a
central notion of Christian doctrine, the painful recognition that a whole generation of
young men would have to be trained in the arts of war, and that many of them either
would return to their homes and families in coffins, or would be so adversely affected by
their experiences on the battlefield that their subsequent lives would be altered for the
worse, must have been an appalling thought. That his views were not held by all pastors
of his faith, too, was very troubling, as this document reveals.

In this report, Paul Gerhardt Tonsing is revealed as a person who is deeply

conflicted by war itself, and apprehensive of the possibility of his eldest son's
deployment to the bloody battlefields of Europe. However, he is strongly patriotic and
willing to undertake the sacrifice that this war will require. Thus, the dilemma of
Abraham with Isaac repeats itself in every generation.

Report Form No. 1 272939

Report made by: George C. Busey. Place where made: St. Joseph, Mo.
Date where Made: Aug. 29, 1918. Period For Which Made: Aug. 28,
1918

Title of Case and Offense Charged or Nature of Matter Under

Investigation:

In re: P.G. Tonsing

Alleged Disloyalty
Statement of Operations, Evidence Collected, Names and Addresses of
Persons Interviewed, Places Visited etc.

The following letter was referred to Agent for investigation.

"Chief:-

The Rev. Robert L. Patterson, Pastor of the Lutheran Church of

this city recently returned from the Great Lakes Naval Training Station,
where he has two boys in the service. He advertised for several days that
on Sunday he would deliver a lecture at this Church on his visit to the
Station. —In Saturday night's Atchison Daily Globe there was an item to
the effect that Dr. Patterson was very much put out because a certain man
whom he asked to attend the lecture stated that he would not do so, would
permit none of his family to attend and that he did not permit them to
attend any patriotic gatherings.

I at once called on Dr. Patterson. He stated that the item was

substantially correct. That he was getting tired of this man who had
continually made remarks of similar character, and that with two boys in
the service he did not prupose [sic] standing for it. He said the man said
that young men were being ruined in the Army and Navy Camps, that men
were being ruined for the ministry, etc. Later this man's son came into the
room and made similar statements.

The man in question is Rev. Paul G. Tonsing, one time Lutheran

mimster, who preaches in both German and Englist [sic]; prohibition
agitator, and now running a printing office, and publisher of the Church
visitor, a weekly local church paper. It should be noted that since the war
started, Tonsing has ceased his prohibition activities, and considering what
a fanatic he had previously been this has seemed peculiar to me. It might
be explained by his not wishing to get involved in enmities which would
reveal any disloyal propoganda [sic] in which he might be secretly
engaged. It seems to me that this man should be investigated by proper
authorities. I can't help thinking that if this mans premises were searched
that something might be unearthed.

Dr. Patterson further made the statement that the son, Evan
Tonsing, who was granted exemption account of being a divinity student,
was not a divinity student in April, 1917; but was working in his fathers
office at that time, that he did not enter the Western Theological Seminary
until last August. If so he is a slacker and perjurer. This information I at
once gave to County Attorney Charles T. Gundy.
 I will be pleased to co-operate in this matter in any way.
Respectfully submitted."

Report Form No. 2

Agent arrived in Atchison at 6:00 p.m.

In Atchison, Kansas.

Agent was informed by Rev. Robert L. Patterson that Rev. P.G.

Tonsing runs a local church paper, and prints items from all the Protestant
churches, that he has taken items to Tonsing to print and has had various
conversations with him relative to the war; that the Rev. Tonsing has tried
to keep from saying anything pro-German since the United States entered
the war; but that August 15, 1918 when in conversation with him he said:
"A great many of the boys would be killed, some go to the bad, and that
they would not have the disposition to preach when they came home. The
church buildings were not within the camps. That he had a picture of
President Wilson hanging in his house which had printed under it, "He
kept us out of war", and that he wrote on it, "Yes until after election".
Rev. Patterson also stated that Tonsing said that he nor any number of his
family would come to hear Patterson's lecture on the Great Lakes Naval
Training Station.

The last remark is the cause of the dischord [sic]. Rev. Patterson
also stated that Tonsing had his son obtain a deferred classification on the
grounds of being a Divinity student when he did not enter the seminary
until last fall.

Agent interviewed P.G. Tonsing who stated that he was born in

Cleveland, Ohio, January 3, 1870, educated in Coninon [sic] schools and
later graduated from Midland College in Atchison; that he was a farmer
as a boy; then a preacher for seven years and has been in the printing
business for the past 16 years; that he has lived in Atchison since 18888
[sic.]; that he married Ruth Martin, Ex-Governor Martin's daughter, and
that he is of German descent.

He further stated that as his attitude on this war he was neutral

before the entry of the United States; but since that time he has been for
the prosecution of the war to the fullest extent. He further stated that his
being published in the Globe by Dr. Patterson is merely from personal

"Common" or "normal" school would correspond to Junior High School today. Upon graduation at
about the age of sixteen, one was considered well educated and could teach the lower grades.
Communication from Dorothy Denton Linn, August 25, 2008.
 dislike; that he quient [sic] the church seven months ago on account of
Rev. Patterson; that he did make the remark that neither he nor any
member of his family would go to hear the Rev. Patterson talk on the
Great Lakes Naval Training Station because he did not know whether it
would be the truth or not coming from Patterson; that about the writing on
President Wilson's picture he told Patterson that the picture was in his
office and that some one wrote under it, "Yes, until after election", and
that he then removed the picture.

He noted that he is a loyal American and has never at any time said
or done anything against his country.

He stated that his son did obtain a deferred classification on

account of being a Divinity Student, and that his questionnaire was filled
out by one of the lawyers in the Legal Advisory Board and that whole
question explained.

He also stated that his son has been reclassified and examined and
leaves for Camp Funston Tuesday or Wednesday next week.

Agent was informed by Chief of Police Snyder, who is a member

of Patterson's church; that Patterson is a nice man to talk to but is high
strung and exciteable [sic] and that his congregation has fallen off about
half and is rather unpopular as a preacher. He also stated that Tonsing
while of German descent is a good citizen and no reports have ever come
to him about his being disloyal or pro-German.

It might be well to state that Chief Snyder has been active in

running down pro-German slackers and disloyalty.

Investigation closed.

FAMILY, FRIENDS, AND FAMOUS VISITORS.

Many of the items in the scrapbook deal with the domestic life of Paul and Ruth.
When they returned to Atchison, work, family, and the care for the mother of Ruth, Ida
Challiss Martin, occupied most of their time. But, with the death of Ida, November 2,
1932, and the maturity of their children, they now had the opportunity to visit friends and
family. The reports of these visits constitute the subject of many of the articles in the
scrapbook. Scattered among them are brief notes, such as:

The Paul Tonsing family made a trip to Waterville and Greenleaf, Kas.,
yesterday where they visited friends whom Mr. Tonsing had not seen for
47 years.

Atchison Globe (June 17, 1935).

Another one makes mention of a visit to the town in Nemaha County, Kansas, founded
by William L. Challiss and Mary Ann Harres Challiss, the grandparents of Ruth:

The Paul Tonsings visited at Woodlawn, Kas., over the Fourth, where
Mrs. Tonsing spent the summers in her childhood. It was her first visit in
45 years there, and she found only one resident with whom she was
acquainted. 9

Ruth and Paul made many visits. Another was east of Bendena, Kansas, to the
home of "Aunt Mollie" Zimmerman, where the eighty-five year old woman prepared a
dinner for her seven guests. Zimmerman had lived near Lawrence, Kansas, during the
"Bleeding Kansas" wars, and remembered vividly the horrific raid of the city by the
Missouri, Pro-Slavery troops of Quantril.

They also received many visitors. As evidence of their hospitality, in 1924, Paul
conducted the wedding of Mary Wehking and John Gunter in their home.101
Granddaughter, Miss Ruth Mellenbruch, of Springfield, Ohio, and her three sisters, spent
four months during the summer of 1934 there.10 And when their son, Ernest, married
Dorothy Peterson at Falun in central Kansas, Ruth and Paul hosted a picnic supper on
Guerrier Hill, Jackson Park, Atchison, for them when they returned to Atchison to
establish their home. (The picnic began with fried chicken and ended with ice cream and
cake.)103

One especially noteworthy visitor was the arrival in Atchison of the city's most
famous daughter, the aviatrix, Amelia Earhart. She was the daughter of Amelia ("Amy")
Otis, the second cousin of Ruth, and Edwin Stanton Earhart. Earhart was born just two
doors south of the Martin-Tonsing home at 315 in the home of her grandparents, Judge
Alfred and Amy Otis, July 24, 1897,104 and spent her childhood there before moving to
Kansas City. Often she came over to 315 to play and to ride on the porch swing. Despite
the threat of June showers, great crowds of people gathered from all over northeast
Kansas to see her, and a grand parade went through the downtown of Atchison.
Unfortunately, there was time only for brief greetings between Amelia Earhart and her
family members.105 Among them were Ernest and Dorothy Tonsing, for whom she
signed a photograph.106

99
Ibid. (July 6, 1935).
100
Ibid. (July 10, 19350.
101
Ibid. (November 19, 1935).
102
Ibid. (August 30, 1935).
103
Ibid. (July 19?, 1935).
104
"Atchison's Guest," Atchison Daily Globe (June 6, 1935). The newspaper repeats the mistake of many
publications in placing Amelia Earhart's birth in 1898, rather than the correct, 1897. Rebecca Chaky and
Ruth Martin, Ruth Martin Family Tree 1995 (Friendswood, Texas: Never Done Press, 1995), pp. 135 ff.
105
"Great Parade Draws Crowd," Atchison Daily Globe (June 7, 1935).
106
I recall that this framed photograph stood on the top of the piano in the home of my parents, Ernest and
Dorothy Tonsing, until 1942 or 1943, when it was stolen in a home robbery.
 The forty-second wedding anniversary of Ruth and Paul was celebrated in
September, 1935, with a gathering at the Tonsing home at 315. Along with ten
grandchildren and other relatives, enjoying the dinner were five of the seven living
children: "Junior" (Paul Martin), Ern(e)st,' 7 Robert, Evan, and Ida Tonsing Denton.1
Daughter Orpha Tonsing Mellenbruch did not make it from Springfield, Ohio, nor did
Luther, living in Los Angeles.109

PERSONALITY.

Paul loved to tell jokes, and was quite an expert at it. His son, Paul Junior, a joke
fan, used to get his father out once a month just to hear them.110 He was always a very
friendly man, and everyone, White or Black, enjoyed his conversations. He was also
very kind.

In his business, he always priced his work too cheap, so that others would take
advantage of him. While he could not give his children money for college, he said that
he could provide the way to earn the way through school. Thus, all seven children
worked commercially at the printing business, even the girls, a rarity at that time.111

He did like games, and he and his son, Robert (Bob), especially loved to play
croquet. They had a beautiful court laid out, and would get the Saturday work done early
in order to play. Paul also liked to play tennis.112

Paul also was attracted by automobiles. In 1915 he wanted a car, so he bought an

old 1912 Buick, which was red with stripes on the sides, had a canvas top and acetylene
lights. His son, Luther, was a teenager, and took the car out on the road and ran it so fast
that he burned it out. Ernest remembered the team of horses drawing it up and into the
i n

yard, all burned out.

Later, Paul became friends with a man who dealt in used cars. In 1920 or 21, he
bought a Hupmobile with a tall stack on front, four to five inches, for the water for the
radiator. It had an all aluminum crank case, right-hand drive. Ernest learned how to
drive it when he was about thirteen years old. Since his older brother, Bob, would not let
him touch the wheel, the husband of his sister, Orpha Mellenbruch, took him out one
morning to learn. Pari Mellenbruch guided him as they drove up the Kansas side of the
Missouri River to Mission Ranch Valley, east of Omaha and back. "It was a thrill,"
Ernest said, especially one Saturday when he drove down the main street of Atchison.114

Named Ernst at birth, and called that through his teenage years, Ernst Frederick Tonsing was named
after his grandfather.
108
Globe, (September 5, 1935).
m
Ibid. (August 30, 1935).
110
Ernest F. Tonsing, Notes, 1993.
111
Ibid.
112
Ibid.
113
Ibid.
114
Ibid.
Later on Paul got a second Hupmobile, and then a Chevrolet with rattling valves, and let
the kids work on it." 5

A JOURNEY TO CLEVELAND.

In 1923, Paul bought a seven-passenger Mitchell. He was going to Springfield,

Ohio, to visit friends, and to Cleveland, to visit his sister. Mother-in-law, Ida Martin,
Ruth, and children Ernest and Paul Junior went along. They took along a big, heavy tent,
but mostly slept in the open.116 There are photographs of the trip with the family
standing along side the car. The tent and luggage were tied onto the sides and back with
ropes.

Paul was not a very good driver, and scraped the wheels on curbs several times on
the trip. Paul Junior wanted to drive, and took the wheel. The steering of the car was
geared so that one had to make many revolutions to make a turn. Paul Junior missed a
turn and scraped the curb. He refused to give up the wheel, and proceeded to do the same
on the next corner. His mother, Ruth, was screaming and got out. She refused to get
back in until Ernest volunteered. Ernest, then, drove 3,500 miles to Springfield,
Cleveland and back. Paul had purchased World War I clincher tires which would move
around on the rims, shearing off the air nipples, so they had to repair a blowout nearly
everyday.117

They were fortunate when reaching Springfield in that Paul's friend, a color-
printer, was coming out of the shop when they drove up. In Cleveland, they stayed a day
and a half with Paul's sister, Minnie Tonsing Jasper. Her husband was an undertaker
who dressed in black and always was "moody in face," quite the opposite of her more
jovial brother.118

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE.

According to a note in the Atchison Daily Globe, Paul was "a power physically
when he was young and middle aged. He was broadshouldered and muscular."119 At his
first parish at Beloit, Paul cut a striking figure. According to Brown, a youth living in
that town:

He was young, hopeful, good looking, husky, smart, and became the idol
of the children out there.1

116
Ibid.
117
Ibid.
118
Ibid.
119
Globe (March 2, 1936). According to Ralph Martin, his uncle was called "PG," since there were so
many people named Paul in the family. Note from Ralph Martin, August 24, 2008.
120
"Preacher Man."
 Having learned Hebrew in the Atchison Central Seminary, he discovered that
there were four hundred roots in the language, and that if he learned these roots, he would
know how to read and speak it. He would like to talk Yiddish (combining his knowledge
of Hebrew and German) to the Jewish merchants, and often recited the Ten
Commandments in Hebrew. A junk dealer in Atchison especially liked to talk with
him.121

After his sickness with diphtheria, his appearance changed greatly. Even though
he weighed over three hundred pounds, he would walk seven blocks up and down the
steep hills to home, and for a while rode bicycles.122 A reference to Paul's weight is
subject of several clippings:

Paul Tonsing, who is of the opinion that he has been the biggest (meaning
the fattest) man in Atchison for a number of years, no longer claims that
distinction. Mr. Tonsing has been reducing, is reducing and will keep on
reducing until he regains his boyish figure. He told a Globe reporter this
morning that from weighing 323 pounds he has come down to 285
pounds.123

Reports continued in the Globe of his success. On August 5th the paper reported:

P. G. Tonsing has lost 46 pounds in weight during this warm weather. He

feels better for it.124

The newspaper notes on September 16:

P. G. Tonsing weighs 271 pounds. He is 53 pounds underweight.125

His diet is one that would have a few devotees today even noting his success:

The reporter thinks Mr. Tonsing has accomplished a truly great

achievement. When asked how he did it, Mr. Tonsing said, "by eating
less," and he added he could lose a pound a day by eating less (much less).
When asked his diet rules Mr. Tonsing replied: "For breakfast I eat one
pancake with catsup; for [the noon] dinner a regular meal but no fats. I
eat no butter and no gravies. In the place of sugar in my coffee I use
saccharine. For supper I take a bite of something, sometimes a small
piece of cake."

By his birthday on January 3, 1936, Paul had lost even more weight:

121
Ernest F. Tonsing, Notes, 1993.
122
Ibid.
m
Globe (My 16, 1935).
124
Ibid. (August 5, 1935).
125
Ibid. (September 16, 1935).
126
Ibid.
 Paul Tonsing is 66 years old today. Mr. Tonsing has lost 58 pounds since
the first of August. Mr. Tonsing's present weight is 265, less than any
time in the last 25 years. Mr. Tonsing appears to this reporter to be about
45 years old.127

The rapid lost of weight must have put a great strain upon his constitution, for an
unforeseen announcement appeared in the Globe on March 2:

Becoming ill last Thursday, the Rev. Paul Gerhardt Tonsing died Sunday
morning at 8 o'clock in the Tonsing home at 315 North Terrace. The
cause of his death was an infection that developed from inflammation in
his ears. He became unconscious early Saturday night, and did not
rally.128

TRIBUTES.

At the death of her husband of over four decades, Ruth had to make many
arrangements for the funeral, and phone calls to her seven children and eleven grand
children, as well as to Paul's sister, Mrs. Minnie Jasper of Cleveland, Ohio, and his three
half-brothers, Henry, Louis and Jasper Mylander all in Oak Harbor, Ohio.129 According
to the Kansas Synod Lutheran, "The Death of Rev. Tonsing has ended the career of one
1 30
of the best known men in our synod." The pastor of Saint Mark's Lutheran Church,
the Rev. W. E. Wheeler, was in charge of the preparations for the funeral, at which the
Reverends Charles Puis of Lawrence, Kansas, J. H. McGuire of St. Joseph, Missouri, E.
Victor Roland of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Clarence N. Swihart of Oklahoma City,
Oklahoma, all members of the executive committee of the Kansas Lutheran Synod, took
part. A resolution from the Atchison Ministerial Association was read by Atchison
Pastor C.K. Davis.131
While arrangements were being made for Paul's burial, the Globe announced that
the Tonsing Printery would continue to be operated by his widow, Ruth. The day-to-day
management of the office would be by Paul Martin Tonsing, Jr., his youngest son.132 The
latest city directory was nearly completed at the time of his death, and Paul, Jr., Ernest
and Ida worked overtime to finish setting type, print and bind the volumes.133 By
Monday, March 16, delivery of the directories had begun, and it was expected that all
would be distributed by the end of the week.134

27
Ibid. (January 3, 1936).
128
"Death Claims Paul Tonsing."
129
Ibid.
130
"Paul G. Tonsing," Kansas Synod Lutheran.
131
Ibid. Atchison Globe (March 4, 1937).
132
"Editorial Bits and Bites, Announcement," Globe (March 5, 1936).
133
Interview of the Rev. Ernest F. Tonsing, April 8, 1985.
134
Globe (March 16, 1936).
 With the death of Paul Tonsing, tributes to the man began to flow into the
newspapers. Brown summarized his life in these words:

In most respects, Preacher Paul was a humble man. He made no

pretension toward greatness. He knew his limitations in pulpit and in
business. He never proclaimed himself as having attained success. But I
take it on myself to state that Paul attained a great deal. He and his good
wife educated a big family, every member of which is a good, useful
citizen. I consider that a triumph. And when I permit my mind to wander
back 40 years, the wind swept prairies of western Kansas, there I see the
stalwart form of Paul Tonsing, the Preacher man, helping the children,
helping the young folks, helping the farmers and the town men, and
hoeing Dan Koch's sweet potato hills for two days, so that Dan could go
to the Sunday school picnic. If service to good, plain folks is success,
Paul Tonsing succeeded admirably.13

Brown then adds, a bit sheepishly:

In these paragraphs I have referred to Mr. Tonsing as "The Preacher

Man." Maybe I should have been more dignified, and should have
constantly referred to him as the Rev. Paul G. Tonsing. But I wish always
to think of him as we folks of the prairies thought of him—Paul, the young
preacher man, going about, in a rattletrap cart, doing good.136

Wrote the Rev. Charles A. Puis, a pastor from Lawrence and a close friend of the
Tonsing family, in the Kansas Synod Lutheran:

They say Paul Tonsing of Atchison is dead. I refuse to believe this even
though I read a Scripture lesson and a collect at his funeral service. True,
I saw his huge body as if asleep in an oversize casket and heard his pastor
all but exhaust the gamut of virtues trying to find the adjectives that
described the gentleness and humbleness of P. G.'s life, but on the
question of Brother Paul's death, I remain a skeptic.137

He gives his reason for his views:

Men who lived like he lived don't die. He might have died and been
utterly forgotten had it not been for the way he spent his days. Strong
arms could have placed his casket on the grave-rods of steel between
canyons of floral sprays, and friends might have left the scene of his
interment with an attitude to forget the man they buried. But his friends
won't forget him, and when a man lives in memory almost as vividly as he

"Preacher Man."
Ibid.
"Paul G. Tonsing," Kansas Synod Lutheran, Volume XXIII, No. 3 (March, 1936).
 lived in life, no one can say that he died. Brother Paul' memory, like the
dyes of Lydia, will not fade.

Puis then uses another analogy drawn from the agricultural setting of eastern Kansas:

So many people die. Then they are forgotten. Why? Because there is
nothing about them that remains alive after they are gone. A part of our
immortality we build ourselves. Those who sow no seeds, leave no
flourishing field of waving memories to follow in their train when they
have advanced to the far side of the hill. But P. G.'s life was not like that.
He sowed seeds, many of which sprouted with orchid-like beauty as soon
as men said "he's dead." When one leaves behind him a field full of seed
ready to grow into the abundant strength of the man who sowed them, dare
we be so bold as to say that the man is dead? Certainly, he is more alive
than many of the folks who attended his funeral.139

At the end of his article, Puis notes:

Yes, his personal presence we shall miss. His spiritual presence we shall
feel. P. G. will live as long as this generation of Lutheran friends endures,
for men like P. G. don't die. They simply move on to their coronation.

A moving tribute was a poem written by LeRoy Huron Kelsey of Kansas City,
Missouri, in honor of his old friend:

138
Ibid. The Rev. Puis is referring here to Acts 16:11-40 and the woman named Lydia from Thyatira in
Asia Minor, whom Paul met at Philippi. She sold valuable purple-dyed goods, a color used by the nobility.
She and her household were baptized by Paul, making her the first Christian convert in Europe.
139
Ibid.
140
Ibid. The person who wrote words had long been acquainted with Paul Tonsing, and had an
opportunity to help his old friend in a special way when he served as pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in
Lawrence, Kansas. This congregation acted as the "home away from home" church for students at the
university. During one of the meetings of the Lutheran Student Association, "Daddy Puis," a man of great
generosity and hospitality, "made it convenient" for a boarder in his parsonage and another student to meet
and later to become engaged. The lodger was Ernest Tonsing, son of his friend, and the woman was
Dorothy Peterson of Falun, Kansas, parents of this writer. Pastor Puis subsequently became President of
the Lutheran Synod, and, upon his death, his bishop's cross as given to Ernest Tonsing, who passed it on to
me. The cross is 4 3/8 by 3 3/8 inches in size, with a "Latin" cross inscribed in the middle containing the
Chi/Rho symbol, and the trefoil limbs containing a hand with descending rays extending down from clouds
in the top field,, a cruciform-haloed lamb resting atop a closed book with seven round seals hanging from
its pages on the left, the right with a dove descending from clouds, and the bottom limb with an open book
with the words, "HOLY BIBLE," written across the pages. The back contains the engraved legend:

Rev. Charles A. Puis

PRESIDENT
EV.LUTH.SYNOD OF KANSAS & ADJ STATES
4/22/37-4/19/39
 An Enduring Legacy.

He never had acquired the gold for which so many fought,

And never had attained the honors which so many sought;
He never won a boasted niche in any Hall of Fame,
And never seemed to care about a great and noted name;
But when his modest useful life its final course had run,
It left a benediction through his acts of kindness done.

He never had been much inclined to boost his own affairs,

And never troubled other folks with his perplexing cares;
He never sought for unfair gain in any business deal,
But never failed of quick response to worthy need's appeal;
And so, though not a millionaire when called away at last,
The heritage of love he left, all other wealth surpassed.

He never was conspicuous for beauty or for style,

And oftentime his courage caused a depreciating smile;
He never was a follower of fashion's fool decrees,
But always kept his self-respect and did his best to please;
And when at last his tired hands were folded on his breast,
A multitude that he had helped rose up to call him blest.141

REFLECTIONS.

An enduring legacy, indeed! This pioneer preacher of Kansas was legendary for
his enthusiasm, generosity and bravery. Paul Gerhardt Tonsing was a preacher who
preached most eloquently in deeds. As B. D. Zimmerman wrote in one of the clippings
in Grandmother's scrap book, "Paul Tonsing was one in a thousand. He was interested in
everyone and always in a kindly fashion." Calling forth these words locked within the
crumbling pages of a scrapbook, a little diary, and distant recollections, we now can
celebrate the life and deeds of this man not only as an ancestor who gave us our lives, but
who gave us a lot to cherish—and a lot to emulate. Way to go, Gramps!

1
Ruth Martin Tonsing scrapbook (April, 1935-April, 1937).
2
Atchison Globe (n.d.).