Comfort (Montgomery) Garten
Surnames in this history: Batman, Boshell, Austin, Bratcher, Hass, Garten, Klippert & Smith.The following obituary was originally posted by C. Anderson on the Comanche County, Ks, RootsWeb Message Board
DEATH OF MRS. C. GARTEN After a lingering illness, Grandma (Mrs. Comfort) Garten died at 9 o'clock a.m. on Thursday of last week, January 11, 1923, at her home about 18 miles southeast of this city. [Coldwater, Comanche Co., Ks.]
Funeral services were conducted by Rev. W. M. Austin of the M.E. church at the home at 1 o'clock p.m. on Saturday. after which the body was taken to Bennington, Kans., for burial, that city being the home of the Gartens before coming to this county.
Comfort Montgomery was born near Cynthana, Ind., on October 16, 1844. On January 22, 1863, she was united in marriage with William D. Garten. The family moved from Indiana to Bennington, Ottawa County, Kansas, in the year 1878. Mr. Garten died on April 9, 1893. In 1906 Mrs. Garten and most of her children came to this county and continued to make this their home. Ten children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Garten, of whom all but two survive. The surviving children are: Hardy, John, Oscar and Reed Garten and Mrs. Estella Bratcher of this county; Mrs. Ada Klippert of Los Angeles, Calif., Mrs. Maude Smith and Mrs. Martha Smith of Delphos,Kans. All except Mrs. Klippert were present at the time of their mother's death.
Mrs. Garten was a member of the Congregational church during her early life. but after moving to Kansas she and her husband united with the Methodist Episcopal church and during all the remaining days of her life she exemplified in a beautiful way the christian character and christian ideals. She was devoted to her family, and also gave much of her time to christian work, never tiring in her efforts to give help and cheer to those with whom she was associated. Her life was one of sacrifice for those she loved and was filled with countless ministrations for those about her. Her memory will be cherished by many who were the recipients of her many kindnesses, and the influences for good which her life so well illustrated will long continue to bless the world.
At the time of her death Mrs. Garten was 78 years, 3 months and 25 days of age.
Mrs. William D. (Comfort) Garten Mrs. William D. (Comfort) Garten moved to Comanche County in 1906 with her family: Hardy, John, Oscar, Estella and Reed. The Gartens had bought 680 acres of land southeast of Buttermilk. The house they built and lived in still stands 2 miles west and one mile south of the Jim Haas farm.
The older daughters, Martha and Maude, had married brothers, Frank and Alex Smith, and had stayed behind near their former home in Bennington, Kansas. One daughter, Ada, had married Rex Klippert and moved to California. The father and the oldest son of the family had succumbed to typhoid fever in 1893.
This mother who had worked hard to provide for and keep her family together continued to maintain a strong sense of family closeness even after her children married and moved to homes of their own. Sunday dinner at Grandma Garten's was not to be ignored. This fostered a closeness in the Garten cousins that persists to this day.
Written circa 1980 by Merle Garten Batman, daughter of Reed and Zella Boshell Garten. Published on page 385 of Comanche County History.
This website is being created by Jerry Ferrin, who welcomes your comments, suggestions and contributions of historical information and photographs to this site. This page was last updated 08 Sept 2002.