Mary E. Ziegler, GW#113
Mary Edna Ziegler was born on 22 October 1889 in Lower Salford Township, Montgomery County, Pa. to John L. and Mary S. (Moyer) Ziegler. She was the youngest of six children. In 1910, she is 20 years old, living with her parents and working as a baster in a clothing factory. After that I can’t find her in the census anywhere. Mary entered the Gospel Worker Society in 1914. According to her obituary, she was a Gospel worker for 60 years. She does not appear in the Federal Census for Cleveland in 1920, 1930 or 1940, at least not with the main group of Gospel Workers. In 1928, she is living at 2150 East 4th Street, Cleveland, Ohio. In her brother Michael’s 1967 obituary, she is listed as living in Cleveland, Ohio. She died in Cleveland, Ohio on 21 November 1973. The inquest hospital was Deaconess Hospital of Cleveland. An autopsy was not performed. She is buried at Brooklyn Heights Cemetery, Mapleside section with other Gospel Workers. Her brother Michael was sometimes the delegate to conference from the Harleysville-Graterford circuit.
A brief conversation with Mary’s grand-nephew Charles Detwiler follows: Hi Jill. Aunt Mary was called Aunt Mamie. She lived with another single elderly lady named Luella (Long?) One played a ukulele and the other a mandolin. They would play on street corners together in Cleveland, OH and hand out literature and the magazine produced by the Gospel Herald Society–“The Gospel Herald”. They wore the plain dresses of the older Mennonite Brethren in Christ women. She seemed to be of few words, (most people were this way by default in my presence) and had a warm, friendly way about her. A bit on the portly side but certainly not overweight. That’s pretty much all I remember. I think the two of them would occasionally be at Mizpah Grove. Humble lovers of Jesus. {note: “Luella” was Lula Werking}
