[199-5] HENRY H. HEEBNER, b Feb. 11, 1836; d June 25, 1908; s Abraham and Susanna (Heebner) Heebner [199-4]; m Oct. 26, 1867, SUSANNA KRAUSS, bd Apr. 19, 1844; d Oct. 24, 1910; dau Joseph and Susanna (Schultz-Reinewald) Krauss [149-15]. Henry Heebner was a highly respected, prosperous farmer and lived on the farm in Worcester Twp., Montg. Co., now (1922) occupied by his son, John.
Children (7):
4, Flora K., b* Dec. 26, 1874; missionary at Taikuhsien, Shansi, China.
+5. Harvey K. (Rev.), b Feb. 18, 1877; Pastor, Phila. Schwenkfelder Church.
*Flora Krauss Heebner was born in Worcester Twp., Montg. Co., Pa. Her early education was procured in the public schools of her native township, and she was graduated from the Stump Hall Graded School in 1891. In the summer of this year she attended the Sumneytown Academy, Montg. Co., taught by Prof. Henry E. Hartzell. In the fall she entered the West Chester State Normal School, and attended this institution for two years. She then entered Perkiomen Seminary in the fall of 1894, and for two years was a student-teacher, being graduated with the class of 1896. For three years she taught in the public schools in Montg. Co., and in the fall of 1899, she with her brother, Harvey, entered Oberlin College, Ohio, and with him was graduated in the class of 1903. During the summer vacation of 1903 she was a Home Missionary of the American Sabbath School Association among the mountain whites in Tennessee. In the fall of 1903 she was employed by the Schwenkfelder Mission Board as associate to Rev. E. E. 8S. Johnson, pastor of the First Sechwenkfelder Church of Philadelphia, at 30th and Cumberland Sts. On Aug. 30, 1904, having received her appointment from the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, she sailed from San Francisco for China. After spending a year in language study in Tung Chou, near Pekin, she proceeded to what has ever since been her home and field of work—-Tai Ku Hsien, Shansi, China, four hundred miles west of Pekin. In this busy field, which had been destroyed by the Boxers in 1900, she is teacher-evangelist to girls and women. She has been home on two furloughs, in 1910 and in 1918.
+Rev. Harvey Krauss Heebner was born in Worcester Twp., Montg. Co., Pa. Having attended the Stump Hall Public School of the township, he was graduated in 1893 and entered Perkiomen Seminary in the fall. He completed the college preparatory course in 1896. Then for three years he taught in the public schools of Montgomery Co., whereupon he with his sister, Flora, entered Oberlin College, Ohio, in the fall of 1899, and was graduated with her in the class of 1903. Having decided to enter the ministry, in the summer of 1903 he became home missionary pastor of the Somers-Mooreland circuit, near Fort Dodge, Iowa, under the auspices of the Congregational Church. After finishing one year in the Oberlin Theological Seminary, at Oberlin, Ohio, he became acting pastor of the Congregational Chureh in Berea, Ohio, for the summer of 1904. In the fall of this year, he entered the Union Theological Seminary in New York City and was graduated in 1906. In connection with his work there, he also studied in Columbia University and was a member of the staff of workers in the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church House. On September 23, 1906, he was ordained and installed as pastor of the First Schwenkfelder Chureh of Philadelphia, which congregation he has served most faithfully and acceptably ever since. In 1914 he spent four months on leave of absence, visiting Palestine and the Levant. During the World War, he spent ten months on leave as Y. M. C. A. Seeretary in Camp Stuart, Newport News, Virginia. He is a Trustee of Perkiomen School, Secretary of the Mission Board, and Acting Editor of ‘‘The Schwenkfeldian.”
Rev. Heebner’s contagious optimism is an inspiration to his associates in both church and Sunday School work. Generous and unselfish, he ministers alike to Catholic, Gentile and Jew, and has baptized and taken into the Philadelphia Church members brought up in all these faiths. The Hebrew element having moved into the neighborhood of the Philadelphia Church, Rev. Heebner is a welcome caller in the homes of these people, and many in turn come to hear him preach. When sickness and death enter
a household, irrespective of creed, Rev. Heebner is called upon by the residents of the neighborhood to comfort the sick and to adrninister the rites of burial.