Obituary

Rev. Daniel Hege was born December 26, 1826 at Kleinkarlbach, Upper Palatinate and died of typhoid fever on November 30. 1872 at Summerfeld, Illinois. He was the son of John Hege, a miller and Margaret Bergtholdt. He married Barbara Lehman on July 19, 1857. He came to America in November 1851. In the spriing of 1852, he stayed with brother John Hege in Indiana. The latter part of 1856, he started a Mennonite parochial school in West Point, Iowa and was ordained to the ministry there on October 12, 1856. He taught as a private tutor near Oskaloosa, Iowa the next wiinter. He returned to West Point and taught and preached until 1859 when he moved to pastor at the Summerfield church and was instrumental in securing solicitations for the General Conference. He is one of the conference leaders who is buried near the church which was locted south of Summerfeld. In 1910 the congregation moved to a building in town that had formerly been the Engliish Methodist Church.

In 1983 a Monument was erected in the Summerfield Cemetery telling a brief history of the Mennonite Church at Summerfeld which says "Here lie the mortal remains of many Mennonite pioneers who left their homes in Eurrope in search of a place to live and worship as their non-violent faith directed.

NOTE: According to the Mennonite Historical Society of Canada, Daniel Hege was one of the outstanding early leaders of the General Conferencee of the mennonite church in the United States. He was from Klein-Karlbach near Grunstadt in the Palatinate. He served as prescher until 1859 and then served as a traveling evangelist for the conference until his untimely death in 1862.