Taking Care of the Poor

May 13, 1932  Jacob went to help cultivate at John T. Classens.   Mama and Mary did a variety of things.  I am sick.

John and Elizabeth Classen were an older couple who were very poor, had no children, and were probably mentally handicapped.  They never bought a car but continued to drive a wagon.  They were no longer able to manage their own farm, so the church organized men to do their farm work for them.  After his wife died in 1944, John Classen was no longer able to live on his own, so the church organized a rotation of people where he could live with them for a few weeks and then move on to the next place, and he stayed at the Siemens on occasion.  The Kleine Gemeinde church believed strongly that they should take care of their own poor, widows, and orphans.