This is not published in The LINK but it was written for publication in The Conference Journal of the Central Pennsylvania Conference of The United Methodist Church in which Mother and Father served for many years.
Memoir of Mrs. Ruth Faus Wolgemuth
The fourteenth of sixteen siblings, Ruth Wolgemuth was born on September 13, 1917 in rural Manheim, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. While not chosen as one of four children for a high school education she learned the blessing and honor of a good days work along with a fervent Christian faith from her parents, Albert Baker Faus and Annie Brubaker Gibble, a sister of Dr. Phares Brubaker Gibble, a prominent leader in the Evangelical United Brethren Church. She learned a simple, humble, and obedient lifestyle among the Brethren in Christ in Lancaster County. The gift of hospitality of her mother followed Ruth throughout her life. Ruth learned the blessing of hard work from her father on the farm, sometimes behind the cultivators harnessed to Amanda, her favorite mule. To help support the large family Ruth sewed shoes at Gerberich Payne Shoe Company in Mount Joy, a four-mile walk from the farm.
On September 16, 1938, Ruth married a neighbor, Paul Lehman Wolgemuth. Following nine years of farming in Lancaster County, she accepted the supportive role to her husband in full-time ministry. Together they served churches among the Brethren in Christ in Southwest Virginia, Central Pennsylvania, and South Central Kentucky. Upon Paul’s return to college, Ruth worked in food services at Messiah College to support the family of five.
Ministry with the Evangelical United Brethren Church/United Methodist Church began in 1961 with appointments in this annual conference in Sugar Valley, Bethleham/Springvale, Winfield, and Mifflinburg.
Ruth was known for her hearty laughter, her love of her siblings, her devotion to her husband and family. Her carefree and cheerful manner and her devotion to Jesus Christ were a blessing to the churches she and her husband served. She enjoyed time in the kitchen, singing, sewing, and gardening. After Paul’s decease in 1999 Ruth made her home in Lewisburg, Pennsylania, and her last years at the Blue Ridge Christian Home near her daughter in Virginia.
Cancer took the earthly life of Ruth on May 29, 2009. Her funeral service was held at Albright United Methodist Church in Winfield. She is interred at the church of her youth, Mastersonville Brethren in Christ Church near Manheim.
Ruth is mother to Gerald Wolgemuth of Harrisburg, Doris Fredricksen of Fairfield, Virginia, and Dennis Wolgemuth of Hershey, Pennsylvania. At the time of Ruth’s death, there were seven grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
In the thoughts of her children, in the words of Solomon, and in the language of Ruth’s youth, “She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness. Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her.
Finally in the benediction heard hundreds of times from her husband, Paul, “Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.”
