Delmer Bender, Helene (Bender) Eicher, Hilda (Bender) Roth

Helene (Bender) Eicher (b. 1929), Hilda (Bender) Roth (b. 1930) and Delmer Bender (b. 1938) were born on a farm in East Zorra Township.  Their parents, Aaron and Delila (Ruby) Bender, had nine children. The family attended the Cassel Amish Mennonite Church and S. S. No. 7, Facey’s Public School. Their first language was Deitsch. 

When Helene and Hilda were young children and Delmer was not yet born, their father died suddenly of a heart attack while working in the field. For a number of years their widowed mother continued to farm and then moved to a house on the Town Line, two miles east of Tavistock. Helene, Hilda and Delmer completed their 8th grade educations and got laboring jobs to assist their mother. 

Helene, who is seated at the right in this interview, was baptized by Bishop Daniel S. Iutzi (1873–1960), who required each candidate to repeat a brief confession of faith in German. She worked at the Woolen Mill in Tavistock until she married William Eicher of Milverton, ON, in 1948. They lived in Milverton and raised two daughters. They were members of the Poole Mennonite Church. William died in 1997 and Helene moved to the Nithview retirement community in New Hamburg in 2016. She died in 2024.

Hilda worked in several different places: at the Tavistock Woolen Mill, in stores, and in a nursing home. She retired in 1990 and married Harvey Roth.  They lived in Statford until moving to Nithview in New Hamburg in 2015. Harvey died in 2016. Hilda is a member of the East Zorra Mennonite Church.

Delmer Bender worked for local farmers and then for decades worked as a cheesemaker at the Baden Cheese Factory, helping to make a specialty cheese known as Limburger. He also operated a dry cleaning business. Delmer married Lauretta Wilker of Millbank and they lived in New Hamburg. They were the parents of three sons. Delmer and Lauretta were members of the East Zorra Mennonite Church and Delmer took a keen interest in genealogy and church history. Lauretta died in 2011. In 2021 Delmer moved to Nithview in New Hamburg.