Jacob B. Harder

1900 – 1975

Jacob Bernhard Harder was born to Bernhard & Anna (Janzen) Harder in Friedensfeld, South Russia on September 27, 1900. In 1909 the family moved to the village of Chortitza in Siberia. In 1924 Jacob moved to Slavgorod, where he served as recording secretary in the Menno Verband.

He accepted Christ as his personal Savior at age 22 and was baptized and joined the Chortitza Mennonite Brethren Church on June 10, 1923. He loved music and at 18 became the conductor of the church choir in the Chortitza Church, a position his father relinquished to his aspiring son. Almost immediately after his baptism in 193, he also began his preaching ministry.

When he moved to Slavgorod in 1924, he continued to serve as choir director and minister there. This was also where he met and married his wife Kaethe on August 8, 1926. For more than 48 years they shared in the marriage relationship. God blessed them with 5 children, three sons and two daughters.

In 1929, they emigrated to Canada, settling first in Rosthern, Sask., for three months and then moving to B.C. After a short stay in Yarrow, B.C., they established a home on a farm in Greendale in 1930. The Greendale Mennonite Brethren Church, then known as Sardis MB Church, was founded in early 1931. That spring (1931), Jacob gathered a group of 16 to 20 voices and organized Greendale MB church’s first choir with himself as the first conductor. He also taught Bible and Music courses at the Yarrow Elim Bible School and conducted the Bible School choir for several years in the 1950’s.


Jacob Harder served the Greendale MB church as an ordained minister, he was also the choir director for 43 years until the summer of 1974, bringing his final message on August 25th. Often, he not only conducted the choir but also preached many Sunday morning sermons and officiated at funerals and weddings. He was also a Sardis rural route mail carrier and a farmer, on his 17acre dairy and raspberry farm in Greendale. Appropriately, his last public ministry was the conduction of the mass German choir at the Mennonite centennial celebrations in Chilliwack on September 15, 1974.

He lived a full life and remained content and thankful to the end. After a time of illness in 1971, God graciously restored him to the family for another three years. He departed to be with the Lord on January 2, 1975, at the age of 74. He served the Lord joyfully and went home willingly.

The family rejoice in the memory of his full and victorious life. Left to mourn his passing are his wife, Kaethe; 3 sons: Peter & Katherine; Walter & Betty; Alvin & Esther; 2 daughters: Lillian & Roger Macauley and Alice; nine grandchildren; three sisters: Mrs. Susanna Janzen, Vancouver; Anna Harder, Greendale and Mrs. Tina Ewert, Chilliwack. He was predeceased by his parents and his brother John and sister Helen.

Pastor Harry Heidebrecht officiated at the funeral service at the Greendale Mennonite Brethren Church. Pallbearers were John Doerksen, David Balzer, David Dirks, Cork Wiens, William Friesen and Abram Bergman. Interment was at Greendale Cemetery.