EARLY CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCES
I remember very little of my early childhood. I do remember sliding down the coal in the bin with my three year old brother, Eugene. I had a wet diaper on! On another occasion we climbed on the woodpile in the shed and I fell down and hit a corner of a cement block. I still have that scar in my head.
I have some memory of Eugene’s funeral and seeing him in a casket. He died of complications of appendicitis at six years of age.
The next thing I remember was that dad put a new roof on the house and I needed to stack the old wooden shingles into little ranks so mother could burn them in the stove.
I remember using my inner tube slingshot to shoot stones into mom’s cabbages and tulips in the garden. I also made “mud pies” with chicken eggs. I got caught on all three of these occasions and got a spanking for it as I knew better.
On another occasion I used the stove poker to make little holes in the front door screen because it was fun. It was, but the seat of my pants got dusted just the same.
In the summer I spent a lot of time fishing in the local ditch, the Army Ditch, and Haney’s gravel pit where I also learned to swim. This stopped when I was twelve as now it was time to learn dad’s trade of being a carpenter.
I also remember dad making me a scooter with wooden wheels and old bicycle tired tacked on the rims of the wheels. I was around five years old. I still have it. He also made me a little workbench. Verle has it now.
When I was fourteen Ora Hochstetler, who lived on Miami Road near Bremen, needed a new barn. Dad built it. I carried every block in that wall, made the scaffolding, and mixed the mortar as dad laid the blocks. That year I also was able to put on five squares of wood shingles in one day.
When I was I the seventh grade I had whooping cough and stayed out of school in March and helped Uncle Elmer cook maple syrup.
When I was around seven or eight years old, Herman Miller, Harley Miller, and Gilbert Miller were neighbor boys. Gilbert was the oldest and now lives in Wisconsin. One of us had found a nickel. Eli Hershberger had a store on the corner just west of our home. In those days a Baby Ruth candy bar was big. We four bought one and divided it. Just about then, Harley had to go to the toilet (outhouse) and is piece fell in. Gilbert got two corn cobs and fished it out, washed it off, and no one was "out" anything!
SCHOOL EXPERIENCES
The year I started to school it got real cold and began to snow one day. The bus came early to take us home. It got stuck on Ren Town Road. Levi Schrock and Mose Helmuth helped shovel it out. We had no school for some weeks as it was too cold.
I remember being in a school play once but I don’t remember the details except I was scared to death of participating.
My last year at the Muncie School on US 331 in the fourth grade. A New school was built in Bremen in 1939 and I started fifth grade there. Rocksie Smith was the teacher.
I remember we had to write words we spelled wrong on the blackboard. Mel Miller got the idea of using three pieces of chalk at once so it would not take so long to write 50 words. We got caught at this innovation. My first grade teacher was Mary Young. Another one was one of Jim Huff’s older sisters but I have forgotten her name. It may have been Janet.
I got good grades in school and liked it a lot. In high school I took college prep courses with an eye to becoming a medical doctor. But Dad had other ideas on that one. He felt I should stay at home and learn to work. I did comply and thus gave up on becoming a doctor.
During my high school years when I was about 17 years old, I wanted a car. Dad thought that 21 years old was young enough to get one.
I got a part time job working at night at a wallpaper factory in Bremen. My job was to sweep the floor, bale the waste paper, clean the restrooms, and clean out the paint trenches under the printers. I got $34 a week. On occasion I also unloaded carloads of clay that went into the paint. I don’t remember the wages.
I got a 1938 Ford car and it broke a valve spring. Joe Jones had a garage in Bremen and I took it there. He allowed me to work on it myself and then began to help him on Saturdays or on other holidays from school. This was my introduction to auto mechanics.
In high school I took six solid courses. Biology was easy so I got my history lesson done in biology class to the consternation of Mr. Nichols. He could not say much as I got a perfect paper on exams.
EARLY TRAVEL EXPERIENCES
I completed high school in three and a half years and went to Greece on a cattle ship which left Newport News, Virginia, in the spring or February of 1947. When we left Newport News it was at night. The next morning I got seasick. I thought I would die. The next day I wished I could and the third day it would have been fine with me if the ship sank and me with it. I was so sick. I slept on the hay between two rows of mules. But I recovered. This trip took a little over a month. The cattle caretakers were for the most part young Mennonite men. Wayne Leichty from Archbold, Ohio, was the crew leader and spiritual director. This crew holds a reunion periodically, and by now some have already died. We had 350 brown Swiss cows, some bulls, 125 donkeys, 350 mules, and some stallion horses but I forgot how many of which were sent to where war had been. We went to Piaraus, the harbor of Athens, Greece. I worked in third hold down with the mules. I don’t like mules to this day. Two mules died enroute.
The ship “Plymouth Victory” docked in the harbor at night. The next morning the gang plank was lowered for the stewards to come unload the animals. They fell all over each other getting in there. I had never seen anyone in such a hurry to get to work. I soon saw why. They hurried to the garbage cans , as many men as could get around one, and they sorted out anything edible. When they were done the cans were licked clean. I never forgot the lesson. I abhor waste to this day. If you bought a pastry or some such thing at a street shop and dropped a crumb big enough to be seen, grown people got it and ate it.
Lawrence Good was sick the whole way over and all the way back during which we got into a storm. The captain said it was the worst storm he had been in for five years. Lawrence lost 30 pounds. During the storm on the way home we had nothing to do. We discovered that if you jumped up the same time as the ship went down over a wave, your feet would leave the floor eight to ten feet. Wayne Leichty could jump higher than anyone else. On one jump the ship went sideways. He came down just inside the railing! That was the end of our jumping.
LIFE AFTER HIGH SCHOOL
From ages 19-21 I had worked on Saturdays and evenings at Glen Mast’s auto and implement shop in Nappanee and learned the engine mechanic trade more thoroughly.
I also bought a new 1950 Chevrolet car. I worked for Jerry Caccico who restored antique things. One Saturday he told me to solder a loose ferrul on an old muzzle loader shot gun. I put the ram rod down the barrel to see if it was empty and I thought it was. However, it was loaded with black powder and shot. In the process of heating it for the solder to stick, it went off - the shot went past my leg, through the back of a chair, and into the wall!
In November of 1950 I went to Puerto Rico as a maintenance mechanic at the LaPlata Hospital near Aibonito, Puerto Rico. This also included the care of missionaries’ cars. The mechanic just before me had a physical disability and work was piled up all over. I worked sixteen hours a day for nine months to get it caught up. Our allowance was $10 a month. I learned a lot those two years. I had two years of high school Spanish but it took me four months before I could really understand what people said. I paid close attention to the local accent and even today if I speak to a Mexican, he will tell me, “You learned that in Cuba or Puerto Rico!”
Bob Yoder was there at this time. He met Dorothy Lehman and married her as did Orris Yoder and Doris Lehman. Clair and Donnabelle Hoover worked in the hospital and Maurice and Marjorie Hooley were also there. He ran the farm and she was in a serving project. Those were unforgettable experiences that are still alive in my mind even today.
MARRIAGE ,FAMILY, WORK, AND MINISTRY
I had made Edna’s acquaintance when she lived in Middlebury. She was 16, but it broke up. In 1951 I wrote her a Christmas card from Puerto Rico - and she responded. In 1952 she was in DesAllemands, Louisiana, teaching Bible School and I went to visit her during my vacation time. We decided to get married in December of 1952. We were married in Bay Shore Church, Sarasota, Florida, on December 7 by Tim Brenneman. Mom, dad, and Uncle Oscar came by train to the wedding. The next day we went to Tampa and bought a pick-up truck and drove it to Indiana. We stopped in Indianapolis and I got a job at the Methodist Hospital on the maintenance crew. I got one year credit for “1W” service by being in Puerto Rico, but we stayed two years at the Methodist Hospital. I did mostly electrical work, boiler maintenance, and repair of the electric dynamos and steam engines that turned them. I learned a lot more these two years.
Clair and Donald were born at the Methodist Hospital during this time and in 1954, I bought Ed Borkholder’s welding shop. I now took an evening arc welding course and a machine shop course at a technical high school in Indianapolis.
During October of 1954 I had some vacation days coming and we built a cellar house for us to live in. We made a lot of weekend trips from Indianapolis to home during that time moving our things.
On January 7, 1955, I began working for myself. All the work experience of the past now became very beneficial. Verle and Lee were born at the Goshen Hospital.
The decision to buy Ed’s shop was providential as I book back. There was a 37 acre farm north of Wakarusa, two miles with a corner cut off by a ditch. Dad and I looked at it and decided to pay $11,000 for it. It was coming up for sale on auction. My intent was to work as a car mechanic for someone else until I had the money and put up a garage of my own. The same week of this sale, Ed offered me his shop.
We went to the sale. It brought $11,600. On the way back I told Ed I will take his offer. By the time we had a basement house, some used furniture, and bought tools, we were $9,000 in debt. It looked like a mountain to me. Things went well and in three years we had it paid for. We saved our money. Edna said we should tithe our income. My parents never did, but we did. By 1959 we had the money to build a new house. Dad was going to do it, but heart failure set in so all he got done was the plan, the lumber requirement bill, and he made the windows out of popular wood. Elmer Slabaugh built it out of dead yellow elm that Uncle Cal gave me as there was no market for them then. They died in 1957. I cut down the trees and hauled the lumber home. The sawing bill was $250.
The plumbing, heating, and electrical work I did myself. John Brandenbury, whom I had met in Puerto Rico and for whom Edna had worked for earlier in life, laid the bricks. Loren Stichter did the field stone and chimney. I made the fire place. Later on, Lee added the chimney to the south side. This place is known as 2030 Beech Road, Nappanee, Indiana. It served us well until we moved from there in July 1992. I had sold Verle one half of the business the year after he completed high school. He picked up the management several years later and did better than I could at that part. I was a repairman and he was a manufacturer, so the repair business was phased out.
I had a light stroke in 1991, recovered from it, and sold Verle the other half of the business in mid-1991. I worked another year for him and then began to retire. He built a new factory on the curve of U. S. 6, one half mile west. We had a public sale on October 6, 1992, and sold the accumulations of 35 years. We sold the house and other buildings to Lamoine Miller.
When Verle was less than three years old we had a teeter totter I had made from an iron kettle, car hub, and plank. It went up and down and around. Donald was in the center turning it and Verle was on one end. Donald ran it too fast and Verle fell off and broke his thigh bone. He was in traction 13 days in the Goshen Hospital and 13 days in a cast. A week later you wouldn’t know anything had happened. Someone from the family stayed all night with him in the hospital.
When Clair was about ten years old, I went somewhere on a Saturday afternoon. I gave four little jobs for the boys to do. When I got back, three were done and one wasn’t done. I asked, “Why didn’t you do this one too?” They said, “We forgot.” I handed out a lecture on forgetting things and added, “When I know something, I don’t forget it.” Fifteen minutes later I had to admit I had forgotten something. I heard about it for months. I resolved to never say such a stupid thing again.
In 1962 I began to look at what the Bible said about demons and allied themes. Such ideas were not approved of at that time, even theologians told me so. I found it to be reality, however, along with what I ultimately read in Kurt Koch’s book, Between Christ and Satan -- which is now titled The Lure of the Occult. Edna and I went through some hair-raising experiences over the years which resulted in seeing and helping many troubled persons who had gotten into occult practices, either personally or ancestrally. Some of these persons had demonic problems. Today nearly 40 years later, there is still a steady stream of people - and increasing. Jesus is the deliverer and healer.
I traveled for five weeks with Dr. Koch in December 1972 – January 1973 in the Carribean area and learned a lot from him. I could write a book about all these things.
In 1986 Indiana-Michigan Conference gave me the ordination credentials for deliverance ministry – the only person, so far, in the history of the Mennonite Church with such credentials! I have learned that secular psychology and psychiatry do not fill the needs of such “oppressed” persons. They need to come to the Savior, Jesus the Christ. It is He who has defeated satan and his host on the cross (I John 3:8). At least 80% of cases of demonization come from causes related to the ancestry of persons, and emotional brokenness is a large part of such problems.
[Clair's note: Another autobiographical paper Dean wrote in 2003 documents his journey into this ministry much more thoroughly.]
One Saturday in June of 1976 I was very busy with work. I wanted Donald to stay home and help me. He worked at Newmar Trailer Company at the time during the week. He said, “No, I am going swimming in Lake Michigan with my friends.” He dove into the Lake head first and didn’t see a sandbar. He hit his head and broke his neck. It left him quadriplegic. He was 21 years old then, and spent 21 more years in a wheelchair. He died four years ago, April 20, 1997, from pneumonia.
This was the most trying experience Edna and I ever had. We cared for him four years after he left the Hospital and began to see that emotional recovery for him was not possible as long as he lived with us. Friends of his decided to get a household together in Goshen and did so. It took him 15 years to accept what had happened to him. This “house” experience lasted nine years and he spent his remaining years living in [Millers Merry Manor in Wakarusa and] Greencroft Nursing Center in Goshen, Indiana.
In 1976 Edna and I made a trip to Israel and took a course of study for three weeks on Mt. Zion, American School of Holy Land studies. It was on the history and geography of Israel and its theological implications. We had ten days of field trips. We learned a lot. To me it was like a year of seminary training. Jim Flemming was the instructor. On the way home we spent a few days sight-seeing in Switzerland and went by train from there to Leer, Germany, where Clair had been an exchange student one summer when he was a 16 year old in high school. We spent several days with the Harmes family where Clair had stayed. We took the train back to Frankfort and flew home.
In the summer of 1970, Verle cut up a lot of junk in the back lot. He got a pony and hay and I bought a 1957 four-place Piper Tri-pacer airplane with the junk money. Bob Birky sold it to me and taught me to fly it. I had it for twelve years until I had to make a decision. It was either my plane or not see troubled people. I gave the airplane to Missionary Aviation Fellowship.
OTHER MAJOR LIFE EXPERIENCES
I liked to travel and was in 42 countries over the years. Health problems began to take their toll. In 1995 I had both knees replaced. Next was surgery for adding a defibrilator for a fast heart rhythm which had nearly killed me one night. Dr. Gettinger said so. The electrical system of my heart is cut in two and I have a pacemaker which runs the ventrical side of the heart. Dr. Buck said I would likely have five years to live which are now "up", but I am still here! We no longer travel outside the United States.
In 1989 we were in Sicily and West Africa for some months. Lee and his family were in Mali with Wycliffe Bible Translators Association so we visited them. I also had speaking engagements in Sicily and in Oweri, Nigeria. We got malaria which nearly killed us. We recovered after some weeks. The last time that I was out of the States was in 1993 in central England. I have crossed the Atlantic Ocean ten times in all.
Life has been good.
We have a burial plot next to Donald at the Locke Cemetery.
[Clair's note: after this was written, both Dean and Edna decided to donate their whole bodies after death for the purposes of medical education at IU Medical Center in Indianapolis. So, their cremains will eventually come to rest together in one cemetery lot, in a much smaller space, making room for the rest of us who choose cremation.]
Dean Hochstetler
5-11-2001
