Eva Helen Messinger
Sept. 22, 1905-Aug. 7, 1996
The Niles Daily Star (Niles, Berrien Co, MI) Thursday, August 8, 1996, page 1, column 5-6 (Microfilm Niles District Library)
Last surviving member of Niles’ Messinger family dies
NILES—Eva Messinger, member of a pioneering Niles family, died early Wednesday at the age of 90, following an extended illness.
Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Friday at Halbritter Funeral Home, Niles, with the Rev. Dr. Ronald H. Wakeman of the First Presbyterian Church, Niles, officiating.
Burial will follow in Silverbrook Cemetery, Niles.
Miss Messinger was born Sept. 22, 1905, in Bertrand Township to Schuyler Colfax Messinger and the former Eva Beard.
Miss Messinger’s grandfather, Samuel Messinger, established a 160-acre farmer on Portage Prairie in Bertrand Township in 1844. The farm was passed on to Miss Messinger’s father, and to his children. Miss Messinger and her brother Simmons, maintained the farm until the 1970s.
She recently donated a 30-acre parcel to the Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy, which was established as the Topinabee Lake Preserve, along with a 41-acre parcel given by friend and neighbor Duane Masten.
“It was really an immense pleasure to get to know Eva. She had an incredible memory, and hearing her stories of her youth were both entertaining and fascinating. She will be dearly missed,” said Conservancy executive director Renee Kivikko said.
Nearly 50 of her friends, family and Conservancy members gathered a the Portage Road site on June 1 for the dedication of the preserve, Kivikko added.
Nephew Joel Gillette remembered his aunt as a “good person” who “didn’t like to sit around.” He recalled plentiful candy when he was young, and the she grew a “Victory Garden” during World War II and would sell vegetables from it.
She worked on the farm with her brothers, baling hay in the summer and cutting and husking corn by hand in the fall.
She continued to work on the farm after her brother LaRue was killed in France in 1918. LaRue Messinger was the first man from Niles to be killed in World War I, succumbing to machine gun fire in the Mihiel Drive on Sept. 12, 1918, at the age of 21.
After LaRue Messinger’s death, the Niles American Legion Post was named in his memory, and carries that name to his day.
Miss Messinger would always host Christmas dinner at the farm, Gillette recalled. “It was always Christmas at the Messingers’.” He said. “She was the organizer, and would always make sure that everyone got dinner.”
Gillette said that his aunt “wouldn’t let anything slow her down,” and until recently would go to club meetings in South Bend and other places, and continued to attend church.
“She kept as busy as she could for her age,” he said.
Miss Messinger was a farmer and a homemaker, and only recently moved into Niles from the family farm on Portage Road where she lived her entire life.
Miss Messenger was member of the First Presbyterian Church and is S.A.G.A. group, the Berrien County (see page 2) Farm Bureau, the Schuyler Colfax chapter of the D.A.R. of South Bend and the Fort St. Joseph Historical Society.
She was a charter and life member of American Legion Post 26 Auxiliary, and was honored as a Gold Star Sister, a designation given to anyone who lost a loved one in World War I
She is survived by a sister, Genevieve Champion of Roseville, Minn.; caregiver Barbara Opfer of Niles, and several nieces and nephews.
She was also preceded in death by her brother Samuel Arthur Messinger and by her brother Charles Simmons Messinger in 1986.
Friends may call for one hour prior to the services at the funeral home. Memorial contributions may be made to the Niles Community Library or to the Fort St. Joseph Museum.