Born February 2, 1882 El Paso, Illinois
Entered Into Rest September 12, 1955
St. Anthony Hospital, Carroll
Age 73 years, 7 months, 10 days
Services Held at Zion Lutheran Church, Manning
Wednesday, September 14, 1955 2 p.m.
Clergymen Pastor George Eschenbacher Pastor Adolph Schwidder Pastor James Hoemann
Interment Manning Cemetery
Pallbearers Donald Beck, Ed Knaack, John Weibl, Jr., Vernon Ehlers, Vertus Vollstedt, Ross Graner.

Pastor J. M. Ansorge
At 3:30 A. M. on September 12 the Lord of life and death called from the Church Militant to the Church Triumphant the soul of Pastor John M. Ansorge, associate pastor of Zion Lutheran Church, Manning. Funeral services were conducted at Manning on September 14, in which Pastor George Eschenbacher, associate pastor of Zion Church, conducted the liturgical part of the service and Pastor Adolph Schwidder of Fort Dodge, a close friend and for many years a neighbor of the deceased, delivered the sermon on the basis of 1 Cor. 15: 57. Pastor Paul G. Bergmann of Carroll, who ministered to the departed during his last hours, read the obituary. Pastor G. W. Lobeck of Council Bluffs, District President, spoke words of consolation on behalf of the District. Burial took place in the Manning Cemetery, where Pastor Theodore Hoemann of Adair, a classmate and close friend, had charge of the committal.

John Martin, the son of Pastor John Ansorge and his wife, Concordia, was born February 2, 1882, at El Paso, Illinois. He was confirmed in Zion Lutheran Church, Ocheyedan, Iowa (Horton Township), soon thereafter enrolling at Concordia College, Fort Wayne, Indiana. Graduating from this institution, he entered Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri, being graduated from there in 1904.

On September 5, 1904, he was ordained and installed at Manning, then a small, struggling village. Here he served for fifty years and was the first and only resident pastor of Zion Congregation until October of last year, when the congregation called Pastor George Eschenbacher to become associate pastor.

Gertrude Heinke became the bride of Pastor Ansorge in June 1907, and for 47 years she was a co-inhabitant of the Manning parsonage, until the Lord called her to her eternal rest on November 12 of last year. This union was blessed with five children: Karl, pastor at Willmar, Minnesota; Max, pastor at Spirit Lake, Iowa; Luella of Omaha, Nebraska; and E. James of Des Moines. Another son, Arthur, for many years pastor in Iowa District West, preceded his father in death in 1949. Nine grandchildren, two brothers, and three sisters also mourn his departure.

In addition to faithful and arduous labors in his congregation, Pastor Ansorge served on the District Board of Directors for many years, as Secretary of Missions. He also served for some time as chairman of the Board of the Lutheran Home-Finding Society of Iowa, and at the time of his passing was one of the counselors of the District Lutheran Women's Missionary League.

During the week prior to his death the sainted pastor had visited in the homes of his children in Minnesota and Iowa and had returned home on Saturday in order to fulfill two preaching engagements on the following Sunday. However, on Saturday afternoon he was stricken with a heart attack and was taken to a Carroll hospital, where, confessing his faith in his Savior to the very end, he departed this life early Monday morning. He attained the age of 73 years, 7 months, and 10 days, of which 51 were spent in the service of the Lord.

"In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto Myself, that where I am, there ye may be also." John 14:2, 3.