Introduction

Biography

Daniel was the son of John Bend­er and Eli­za­beth Ot­to. He mar­ried three times: to Ida E. Mill­er (1896), Sall­ie Luc­retia Mill­er (1906), and An­na M. Krei­der Ben­der Die­ner (1929).

Bender was or­dained a Men­non­ite min­is­ter in 1887 at Springs, Penn­syl­van­ia. He served as bi­shop in the Hess­ton, Kan­sas, con­gre­ga­tion, and was mod­er­at­or of the Men­non­ite Ge­ne­ral Con­fer­ence in 1915.

He helped launch va­ri­ous pub­li­ca­tions, such as the Ad­vanced Sun­day School Less­on Quar­ter­ly (1903) and the Pri­ma­ry Sun­day School Quar­ter­ly (1905).

He al­so ed­it­ed, at va­ri­ous times, the Her­ald of Truth, Words of Cheer, The Gos­pel Wit­ness and The Gos­pel Her­ald.

In 1909, he be­came prin­ci­pal of Hess­ton Aca­de­my and Bi­ble School, Hess­ton, Kan­sas.

He lat­er be­came pre­si­dent of Hess­ton Col­lege and Bi­ble School when a college de­par­tment was add­ed, and con­tin­ued un­til re­tir­ing in 1930.