Ahva John Clarence Bond 1875-1958  
Categories: Alfred, New York, Milton Junction SDB Church Pastor, Minister / Pastor, Rev. Hurley S. Warren Officiating, The Sabbath Recorder Obituary
"The Sabbath Recorder", Vol 165, No 6, p 13, Aug. 25, 1958.
  Ahva John Clarence Bond was born May 23, 1875, at Roanoke, W. Va., a son of John and Elizabeth Schiefer Bond, and died July 26, 1958, at Bethesda Hospital, North Hornell, N. Y., after a long illness.
  He matriculated at Salem College, Salem, W. Va., and was graduated in 1903 with a Bachelor of Arts degree.   At that time he married Ora E. Van Horn who blest him with six fine daughters who were his pride and joy.   They in turn won for him six stalwart sons-in-law, and in time a numerous progeny of grandchildren.   Their united love brightened Dr. Bond's whole life.
  When his wife Ora died in 1938, he in time married Agnes Kenyon Clarke of Alfred, who so tenderly and loyally cared for him in his latest years and who survives him.   Her two sons added to the happy circle.
  Meantime Salem College had honored its alumnus with a Master of Arts Degree (1912), and a Doctor of Divinity degree (1920).
  By that time or soon after, Dr. Bond held various pastorates, e.g. Milton Junction, Wis., Salem, W. Va., and Plainfield, N. J.   He had also filled important positions in the general work of his denomination, such as leader in Sabbath Promotion, and Forward Movement director.   He had also produces notable articles on various matters of church concern and had written and published books, among which were "Sermons to Boys and Girls." "When I Was a Boy," and "Poems."   He was co-editor and secretary to the Seventh Day Baptist General Conference-appointed committee which produced the latest "Statement of Seventh Day Baptist Beliefs" (1941).
  But this departed leader was not satisfied to confine his activities to his own denomination.   He was active in National Conference of Jews and Christians; in the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America, and the World Council of Churches.   Dr. Bond was a member of the Continuation Committee of the World Conference on Faith and Order; and a delegate at Lausanne, Switzerland (1927) where he represented the regular baptists and the Seventh Day Baptists.   He also attended the significant meeting at Utrecht in 1938.
  From his pastorate in Plainfield, N. J., he moved to the deanship at Alfred University School of Theology in 1935.   This work - the training of Christian ministers - was his outstanding contribution to the denomination he loved.   There he wrought successfully full time for seventeen fruitful years, to which were added a year or two on part time.   Alfred University recognized his years of service with the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters (Litt. D.) at the annual commencement of his last year of teaching.
  Farewell services for Dr. Bond were held in the First Seventh Day Baptist Church of Alfred, July 29, 1958, participated in by Rev. Melvin G. Nida, Rev. Albert N. Rogers, and his pastor, Rev. Hurley S. Warren.   Interment was in Alfred Rural Cemetery.     - Alfred Sun

Ora Emford (Van Horn) Bond 1879-1938  
Categories: Alfred, New York, The Sabbath Recorder Obituary
"The Sabbath Recorder", Vol 125, No 22, p 389, Nov. 28, 1938
  Ora Van Horn, daughter of William B. and Elsie Kennedy Van Horn, was born at Lost Creek, W. Va., September 8, 1879.   When she was in her early teens her parents moved to Salem where the older children could attend Salem College, recently founded by her father and others.   She was graduated from Salem College with the Bachelor of Arts degree in 1903.
  A week after graduation, June 17, 1903, she was united in marriage to Ahva J. C. Bond of Roanoke, W. Va., a member of the same graduating class.   In the autumn of that year they began housekeeping in Alfred, where Mr. Bond entered the School of Theology.   During all the years since, she has been to him a wise counselor, a devoted companion, and a constant support and inspiration.
  To them were born six daughters: Elizabeth Pearcy of Plainfield, N. J.; Virginia Spicer of Alfred; Mary Lewis of Plainfield; Wilna, a teacher in Ohio; Nellie, at home; and Ahvagene, a student in New York University.
  Besides her capacity to love people and to win their love, perhaps her chief characteristics were those of sincerity, devotion to all that is best, and a love of genuineness and purity.   These she sought to possess for herself and she tried to cultivate them in others, especially in her own family.
  While she entered whole-heartedly into the life of the community wherever it was her lot to live, her constant interest was in her family.   Her first concern for her children was that they be Christian in thought and conduct, giving their best services to the church.   In this she was interested in promoting their happiness and the good of others.   She encouraged them in their school work and gave them every opportunity within her power to make good.   In their music she was their greatest inspiration and their safest critic.   Her last act of planning for the education of her children was to take student roomers this fall in order that her youngest daughter might have better advantages in music.
  In it all she never neglected her husband and his work.   It was hers as well as his, whether in the local pastorate, some special denominational task, or some part in the larger work of the Christian Church.   She was very much interested in the School of Theology and its students.   To her must go much credit for the more comfortable living quarters now enjoyed by the students, as well as other improvements in the building.
  She was not a crusader or a reformer in the usual meaning of those terms.   She loved peace and prayed for world peace.   She believed in temperance and advocated total abstinence, which included not only liquor but anything else not helpful to the human body or the human spirit.   She loved the Sabbath and believed in its power, when properly observed, to strengthen and sweeten life.
  While too busy with practical matters to give much time to literary effort, she had literary ability, as has been demonstrated on occasion.   Last summer she spent much time on the lawn of Crandall Hall in her wheel chair and on a cot.   This gave her time to write, for she needs must be busy.
  She wrote an article, "My Garden," which appeared in the Sabbath Recorder and which brought her several approving letters.   This did not express all she had got from her garden, so she wrote another which she called "My Garden in Autumn."   This illustrates her literary ability and also her spirit and ideals.     - Contributed