Bergthold, Daniel Franklin (1876-1948)

Daniel F. Bergthold, a foreign missionary of the Mennonite Brethren Church, was born at Pyatigorsk, Stavropol, South Russia, on 12 January 1876, the second of seven children. His parents, Heinrich and Alvina (Starke) Bergthold (see Bergthold, Jakob), were of Galician German descent, earlier from the Palatinate. After the family had lived in the Kuban settlement in the Russian Caucasus for some time, they immigrated to America about 1877, settling on a farm near Bingham Lake, Minnesota. After living at Lehigh, Kansas, a short time, the family went to Kirk, Colorado, where their son Daniel grew up, became converted, and joined the Mennonite Brethren Church in 1890. Daniel attended McPherson College, McPherson, Kansas, for one year, and Moody Bible Institute in Chicago for two and one-half years, then he applied to the Mennonite Brethren Conference for a foreign mission appointment and was accepted as a candidate to India in the fall of 1901. He was, however, first assigned to evangelistic work in the American churches, which he performed for three years. In June 1903 he married Katharina Mandtler of Dalmeny, Saskatchewan. In 1904 the family proceeded as missionaries to the Mennonite Brethren mission field of the Hyderabad state, South India. Six weeks after their arrival Katharina Bergthold died of smallpox. Bergthold then married Anna Epp on 17 September 1905. On 5 September 1915, Anna Bergthold died and on 20 June 1916 Bergthold married Anna Sudermann. He was the father of seven children. Daniel Bergthold was an outstanding pioneer foreign missionary. He established a mission station at Nagarkurnool, an important village 80 miles (130 km) south of Hyderabad, where he did the greater part of his lifework. Having acquired a good command of the Telugu language, he made extensive tours among the villages of that area and preached to many. After some converts had accepted baptism, he established a church which grew and flourished. He spent much time in teaching Scripture, and established a Bible school of which he was principal for seven years. For some time he was business manager of the publication interests of the missions, publishing the vernacular monthly paper, Suvarthamani, and for some time also the English paper, Harvest Field.

After a period of 41 years' service in the mission, Bergthold returned to America in February 1946. He died at Alhambra, California 25 October 1948, and was buried at the Rosehill Community cemetery, Whittier, California.

Author(s)	J. H Lohrenz
Date Published	1953

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MLA style

Lohrenz, J. H. "Bergthold, Daniel Franklin (1876-1948)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1953. Web. 25 Nov 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Bergthold,_Daniel_Franklin_(1876-1948)&oldid=171989.

APA style

Lohrenz, J. H. (1953). Bergthold, Daniel Franklin (1876-1948). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 25 November 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Bergthold,_Daniel_Franklin_(1876-1948)&oldid=171989.

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Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 1, pp. 282-283. All rights reserved.

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