Petter, Marie Gerber (1869-1910)
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Marie Gerber Petter, was a General Conference Mennonite (GCM) missionary among the Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho in Oklahoma (Indian Territory) from 1891 to 1910.
She was born 24 October 1869 to Christian Gerber and Elisabeth Geiser, Mennonites living on the Les Veaux Farm in the Jura Mountains of Switzerland. In 1890 she married Rodolphe Petter, of Reformed Church background, whom she had met while he was visiting her brother. When she and Rodolphe married, he joined her church.
When S. F. Sprunger from Berne, Indiana, visited Switzerland, he persuaded the Petters to come to the United States as the first Swiss Mennonite missionaries. The Petters toured Mennonite congregations in North America and spent a year in English language study before beginning their missionary assignment in Indian Territory. They were the first missionary couple there to be assigned exclusively to reaching adults and to learning the language. Two children were born to the Petters: Olga and Valdo. Marie Gerber Petter died 31 July 1910 of tuberculosis. She is buried in the Cantonment, Oklahoma.
Bibliography
Barrett, Lois. The Vision and the Reality: The Story of Home Missions in the General Conference Mennonite Church. Newton, KS: Faith and Life, 1983: index.
Petter, Rodolphe. "Some Reminiscences of Past Years in My Mission Service Among the Cheyenne." Mennonite 51, no. 44 (10 November 1936): 16 (also printed as a separate pamphlet).
Author(s) | Lois Barrett |
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Date Published | 1987 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Barrett, Lois. "Petter, Marie Gerber (1869-1910)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1987. Web. 1 Sep 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Petter,_Marie_Gerber_(1869-1910)&oldid=93291.
APA style
Barrett, Lois. (1987). Petter, Marie Gerber (1869-1910). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 1 September 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Petter,_Marie_Gerber_(1869-1910)&oldid=93291.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 5, pp. 699-700. All rights reserved.
©1996-2024 by the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. All rights reserved.