Smissen, Carl Heinrich Anton van der (1851-1950)
Carl Heinrich Anton van der Smissen, a Mennonite General Conference Church minister and editor, was born at Friedrichstadt, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, on 4 December 1851, the son of the Mennonite preacher Carl Justus van der Smissen. He attended the local elementary and high schools, the universities of Basel (1870-72), Tübingen (1872-73), and Halle (1873-74), and the Wadsworth (Ohio) and Haysville (Ohio) academies (1875-80). In 1874 he came to America to join his parents. He served churches while a student and taught public school at Coshocton, Ohio (1880-81). He served the Upper Milford and Hereford Mennonite churches of Zionsville and Bally, Pennsylvania (1881-90), and the Summerfield Mennonite Church, Illinois (1890-1911). He was the editor of the Bundesbote and the Bundesbote-Kalender 1911-29, of the Kinderbote 1911-36, of the Mennonite 1912-14, and of the German Sunday-school quarterlies 1920-43. In 1911-32 he lived at Berne, Indiana. He served as the secretary of the Eastern and Middle district conferences and the General Conference (1896-1902) and was a member of the General Conference Board of Education and Publication (1887-90) and the Board of Foreign Missions (1890-96, 1902-11). He preached in many churches and held many other offices. He and his father were the first American Mennonite teachers and ministers with a full standard theological training.
In 1881 he married Mary E. Knight, who died in 1892. From this marriage were born two children. In 1892 he married Elizabeth B. Ruth. To them were born six children. In 1932 he retired from his active duties and resided in the Home for the Aged at Newton, Kansas. On 30 June 1950, he died, having nearly attained the age of one hundred years of an active life. He was the author of Kurzgefaszte Geschichte und Glaubenslehre der Altevangelischen Taufgesinnten oder Mennoniten (Summerfield, 1895) and Der Eid (Elkhart, 1894).
Bibliography
"C. H. A. van der Smissen." Mennonite Yearbook and Almanac (1927): 34; (1931): 28.
Smissen, Carl H. A. van der. Autobiography. Mennonite Library and Archives (North Newton, Kansas).
| Author(s) | Cornelius Krahn |
|---|---|
| Date Published | 1959 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Krahn, Cornelius. "Smissen, Carl Heinrich Anton van der (1851-1950)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1959. Web. 23 Apr 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Smissen,_Carl_Heinrich_Anton_van_der_(1851-1950)&oldid=163006.
APA style
Krahn, Cornelius. (1959). Smissen, Carl Heinrich Anton van der (1851-1950). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 23 April 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Smissen,_Carl_Heinrich_Anton_van_der_(1851-1950)&oldid=163006.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, pp. 549-550. All rights reserved.
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