Baumgartner, Mary Schirmer (1882-1965)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 25 Mar 1965 p. 5

Birth date: 1882

text of obituary:

Long-Time Missionary to Indians Dies

Newton, Kan. – Funeral services were conducted at Tucson, Ariz. on March 10 for Mrs. Mary Schirmer Baumgartner, long-time missionary to the Hopi Indians who died in a Tucson hospital on March 5. Rev. Walter H. Dyck of Arvada, Colo., a member of the General Conference Board of Missions, officiated at the services.

A native of Basel, Switzerland, Mrs. Baumgartner was among the earlier General Conference missionaries to the Hopis. She went to the Arizona field in 1907 and served there a total of 23 years.

She had a special interest in Hopi children, four of whom she adopted and raised. Daniel Schirmer and his wife Amy have been missionaries to the Indians of Montana and Arizona for 30 years and now reside at Tuba City, Ariz. A son John Schirmer now lives in Los Angeles, Paul Schirmer in Phoenix, and a daughter Mary Martha in Tucson.

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 15 Apr 1965 p. 12

text of obituary:

MARY SCHIRMER BAUMGARTNER

Mary Schirmer Baumgartner was born in Basel, Switzerland, on March 23, 1882, and died in Tucson, Ariz. on March 5, 1965 at the age of 82 years, 11 months, and 17 days.

She was the youngest of eight children born to Anna and Joseph Schirmer. When Mary was six years old the family came to the United States and settled in the Wichita, Kan. area. Here she spent her girlhood and attended Bethel College.

As a young woman she dedicated her life as a missionary among the American Hopi Indians, serving under the Mennonite Board of Missions for over 30 years.

The following was written in her own words and found in the pages of her Bible, as though she were writing her own obituary: “She took four orphaned Indian babied that had been given to her by their people ; she loved them as her own and raised them as her own children. Her husband, Abe Baumgartner, whom she married in 1942 after she resigned from the mission work, loved the Indian people also and adopted the two youngest that she had with her when she married him. . . . Her husband left her in 1956 for his journey home to heaven. She made her home with her daughter Mary Martha who cared for her in her last days.”

She is survived by her four children : Rev. Daniel Schirmer, missionary at Tuba City, Ariz. ; Elder John M. Schirmer, Los Angeles, Calif. ; Paul Baumgartner, Phoenix, Ariz. ; and Mary Martha Baumgartner of Tucson Ariz. ; three step-children, Irvin Baumgartner, West Liberty, Ohio ; Gladyne Becker, Wellington, Kan. ; and Melvina Van Nest, of Los Angeles, Calif. ; five nephews, five nieces, and many relatives and friends.

“She has fought a good fight, she has finished her course, she has kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for her a crown of righteousness. . . .” (paraphrasing II [T]im. 4.7-8).