Petter, Bertha Kinsinger (1873-1967)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1967 Nov 23 p. 6

Birth date: 1873

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The Mennonite obituary: 1967 Nov 28 p. 727

text of obituary:

Bertha Kinsinger Petter, Billings, Mont., the missionary wife of Rodolphe Petter, died on Nov. 7, at the age of ninety-four, and was buried beside her husband in Lame Deer, Mont. In 1896, she graduated from Wittenburg College, Springfield, Ohio, and went to Cantonment, Okla., where she was to teach for four years at the former Mennonite Mission School for Cheyenne and Arapaho children. She then served as secretary to Rodolphe Petter, filing Cheyenne words for a dictionary and grammar, and proofreading the translations. She also assisted in the preparation of a Cheyenne-English dictionary, a translation of the New Testament from the Greek, portions of the Old Testament, and Pilgrim's Progress. The Petters were married in 1911 and were transferred in 1916 from Oklahoma to Lame Deer, Mont. She taught English to the Cheyenne, worked in the Indian hospital, and helped Petter's Indian assistants to prepare for Sunday worship services. In 1952, she supervised the publication of a Cheyenne grammar, one of the works Petter was engaged in at the time of his death in 1947.