Schmidt, Augusta (1894-1991)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 17 Jan 1991 p. 8

Birth date: 1894

text of obituary:

Newton & Vicinity

A memorial service for Augusta Schmidt, 97, of Kidron Bethel Home for the Aged, Newton, was held Jan. 13 at Sister Frieda Chapel in Newton, with Darrell Fast officiating. Burial was at Tabor Cemetery, rural Goessel. A native of Goessel, she was a registered nurse and a missionary in India under the Commission on Overseas Mission (GC) from 1927- 57. Survivors include one brother, Rudolph B. Schmidt of rural Newton.

24 Jan 1991 p. 11

A Tribute: A Missions Giant Dies

By Lubin W. Jantzen

NEWTON, KAN.—When Augusta Schmidt's colleagues in India learned of her death on Jan. 11 at age 96, they felt a giant among them had fallen.

Augusta served in India from 1927-57 under the General Conference Overseas Mission Board.

Her interest in mission began in Russia, in the mind and heart of her mother, who had wanted to become a missionary. That hope was dashed when the family migrated to Goessel, Kan. Her mother, however, inspired her children to serve the Lord. Augusta's brother Henry became a pastor. At age 14, Augusta dedicated herself to serve in God's kingdom.

After she graduated from the normal training course at Bethel Academy, Augusta taught in schools near Goessel for three years. In 1922 she received a bachelor of arts degree from Bethel College, North Newton. In 1923 she received a master of arts degree in religious education from Witmarsum Seminary, Bluffton, Ohio. The following year she taught high school in Lehigh, Kan.

SHE NEXT ENROLLED in nurses training at Bethel Deaconess Hospital, Newton. She completed nurses training in 1927. Later that year the mission board sent her to India.

Her first major task in India was to operate a medical dispensary at Korba in the Central Province. She also was active in evangelism. Her degree of devotion to the Lord and her work earned her a rare title from the local Indian commmunity. Like the Hindu sadhus (holy and devoted men), she was called sadhu-ni (holy and devoted woman).

Her first furlough, from 1933-35, included training in midwifery in Chicago and graduate studies at Chicago Theological Seminary.

During her second term in India, Augusta was appointed temporary principal of the new Boys Middle School at Jagdeshpur. The school, now called Jansen Memorial High School, grew into one of the most influential places for training General Conference leaders in India.

THE STUDENTS and teachers of this new school had been transferred to Jagdeeshpur from Mauhadih following a devastating flood at Mauhadih in 1937.

The three male teachers at the school unexpectedly went on strike to protest the appointment of a woman administrator—it was contrary to Indian custom for a woman to supervise men—and their assignments to conduct industrial arts classes and teach Bible classes in addition to their regular teaching loads.

Augusta allowed the strike. She rallied other missionary women and continued the work of the school without interruption. The men soon realized they were dispensable, changed their attitudes and went back to work. The school has prospered ever since.

Augusta spent her third term in India, from 1944-50, as principal of Funk Memorial Girls School in Janjgir from 1944-50. The school was founded by Annie Funk, who drowned in the Titanic tragedy in 1912 on her way back to the United States.

AUGUSTA ALSO was the parent of the girls at the orphanage at the school. Her parental responsibilities included finding suitable marriage partners for the girls among the Christian young men in the Mennonite or neighborhood congregations.

In his booklet on Janjgir, her colleague S. T. Moyer wrote in 1947: "There is possibly no harder worker than Miss Augusta Schmidt. You never hear about her. Her name seldom appears in print. But she is one of the missionaries in India who is making a most worthy contribution to building Christian homes, to establish Christian churches in India, by her work with our Christian girls."

Augusta's training and experience brought her to Bethesda Leprosy Home and Hospital in Champa for her last term, 1951-56. She was director of nursing at the hospital and principal of Kirkham Middle School for healthy children of leprous parents.

HER DEVOTION to the Lord and his Word, her deep humility and her quiet, steady and loving ways solved many problems in the school, hospital and church.

In 1957, after her 30 years of service in India, Augusta settled in Newton. But she was not idle. She taught weaving at Northview Developmental Center, a sheltered workshop for the handicapped; helped start a secondhand shop; became "Auntie Augusta" and a "second grandmother" to nieces and nephews and their children; and cared for three sisters until their deaths. In 1978 she retired to Bethel Home for Aged, where she lived until her death.

A memorial service was held Jan. 13 at Sister Frieda Chapel, Newton, with burial in the Tabor Mennonite Church Cemetery, rural Newton. Her survivors include a brother and nieces and nephews.

The writer was one of Augusta Schmidt's colleagues in India from 1947-58. "We didn't work on the same station, but we got together quite often," he says.