Hillegonda Cornelia van der Smissen (1848-1949), was born at Friedrichstadt, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, on 30 June 1848, a daughter of Carl Justus van der Smissen, and came to the United States with her parents in 1868 where they resided at Wadsworth, Ohio. Ten years later her parents moved to Haysville, Ohio, and in 1890 she followed her mother to Summerfield, Illinois. In 1908 she became the supervisor of the household of the Bethel Deaconess Hospital at Newton, Kansas. On 16 September 1909, she was consecrated as a deaconess, continuing her service to the hospital. She wrote Unsere Arbeit in den Missionsvereinen (no date indicated), pp. 30; The History of Our Missionary Societies (no date indicated, pp. 72) translated by Mrs. J. Quiring; Bilder aus meinem Leben (Bethel Deaconess Hospital, Newton, no date indicated), pp. 86; Sketches from My Life (Bethel Deaconess Hospital, no date indicated), pp. 54. During her last years of a long and fruitful life she was a resident of the Home for the Aged where she died on 29 September 1949, being more than 101 years old.

Bibliography

Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, p. 550. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.

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