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Archival description
Only top-level descriptions Mennonite Church USA Archives Mennonite women -- Diaries
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Agnes Albrecht Gunden Papers

  • US MCUSAA HM1/332
  • Collection
  • 1905-1942

The collection includes a diary 1905-1907; Diary 1907-1909; Diary 1909-1910; and diary 1913-1915. Also included is a diary 1910-1912, a diary 1922-1925, and a variety of correspondence with people involved in mission activities. The diaries from 1905-10 were written when Agnes was single, and when she was between the age of 17 and 23, while living in Illinois.  Her diaries tell of every day events in her life including weather, school work, funerals, visitors, church services in English and German and sermon texts, chores, anxiety over church dissensions, concern for starving in India, great interest in missions, a trip to Oregon, California, and Oklahoma, train ride over Rocky Mountains, and the Inauguration Day of President Taft.  Taken from  “A Guide to Mennonite Women’s Diaries (1840-1950), by Anne Yoder, Mennonite Quarterly Review, October 1996, page 488.

Gunden, Agnes Albrecht, 1888-1963

Amanda Eby Leaman Papers

  • US MCUSAA HM1/610
  • Collection
  • 1894-1937

Personal papers, mostly diaries, of a domestic mission worker of the (old) Mennonite Church.  Leaman, sister of Clara Eby Steiner, served the Mennonite Home Mission (Chicago, Ill.) with her husband, Amos Hershey Leaman, for twenty years.  The diaries are a rich source of information about Leaman's mission service, spiritual life, and personal experiences.  Among other topics, she describes her work as a teacher and mission worker, experiences with Chicago's immigrant community and new converts to Christianity, her engagement and marriage, various illnesses and deaths in the family, Women's Missionary Society and Sewing Circle Meetings, and disagreement among mission staff over a church organ. Her diaries cover the years 1894-1902, 1904-1926, and 1931-1937.

Other materials in her papers include a book of clippings, poetry and prose collected by the Leamans, drawings of Amanda and Amos Leaman, and miscellaneous correspondence and ephemera found in her diaries and other journals.

Leaman, Amanda Eby, 1876-1938

Clara Eby Steiner Papers

  • US MCUSAA HM1/201
  • Collection
  • 1873-1929

This collection is divided into 4 series:

1) General Correspondence

2) Family Correspondence

3) Correspondence to M. S. Steiner

4) Diaries and Miscellaneous

Steiner, Clara Eby, 1873-1929

Cleo A. and Nellie Miller Mann Papers 1920-1970

  • US MCUSAA HM1/695
  • Collection
  • 1920-2000

Personal papers of an (old) Mennonite Church pastor and conference minister and his wife.  These papers are divided into two series:

(1) Cleo A. Mann Papers, 1939-1980

(2) Nellie Miller Mann Papers, 1920-2000

Mann, Cleo A.

Dora Shantz Gehman Papers

  • US MCUSAA HM1/883
  • Collection
  • 1901-1993

Papers of a female missionary worker (nurse) in India (1931-1939).  Includes diaries, extensive correspondence with family and friends in the United States, and with Indian friends and colleagues she met in the course of her mission work.  Also includes elementary school, Sunday school, and college notes, diplomas, a scrapbook made by Prairie Street Mennonite Church for her time in India, Christmas letters from missionaries and missionary families, and miscellaneous annotated publications and clippings.

Gehman, Dora Shantz, 1897-1993

Dorothy Smith Shank Papers

  • US MCUSAA HM1/1023
  • Collection
  • 1920-1951

The collection includes diaries, photographs, scrapbooks, and scattered correspondence from friends and family, mostly from Dorothy Smith Shank's years as a Goshen College Academy and Goshen College student from 1924 to 1932.

Shank, Dorothy Smith, 1911-1999

Elizabeth M. Yoder Woodiwiss Papers

  • US MCUSAA HM1/806
  • Collection
  • 1907-1914, 1986-1993

This collection chronicles the early life of Elizabeth M. Yoder Woodiwiss (1889-1986), who homesteaded in North Dakota from 1907-1910. Her diaries (photocopies of originals) record her experiences as a homesteader, as well as a few years after she returned to Pennsylvania.  Articles about Elizabeth are also in the collection, alongside her own recollections. There are also photographs depicting her as a homesteader and later in life, as well as photographs of the homesteading community.

Elizabeth M. Yoder Woodiwiss, 1889-1986

Ella Shoup Bauman Papers

  • US MCUSAA HM1/657
  • Collection
  • 1883-1960

This small set of personal papers includes a diary documenting Bauman's service at the Youngstown Mission in Ohio from 1912 to 1913.  Also included among the papers are manuscripts of her essays and devotional writings, miscellaneous correspondence and family papers.

Emma Oyer Papers

  • US MCUSAA HM1/880
  • Collection
  • 1905-1951

Emma Oyer’s collection contains many of her writings, including essays, poetry, and her diaries.  Her work as a Home Missionary is well documented in her diaries, which provide brief summaries of her daily activities. While these diaries do not document her entire life, her earliest years are represented at the Mennonite Home Mission, as well as her latter years as an author and essayist.  Her essays and poetry provide insights into her theology and faith. Also included is a 1951 edition of Missionary Sewing Circle Monthly dedicated to Emma Oyer, with eight tributes to her by Mennonite women.

Oyer, Emma, 1886-1951

Emma Smith Schertz Family Papers

  • US MCUSAA HM1/932
  • Collection
  • 1878-1947

These papers consist primarily of photographs, diaries, and miscellaneous personal papers of Emma Smith Schertz.  Land records from her husband's family document the donation of property from the Schertz family to the Mennonite Board of Missions and the Roanoke Mennonite Church in Roanoke, Illinois.  The photographs depict Emma and Ben Schertz, Ruth Schertz, C.F. and Gertrude Derstine, and other members of the Schertz family.

Schertz, Emma Smith, 1883-1961

Eunice Deter Family Papers and Longanecker Family Collection

  • US MCUSAA HM1/913
  • Collection
  • 1809-1976

Miscellaneous materials collected by genealogist Eunice Deter to document the history of the Deter and Longanecker families.  Materials include photographs, correspondence, maps, financial and land records, wills and obituaries, biographies, diaries, and genealogy notes.  Other materials include various editions of the Longanecker family history written by Deter.

Deter, Eunice, 1890-1982

Fannie B. Shantz Smucker Papers 1910-1989

  • US MCUSAA HM1/691
  • Collection
  • 1885-1989

Papers of a Goshen Academy alumna (1922), long-time member of the Prairie Street Mennonite Church (Elkhart, Ind.), and missionary to Dhamtari, India later in life.  Contains a remarkable run of diaries, nearly unbroken, from 1910 to 1989, in which Smucker provides brief descriptions of her daily activities.  Also includes scrapbooks, postcard albums, her father's autograph book, and miscellaneous materials.

Smucker, Fannie B. Schantz, 1894-1993

Florence Nafziger Papers

  • US MCUSAA HM1/175
  • Collection
  • 1881-1999

These personal papers include autobiographical writing, photographs, slides, and ephemera pertaining to Nafziger's work as a Mennonite medical missionary in India.  They also contain some Nafziger family records, specifically a farm journal created by Christian Nafziger II.

Nafziger, Florence, 1918-

Ida Beidler Diary

  • US MCUSAA HM1/550SC
  • Collection
  • 1898

The collection consists of a copy of a diary kept by Ida Beidler from January 1, 1898 until December 29, 1898. The entries chronicle daily weather and domestic activities on a farm.

Beidler, Ida

Lena Graber Papers

  • US MCUSAA HM1/380
  • Collection
  • 1944-2003

These materials document the professional life of Lena Graber, a medical missionary who served the (old) Mennonite Church.  Graber worked in India and Nepal from 1944 to 1969 under the auspices of the Mennonite Board of Missions and the United Mission to Nepal.  Graber's incoming and outgoing correspondence with her sister, Esther Graber, is very rich with details about her life abroad and her work, especially the medical cases she encountered.  Also included in this collection are her diary she kept from 1944 to 1948, newspaper clippings, award and honors she received, transcripts of several speeches, and miscellaneous materials.

Graber, Lena, 1910-2003

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