Agnes Fenenga
{{short description|American educator}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Agnes Fenenga
| image = AgnesFenenga1911.png
| alt = A white woman with dark hair in a bouffant updo, in an oval frame
| caption = Agnes Fenenga, from a 1911 publication
| birth_name = Aukje Fenenga
| birth_date = April 5, 1874
| birth_place = Schiermonnikoog, The Netherlands
| death_date = April 4, 1949 (aged 74)
| death_place = Gregory, South Dakota, U.S.
| other_names =
| occupation = Educator, missionary
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
| spouse(s) =
| relatives =
}}
Agnes E. Fenenga (April 5, 1874 – April 4, 1949) was a Dutch-born American missionary and teacher based in Turkey and Syria for over forty years, from 1901 to 1944.
Early life and education
Aukje Fenenga was born in Schiermonnikoog in Friesland, the Netherlands, one of the ten children of Jacob Oelsen Gerrit Ruurds Fenenga and Lollina Cornelis Visser Fenenga. She moved to the United States with her family in 1881, and settled in South Dakota. Her mother died in 1886. She graduated from Yankton College in 1901.Yankton College, [https://alumniphotos.yanktoncollege.org/class-photos?year=1901 Graduating Class of 1901] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250222190023/https://alumniphotos.yanktoncollege.org/class-photos?year=1901 |date=2025-02-22 }}.{{Cite book |last=McMurtry |first=William John |url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924030633212/page/n131/mode/2up?q=Fenenga |title=Yankton college; a historical sketch |date=1907 |publisher=Yankton, S.D. |others=Cornell University Library |pages=128 |via=Internet Archive}}
Career
Fenenga ran a Congregational girls' school at Mardin in Turkey.{{Cite book |last=Woman's Board of Missions of the Interior |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zX_Mjx388lcC&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=Agnes%20Fenenga&pg=RA10-PA18#v=onepage&q=Agnes%20Fenenga&f=false |title=Annual Report of the Woman's Board of Missions of the Interior |pages=18, 48, 62 |date=1907–1910 |language=en}} Her students made lace, which Fenenga sent to the United States to raise funds for the school's work. In 1913, she was arrested and detained for eight months, along with two other missionaries.{{Cite news |date=1918-06-04 |title=Turkish Exile Will Deliver Talks Here; Agnes Fenenga, Eye-Witness |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/billings-evening-journal-turkish-exile-w/160105500/ |access-date=2024-12-01 |via=Newspapers.com |work=Billings Evening Journal |pages=4 |archive-date=2025-02-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250222185954/https://www.newspapers.com/article/billings-evening-journal-turkish-exile-w/160105500/ |url-status=live }} In 1916, she and other foreign missionaries were forced to leave Mardin.{{Cite news |date=1916-05-05 |title=Turkish Missionaries' Thrills and Dangers |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/ledger-star-turkish-missionaries-thrill/160103747/ |access-date=2024-12-01 |work=Ledger-Star |via=Newspapers.com|pages=21}} She gave lectures in the United States during World War I,{{Cite news |date=1918-05-17 |title=Miss Agnes Fenenga |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-evening-kansan-republican-miss-agnes/160105009/ |via=Newspapers.com |access-date=2024-12-01 |work=The Evening Kansan-Republican |pages=2 |archive-date=2025-02-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250222190052/https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-evening-kansan-republican-miss-agnes/160105009/ |url-status=live }}{{Cite news |date=1918-04-11 |title=An Exile Coming; Miss Anges Fenenga from Mardin, Turkey |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-medford-patriot-star-an-exile-coming/160105234/ |access-date=2024-12-01 |via=Newspapers.com |work=The Medford Patriot-Star |pages=6}} sometimes wearing folk costumes from Eastern Turkey.{{Cite news |date=1918-05-06 |title=Missionary to Tell Story of Armenians |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-oklahoma-news-missionary-to-tell-sto/160123904/ |access-date=2024-12-01 |work=The Oklahoma News |pages=2 |via=Newspapers.com |archive-date=2025-02-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250223044223/https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-oklahoma-news-missionary-to-tell-sto/160123904/ |url-status=live }} "She knows all of the awfulness of the war in Turkey by having passed through the most terrible experiences that ever come to a man or woman," explained a Montana newspaper in 1918. "But she is not pessimistic nor bitter."
Fenenga returned to Mardin, and was the city's only American resident during a period of martial law after the Kurdish revolt in 1925.{{Cite news |date=1928-04-01 |title=Miss Carolyn D. Sunery Suggests a Call in Turkey |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-vermont-missionary-miss-carolyn-d-s/160104771/ |access-date=2024-12-01 |via=Newspapers.com |work=The Vermont Missionary |pages=8 |archive-date=2025-02-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250222232356/https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-vermont-missionary-miss-carolyn-d-s/160104771/ |url-status=live }} In 1933 she left Mardin and began working in Aleppo. She retired from missionary work in 1944, but continued giving talks about her time in the Middle East until her death five years later.{{Cite news |date=1945-11-23 |title=Missionary Will Speak at Luncheon |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-post-crescent-missionary-will-speak/160123752/ |access-date=2024-12-01 |work=The Post-Crescent |pages=9 |via=Newspapers.com |archive-date=2024-12-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241203144417/https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-post-crescent-missionary-will-speak/160123752/ |url-status=live }}{{Cite news |date=1946-10-12 |title=Hear of Work in Near East |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-grand-rapids-press-hear-of-work-in-n/160123620/ |access-date=2024-12-01 |work=The Grand Rapids Press |pages=7 |via=Newspapers.com |archive-date=2024-12-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241202024155/https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-grand-rapids-press-hear-of-work-in-n/160123620/ |url-status=live }}
Publications
Personal life
Fenenga adopted a daughter, Prisca Lois Fenenga, who was born in 1924.{{Cite web |date=2011-06-29 |title=A.C. Kenyon Cull |url=https://www.yankton.net/obituaries/article_96ff3717-569e-5a5b-873f-ed12941f4b5e.html |access-date=2024-12-01 |website=Yankton Press & Dakotan |language=en |archive-date=2025-05-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250528224246/https://www.yankton.net/obituaries/article_96ff3717-569e-5a5b-873f-ed12941f4b5e.html |url-status=live }} Fenenga died in 1949, in Gregory, South Dakota, at the age of 74.{{Cite news |date=1949-04-08 |title=Rites Slated in Gregory for Agnes Fenenga |via=Newspapers.com |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-republic/22930465/ |access-date=2024-12-01 |work=The Daily Republic |pages=12 |archive-date=2025-02-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250223124133/https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-republic/22930465/ |url-status=live }}
References
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Category:American missionaries in Turkey
Category:Yankton College alumni