Minnie M. Argetsinger
{{short description|Baptist missionary}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Minnie M. Argetsinger
| image = MinnieMArgetsinger1919.jpg
| alt = Middle-aged white woman wearing glasses, her dark hair arranged in an updo.
| caption = Minnie M. Argetsinger from a 1919 publication.
| birth_name = Minnie Miranda Argetsinger
| birth_date = March 2, 1882
| birth_place = Mansfield, Pennsylvania
| death_date = March 17, 1954
| death_place = Boston, Massachusetts
| nationality = American
| other_names =
| occupation = Baptist missionary in China, the Philippines
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
}}
Minnie Miranda Argetsinger (March 2, 1882 – March 17, 1954) was an American Baptist missionary in China and the Philippines for 32 years.
Early life
Argetsinger was born in Mansfield, Pennsylvania,{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/39036666/minnie_argetsinger_1953/|title=Woman Missionary Speaker will be at First Baptist|date=January 17, 1953|work=Battle Creek Enquirer|access-date=November 14, 2019|page=5|via=Newspapers.com}} the daughter of James M. Argetsinger and Ruby Soper Argetsinger.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/39046824/katherine_argetsinger_1908/|title=Without Warning Expires in Chair|date=July 23, 1908|work=Star-Gazette|access-date=November 15, 2019|page=9|via=Newspapers.com}} Both of her parents were born in Pennsylvania. Her brother George Argetsinger was a New York State senator.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/39046908/obituary_for_roch_george_argetslnger/|title=George Argetsinger|date=February 13, 1951|work=Elmira Advertiser|access-date=November 15, 2019|page=10|via=Newspapers.com}}
Argetsinger trained as a teacher at Mansfield State Normal School, graduating in 1901.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pkRHAQAAMAAJ&q=Minnie+M.+Argetsinger&pg=RA1-PA8|title=Catalogue of Students|last=Mansfield State Normal School|date=1897|pages=8|language=en}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/39037224/minnie_argetsinger_1954/|title=Deaths: Miss Minnie Argetsinger|date=March 24, 1954|work=Mansfield Advertiser|access-date=November 15, 2019|page=4|via=Newspapers.com}} She pursued further training at New York University and Columbia University.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/39046432/minnie_argetsinger_1952/|title=Baptist Missionary in Orient Here for Rally|date=March 26, 1952|work=The La Crosse Tribune|access-date=November 15, 2019|page=10|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/ourworkinorient100woma|title=Our work in the Orient 1871-1919|last=Woman's American Baptist Foreign Mission Society|date=1919|publisher=Chicago : Woman's American Baptist Foreign Mission Society|others=Columbia University Libraries|pages=[https://archive.org/details/ourworkinorient100woma/page/121 121]}}
Career
Argetsinger was a teacher in Mansfield, Tioga County, and Yonkers as a young woman. She was commissioned by the Woman's American Baptist Foreign Mission Society in 1919, and sent to Chengdu, Sichuan province.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M_wpAAAAYAAJ&q=Minnie+M.+Argetsinger&pg=PA161|title=Annual of the Northern Baptist Convention|date=1920|publisher=The Convention|pages=161|language=en}}{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ut0pAAAAYAAJ&q=Missionary+China+Argetsinger&pg=RA1-PA311|title=The American Baptist Year-book|date=1919|publisher=American Baptist publication society|pages=311}} She trained teachers in China at the Union Normal School, and ministered to children, elderly women, and refugees. She provided a reading room in her home for local visitors.{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/thirstamidstfour00kirk|title=Thirst amidst four rivers|last=Kirkwood|first=Dean R.|date=1948|publisher=New York : American Baptist Foreign Mission Society [and] Woman's American Baptist Foreign Mission Society|others=Columbia University Libraries|pages=[https://archive.org/details/thirstamidstfour00kirk/page/25 25], 28-29}}
Argetsinger was in the United States on furlough in 1928, and again from 1935 to 1937.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/39036503/minnie_argetsinger_1936/|title=World Wide Guilds to Conduct Spring Rally|date=March 12, 1936|work=The Times-Tribune|access-date=November 14, 2019|page=20|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/39047034/minnie_argetsinger_1937/|title=Missionary to China Makes Spokane Visit|date=June 10, 1937|work=Spokane Chronicle|access-date=November 15, 2019|page=6|via=Newspapers.com}} In 1939, she wrote from Chengdu about the aftermath of Japanese bombardment: "I picked up a hot piece of shrapnel off the lawn, the other day," she wrote to her brother, noting that the metal was American-made scrap iron.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/39047770/minnie_argetsinger_1939/|title=Seen & Heard: Tomorrow is Christmas Eve|last=Clune|first=Henry W.|date=December 23, 1939|work=Democrat and Chronicle|access-date=November 15, 2019|page=15|via=Newspapers.com}}
In 1948 she wrote with optimism about the place of women in the new China: "Dawn has already passed in the expansion of women's work. The work for women at the present time has no limitations and is full of possibilities." By 1949, when Western missionaries were no longer allowed in China, she was reassigned to Capiz province in the Philippines for her last two years of mission work.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/39046746/minnie_argetsinger_1952/|title=Baptist Mission Worker to Speak|date=March 20, 1952|work=The Evening Times|access-date=November 15, 2019|page=15|via=Newspapers.com}} She retired in 1951. Into her last years, she spoke across the United States, to church groups and other organizations, about her work.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/39036398/minnie_argetsinger_1952/|title=Emmanuel First Baptist|date=January 26, 1952|work=Reno Gazette-Journal|access-date=November 14, 2019|page=6|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/39045622/minnie_argetsinger_1952/|title=Neenah Woman Selected as President of Missionary Society of Baptist Church|date=March 27, 1952|work=The Post-Crescent|access-date=November 15, 2019|page=18|via=Newspapers.com}}
Personal life
Argetsinger and her friend Mary E. Gifford lived together in Yonkers; they also owned a camp together called "Giffarget" in the Adirondacks, beginning in 1916.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=imhJho5nJN4C&q=Missionary+China+Argetsinger&pg=PA131|title=Big Moose Lake in the Adirondacks: The Story of the Lake, the Land , and the People|last=Barlow|first=Jane A.|date=2004-06-01|publisher=Syracuse University Press|isbn=9780815607748|pages=131|language=en}} Argetsinger died in 1954, while in Boston to attend a church gathering. There is a small collection of her correspondence in the American Baptist Historical Society archives.{{Cite web|url=https://libraries.mercer.edu/archivesspace/repositories/2/archival_objects/4426|title=Argetsinger, Minnie Miranda (1882-1954), 1934–1954|website=American Baptist Historical Society|access-date=2019-11-15}}
References
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Category:People from Mansfield, Pennsylvania
Category:Educators from Pennsylvania
Category:Baptist missionaries from the United States
Category:Baptist missionaries in China
Category:Mansfield University of Pennsylvania alumni
Category:Baptist missionaries in the Philippines
Category:American missionaries in China