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Mathilde Killingsworth (1904-1986) was an American missionary. She was born on March 14, 1904 in Fayette, Mississippi. She received a B.A. degree from the University of Mississippi, and an M.A. from Scarritt College. In 1936, she was commissioned and appointed to China as a missionary for the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. When the Sino-Japanese war broke out, Killingsworth worked in the Tai Wha Christian Community Center, Korea, for six months before returning to China. Upon returning to China, she worked in the Shanghai refugee camps. From 1938 until 1941, she worked at the Hong Kong Institutional Church in Soochow.

Sometime after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Killingsworth was ordered to return to the United States. She was transferred to the China Office of the Board of Mission in New York City. By 1946, she was allowed to return to Soochow and resumed her work at the Moore Memorial Church in Shanghai. Killingsworth began working with the Methodist Church in Malaya in 1954. During her stay she worked with the Kampong Kapor Methodist Church in Singapore for a year and a half and then as a treasurer and field correspondent with the Women's Division in Malaya and Singapore for six and a half years.

Upon returning to the United States in 1963, she served as a field worker, along with her sister Louise, for the Department of Christian Social Relations and the Board of Christian Social Concerns. Then in 1965, both she and Louise, transferred from the World Division to the National Division of the Board of Missions of the Methodist Church. The reason for this transfer was to work as deaconesses in the Upper Mississippi Conference of the Central Jurisdiction. Killingsworth retired in 1969 and died in 1986.

Mildred Simonds (1876-1969) was a Methodist Episcopal Church missionary to India for forty years. She received a certificate from the State Normal School in Steven Point, Wisconsin, in 1895. In 1902 she graduated from the Chicago Training School. Prior to entering mission work, Simonds taught school in Iowa, Minnesota, and Illinois. In 1903 she was a teacher for one year at Chaddock Boys' School in Chicago. During her time at Chaddock she was consecrated as a deaconess.

In 1905 she was accepted as a missionary by the Des Moines Branch of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society, and a year later she sailed for India. From 1906 to 1927 Simonds was stationed at Vikarabad in the South India Conference. She was involved in evangelistic and education work including supervising village and night schools and adult education. From 1927 to 1938 Smonds was stationed at Tandur and Narayanpet. She also worked at Dalthabad in 1942. During her missionary years, Simonds took four furloughs: 1913, 1920, 1928, and 1936. She retired from missionary work in 1946.

Robert Thomas Parsons (1904-?) was a Church of the United Brethren in Christ missionary, pastor, and academic. Parsons was born on September 27, 1094 to J.B. Parsons, D.D. and Ada Parsons in Dayton, Ohio.

Parsons received the Bachelor of Arts degree from Indiana Central College in 1926, and a Bachelor of Divinity from Bonebrake Theological Seminary in 1929. He was ordained, and in 1929 went to serve as a missionary under the Foreign Missions Board of the United Brethren in Christ to the Kono tribe in Sierra Leone, West Africa.

Parsons would return to the United States on his first furlough in 1933 to enroll as a Ph.D. candidate in the Kennedy School of Missions at Hartford Theological Seminary. During his second furlough in 1937, alongside his Ph.D. work, he received a Master of Arts from Cornell University. Parsons then returned to Sierra Leone for two years and taught at Union College in Bunumbu.

Parsons completed his dissertation in 1940, and went on to serve Fifth Ave Church in Columbus, Ohio. Parsons would join the faculty at Hartford in 1947 as a Professor of African Studies, and would later become Dean of the Kennedy School of Missions. Parsons would make a handful of other trips back to Africa for research. He also went on to serve on committees of the Division of Foreign Missions of the National Council of Churches. His dissertation was published in book form as "Religion in an African society: A Study of the Religion of the Kono People of Sierra Leone in its Social Environment With Special Reference to the Function of Religion in that Society" by Brill in 1964.

John Christman Wengatz (1880-1977), American missionary to Africa, was born on October 13, 1880 in Steuben, New York. At age ten years later, after hearing a powerful sermon on missionary work, he decided that it was God's will that he become a missionary.

He became a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1898, and soon after enrolled in Cazenovia Seminary, from which he graduated in 1906. He went on to study theology at Taylor University, where he earned his doctorate of divinity in 1909.

At Taylor University, Wengatz, fell in love with Susan Talbott. Susan, the granddaughter of a Methodist minister, was studying stenography and later theology at Taylor. The two were married June 29, 1909.

The Wengatzes wanted to do mission work. John tutored at Taylor for a year in Latin, Greek, and oratory, and received his license to preach in 1909, and was a pastor at a church for two years.

Susan graduated from McCordsville University in 1910, and the two set off on their assignment to the Quiongua mission in Malanie, Angola

They arrived in Angola on September 16, 1910, and Wengatz became a member of the West Central Africa Conference.

John and Susan Wengatz taught at the mission school. John became superintendent, did industrial work, and was the local preacher. Susan translated over fifty songs into the local language.

On December 13, 1929, Susan was bitten by a rabid dog. Her survival was dependent on a serum that was locally unavailable. Her husband appealed to his superiors in Cape Town, who had serum flown to Malenie, but they it was too late. Susan died three weeks after being bitten.

John finished his term in Malanje, and left in July 1931. He returned to Taylor, where he met Helen Barton. They were married, coincidentally, on June 29, 1933, exactly twenty-four years after his first marriage began. The two left for mission work in Liberia in 1934, and worked there ten years. They served in the Congo from 1946 to1949, and then went back to Angola until April 1951, when John Wengatz retired.

Wengatz was one of the few missionaries of his time who was a licensed pilot. He was also a dentist. He and Helen moved to Winter Park, Florida, where they lived out the rest of their lives. John died in 1977, Helen died in 1990.

Mary Althea Anderson (1879-1963), Methodist Episcopal Church Missionary, was born on March 14, 1879 on the British Island territory of Mauritius to missionary parents. Anderson’s father had Scottish ancestry, while her mother was a descendent of French Huguenots. Despite familial ties to Britain, her family never lived there and considered France to be their native home. In addition to her mother’s familial ties to France, her father, S.H. Anderson, worked in the McCall mission in Paris. Mary Anderson was educated in France, attending the Lycee Moliere in Paris. She also went to school at Bunbank/ missionary training Home in Glasgow, Scotland. Anderson trained as a student nurse in Alloa County Hospital, Scotland.

Anderson carried out her work as part of the Women’s Foreign Missionary Society, First Church, New Castle. She began her service in Algeria in October 1908. During her time as a missionary, she was associated with Emily Smith and Dora Welch in their work among the Kabyles. Anderson was also a poet, who wrote about religion and African history.

Though Mary retired on June 1, 1948, she remained in El Bier (Algiers), Algeria because “there was no home or family in France to which (she and her sister) could return” as a result of the Second World War.

By July 7, 1959, Anderson and her sister were in bad health. Ruth Lawrence, of the Women's Division of the General Board of Global Ministries,recommend that she be eligible to receive medical help for retired missionaries, it indicates that perhaps she was not considered retired as she was not recognized as living out her retirement in her “native country.”

In 1962, Anderson traveled to England because of her declining health in order to be closer to a relative, possibly her cousin Ralph J. B. Anderson. Mary died on May 29, 1963, in the French Hospital, London, England.

John Ingerslew (1887-1985), American Methodist minister and missionary to Denmark, was born on Dec. 31,1887 in Asaa Jutland, Denmark, to Martinus Pederson and Dorthea Ingerslew Lauritsen, and immigrated to the United States in 1904. While in the United States he attended Garrett Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois. He worked as a pastor from 1913 to 1917 at the Norwegian Methodist Episcopal Church, Berlin, New Hampshire, and worked with the Seaman's Mission as pastor of the Scandinavian Methodist Episcopal Church of Baltimore, Maryland from 1917 to 1919. He was married to Anina Fladborg in 1910.

Ingerslew returned to Denmark to be with his dying mother in 1919. On the voyage, he met Bishop William Anderson, who insisted that he move to Copenhagen to assist Anton Bast. Ingerslew returned to the United States for a short time and in November of 1919 moved, with his two children, to Copenhagen. His wife, Anina (Nina) delayed by pregnancy and ill health, joined him nine months later. Ingerslew began work immediately as Bast's secretary and instructor of the Theological School.

Reservations about Bast's behavior had been expressed long before Ingerslew's arrival. Concerns had been raised as early as at the 1912 General Conference about possible financial misconduct. Ingerslew thought the charges might be true, but he wasn't responsible for finances, and therefore didn't occupy himself with the charges.

However, Ingerslew was responsible for the translation of Anton Bast's book, The Central Mission Through Ten Years, for presentation to the General Conference in 1920. Ingerslew was troubled by misrepresentations in the book and the allegations that Bast was selling the book for personal profit. Bast presented the book to the General Conference and returned as Bishop. Ingerslew then succeeded Bast as pastor of the Jerusalem Church in Copenhagen, gaining responsibility for the finances of the Central Mission In 1921 tensions about the financial management, private enterprises and moral conduct of Bishop Bast arose. Ingerslew became the spokesman of the charges brought forward by the trustees of the Jerusalem church. In Denmakr, the duicial process within the Church was blocked and in the United States the authorities did not take seriously the complaints in an early stage. The affair grew to a major crisis. At the end of 1924, when Bast came back frfom a visit in the United State, he was arrested by the police and released after ten days. The Danish Conference in 1925 expelled Ingerslew and eight trustees who continued to carry charges against Bast before Danish courts. Inglerslew also had legal troubles with the new Trustees of the Jerusalem Church. Some of his charges were received by the court, but the Jerusalem church appealed to the Supreme Court where it was finally defeated in 1929. Ingerslew went back to the United States. Bishop Bast was tried in the Court of Copenhagen upon several charges for misappropriation of funds in 1926. All but one were dropped. The jury found Bast guilty on the charge of having made profit from the Missions' weekly paper. Bast had mainteained that the paper made no profit when it did. Bast was sentenced to three months in prison. Only after the State Court decision was there an investigation by the church. The church trial was held at The Hague, Holland, in1927. Bast was permanently suspended from the exercise of the office of bishop

Ingerslew returned to America in April 1929, but was unable to get an appointment, and was forced to live in tents with three of his four children for four months before being appointed to the church at Grant City, Missouri, where he stayed until 1932. In 1929 he was married to Lissa A. Madsen.

Ingerslew served in Edina, Missouri, from 1932 to 1937; Morberly Missouri, from 1937 to about 1939; Milan, Missouri, from 1939 to 1942; and Trenton, Missouri, from 1943 to 1946. After Trenton, he moved to Hannibal, where he worked with the First Methodist Church. In 1951 he transferred to Washington, Missouri and then Eureka, Missouri, where he stayed until 1960. In May 1960 he retired to Hannibal, Missouri. From 1963 to 1970,he served part-time with the Oakwood Methodist Church in Oakwood, Missouri. He later moved to Nebraska and died in Seward, Nebraska on June 4, 1985 at the age of 97.

Mellony Turner (1901-1949), Methodist missionary, was born on April 9, 1901 at Erin, New York. Turner graduated in 1919 from the Cazenovia Seminary located in Cazenovia, New York. In 1924, Turner began to teach at the American School for Girls in Lovetch, Bulgaria for the Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1930 she had became the principal of the school.

During World War II, Turner was able to continue teaching at the school. Her problems became worse after the war when the Communists took over the country. The official communist paper of Bulgaria, Rabotnichesko Delo, repeatedly mocked Turner and her work in the paper.

Forced out of Bulgaria, Turner relocated to Athens, Greece, and taught at Pierce College. After her departure from Bulgaria, false accusations of espionage were made against her after the torture of fifteen Bulgarian Methodist pastors with whom she had closely worked. Turner never returned to Bulgaria.

On Sunday, November 20, 1949, Mellony was scheduled to give a missionary message at Baldwinsville, New York, Methodist Church. On the way to the church a truck hit her and her father, W. Cleon Turner, a Methodist minister, and both were killed instantly. Turner is buried with her father and mother on a hilltop in Cato, New York.

Charles August Sauer (1891-1972), American pastor, missionary, and author, was born on June 27, 1891, near Wheelersburg, Ohio. He was the son of Christian August and Anna (Miller) Sauer. He attended Ohio Wesleyan University, from which he received a B.A. in 1919 and a D.D., 1958, and Ohio State University College of Education, which awarded him an M.A. in 1928.

Sauer married Marguerite Suttles of Albion, Pennsylvania, on August 17, 1920, and they had three sons. Sauer served in the United States Army during World War I.

From 1921 to 1932, he lived in Yeng Byen, Korea, serving as missionary principal of the Mission High School there. From 1932 to 1935, he was an instructor of farm engineering at the Konju Mission School. He was treasurer of the Korean Methodist Church in Seoul, Korea, from 1936 to 1941, and again from 1946 to 1950.

From 1942 to 1946, after missionaries were expelled from Korea, he served as minister in the West Unity, Ohio, Methodist Church. Sauer returned alone to Korea in 1946, to be joined later by his wife. He was treasurer for the National Christian Council Union Projects in Korea, form 1950 to 1962. From 1949 to 1958, he returned to education and his position of principal, working in the Korean Language School.

From 1949 until 1962, Sauer was editor for the Korean edition of The Upper Room. Sauer wrote Korean Language for Beginners in 1925, with reprints in 1950 and 1954; Chinese Characters for Beginners, in 1930; A Pocket Story of John Wesley, in 1967; and Beginner's Lessons in the Book of Genesis, written in Korean , in 1938.

In 1962 he was cited by the Minister of Defense in the Republic of Korea, and later that year he was awarded a Cultural Merit, which is the national medal, by the President of the Republic of Korea. Sauer was a member of the Ohio Annual Conference. He participated in the General Conference of the Korean Methodist Church in 1951, 1954, 1958, and 1960, and served as a delegate to the General Conference of The Methodist Church in 1956. He acted as the editor for Korea in the Encyclopedia of World Methodism. He died on September 13, 1972, at Ashley, Ohio.

Ralph T. Templin (1896-1984), an American missionary, educator, publisher, and social activist, married Lila Horton in 1920. Templin was a missionary in India from 1925 to 1940.

While working in India, Templin created a cooperative education method that allowed senior boys to help build various structures for local villages.

Templin was a founding member of the Peacemakers' movement, after the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. When he returned to the United States, he continued Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy of nonviolence in all areas of his active ministry. Templin was the director of the School for Living, Suffern, New York from 1941 to 1945. Later he became the professor of sociology at Central State University, at Wilberforce, Ohio, from 1948 to 1968. Central State University was historically black, and Templin was the first white faculty member.

In 1954 he was the first white clergyperson to be received in full connection within the Central Jurisdiction. Another expression of his social activism was his fast to protest suppression of Puerto Rican independence nationalist movement.

Other avenues that Templin used to promote his belief in social justice included a refusal to pay taxes, did not register for the draft during World War II, and refused to appear before the House Committee on Un-American Activities during the McCarthy era. He published, Democracy and Non-Violence, in 1965. Templin died in 1984.

George Amos Miller (1868-1961) and Margaret Ross Miller (1870-1955) spent nearly three decades as missionaries and administrators for the Methodist Episcopal Church in Central and South America. Both attended Stanford University in California, and they were married in 1894.

After George Miller's ordination in 1896, they served churches in California until 1904, during which time they had their two daughters, Marian and Evelyn. In 1905 the Millers took their first overseas assignment when George Miller became pastor of Central Church in Manila. IN 1907, the Millers returned to the United States, where George Miller worked for the American Bible Society. He returned to local church work in 1908, and served churches in California until the Millers took their first assignment as missionaries in 1917. George Miller served as mission superintendent (1917-1919), and began pioneering Methodist work in Costa Rica.

George Miller was appointed executive secretary of mission work in South America for the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1920, and served this post from Santiago, Chile. While in Chile, Margaret Miller began her effort to organize women's groups on the mission fields. These groups were later organized into the Federation of Women's Societies, for which she wrote several study books. She also wrote and published Women Under the Southern Cross for the sixteen denominations in the U.S. that combined their missionary study courses. Conference. Miller was elected bishop in 1924 served one quadrennium each from headquarters in Mexico City, Buenos Aires, and Santiago. He retired in 1934, served a local church in Lafayette, California, and continued his interest in Latin American missions. Margaret Miller served as president of the Pacific branch of the former Women's Foreign Missionary Society, serving also in that capacity in the Women's Society of Christian Service.