Kleinschmidt, William Duncan
4/22/1961
September 26, 1875 - April 22, 1961 |
|
| When Dr. Charles W. Carter, in his eightieth year was at his last Conference before he went peacefully to sleep one night and awoke in glory, he looked about him and said: “Brethren, I’m lonely.” Having almost reached the years of Dr. Carter, I am lonely. Now William Duncan Kleinschmidt is gone. I remember my first meeting with him, on the west wing of old Centenary ‘College. And through the years, in the work of the cabinet, at the Secretary’s table where he was long an able associate of mine, in The time of my illness and then of deep sorrow, he has been a friend and a brother. It is not strange that I feel lonely today. In the ‘Conference, nearly “all I loved are vanished voices, all my steps are on the dead.” William Duncan Kleinschmidt was born in New Orleans September 26, 1875, one of the nine sans of Charles Christian Kleinschmidt and Mary Elizabeth Stock, both natives of Germany. There were three daughters, two of whom I knew as their pastor: Mrs. E. Esparros of New Orleans, and Miss Louise Kleinschmidt, who was long the head of a department of the church school of Napoleon Avenue Methodist Church. After graduating from Centenary College, Brother Kleinschmidt was soon admitted into full connection in the Louisiana Conference of the M. E. Church, South, in December, 19D3; ordained deacon in 1902 and elder in 1906. When he retired, he had served for 46 years in the Methodist Church. He was pastor at Second Church, Baton Rouge: Rayne, St. Francisville. Zachary, Ban Ami, Jena, Athens, Louisiana Ave., New Orleans: Mangum Memorial, Shreveport; Vivian, Algiers, New Orleans; Epworth, New Orleans; Park Avenue, Shreveport; Coushatta, Springhlll, Pollock, Lecompte, and Boyce. He served two years as Presiding Elder of the Monroe District and four years on the Ruston District. He was married April 27, 1904, to Miss Mary E. Mackay of Hope Villa. She preceded him in death, also a son, Donald. He lived his last years in Alexandria, where he taught a Bible class in the First Methodist Church. He died in the Baptist Hospital, April 22, of the present year. His funeral was held at the National Funeral Home, with Rev. James Jones, Rev. Fred S. Flurry, and Rev. A. W. Townsend, Jr., participating. Interment was in Forest Park Cemetery, Shreveport, with Dr. Jolly Harper and other ministers officiating at the grave. Rev. W. D. Kleinschinidt is survived by a daughter, Mrs. Ruth A. Johnson, 1420 Third Street, Alexandria, and a son, W. M., Route 1, Orange, Texas. He was laid to away as fittingly as loving hands could, beside his wife and son. William Duncan Kleinschmidt was a man worthwhile. Quiet and unassuming in manner, educated and cultured, he has left unmistakable footprints for Jesus in every section of Louisiana. Let us resolve anew to join with him and all the redeemed, who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, led by the four and twenty elders casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea. |
|
| Source: Journal of the Louisiana Conference of the Methodist Church, Pages 215-216, 1961 by R. H. Harper. | |
