Emma Pow Bauder

Rev. Emma Pow Bauder ( Smith; March 11, 1848 – July 23, 1932) was an American evangelist, missionary, reformer, and author. Affiliated with the Church of the United Brethren in Christ in Michigan since 1879. Soon thereafter, she relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area, where she was also active with the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), the largest women's organization in the U.S. during the Gilded Age.

Early life Emma Pow Smith was born in North Adams, Michigan, March 11, 1848. She came from a long line of U.S. ancestry. Her father, John Henry Smith, M.D., (1814–1895) was born and raised in Royalton, New York, in which place he lived with his parents until he attained his majority. At the age of 24, he married Altha Mariah (née Brooks) (1820–1890), who was also had a long line of U.S. ancestry. In 1843, they emigrated from New York State and settled on a farm in the dense woods of Michigan, where their daughter Emma was born, the seventh child of a family of twelve. Smith Bauder's siblings were, George (b. 1835), Eliza (b. 1842), Mary (b. 1843), Harriett (b. 1845), Alonzo (b. 1846), Francis (b. 1846), Viola (b. 1851), Ella (b. 1853), Byron (b. 1856), Myron (b. 1856), and Carrie (b. 1863). For seven years, she served as pastor of the Oakland Mission Church of the United Brethren. In 1901, she was appointed Conference Missionary of the United Brethren's California Conference. In May 1888, Smith Bauder was the opening speaker at the Nebraska WCTU's annual convention, returning in June, August, and October of that year, as guest lecturer in multiple cities on behalf of the WCTU. She was also sponsored by the WCTU as a visiting lecturer in Texas. At the Sixth Annual Convention of the WCTU of Contra Costa County, in Antioch, California in 1890, Smith Bauder resigned her position as County Superintendent of Young Women's Work. In 1892, at the Thirteenth Annual Convention of the WCTU of California, her title was changed from State Organizer to State Evangelist. That year, her temperance work took her to Lake, Humboldt, Mendocino, and Shasta counties.

Among her literary and poetical productions was Chrysolyte.

Personal life Smith Bauder was twice married. In April 1867, she married a man who proved to be an alcoholic. After seven unhappy years, she divorced him and regained her maiden name. Rev. T. J. Bauder was pastor of the United Brethren Church in Sacramento before becoming the presiding elder of United Brethren California Conference.

For 32 years, Rev. Emma Pow Smith Bauder made her home in Oakland, California, where she died July 23, 1932.

Selected works

Novels Emma Pow Smith, Jets of truth, or, Revolutionary spokes in the wheel of progress. : a book devoted to truth, temperance and reform and "for God, and home, and native land.", 1886 Emma Pow Smith, Chrysolyte, 1891 (text) Emma Pow Bauder, Ruth and Marie: A Fascinating Story of the Nineteenth Century, 1895 (text) Emma Pow Bauder, Anarchy; its cause and cure, 1902 (text) Emma Pow Bauder, The Inhabitants of Two Worlds, 1904 (text)

Musical compositions "Y. Bells", lyrics by Emma Pow Smith, music by Flora H. Cassel, 1890 "When the Girls can Vote", lyrics by Emma Pow Smith, music by M. H. Evans, 1890