Missionary, Bible Teacher, and Educational Leader

 Hattie Andre (1865–1952)

Hattie Andre was a missionary, Bible teacher, and educational leader influential in the formative years of three Adventist institutions of higher learning.

Bible Worker

Hattie was born on October 5, 1865, at French Grant, Ohio. Her ancestors were among a group of French settlers. Hattie's mother became a Seventh-day Adventist around 1880 and her three daughters also joined the faith. In 1884 Hattie enrolled at Battle Creek College. After a year of study, she returned to Ohio to engage in church work, first with the state tract society in Columbus and then as a Bible worker in Columbus, Cleveland, and Toledo, and then in Chicago, Illinois. She returned to Battle Creek College in 1890 and graduated with her teaching certificate in 1892. During the summer of 1892, she enhanced her studies with introductory courses in hydrotherapy and healthy cooking.

Missionary Teacher

Late in 1892 Hattie Andre was selected to sail with the “Pitcairn” as a missionary teacher in the South Pacific. The vessel departed from San Francisco on January 17, 1893, its first stopover being Pitcairn Island. Hattie disembarked at this isolated outpost, bringing some quality teaching for the young people and assistance with their religious services.

She remained until the “Pitcairn” called again in June 1896. At that time she boarded the vessel for its return voyage, reaching San Francisco on November 27, 1896.

Educational Leader

Following her return to the United States, Hattie resumed evangelistic labor as a Bible instructor, this time in Louisville, Kentucky. Then, in the Fall of 1897, she joined the faculty of Oakwood Industrial School (now Oakwood University), Huntsville, Alabama, just founded the previous year. She served two years at Oakwood, nurturing the development of the fledgling institution.

Hattie Andre was back in the South Pacific in 1900. A call for her services was made at the Avondale School for Christian Workers (now Avondale University College), Cooranbong, Australia. She was given charge of the teacher training department and elementary school where the practical training took place. She nurtured many young people who, in turn, became missionary teachers as she had been on Pitcairn Island. Her time at the school saw the training program increased from one year to a two-year course with additional units such as general history, book-keeping, algebra, hydrotherapy, and cooking. She also introduced Wednesday meetings for the promotion of missionary endeavors in the neighborhood and overseas.

After nine very productive years at the institution, Hattie returned to the United States via India, the Suez Canal, and Europe. On arrival, she attended the May 1909 General Conference in Takoma Park, Washington, D.C., as one of eight regular delegates from the Australasian Union Conference.

In 1909 Hattie Andre joined the faculty of the former Healdsburg College for the first year of its operation under its new name, Pacific Union College (PUC), at its new locale, Angwin, California. She served as dean of women and teacher of a course that surveyed the writings of Ellen White. At the time she arrived, the school had only five teachers. When she left in June 1920 the number of teachers had grown to over 40, dispersed among a growing list of academic and manual training subjects.

Dean Andre departed from PUC in 1920 to assist her sister Rosina with the care of their mother, Mary Andre, who lived in Illinois. Hattie continued her career as an educator, teaching Bible courses in the nurses’ training school at Hinsdale Sanitarium and serving as a member of the Hinsdale Academy faculty. She retired from full-time institutional service in 1929.

Legacy

Hattie Andre remained in the Hinsdale area during her retirement years and continued with vigorous involvement in Sabbath School work and other church activities. She passed away on November 19, 1952. Before her death, Andre Hall, a new residence hall for young women was completed on the campus of Pacific Union College in 1949 as a “monument to the worth of Hattie Andre, and the esteem in which thousands of Seventh-day Adventists hold her memory.” A few days before her death a similar residence was named Andre Hall at the Australasian Missionary College where she had served fifty years earlier.

Condensed from the article by Milton Hook
Read the whole article:

https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=A8VQ







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