Charles Eugene Smith was born in Franklin County, Iowa, and educated at Iowa State College, Ames. He attended the Kennedy School of Missions, and was ordained in 1922. That year he and his wife went to Belgium, and in 1923 to the Congo as missionaries with the Congo Mission, American Baptist Foreign Mission Society, out of Leopoldville. In addition to his evangelistic work, he introduced agricultural education among the Congolese, particularly at the Kikongo Mission station. He formulated principles and programs for rural missionary service, wrote an agricultural text for native use, and played a major part in the location and establishment of mission stations at Nsona Mpangu, Moanza, Kikongo, and Boko.
Mrs. Viola Leora (Ziegler) Smith was born in Syracuse, New York, and attended the Kennedy School of Missions. She earned a diploma from the School of Tropical Medicine, Brussels, and with her husband worked as a general missionary, with special attention to educational and medical work, and work with women and children. She wrote Diatunga va Tadi (n.p., 1966), a history of the Congo Baptist missions, for the Congolese.
From the guide to the Charles E. and Viola L. Smith papers, 1909-1973, (Special Collections and University Archives, University of Oregon Libraries)
