Collections
Mylrea swears to the killing of Lester James Wright on the Aleppo road. 1922.
Location
Aleppo, Syria
Year
1922
Item Detail
The party left Antioch at one in the afternoon of Friday 27 October 1922 and two punctures put them on the road after dark. They were fired on at about a quarter past six, between one and two miles east of the Afrin Bridge. Wright was killed instantly by a bullet through the neck, Applegate was wounded in the leg and the chauffeur Leopold Gasozyk in the leg. Mylrea left the car and walked toward the attackers and offered them what money the party carried. He closes by defending Gasozyk's decision to stop rather than drive on.
Context
Nellie Marie Miller Mann (1897–1997) was a member of Prairie Street Mennonite Church in Elkhart, Indiana, and a graduate of Goshen College. The Mennonite Relief Commission placed her with Near East Relief in 1921, one of two Mennonite women it sent to the Near East in these years. She was appointed on 20 August 1921, sailed the same day aboard the S.S. Patria, and reached Beirut on 20 September. At the Syria-Palestine headquarters she was secretary to the treasurer and, by April 1923, in charge of the individual remittance department. She left Beirut at the end of August 1923.
The collection holds her letters to her family and to her fiancé Cleo Mann, her appointment papers and contract, and the Near East Relief reports, rosters and field accounts she kept. Together they document the Beirut office through the movement of orphans out of Anatolia and Cilicia into Syria and Lebanon in 1922, the Greek deportations of the following winter, and the deaths of two NER workers, Menno Shellenberger at Diarbekir and Lester James Wright on the Aleppo road. David W. Mann published his mother's writings as Letters from Syria, 1921–1923 (2013) and gave the originals to the Near East Foundation.
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Holding Institution
Rockefeller Archive Center
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External Link
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Attribution
Rockefeller Archive Center. Near East Foundation records, FA406. Nellie Miller-Mann, Series 14.
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Rights
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Notes
Typed in the affidavit: "It was by that time quite dark and the car was proceeding at a rate of about thirty miles an hour when at a bend in the road between one and two miles east of the Afrin Bridge, the party was attacked suddenly and without warning by some people who opened fire on them with rifles." / "As these men came up to Dr. Mylrea, he asked them, “Why have you killed that man?” “We have killed none”, was the reply." / "it is fair to the chauffeur to say that ... had the car attempted to run the gauntlet of the brigands’ fire instead of halting at the first possible moment, the car would probably have been wrecked and the casualties have been still heavier."
Jurat: "Sworn to before me and subscribed in my presence this 31st day of October Anno Domini 1922. J. B. Jackson, Consul of the United States of America, Aleppo, Syria."
Mylrea states the assailants were "almost certainly Arabs" and gives his grounds.
Sources for the Item Detail:
• H. H. Kreider, tribute on the death of Lester Wright, Aleppo Unit, late October 1922, on the funeral at Beirut on 30 October. Nellie Miller-Mann, Series 14, Rockefeller Archive Center.
• New York Times Mid-Week Pictorial, 16 November 1922, p. 14 ("Lester James Wright, formerly professor in the University of Wisconsin, was killed by bandits in the vicinity of Aleppo"). Nellie Miller-Mann, Series 14, Rockefeller Archive Center.
About this group
• Nellie Miller-Mann, Series 14, Near East Foundation records (FA406), Rockefeller Archive Center.
• Near East Relief appointment certificate, 20 August 1921, signed C. V. Vickrey and C. M. Fowle ("Miss Nellie M. Miller has been duly appointed a member of the relief expedition"). Nellie Miller-Mann, Series 14, Rockefeller Archive Center.
• Near East Relief, Syria-Palestine Area, Organization and Personnel, 28 April 1923, sheet I ("Secretary to Treasurer & in charge of Individual Remittance Dept. — Miss Nellie M. Miller"). Nellie Miller-Mann, Series 14, Rockefeller Archive Center.
• Nellie Miller Mann, Letters from Syria, 1921–1923, transcribed and edited by David W. Mann (Morgantown, Pa.: Masthof Press, 2013).
• Rockefeller Archive Center finding aid, Near East Foundation records: https://dimes.rockarch.org/collections/Ahi2i3M7wcFTbQuXZgxDib
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Document Contents
Three-page typed affidavit of Dr. C. Stanley G. Mylrea, sworn before J. B. Jackson, Consul of the United States of America at Aleppo, on 31 October 1922. Mylrea deposes to the journey from Antioch to Aleppo on Friday 27 October in a Ford touring car driven by Leopold Gasozyk and carrying Dr. and Mrs. Mylrea, Mr. Enoch R. Applegate and Mr. Lester James Wright. He gives the timings of the two punctures, the attack at about 6:15 in the dark with the moon at first quarter, the chauffeur's wounding, Wright's death, and Applegate's wound. He describes advancing toward the brigands and calling to them in Arabic, the robbery of money and small possessions, the attempt on Mrs. Mylrea's wedding ring, and the party's escape to the French military post at Katma. The surgeon there pronounced Wright dead of a bullet through the right side of the neck. The next morning Mylrea, the commandant and the Kaimakam inspected the scene and recovered fourteen cartridge cases. The body went by French lorry to the British War Monument at Aleppo, where Mr. Kreider of Near East Relief took charge of it for burial at Beirut.