Death of Lester James Wright (NY Times, 1922)
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Location

United States

Year

1922

Item Detail

Flight of Orphan Host from Turkish Persecution

Context

Nellie Marie Miller Mann (1897–1997) was a Mennonite volunteer from Elkhart, Indiana, who served as secretary to the treasurer of Near East Relief headquarters in Beirut from 1921 to 1923.

A graduate of Goshen College and member of Prairie Street Mennonite Church, she was one of only two Mennonite women to serve in the Near East through the Mennonite Relief Commission during this period. From her desk in the Beirut office, Mann processed correspondence and financial records while the organization managed the evacuation of tens of thousands of Armenian orphans from Cilicia into Syria. She witnessed the Smyrna disaster refugee crisis of 1922 and the murder of NER worker Lester James Wright by bandits near Aleppo.

The collection includes personal and official correspondence, NER administrative reports, field accounts of relief operations in Syria and Cilicia, and documents related to the deaths of NER workers Lester James Wright and Menno Shellenberger. Mann’s letters to her family and fiancé Cleo Mann provide a rare firsthand account of daily life at NER headquarters during one of the organization’s most intense operational periods.

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  • Holding Institution

    Rockefeller Archive Center

  • External Link
    https://dimes.rockarch.org/collections/Ahi2i3M7wcFTbQuXZgxDib

  • Attribution

    Nellie Miller Mann Series (Series 14), Near East Foundation Records (FA406), Rockefeller Archive Center. Courtesy of David Mann.

  • Rights

    Some materials may be protected by U.S. copyright law. Materials are presented for non-commercial research and educational use under fair use. Uses beyond fair use may require permission from the copyright owner. Responsibility for rights determination and compliance rests with the user.

  • Notes

    David W. Mann published his mother’s writings in Letters from Syria, 1921–1923 (2013) and donated the original materials to the Near East Foundation.

  • Document Contents

    Three pages of New York Times Mid-Week Pictorial coverage from late 1922 surrounding the death of NER worker Lester James Wright. Page 1, “Flight of Orphan Host From Turkish Persecution,” carries a photograph of orphans who marched 500 miles overland from a Near East orphanage to escape post-Nationalist-victory persecution and an inset portrait of “Lester James Wright, American Near East Relief worker who was killed by bandits near Aleppo.” Page 2, dated November 16, 1922 and headlined “Menacing Developments in the Near Eastern Crisis,” shows mounted refugees from Sarpoul (Turkish Armenia) on their way out of Nationalist Turkey to Syria and includes an inset portrait of Enoch B. Applegate, “the Near East Relief worker who was wounded at the same time that Mr. Wright was killed.” Page 3 is a press photograph of two women in fur coats standing beside Wright’s flag-draped coffin in a small interior room.

Death of Lester James Wright (NY Times, 1922)