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Location

Marash (Kahramanmaras), Turkey

Year

1922

Item Detail

Near East Relief closed its orphanages at Harpoot, Marash, Urfa, Adana, Aintab, Diarbekir, Arabkir and Mardin in 1922 and moved more than five thousand children south through Aleppo to Ghazir, Sidon, Jebail, Constantinople and Greece. This article reports that movement while it was still under way. Howard McAfee directed it, and one caravan traveled under the protection of the brigand Sherif Agda and thirty of his horsemen, hired because he was said to be fond of children. One photograph shows Dr. and Mrs. Gannaway with their adopted daughter Azadoohi after closing the Marash station.

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

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

  • Attribution

    Rockefeller Archive Center. Near East Foundation records, FA406. Nellie Miller-Mann, Series 14.

  • Rights

    No known copyright restrictions. Based on available information, NERHS is not aware of copyright restrictions on this material. Items are presented for non-commercial research and educational use. Users are responsible for determining rights status and compliance with applicable law. If you believe you hold rights in this material or have information about rights holders not currently reflected, please contact [email protected].

  • Notes

    Printed caption, page 14: "Twenty girls whose driver was imprisoned by Turkish officials during their flight from the interior."

    Printed caption, page 15 upper right: "Orphaned children of Greek refugees from the Black Sea region, picked up exhausted by Near East Relief and evacuated to safety over 750 miles of road."

    Printed caption, page 15 lower left: "Dr. and Mrs. W. T. Gannaway, after closing the Marash station en route to Beirut with Director McAfee, holding their adopted daughter Azadoohi, in a car which did 2600 miles during the evacuation with only one stop for repairs."

    The couple photographed are Dr. Charles R. Gannaway and Pearl Gannaway. W. T. "Ted" Gannaway was their son and directed the Boys’ Industrial Center at Muamiltein.

    Sources for the Item Detail:

    • Near East Relief, Syria-Palestine Area, Organization and Personnel, 28 April 1923, sheet II, which separates "Dr. & Mrs. C. R. Gannaway" at the Muamiltein medical headquarters from "Mr. W. T. Gannaway" at the Boys’ Industrial Center. Nellie Miller-Mann, Series 14, Rockefeller Archive Center.

    • Letter from Marash to Mr. McAfee, 28 January 1923, on the closing of the Marash work. 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

  • Document Contents

    Two facing printed pages clipped from The New Near East, November 1922, pages 14 and 15, carrying the article "A Flight of Children" and three halftone photographs with printed captions. The article reports the reduction of the Harpoot, Marash, Urfa, Adana, Aintab, Diarbekir, Arabkir and Mardin stations to medical and relief work, the closing of their orphanages, and the movement of more than five thousand children south to Aleppo for distribution to Ghazir, Sidon, Jebail, Constantinople and Greece under Howard McAfee. It describes one hundred blind children from the American School for the Blind at Harpoot making the five hundred mile journey to Aleppo and finishing it on barges down the Euphrates, the hiring of the brigand Sherif Agda and thirty horsemen to escort a caravan, twenty girls whose American driver was imprisoned by Turkish officials, and Greek children picked up from the deportation route south of the Black Sea and carried seven hundred and fifty miles to Beirut. The foot of page 15 carries the end of an unrelated article, "Parenthood by Proxy."