In September 1915, James L. Barton helped convene a meeting in New York to organize relief for Armenians facing destruction in the Ottoman Empire. The group chose him as its chairman. Barton brought years of missionary experience and a network of contacts to the temporary committee that grew into Near East Relief. He helped gather evidence of the Armenian Genocide, raise money for survivors, and press for their protection.
Dispatches
A Quiet Leader: James L. Barton
Rev Dr James L Barton interviewing a new arrival in Urfa
Rev. James L. Barton, Chairman of Near East Relief (1915–1930)
Inspired to Serve
James Levi Barton grew up in a Quaker family in Charlotte, Vermont. He graduated from Middlebury College in 1881 and Hartford Theological Seminary in 1885. That year, he married Flora Holmes and sailed with her to Ottoman Turkey. For seven years, he supervised missionary schools in Harpoot. He was later elected president of Euphrates College.
Flora’s ill health brought the Bartons back to the United States. Barton became foreign secretary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) in Boston. He supported the training of local Christian leaders and helped secure funds for overseas educational institutions.
Called to Lead
Ambassador Henry Morgenthau’s appeal for emergency relief brought Barton and philanthropist Cleveland H. Dodge together in September 1915. They called the meeting at Dodge’s New York office on September 16. The committee set a fundraising target of $100,000. Barton later recalled that some members thought the sum was beyond reach, but more than half had been pledged before the meeting ended. Congress incorporated Near East Relief in 1919.
In 1917 and 1918, Barton collected detailed, signed accounts from American missionaries who had left Ottoman Turkey. Their testimony documented the destruction of Armenian and other Christian communities. The committee used missionary and diplomatic reports in its fundraising appeals.
Barton opposed a U.S. declaration of war against the Ottoman Empire because he feared it would endanger relief work and the Americans who remained there. After the war, he led a commission to assess conditions and arrange supplies and staff. In his account of the 1919 mission, he recalled that British military orders stopped his party at Aleppo. He went to Cairo and persuaded General Edmund Allenby to let them continue into the interior. The party had to travel without a military escort.
Barton also supported an American mandate for Armenia, under which the United States would take responsibility for its administration and protection. At the Lausanne conference in 1922, he pressed for an Armenian national home. In December, he and William W. Peet asked the American delegation to support a territory where Armenian refugees and children in orphanages could settle under protection.
G. H. Washburn, J. L. Barton, and W. W. Peet sail for the Near East on the RMS Mauretania, 1919.
A “Near East Saint”
Barton served as foreign secretary of the ABCFM until 1927 and wrote books, articles, and letters about the region. In his 1930 book, Story of Near East Relief (1915–1930), he put the combined value of the organization’s cash, donated goods, concessions, and recorded unpaid service at more than $116 million.
Barton later served as vice president of Near East Foundation, which began its work in 1930. Its programs included the Albanian-American Institute, formed from two schools and dedicated in October 1930. The Albanian government contributed more than 1,000 acres. The first year’s enrollment included 125 boys and seventy-five girls, whose studies combined academic subjects with practical training for rural life.
Barton remained active in NEF until his death on July 21, 1936. The New York Times published his obituary the next day. An editorial on July 24, titled “A Near East Saint,” recalled his description of Near East Relief’s work as the “salvaging of a generation.”
Rev. Dr. J. L. Barton Dies at Age of 80: A Foundation of the Near East Relief and Ex-Official of Missionary Board. New York Times, July 22, 1936.