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SPRING
2012
5
From Boston to Smyrna
(Part I)
Elliot Shepard, a young newspa-
per publisher who had married
into the wealthy Vanderbuilt
family. As the aristocratic
class did back then, Shepard
took a ship tour of the
Middle East in 1885. Upon
his return, he mesmerized
his friends with tales
from the east. Most
of all, he seemed open
to the idea of financ-
ing a school in Tarsus.
An Armenian student at the
Seminary, Hartune Jenanyan,
solicited from him the needed
funds – and along with MacLachlan and
the approval of the American Board of
Commissioners – began preparing for a
new life in Turkey. (Shepard also financed
the purchase of some of the Protestant
missionary land in Beirut).
The event was deemed important enough
to be cited in the New York Eve-
ning Post that year. “Fifty one
students were graduated from
the Union Theological Semi-
nary last evening,” stated
the Post on Wednesday
May 11, 1887. “Hartune
Jenanyan and Alexan-
der MacLachlan were
ordained, as they are soon
to go to Tarsus to found
an orphanage and school.
The Rev W.D. Bucha-
non, moderator of the
Presbytery, presided at
the ordination…”
And so, on January 27 1888,
MacLachlan and his new
bride, Lizzie Stephens,
boarded the
Servia
alongside Jenanyan
and his wife and set sail to Turkey.
Upon their arrival, hundreds came to
welcome them, “among the number,”
writes Jenanyan in his 1898 memoires,
Lights and Shadow in the Orient
, “curious
Turks with high Turban and long flowing
robes, the mothers of Tarsus
with their tiny babes swaddled,
the leading people of the
church, Armenians in their
beautiful embroidered
garments, Greeks gaily
dressed, peasant women
from the mountains with
their little ones strapped
across their backs.”
MacLachlan and Jen-
anyan set to work. On
November 22 1888,
St. Paul’s Institute
opened with sev-
enteen students.
The school grew quickly
and before long was offering
collegiate classes. (Today it
is known as “The American
Tarsus College”, and credits
both MacLachlan and Jenan-
yan as its founders).
Tragedy struck, however,
shortly after the
school’s open-
ing. MacLachlan’s wife,
Lizzie, developed cholera
and died. MacLachlan
was devastated. Com-
pounding this loss,
the two men were not
getting along well.
Disagreements about
fund allocation and
the school mis-
sion were taking
their toll on
MacLachlan.The
Armenian minister
wanted a stricter
religious syllabus while
MacLachlan wanted a more
liberal approach.
During an 1888 trip from Beirut
to Tarsus, Henry Jessup, one of
the Syrian Protestant College
(AUB) founders, was quick to
pick up on the differences.
“There were indications of an incompat-
ibility which almost invariably develops
itself where any institution in the East
is placed under the dual control of an
Oriental and an Occidental,” he writes in
his book,
Fifty Three years in Syria
(1910).
“I then wrote a long document to the
New York Board of Trustees, which I read
to Mr. Jenanyan, and which he approved,
advising that hereafter St. Paul’s Institute
be made either wholly Armenian with
Mr. Jenanyan at its head, or wholly
American with an American at its
head.”
Two years after their arrival to
Tarsus, MacLachlan resigned
his post. His grandson, Dr.
Howard Reed, who currently
lives in the US, remembers his
grandfather telling him the
story. “He was tired of this
mess and wanted to go back to
America,” he said. “But a friend
told him to take a vacation in
Smyrna and visit the mission
base there.”
The missionaries had opened up a girls’
school in Smyrna (American Collegiate
Institute) but there was still a strong need
for a boys’ school. Would MacLachlan go
and take a look at the city?
To be continued….
The adventures of Alexander MacLach-
lan: (part II) in the Summer Newsletter.
Historical information largely based
on: an interview with Dr. Howard
Reed (summer 2011); Memoir of the
Rev. Pliny Fisk, A.M.: late mission-
ary to Palestine (1828); Memoires,
Lights and Shadow in the Orient
(1898) by Hartune Jenanyan; Fifty
Three years in Syria (1910) by Henry
Jessup; The Mail and Empire, Toronto,
Saturday December 17, 1898; The
Evening Post, New York, Wednesday
May 11, 1887.
Rev. Levi Parsons
Rev. Pliny Fisk
Rev. Elliot Shepard
Rev. Hartune Jenanyan