Dr. William A. Shedd and his wife Mary Lewis Shedd were longtime missionaries to Persia. Dr. Shedd died on the flight from Urumia to Hamadan. He is credited with saving the lives of thousands of Assyrian and Armenian Christians.
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Refugees fleeing Urumia, Persia
When the Russian army withdrew from Persia, the Assyrian and Armenian minorities were totally vulnerable. The invading Ottoman army drove the remaining Christians out of Persia.
Mary Lewis Shedd
Mary Lewis Shedd was a missionary in Urumia, Persia. She protected 70,000 Christian refugees on the perilous journey from Urumia to Hamadan. Her husband, Dr. William Ambrose Shedd, died of cholera during the journey.
William A. Shedd
was called “dean of American missionaries in the Near East.” He was vice-consul at the ancient city of Urumia, Western Persia . In 1918, when the Moslem Turks and Kurds attacked the district and 80,000 Christian Nestorians were compelled to flee. Dr. Shedd was one of the Americans bringing up the rear and protecting the refugees from the barbarians, but he died just outside the British lines at Sein Kula, Persia, from cholera. Thousands of lives were saved by his heroism.
He was a brother-in-law of the Hon. Curtis D. Wilbur, Secretary of the Navy in President Coolidge’s cabinet.
