It should be said that this visit to Marash was in the midst of a revival. The resident missionary, Mr. White, describes the work as being chiefly among the Armenians and Roman Catholics. "Every night they met in the houses of the Protestants and spent hours, sometimes even till near morning, examining the Scriptures and comparing them with the corrupt teachings of their own churches. Our young men were very active, laboring both day and night, so much so, that the Catholic bishop said he could not understand it; that if the young men were paid for thus laboring, the missionaries had not money enough; and if they were not paid, they had a love which he could not understand. Many of his people, however, seemed to comprehend it better than he did, and are now regular attendants at our church."
The veteran missionary pays a noble tribute to the wives of the missionaries at the several stations of the central mission: "I felt myself rebuked when I saw the earnest, self-devoted spirit of my missionary sisters, who are laboring in Aintab, in Marash, in Antioch, in Aleppo, and in Oorfa, for the salvation of their degraded sex; thinking little of the sacrifices they have made in leaving America, to live in such a country as Turkey. It would be difficult to find in Christendom a more happy class than these, our helpers in Christ Jesus. The holy object which fills their hearts lifts them above the distracting and embittering influences of external circumstances."
The change at Diarbekir, during the score of years since Dr. Grant and Mr. Homes barely escaped with their lives, had been truly wonderful. Drs. Dwight and Schneider and Mr. Nutting, on their approach from Oorfa, were met, eighteen miles out, by a deputation of Protestant brethren on horseback; and, a few miles further on, by another detachment, headed by Mr. Walker and the native pastor; and when near the city, by a third on foot, thus giving them a sort of triumphal entry. Nor, during their whole stay, was there anything to awaken a feeling of insecurity, but convincing evidence, that Protestantism had a strong hold on many minds.
Dr. Dwight noticed a decline of the Turkish population in the region of the Euphrates. Several entire quarters in Diarbekir, formerly Turkish, had passed into Christian hands, and the process was going on. Armenians, Jacobites, and Protestants were buying Turkish houses, but seldom did a Turk buy one of theirs; and around the outskirts of the city there were extensive Turkish quarters all in ruins.
Mrs. Dunmore had come to the United States in 1856, in consequence of the failure of her health, and was never able to return. Her husband continued his self-denying labors four years longer, until, seeing no prospect of her recovery, he believed his duty required him to follow her. It was then a time of civil war in his native land, and his public spirit led him to accept an invitation from a regiment of cavalry to be their chaplain. A detachment, with which he was connected, was surprised early in the morning of August 3, 1861, and he fell, shot in the head before he was fairly out of his tent.[1]
[1] See Missionary Herald, 1862, p. 321.
In courage, enterprise, tact, and efficacy, Mr. Dunmore stood in the front rank of missionaries. "He did not write much of what he did," says Mr. Walker, his successor at Diarbekir. "He cared not to be known. But he cared for the souls of this poor people, and for Christ's kingdom. I think that few missionaries are so well fitted for the work, and very few labor with the same zeal and self-denial. To few is it given to accomplish so much. There is comparatively little accomplished in Diarbekir, Arabkir, Harpoot, and Moosh, which is not, under God, due to this brother. His influence will long be felt in these parts. Paul was his model, and there are few who come so near to that exemplar. He had wonderful power in attaching the natives to him. He could sympathize deeply with them, and aid them as few can. His heart was in the work here, and it was a very great trial for him to return to America. His fearless journeys among the Koords in this land, led us often to feel apprehensive for his life. The Lord forgive the Texan, whose bullet cut short a life so valuable."
In the years 1860 and 1861, the ill health of either husband or wife deprived the mission of the labors of Messrs. Clark, Hutchison, Parsons, and Plumer, and their families. Mr. and Mrs. Peabody returned to their native land, after a faithful service of nineteen years. Dr. Schauffler also terminated his official connection of twenty-nine years with his missionary associates, and entered the service of the American, and the British and Foreign Bible Societies in the work of Bible translation for the Turkish Mohammedans. Miss Tenney was married to Dr. Hamlin, who had been released from his connection with the Board to take charge of a Protestant college in Constantinople, though without any change in the great object of his labors.
Mr. Williams reoccupied Mardin in the year 1861. This was then, as now, the capital of the Syrian Church, and the natural centre of operations among the Arabic-speaking people in Eastern Turkey. It embraced Mosul, and multitudes of towns and villages scattered over a wide region, and required more than one missionary; though that one was a man of first-rate abilities and eminent devotion to his work. It was put in connection with the Armenian Mission, partly because its missionary policy was the same, and partly because it seemed necessary to work that whole field from one central station, and by a small number of missionaries, and because it would require the moral support of the larger mission in its neighborhood.
A training-school was commenced at Mardin in the following year, on the plan of the one at Harpoot, with a class of eight hopefully pious young men. The congregation had doubled since Mr. Williams' return and Protestantism had a more favorable position; but as yet the intellect accepted the truth more readily than did the heart.