Hadjin (present Saimbeyli district), a city in interior Turkey, located in a pocket in the mountains of the Taurus range about 100 miles (162 km) inland from Adana. Christian mis­sionary work was begun here about 1850 by the American Board. A smaller but significant mission effort known as the United Orphanage and Mis­sion, which was largely sponsored by the Mennon­ite Brethren in Christ, began in 1898 when Rose Lambert (later Mrs. David Musselman) and Mary A. Gerber arrived. Within a year they had gath­ered 175 orphans and opened two homes, one for boys and one for girls. By 1905 there were 305 orphans, with an extensive industrial training pro­gram and evangelistic work. A total of over 20 missionaries were sent out but several of them served only a short time because of ill health or death. Work was closed in 1914 with the outbreak of World War I. In 1919 three missionaries were sent back and work resumed only to be closed again the next year by the Turkish Nationalist siege of the city. Some of the missionaries carried on work among Armenian refugees in other centers, especially Damascus, but never again in Hadjin. As a matter of fact the Armenian population of Hadjin was practically annihilated through a series of massacres and deportations centering in the years 1896, 1909, and 1920.

Bibliography

Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 2, p. 620. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.

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