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On March 9, 1904, tragedy struck the Presbyterian Mission to Persia (Persia is now known as Iran). Rev. Benjamin Woods Labaree and his servant Israel were killed by a band of Kurds near Urmia. It was “the first murder in the mission’s seventy-year history. The motive was either religious or racial hatred, combined with robbery” (Susan M. Stein, On Distant Service: The Life of the First U.S. Foreign Service Officer to Be Assassinated, p. 218).
Labaree was the son of American Presbyterian missionary to Persia Benjamin Labaree. The account of his death (by repeated dagger blows) is given in a letter by the younger Labaree’s wife, Mary A. Schauffler Labaree Platt (she later remarried). He, his servant, and another male missionary set off from Urmia to escort two female missionaries to the city of Khoy. It was on the return trip that their journey left “this mortal coil.” The timeline of events relating to Labaree’s death is given by the editor of Woman’s Work for Woman.
March 4.—Mr. Labaree left Urumia in charge of a party of several persons bound for Khoi.
March 9.— Murder of Mr. Labaree and servant, by a Persian and three Kurds.
March 10 or 11. — Rev. Wm. Shedd with escort of soldiers went to Ula to bring the bodies of the dead to Urumia.
March 11. — The Governor of Urumia sent a long, sympathetic telegram from Tabriz, assuring Dr. Cochran that he would heartily do all in his power to find the murderers.
March 14. — Funeral at the College, one mile and a half outside the city, and burial at Seir, six miles farther out.
The return of the bodies of B.W. Labaree and his servant, Israel, after their murder by Kurds, on the road from Khoi to Urmia, March 1904.
Accounts of this tragedy may be found in Robert Elliott Speer’s biography of Joseph Plumb Cochran, “The Hakim Sahib",” The Foreign Doctor: A Biography of Joseph Plumb Cochran, M.D., of Persia (1911); and Mary Lewis Shedd’s biography of her husband, The Measure of a Man: The Life of William Ambrose Shedd, Missionary to Persia (1922). William A. Shedd dedicated his book Islam and the Oriental Churches (1908) to the memory of B.W. Labaree, “who met a cruel death, Salmas, Persia, March Ninth, MCMIV - a true friend and devoted missionary.”
His widow wrote days after the sad event:
God is very close to us and His help is real and wonderful. As I realize more and more what He is to me, it makes my whole heart yearn to teach these people of this poor, wicked land to know Him. Do not grieve and mourn too much for us, dear ones, but pray that we may be able to bear it and that this overwhelming sorrow may be to the glory of God.
Later, when some came to offer her condolences and in so doing cursed the murderers of her husband, “She cried out, ‘O how your words hurt ! Every one is a dagger to my broken heart. My children and I are praying that God may revenge us by changing the hearts of those men and saving them from eternal death. We are praying as our Master did for His enemies, 'Forgive them,' for they knew not what they did. It is my comfort to believe that out of this great sorrow shall come that great blessing’" (Elwood Morris Wherry, Methods of Mission Work Among Moslems, p. 112).
B.W. Labaree’s younger brother, Robert McEwan Labaree, after learning of the tragedy, volunteered to serve as a missionary to Persia in his place. After many years of service in that mission field, he went on to become a highly respected professor at Lincoln University near Oxford, Pennsylvania.
In July 1904, Seyid Ghaffar, the accused murderer, was captured and incarcerated. He claimed a lineal descent from the Prophet Muhammad, and so the local authorities were unwilling to execute him for his crime (he was also accused of killing another British citizen on a separate occasion), but he died in prison several years later. Other members of his band were captured but did not stay in prison long.
The Labaree Memorial Church in Urmia was erected in 1906 in memory of the martyred missionary. B.W. Labaree’s legacy has inspired many over the years to pray and labor for the cause of Christianity in the Middle East. The example of forgiveness by his widow is a powerful witness to the grace of God toward sinners. May we continue to honor the legacy of the missionary martyr and his widow with our prayers and labors today.
