William Ambrose Shedd was born in Persia (modern-day Iran) to American missionary parents, John Haskell and Sarah Jane (Dawes) Shedd. William went to America to attend Marietta College in Ohio and then to Princeton Theological Seminary, where he finished his advanced theological studies. He was ordained as a minister in 1892 and returned to Persia and a missionary of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, assigned to the Urmia mission station. He became known as "the Moses of the Assyrian people" due to his humanitarian work with Assyrian refugees fleeing the violence in Ottoman territories. In 1904 he wrote a book titled "Islam and the Oriental Churches" and a manuscript of his which was nearly complete by 1912, titled "The Life of John Haskell Shedd" was discovered by his descendants and published in 2023. In addition to his books, Shedd wrote several scholarly articles, published in leading academic journals. He ministered as a missionary until late in WW1 when he began working as an honorary U. S. Consulate in relief work during the months leading to his death. During the final year of WWI, many battles raged in the Turco-Persian border region, resulting in a massive refugee crisis, as Assyrian Christians fled the violence in Ottoman territories. Shedd and his wife (Mary Lewis Shedd), along with nearly 70,000 Assyrian refugees, fled from Urmia to Hamadan during the summer of 1918. On the way there, Dr. Shedd died of cholera. Later his wife had his body moved to the Armenian Cemetery of Tabriz, East Azerbaijan Province, Iran. She later wrote a biography about her husband, titled "The Measure on a Man: The Life of William Ambrose Shedd, Missionary to Persia".
William Ambrose Shedd was born in Persia (modern-day Iran) to American missionary parents, John Haskell and Sarah Jane (Dawes) Shedd. William went to America to attend Marietta College in Ohio and then to Princeton Theological Seminary, where he finished his advanced theological studies. He was ordained as a minister in 1892 and returned to Persia and a missionary of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, assigned to the Urmia mission station. He became known as "the Moses of the Assyrian people" due to his humanitarian work with Assyrian refugees fleeing the violence in Ottoman territories. In 1904 he wrote a book titled "Islam and the Oriental Churches" and a manuscript of his which was nearly complete by 1912, titled "The Life of John Haskell Shedd" was discovered by his descendants and published in 2023. In addition to his books, Shedd wrote several scholarly articles, published in leading academic journals. He ministered as a missionary until late in WW1 when he began working as an honorary U. S. Consulate in relief work during the months leading to his death. During the final year of WWI, many battles raged in the Turco-Persian border region, resulting in a massive refugee crisis, as Assyrian Christians fled the violence in Ottoman territories. Shedd and his wife (Mary Lewis Shedd), along with nearly 70,000 Assyrian refugees, fled from Urmia to Hamadan during the summer of 1918. On the way there, Dr. Shedd died of cholera. Later his wife had his body moved to the Armenian Cemetery of Tabriz, East Azerbaijan Province, Iran. She later wrote a biography about her husband, titled "The Measure on a Man: The Life of William Ambrose Shedd, Missionary to Persia".
Gravesite Details
He was buried in the Armenian Cemetery in Tabriz, East Azerbaijan, Iran.
Family Members
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