James Bassett

Background

He was born on January 31, 1834 at Mundus, near Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

Education

He graduated in 1856, at the age of twenty-two, from Wabash College, Indiana, the third of three brothers who took their degrees from this institution. In 1859 he finished his seminary course at Lane.

Career

He served successively at Yellow Springs, Ohio, and Knoxville, Illinois, as pastor of the Presbyterian Church. During 1862-63 he served as chaplain in the Federal army. In 1863 he became pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Neenah, Wisconsin, and during 1869-71 was pastor at Englewood, Illinois.

On June 19, 1871, he was appointed a missionary of the Presbyterian Church for service in its Persia Mission. Sailing from New York City on August 9, 1871, he arrived in Urumiah, Persia, on October 18. During this year the Urumiah station along with all the Persian work of the American Board was turned over to the care of the Presbyterian Church, and in January 1872 the Urumiah Presbytery was organized for the general administration of the field.

Toward the close of the same year Bassett and Mrs. Bassett opened for the Mission a new station at Teheran, the Persian capital. They were welcomed by both Moslems and Armenians who, it may be said, little understood the real nature of this missionary venture. Two French Lazarists and one Gregorian priest were already there. Not long after Bassett's arrival he baptized a "Mohammedan priest", the first Moslem convert of the Mission.

At Teheran Bassett took up the study of Turkish and Persian, and opened shortly two day schools, one for boys and one for girls. In 1873 he prepared a translation of Christian hymns into Persian. In 1874 he opened a boarding school for girls. By this time he was preaching regularly in Persian in a school on the east side of town, and in a chapel on the west side. In 1875 he organized a training school for young men, from which helpers were sent out to work in Hamadan and Resht. Until 1876 the work of the station had been mainly among Armenians, but early in that year a Friday meeting was begun for Moslems.

During the year (Marсh 26) the Teheran Presbyterian Church was organized with twelve members, including one former Moslem. In 1878 the membership had grown to twenty-three. At the time there was "considerable activity in the work of distributing the Scriptures. " During 1879-81 the Bassetts were in America on furlough. He wrote for Leisure Hour (London) an article, "Out Among the Turcomans" (vol. XXIX, 1880), and prepared a translation of the Gospel of Matthew into Jaghatai Turki (published in London, 1880). In the summer of 1881 he and his wife returned to Persia, where he took charge of all the boys' schools of the Mission, making his home in Teheran.

In the next year the Persia Mission was divided, and thereafter Bassett was senior missionary and head of the Eastern Mission. On Christmas Day, 1882, he began in his house services in English for the many English-speaking residents of the capital city. Friction with the government arose over the attendance of Moslems upon mission meetings, and the government prohibited the Mission from allowing Moslem attendance. Bassett, however, persuaded the authorities to place the responsibility upon the Moslems and not upon the Mission, and was enabled to open again the regular chapel services. In 1883 a new chapel building with a seating capacity of 300 was erected on the mission compound, and services were held weekly therein on Sundays and Fridays. The same year saw the appointment of the first United States minister to Persia, effected partly through Bassett's efforts.

During 1884 he published from native presses a revised and enlarged edition of the Persian hymnal and his translation of the Westminster Shorter Catechism, and in the Journal of the American Oriental Society an article on "The Simnuni Dialects. " In the summer of 1884 he resigned from the Mission and returned to America with his family, arriving in October. The rest of his life was spent in pastoral work and in the preparation of two books, Persia, the Land of the Imams (1886), frequently cited by later writers on Persia, and Persia, Eastern Mission (1890).

Achievements

• James Bassett founded the first American mission at Tehran, Persia (now Iran). Under his supervision other mission stations were founded, and in 1882 he became senior missionary and head of the Eastern Mission of Persia.