Elizabeth Barrows Ussher
| Elizabeth Barrows Ussher | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
20 October 1873 Kayseri, Ottoman Empire |
| Died | 20 September 1915 (aged 41) Van, Ottoman Empire |
| Occupation | Christian missionary and witness to the Armenian Genocide |
Elizabeth Freeman Barrows Ussher (20 October 1873 – 14 July 1915) was a Christian missionary and a witness to the Armenian Genocide. Barrows described the atrocities against the Armenians as "systematic and wholesale massacre." Much of her life is described in the 1916 publication by her own father John Otis Barrows. She was the wife of missionary physician Clarence Ussher.
Elizabeth Freeman Barrows was born in Kayseri, Ottoman Empire on 20 October 1873 to Christian missionary parents. Due to her brother's poor health condition, when Barrows was two years old she and her family moved to Manisa in the hope that a change of environment would be helpful for the child. Once in Manisa, the Barrows family remained with other missionaries already stationed there. After Elizabeth's brother's health improved, the family traveled to Constantinople, where they managed to find a house in Besiktas, a suburb of the city.
When Elizabeth was seven, the family visited the United States and headed for New England. The family eventually settled in Atkinson, New Hampshire and, at the age of eleven, Elizabeth Barrows was baptized in the local church. The Barrows family then moved to Newington, Connecticut, where Elizabeth received her early education. She continued her education with Evangelist preacher Dwight L. Moody at the age of fourteen in 1888. Barrows entered the Northfield Seminary and studied there for three years. After returning to her family residence in Connecticut, she became a teacher in a local school. In 1895, after teaching for nearly a year, she was accepted in Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland. She was known as 'Beth' by her classmates and was elected vice-president of her class. A classmate wrote of her:
The first characteristic which impressed me was her absolute sincerity. Another characteristic was her serenity of spirit and her sweetness which was never insipidity. Behind it appeared character, unyielding in its integrity, a quiet firmness where principle was involved which nothing could move. Her missionary spirit was as a beautiful radiance that illuminated her personality. But, with it all, she was sweetly human.
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