Carmelite Brewer Christie was a Congregational missionary in Turkey from 1877 to 1920 and served as the acting president of the St. Paul 's College , during World War I . She was the College 's sole American caretaker , though her husband Thomas Davidson Christie was the named president . She wrote letters and kept diaries which are part of the Minnesota Historical Society Christie Collection and provide a first-hand account of the Armenian massacre of 1895 , Ottoman Turkish politics in the pre - and post-World War I era , the Armenian Genocide of 1915 and its aftermath . During the 1909 Riots and unrest , she refused to abandon the school , students and refugees who had fled there , guarding up to 5,000 people under her protection and hoisting the American flag
Armenian Genocide
Armenian Genocide
Carmelite Brewer Christie