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WINTER 2020
IC Always Moves On: Tales of Survival* Tale #1: World War I, 1914-1918 As WWI raged on, Rev. Alexander MacLachlan realized that he couldn’t possibly keep his staff and boarding students fed. Foreseeing an inevitable famine, he ordered a large supply of greatly overpriced food staples – creating a huge deficit in the school’s meager budget, so much so that IC was on the brink of shutting down. Then a miracle. A telegram came from long-time donor, Emma Kennedy, and a wealthy Protestant philanthropist Cleveland Dodge, announcing a gift of $13,000 for the current expenses of the College. It was enough to keep the school going for another year. But then came another blow: Turkish authorities forbade all staff who were citizens of countries at war with Turkey to teach and called on all Turkish male
citizens of the Ottoman Empire – regardless of age – to arms. Only three faculty members now remained. If IC were to shut down, the Turkish authorities would immediately requisition the campus. And so despite epidemics of typhus and Asiatic cholera (IC’s own physician died of typhus) and an unrelenting threat of famine, MacLachlan continued conducting the semblance of a school to the accompaniment of artillery and hum of aircraft overhead. In November 1918, WWI ended. Foreign faculty began returning, and MacLachlan welcomed back the rest of the student body. Tale #2 September 1922 With the Turkish army now 25 miles east of Smyrna and getting ready to fight the Greek troops that had occupied
