Nancy Jane Dean

Nancy Jane Dean (April 8, 1837 – March 5, 1926), often referred to as Jennie Dean (not to be confused with African-American teacher Jennie Serepta Dean) or N. J. Dean, was an American educator and Presbyterian missionary serving Nestorian Christians in Persia (now Iran). She was the head of Fiske Seminary, a girls' boarding school in Urmia.

Nancy Jane "Jennie" Dean, from a 1911 publication.

Early life

Nancy Jane Dean was born on her family's farm in Livonia Township, near Plymouth, Michigan, the youngest of the thirteen children of Gabriel Dean and Lydia Bradner Dean. Both of her parents were born in New York state. She trained as a teacher at the Michigan State Normal School in Ypsilanti, Michigan, graduating in 1860.[1]

Career

Dean was a school teacher in Michigan for six years.[2][1]

Mount Holyoke Seminary graduate Fidelia Fiske founded a girls' boarding school at Urmia in 1843, to educate Nestorian Christian girls and to train teachers. Fiske left the school and Persia for health reasons in 1858; after her departure it was renamed Fiske Seminary.[3][4] Nancy Jane Dean arrived at Urmia to teach at the school in 1868, and became the school's principal. She took a furlough from 1875 to 1878, and spoke to church groups about her work.[5][6] In 1890, the Urmia mission reported that "Miss Dean, the faithful worker of twenty-two years, has been quite broken down... she has never given up entirely, and her presence, her experience and her spirituality exert untold influence over the girls of the boarding school."[7]

Nancy Jane Dean left the mission field in 1892, in poor health.[8] "Her presence and influence will be long missed," commented one report.[9] As she was leaving, before reaching Tabriz, her pack train was attacked by vandals and some of her possessions were taken.[10] She returned briefly to Persia in 1899,[11][12][13] before permanently retiring in 1904.[14]

In retirement, Dean continued to lecture on Persia and work with Presbyterian women's groups.[15][16] In 1920 and 1923, she was an honored guest at meetings of the Woman's Missionary Society of the Presbytery of Detroit.[17][18]

Personal life

Nancy Jane Dean died in Detroit in 1926, aged 88 years.[19]

References
  1. Class of 1860 notes, The Aurora (Michigan State Normal College 1895): 158.
  2. Clark's Detroit City Directory (Detroit 1865): 25, 124.
  3. D. T. Fiske, Faith Working by Love, as exemplified in the Life of Fidelia Fiske (Congregational Publishing Society 1868).
  4. A. Christian van Gorder, Christianity in Persia and the Status of Non-Muslims in Iran (Lexington Books 2010): 161.
  5. "The Presbyterian Missionary Convention" Detroit Free Press (January 27, 1876): 1. via Newspapers.com
  6. "Jottings" Pontiac Gazette (January 4, 1878): 5. via Digital Michigan Newspapers
  7. Nineteenth Annual Report of the Woman's Presbyterian Board of Missions of the Northwest (Chicago: Blakeley & Co. 1890): 37.
  8. Cora C. Bartlett, "Setting the Standard at Teheran" Woman's Work (August 1911): 177.
  9. Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. General Assembly, Report of the Boards (1893): 175.
  10. "Robbed by Vandals" Detroit Free Press (May 28, 1892): 9. via Newspapers.com
  11. "Westminster Presbyterian Church" Detroit Free Press (June 11, 1899): 18. via Newspapers.com
  12. "Minister's Wife Tints Stereopticon Slides" Detroit Free Press (February 20, 1901): 5. via Newspapers.com
  13. "Six American Missionaries Sail for Persia" Chicago Tribune (July 30, 1899): 4. via Newspapers.com
  14. "Missionary to Persia Will Soon Return Home" Detroit Free Press (October 10, 1904): 3. via Newspapers.com
  15. "Call of Africa and the Moslem World" Winston-Salem Journal (June 27, 1915): 1. via Newspapers.com
  16. "Church's Social Work Extensive" Detroit Free Press (October 23, 1910): 5. via Newspapers.com
  17. "Presbytery W. M. S." Detroit Free Press (March 28, 1920): 57. via Newspapers.com
  18. "Missionary Fund Honors Detroiter" Detroit Free Press (October 4, 1923): 15. via Newspapers.com
  19. "Survivor of Ox-Cart Days Reaches Her 100th Birthday" Detroit Free Press (January 16, 1935): 8. via Newspapers.com
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