Carmelite Sarah Brewer

Carmelite Brewer, married Thomas Davidson Christie and was an Congregational Missionary in Turkey from 1877 to 1920. She wrote letters and kept diaries which are important part of the MN Historical Society Christie Collection. During her time at , she was the College's sole American caretaker during World War I.
Early Family Life
Carmelite was born in Lee Center, Illinois on 25 April 1852 Sarah Carmelite Christie to Rev. James and Elizabeth Pratt Brewer. Her father was a preacher who graduated from Williams College and taught in schools in the South. He joined his brother Ira after riding from Montgomery Alabama to Lee County in 1847. James was a farmer and a principal of the new academy in Lee Center in 1850. He was ordained in 1859. Thus Carmelite, her brother and sister were raised in a rural household that valued education, religion and good works.
She graduated from Rockford Seminary for Women in 1871. Like her father, she taught school in Lee Center until she married Thomas Davidson Christie on 14 March 1872.Sarah Carmelite Christie
Missionary Period
Thomas went to Andover Theological Seminary and was ordained in Beloit Wisconsin in 1877. Thomas, Carmilite and their young daughter went to Marash Turkey. Thomas taught at the Central Turkey Theological Seminary. In 1893 they went to St. Paul's College in Tarsus.

Carmelite was often left alone with her children when Thomas visited outlying missionary stations and when he went on trips abroad. In addition to her family responsibilities, she was involved in the activities of St. Paul's College and the education of women. For two periods, 1888 to 1890 and 1897 to 1898, she returned to the United States with her children to establish a home while the children attended school.
Her son-in-law Rev. Miner Rogers and her husband went to a conference in Adana Turkey in 1909. Rev. Rogers was killed there in the riots. Thomas Christie could not immediately return to Tarsus. Some of the rioters in Adana came to Tarsus. Parts of the Tarsus Armenian quarter were set on fire and a 1000 or more refugees fled to the College. The Christies had good relations with the local government. However, Carmilite told everyone that the College was American soil, which was untrue. She and her family were offered safe passage to a British warship near Mersa, but she refused. After a few days, the militia left as suddenly as they had appeared.
Again in June 1915, her husband Thomas left her when he went to Constantinople to request that the government not deport teachers. Thomas was not allowed to return to Tarsus. Carmelite arranged for her family and future son-in-law to leave. During the War, she kept the College open, distributed relief supplies and chronicled some of these events. Thomas returned to Tarsus in 1919.
Later life
In 1920, Carmelite and Thomas returned to the United States and made their home in Eagle Rock California. Thomas died in 1921. Carmelite lived with her youngest daughter Jean O. Christie in Pasadena California. Carmelite passed away in 1931. She and Thomas are buried in Newton Cemetery (Massachusetts) in the American Missionary Board plot.
The Minnesota Historical Society was given a trunk full of Christie family letters in 1965. The Christie family was asked to give or make copies of other letters and diaries for a permanent collection. In 2016, the collection occupies over 100 cubit feet. There are many of Carmelite's letters and most volumes of her continuous diary she kept until her death.
Children
Five of Carmelite's six surviving children were born in Turkey. The more notable have a common thread that echoed Carmelite's own life of good works and education.
Emerson Christie (1878-1967) was a noted linguist and ethnologist. He graduated from Yale, taught at St. Paul's College and then in the Philippines. He also taught at University of Michigan and Temple University. He was Chief of the US State Department's Bureau of Translation from 1928-1944.
Mary Chrisite (1881-1975) was born in and spent a great deal of her life in Turkey. She attended Bryn Mawr College and entered Hartford Female Seminary, graduating in 1908. She married Daniel Miner Rogers (1882-1909) and they joined her parents in Tarsus. After the death of Miner, she returned with their child to the United States. In 1911 she returned to Tarsus to teach. She met her second husband William Nute and they married in Tarsus. Mary and her child returned to the States so William could complete his medical training. They returned to Turkey where Mary taught and William ran rural medical clinics.
Paul Christie (1883-1959) was born and raised in Turkey. As his siblings, he was sent away as a teenager for further education. Paul went to schools in Greece, Switzerland and Germany. He graduated from Hotchkiss School in 1903 and Harvard University in 1907. He was a French teacher and athletic coach at until World War II. He retired and during the war worked at a Grumman airplane factory as a riveter in California. He continued to teach swimming until he died.

Jean Christie (1891-1984) graduated from Wellesley College in 1915, and studied Columbia University. She returned to Turkey and taught in Constantinople. Jean was forced to stop teaching there in 1917 and worked with the YMCA in France. Jean helped her parents return to the California in 1920. She was a teacher at Occidental College and a professor of History Emerita at Fairleigh Dickinson University. After her marriage to Eugene Lien, she lived in Berkley California, wrote about the New Deal and the history of American women.
Anna Christie (1875-1910) and Agnes Christie (1887-1919) both attended schools in Europe and the United States. Both were in poor health much of their lives. Agnes taught in Turkey for brief time.

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