32 Facts About Howard Baskerville

Howard Conklin Baskerville was an American missionary teacher.

Howard Baskerville worked as a teacher employed by the American missionaries at the American Memorial School in Tabriz, a Presbyterian mission school, and was killed during the Persian constitutional revolution in an attempt to break the siege of Tabriz.

Howard Baskerville is often referred to as the "American Lafayette of Iran" and the "American Martyr of the Iranian Constitutional Movement".

Howard Baskerville came to Tabriz in the fall of 1907 to teach history.

Howard Baskerville, who had attended in the military service in the United States, decided to teach military exercises to young people instead of "narrating the history of the dead" as he called it.

Shortly afterward, Sattar Khan took Howard Baskerville's rifle, engraved his name and date of death on it and wrapped it in the Iranian flag, and sent it to his family in the United States.

Howard Conklin Baskerville was born on April 10,1885, in North Platte, Nebraska.

Howard Baskerville's goal was to be based in a foreign land for about two years after which he would return to America to continue his theological studies and become an ordained minister similar to his father and grandfather.

Since Howard Baskerville was not an ordained minister and intended to only serve for two years he was sent to Iran as a teacher on a short-term contract rather than as a missionary.

The Memorial School to which Howard Baskerville was assigned as a teacher was one of the many schools established by Americans in Iran.

Howard Baskerville first sailed from the United States to England and from there to Iran.

Howard Baskerville first settled in the home of Samuel Wilson.

Howard Baskerville later moved to the Memorial School, where American teachers lived.

Sadegh Rezazadeh Shafaq, a student of Howard Baskerville, who became close to him and acted as his translator, wrote about the day that Howard Baskerville went to their house with Samuel Graham Wilson for Nowruz :.

Howard Baskerville was very well known and many people wanted to attend his history classes.

Howard Baskerville supported the Iranian constitutional revolution from the beginning of his arrival in Tabriz.

Howard Baskerville became close to Hassan Sharifzadeh, who was a literature teacher at the same school and was one of the influential leaders of the constitutional revolution in Tabriz.

Howard Baskerville had completed his military service in the United States shortly before he was sent to Iran.

In March 1909, Howard Baskerville decided to organize 150 of his students to help Sattar Khan break the siege of Tabriz.

Howard Baskerville asked his soldiers to "take the lead in any war that took place, and when they approached the enemy they would not be in the trenches, they would attack the enemy with devotion".

Howard Baskerville was under pressure from both groups for joining the Tabriz constitutionalists.

Therefore, in order for the American consul and school officials not to be aware of his actions, Howard Baskerville intended the courtyard of Tabriz Citadel to provide military training to Tabriz constitutionalists and conducted military training in the Tabriz Citadel area every evening.

Sattar Khan, while appreciating Howard Baskerville, encouraged him to withdraw from the battle.

Howard Baskerville volunteered for the mission and asked Sattar Khan for weapons.

Howard Baskerville first tried to persuade Sattar Khan to ask the Europeans for help and surrender to the king on appropriate terms.

Howard Baskerville fired at him, pushing his men forward, thinking the sniper had fled the scene.

When Howard Baskerville turned his back, the sniper returned and fired two shots at him, which hit him in the heart and left the other side of his body.

When we were lying down, at the insistence of Hossein Khan Kermanshahi and others, I kept shouting to Howard Baskerville, who was laying in an aqueduct, not to get up so that other warriors could push us back around the enemy and we could get out or continue our way, but sadly, Howard Baskerville did not respond to my call and went to the left-hand garden through the channel under the wall, on the chest, and the garden wall was between us and him.

Howard Baskerville gave a second command and ran in front of the reckless Cossack stronghold, and several of us followed him; But the others, seeing the cannon and the bullets in front of them, did not follow and immediately split into two groups, one group reaching the gardens of this hand and one group reaching the gardens and digging behind the trees and walls.

Thousands of people from Tabriz and Howard Baskerville comrades attended the funeral.

In 2005, a bronze statue of Howard Baskerville was unveiled at the Constitutional House of Tabriz by then-Iranian President Mohammad Khatami.

Howard Baskerville is buried in the Assyrian Cemetery of Tabriz in Tabriz, and some unidentified enthusiasts alternately decorate his tombstone with fresh yellow flowers.