Thornton Chase and John Bosch
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When in Bahá'í history
Los Angeles (today: Los Angeles, California, USA)
John Bosch of California longed for ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to come West in 1912, and years later told the story to Marzieh Gail. But it was not the same with Thornton Chase. That great man, who had been a captain in the Civil War, a student at Brown University, and later Superintendent of Agencies for the Union Mutual Life Company, and was 'the first to embrace the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh in the Western world'--felt that the Bahá’ís, himself included, were not worthy of the Master's visit. 'John, don't you think it's too soon? The Bahá’ís aren't ready.' 'Well, I'm ready for Him,' said John. As the Master reached San Francisco, down in Los Angeles Thornton Chase died. 'It was too much for him,' John told me. All Thornton Chase's Bahá’í papers and books, and five or six calligraphies by Mishkín-Qalam, were willed to John. Mr. Chase had sent on most of his Tablets to the Chicago archives, but John received about ten of them in a tin box. Mrs. Chase burned some fifteen hundred of her husband's letters (not Tablets) before John could get to Los Angeles.
Source: Marzieh Gail, “‘Abdu’l-Bahá: Portrayals from East and West,” in Dawn Over Mount Hira and Other Essays (George Ronald, 1976), p. 206.
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