Nettie's Stone

A retelling for children, based on Mahmúd's Diary (entry of 1 May 1912) and Nettie Tobin's own account of her stone.

In 1912 the Bahá'ís of America had bought a piece of land in Wilmette, beside the great lake north of Chicago. One day there would be a House of Worship there, a temple where people of every religion could come to pray. On 1 May, a cold and windy day, 'Abdu'l-Bahá came to bless the land and lay the first stone.

A woman in Chicago named Nettie Tobin wanted to give something for the temple. She did not have much money, but she thought 'Abdu'l-Bahá should have a good stone to mark the place where the temple would stand.

Near her home, workers were putting up a building. Nettie saw a pile of stones by a wall and asked the builder if she could have one. "Sure, help yourself," he said. "These are rejected." Nobody wanted those stones.

Nettie put a stone into an old baby carriage and wheeled it home. Early the next morning, a Persian friend helped her push the carriage to the streetcar. The conductor did not want to let them on, but they got the carriage aboard anyway. They changed streetcars twice. It took a long time.

At last they were close to the temple land. Then the carriage rolled over a broken sidewalk and fell apart! The service was supposed to have started already. Just then two boys came along with a wagon, and they lent it to Nettie. So the stone reached the temple land after all.

A big tent had been put up, and many friends had gathered. 'Abdu'l-Bahá took a golden trowel and dug the first bit of earth Himself. Then friends from America and from the East each took a turn digging. For the first stone, 'Abdu'l-Bahá chose Nettie Tobin's stone, the one the builders had thrown aside, and set it in the ground with His own hand.

Nettie later wrote, "Imagine my joy when 'the stone refused by the builder' was received and used by the Master!"

The day before, 'Abdu'l-Bahá had talked to the friends about the oneness of all people and about peace in the world. He called these the foundations of God's temple, and He said:

The outer edifice is a symbol of the inner.

Nettie's stone was never built into the walls of the temple. It is kept there today, at the House of Worship in Wilmette.

This is a retelling for children. For the fuller account, see "Nettie Tobin's Stone".

Maḥmúd-i-Zarqání, M.. (1998). *Mahmúd's Diary: The Diary of Mírzá Maḥmúd-i-Zarqání*. George Ronald.