The Silk Weaver of Pendleton

In Volume 4, No. 5 of the Star of the West, dated June 5, 1913, a short notice appeared under the heading In Remembrance: Sarah Ann Ridgway. It was signed by Edward Theodore Hall of Manchester, England.

Sarah Ann Ridgway, of 16 Smith Street, Broughton Road, Pendleton, Manchester, had passed away without suffering on the 11th of May. She was about sixty years old. She had held firmly to the Bahá'í Cause for fifteen years or more, in the United States and in England, and she had twice been in the presence of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, in London and in Liverpool.

Hall described her work in Pendleton in a single sentence:

... has worked many years for it in Pendleton—quietly but steadily teaching and acting the blessed principles and duties taught by Christ Jesus and Abdul-Baha.

She was a silk weaver, and she kept up her work at the silk factory to the last. Hall wrote that she never spoke of personal ailments or of old age coming on, and was always too full of thought for others to worry about herself. She was respected by all who knew her. Small in build but strong and energetic, she moved among all denominations, sowing the seed of divine fellowship everywhere. Though poor, she found means to help the needy, of whom there were many in her neighbourhood, and though she worked for her living all day, she found time and strength to do good among those depressed by poverty or illness.

Hall ended with what her loss meant to the Bahá'ís of Manchester:

She taught us patience and constancy in faith and works, and we miss her.

There were now, he wrote, only two in Manchester who called themselves Bahá'ís, and she had been "the first in Manchester and the truest."

A retelling based on the Star of the West, Volume 4, No. 5 (June 5, 1913), "In Remembrance: Sarah Ann Ridgway," by Edward Theodore Hall. For the fuller account, see the original.

Editors, S. O. T. W.. (1913). *Star of the West*. Bahai News Service. https://bahai.works/Star_of_the_West/Volume_4/Issue_5/Text