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"The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens."
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"The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens."
15 stories on this theme.
Thornton Chase became a Bahá'í in Chicago in 1894. 'Abdu'l-Bahá named him Thábit, the Steadfast, and in 1912 made a special journey to his grave in Inglewood, California.
On 1 May 1912 'Abdu'l-Bahá dedicated the site of the first Bahá'í House of Worship in the West at Wilmette, laying as its first stone a discarded block brought by Nettie Tobin.
Thornton Chase of Chicago became the first American Bahá'í in 1894. 'Abdu'l-Bahá called him Thábit, the Steadfast, and in 1912 visited his grave in California.
As financial secretary of Bahai Temple Unity, Corinne True of Chicago gathered gifts from across America and the East for the House of Worship at Wilmette. She lived to see it dedicated in 1953 and was known as the Mother of the Temple.
In 1894 Sarah Farmer opened Green Acre in Eliot, Maine, as a summer platform for speakers of every religion. After her pilgrimage to 'Akká in 1900 she offered it to the Bahá'ís, and in 1912 'Abdu'l-Bahá spent a week there and prayed for her.
In March 1909 thirty-nine delegates from thirty-six cities met in Chicago and formed Bahá'í Temple Unity, the national body that would hold the land and raise the funds for the first House of Worship in the West.
In December 1898 the first of fifteen Western pilgrims, travelling in three parties arranged by Phoebe Hearst, reached 'Akká and met 'Abdu'l-Bahá. Shoghi Effendi saw in their visit the opening of a new epoch for the Faith in the West.
Thornton Chase, the first American believer, served the young Chicago community for years through its House of Spirituality and its publishing work. When he died in 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá travelled to Los Angeles to visit his grave.
In 1920 the American Bahá'ís chose Louis Bourgeois's design for the House of Worship at Wilmette. He then showed his drawings to 'Abdu'l-Bahá, who called the design "the most beautiful in the world."
At 'Abdu'l-Bahá's instruction, Agnes Parsons organized a convention for amity between the white and colored races, held in Washington in May 1921. There Mountfort Mills read the Master's message to the gathering.
In 1925, the year the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States and Canada took the place of the Bahá'í Temple Unity, the annual Convention met at Green Acre in Maine.
In January 1927 the Star of the West printed the obituary of Howard MacNutt, the early New York believer who died on December 26, 1926, and who had compiled, at the request of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, the Master's American addresses published as The Promulgation of Universal Peace.
On September 8, 1916, in the middle of the First World War, the Star of the West printed five Tablets from 'Abdu'l-Bahá to the Bahá'ís of the Northeastern, Western, Southern and Central States and of Canada, the first of the Tablets of the Divine Plan to reach America.
Thornton Chase, the first American believer, died in Los Angeles on September 30, 1912, while 'Abdu'l-Bahá was travelling west to California. The Star of the West told of his last days, and less than three weeks later the Master visited his grave.
Keith Ransom-Kehler, sent by Shoghi Effendi to Persia, pleaded the cause of its persecuted Bahá'ís before the authorities and died in Iṣfáhán in 1933. The Guardian called her the American believers' first and distinguished martyr.