The Baha'is of Baltimore, 1898-1990
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Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Deb Clark, The Baha'is of Baltimore, 1898-1990, Los Angeles: Kalimat Press, 1992, bahai-library.com.
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BAHA’IS OF BALTIMORE
holding a framed copy of the Greatest Name in front, July 1909.
THE BAHA’IS OF BALTIMORE, 1898-1990

by Deb Clark

In 1899, Hazel Clarke was six months old and deathly ill. Her
mother, Kate Kidwell Clarke, had been to the doctors at Johns
Hopkins Hospital, but they were unable to do anything for the
baby. She would not eat. One day, as Kate was returning home
from the doctor’s on the streetcar, a woman sitting next to her saw
her sobbing and said, “You seem to be upset.”
“Yes,” answered Kate. “My baby is dying and nothing can be
done.”
“Have you tried praying?” asked the woman.
Kate Clarke was a devout Christian. “Yes, I have,” she re­
plied. “Nothing helps.”
The woman said, “I know a remarkable woman who may be
able to help you. You must go see her at 895 Park Avenue.” The
woman wrote down the address and handed Kate the piece of
paper.
Kate got off the streetcar near Park Avenue and found 895,
where a sign in the window read “Battee Institute of Self Knowl­
edge.” She went up the front steps and knocked on the door. When
she was let inside, she explained the problem. Pearle Doty held
the baby and prayed for her. When she was finished and had
handed the child back to her mother, Kate thought she saw a
slightly healthier glow in the child. By the time Kate got home,
Hazel wanted to eat.
The next day she was fully recovered.1

112   Deb Clark

The Beginnings of the Baltimore Community: The early
Baha’is of Baltimore remembered Pearle Doty as the first
Baha’i in the city and the unofficial leader of the community
during its first years. Bom Pearle Battee in Alexandria, Ohio,
in 1868, she moved to Mulberry Street in the Mount Vernon
area of Baltimore, the city where her father, Elisha Battee
had been born in 1835.2 She found work as a professor in
1892, but her calling was as a faith healer.
Pearle Battee began her practice as a phrenologist, treat­
ing people’s infirmities by reading the markings and bumps
on their heads. At the time, this was a fairly common alter­
native form of healing, based on the belief that the mind and
body are a whole entity. This practice opened in about 1893,
at 111 Franklin, where Battee resided during her first year
in Baltimore. It was a neighborhood of artists. The Charcoal
Club on the comer of Howard and Franklin was frequented
by artists, musicians, and writers, who would also meet in
each other’s homes to discuss the events of the day.3
Henry (Harry) Archer Doty, born September 18, 1874, to
Aristippus Doty and Josephine Charlotte Carpenter in
Charleston, South Carolina, was the fifth of eleven children,
and the first son to survive. His father was a military man
and a school principal, a descendant of Edward Doty who
arrived on the Mayflower in 1620.4 At the age of twenty,
Harry Doty moved to Baltimore to work in a laboratory. He
lived on Greenmount Avenue in the Old Town area, which
would have been central to both Mount Vernon and Johns
Hopkins Hospital, where he may have been employed.5
While he may have been planning a career as a physi­
cian, he did not pursue this. After about a year in Baltimore,
he moved to 111 Franklin, the same house—probably a board­
ing house—where Pearle Battee lived, and he was employed
as a bookkeeper. Doty must have been fascinated by Battee,
an older woman with an exotic healing practice; and, appar-
The Baha’is of Baltimore, 1898-1990        113

ently, she by him. In April of 1896, only a year and a half
after Doty came to town, Pearle Battee gave birth to their
son, Henry Battee Doty.6 Harry Doty let his family know, at
that point, that he and Pearle were married and that he was
publishing a magazine called Self Knowledge.’’ By 1897, Hany
was working as a phrenologist along with his wife, and the
two of them had incorporated their business as Doty and
Doty.8
Elisha Battee moved in with Pearle and Henry Doty some­
time during 1897, and the Battee Institute of Self Knowledge
became official. It was located at 895 Park Avenue, a very
fashionable street of brownstone houses with finely worked
dark wood interiors and marble steps.9 Clearly, the Doty fam­
ily was doing well. The neighborhood was inhabited by pro­
fessionals: doctors, judges, and lawyers. There were several
bookstores nearby, including one owned by a poet, and a comer
drugstore where young couples could go to drink a soda.10
Harry Doty managed the Institute, Pearle Doty was the
principal, and Elisha Battee was healer and teacher. The
Institute touted its monthly magazine, Self Knowledge, as a
publication “devoted to the unfolding of the Divinity in hu­
manity.”11 A half-page advertisement for it read: “The aim of
this Institute is to unfold the highest possibilities on all planes
of consciousness. All diseases of mind or body successfully
treated by right understanding of the laws of being and proper
application to individual needs. Phrenology and mental sci­
ence healing taught and practiced.”12
A year after Pearle Doty had healed her baby, Kate Clarke
tried to return to the Institute of Self Knowledge, but it was
no longer there.13 She did not realize that the Dotys had
moved a block away to 808 North Howard Street.14 Sometime
during 1900, both Harry Doty and Elisha Battee either died
or moved out, and the child, Henry Battee Doty, who was
then only five years old, was living with his father’s parents.
114   Deb Clark

Pearle Doty continued as a metaphysician until she died in
about 1903.15
Pearle Doty may have attended Baha’i classes in New
York delivered by Ibrahim Kheiralla, an important Baha’i
teacher, as early as 1897. Her name appears on a list put
together that year of people who were to be invited (or had
previously attended) these classes.16 Her name and the name
of her father, Elisha Battee, also appear on a list of those
who completed Baha’i lessons in Baltimore in 1898. But the
fact that Doty’s name is on a similar list for New York sug­
gests that she originally took the classes there.17
By 1901, fifty persons had been attracted to the Faith in
Baltimore. The majority of these Baha’is were women, and
most were from a working-class or professional middle-class
background.18 Those who became Baha’is during this period
formed the nucleus of the early Baltimore Baha’i Commu­
nity. However, most of them do not appear to have remained
active in the community for long after Pearle Doty’s death.19
Baha’is moved to Baltimore from other localities, which helped
to sustain the community in its early years.

Some Early Baha’is of Baltimore: Charlotte Brittingham Dixon
of Princess Anne, Maryland, began a spiritual quest which
took her to Chicago in 1896. She had a feeling that there was
something in that city that she should know about. So when
it was time to return to Maryland in 1897, and she still had
found nothing, she resisted. She later wrote: “I besought God
most earnestly, often lying on my face on the floor, that I
should not be allowed to leave Chicago, without finding some­
one who knew of this Revelation.”20 One day, while she was
praying, a woman rang the doorbell asking for something,
and Dixon let her in. As they talked, the woman suggested
that she seek out a Mrs. Reed, who was teaching the gospel
The Baha’is of Baltimore, 1898-1990     115

in the slums. That afternoon, Dixon tried to find Mrs. Reed,
but was told that she was out of town. She returned the next
day, and the day after, only to be turned away again. On the
third day, a neighbor heard her asking for Mrs. Reed and
said, “Woman, God sent you here; you are not seeking Mrs.
Reed. We have the greatest message since Christ.”21
The neighbor told Charlotte Dixon that she had recently
accepted the Baha’i Revelation and directed her to Ibrahim
Kheiralla, who was giving lessons on the new religion. She
attended his classes in Chicago, accepted the Faith, and re­
turned to Maryland, believing herself to be the first Baha’i
there. She wrote to her brother and sister-in-law in New
Jersey about the Baha’i teachings and convinced them to
travel to New York to take Kheiralla’s classes. She also taught
the Faith to at least six other relatives in Maryland, as well
as her daughter and sister in Philadelphia.22
Dixon’s sister, Evalina Brittingham, lived in Baltimore,
and it may have been through her that the Faith was intro­
duced into that city. Her name appears among the fifteen
Baltimore Baha’is listed in the Supplication Book for the year
1898, while Charlotte Dixon’s name appears in 1897. The
Supplication Book records the names of those who completed
Kheiralla’s classes and who wrote letters of “supplication” to
Abdu’l-Baha confessing their faith. A checkmark placed af­
ter Dixon’s name indicates that she received the Greatest
Name from Kheiralla, his final initiation into Baha’i mem­
bership. However, there are no check marks after the names
of the Baltimoreans whose names appear in 1898.23 Britting­
ham was an active Baha’i in Baltimore during 1900.24
Edward Struven is also listed on the 1898 list. His par­
ents were from Bremen, Germany, a city with close ties to
Baltimore throughout the nineteenth century. Baltimore was
the largest tobacco export harbor in America, and Bremen
was the largest tobacco import harbor in Europe.25 Edward
116   Deb Clark

lived with his parents, Rosa and Dietrich Struven, on Thames
Street in Fells Point, until he left to study at Cornell Univer­
sity in Ithaca, New York. His younger brother, Howard
Struven, learned to make things with his hands and built a
greenhouse when he was only eleven years old.26 Later, he
worked as a shipbuilder and lost a finger in an accident.27
Edward Struven learned of the Baha’i Faith in Ithaca
from Lua Getsinger, an important Baha’i teacher. He consid­
ered himself to be a Baha’i immediately, and his brother
accepted the Faith in 1899. The Struven brothers remained
active Baha’is for many years.
Baltimore has always been a city of divided neighborhoods,
separated by class, race, or ethnicity. In 1890, with a popula­
tion of about 430,000, Baltimore was more than two-thirds
white and about one-sixth black. About 12,000 foreign immi­
grants arrived between 1879 and 1900. Sixty percent of the
new arrivals were German, between twenty and twenty-five
percent were Irish; and Britons, Russians, Poles, and Austri­
ans made up five percent each.28
The chief industries were canning and the production of
men’s clothing. Trade, transportation, and service industries
were also important.29 Industrialization brought more jobs,
but many of them were in sweatshops full of low-paid work­
ers, mostly recent immigrants and their children—Jews,
Lithuanians, and Bohemians.30 The sweatshops, particularly
the coat tailors, were usually found in houses in East Balti­
more.31
The Baha’i community was comprised of people from a
variety of backgrounds who lived in different parts of town.
Several Baha’is lived in South Baltimore, which was inhab­
ited mostly by working-class blacks and whites. William B.
Stoffel, a railroad inspector, and Charles Lampe, a machin­
ist, lived there. Catherine A. Anderson, also lived in South
Baltimore near the Camden Station.32
The Baha’is of Baltimore, 1898-1990    117

Fells Point, in East Baltimore, was a docking area, as
well as a home for the sweatshops, and many new immi­
grants were to be found there. Baha’is in Fells Point in­
cluded Winnifred Watson, and Elizabeth Emmell, who worked
in a lunchroom and was married to a musician. Nellie C.
Babbit, who lived in Mount Clare in southwest Baltimore,
was married to a painter. On the other side of town, in an
area known as Goose Hill in west Baltimore, were Ann E.
Stansbury and Mary E. Powell, the wife of a conductor. Later
on, Howard Struven had a home in this area where he enter­
tained ‘Abdu’l-Baha during his trip to Baltimore.33
Although the Baha’i's of Baltimore were not in favor of
any formal organization at this time, they held meetings and
were in contact with ‘Abdu’l-Baha.34 They were addressed by
‘Abdu’l-Baha in several Tablets (letters) written to America
and mentioned in others. In one Tablet translated around
1900, Abdu’l-Baha praised Mrs. Emmell and Mrs. Powell for
having meetings in their homes.35
Although Baltimore was a large Baha’i community dur­
ing the first few years of the century, nearby Washington,
D.C., appears to have been the center of more Baha’i activ­
ity. Several prominent Baha’i teachers lived there, including
Lua Getsinger, Laura Barney, and Charles Mason Remey.
Abdu’l-Baha wrote often to the Baha’is of Washington and
urged them to assist the Baltimore community. In one Tab­
let, addressed to Remey, he said that “every week, two or
three of the Washington friends should go to Baltimore and
endeavor to help and encourage the friends there.”36
Whether or not such regular contact was established is
unclear, but there is evidence that Baltimore Baha’is received
some support from the Washington believers. When Sarah
Jane Farmer was staying with Washington Baha’is and hold­
ing Baha’i meetings there in 1901, for example, she also met
with the Baha’is of Baltimore.37
118   Deb Clark

At least one Baltimore Baha’i, Frederick Woodward, moved
to Washington, D.C., in 1902. Abdu’l-Baha instructed him to
“receive proofs from Mirza Abul Fazl [Mirza Abu’l-Fadl],” the
famous Baha’i scholar he had sent to America to instruct the
believers in the teachings.38
Abu’l-Fadl’s visit to Baltimore received a great deal of
press coverage. One article, in the Baltimore Sun of Febru­
ary 1, 1902, announced the visit and styled him the “High
Priest of Behaism.” The Sun reporter had visited Abu’l-Fadl
in Washington, where he was living at the time. In Balti­
more, Abu’l-Fadl spoke to over one hundred people at a
public meeting held at 1041 North Eutaw Street, “the head­
quarters of the cult.” Colonel Nathan Ward Fitzgerald, of
Washington, D.C., conducted the evening lesson and quoted
scripture to support the “Beha’i claim that Christ had re­
turned.” The article reported that Mirza Asadu’llah, another
Persian teacher, and his interpreter, Niaz Effendi Kermani,
had held a conference in Baltimore two weeks before. When
the reporter saw them in Washington, they were speaking to
two inquirers from Virginia.39
The article went on: “Washington has recently become a
seat or center of the new religion in this country, and several
prominent believers and teachers are now there. Among these
is Mrs. Lua M. Getsinger, a well known resident of the capi­
tal.” It recounted a short history of the Baha’i Faith, starting
with the Bab, and explained that the Baha’is use a “remark­
able” method of “propaganda.” First they agree with you that
your religion had divine origins, but then they add that “ev­
ery perfect man comes to the point where he is no longer in
complete harmony with the surroundings which his forefa­
thers prepared.” The article reported that there were about
seventy professed believers in Baltimore. However, the cen­
sus reported only twenty-eight Baha’is in 1906, and that fig­
ure may be high.40
The Baha’is of Baltimore, 1898-1990    119

Transition and Organization: Pearle Doty, remembered by
the Baha’is as the “leader” of the community in Baltimore in
the early days, died sometime in 1903. ‘Abdu’l-Baha wrote a
consoling Tablet to the Baha’is of Baltimore saying that they
should not sigh in grief over her death: “I hope her noble son
may seek the Path wherein his mother walked and may be­
come better and more illustrious; nay, rather, the lights of
his love may also take effect in his grandparents.” He went
on: “As to ye who are friends of that bird of the meadow of
guidance, ye must, after her, have such unison, love, associa­
tion and unity that it may make things better and more
favorable than they were during her days.”41
Another Tablet from ‘Abdu’l-Baha, addressed to Mason
Remey, says: “Thou hast written concerning Baltimore. Con­
vey respectful greetings on my behalf to Miss . . . and say,
‘Exert thyself as much as thou canst in order that thou mayest
illumine Baltimore, lay there an eternal foundation and ig­
nite a lamp whose rays may shine through cycles and ages.’”42
In 1904, much of the city of Baltimore burned down in a
great fire that lasted two days and spread over one hundred
and forty acres. Something caught fire in a dry goods firm
that stood between Hopkins Place and Liberty Street. Most
of the reconstruction of the city was finished by 1906.43 How­
ever, the disruption may have contributed to a decline in
Baha’i activity.
It was Edward Struven who lived in Catonsville in Balti­
more County, outside the city limits, who held the Baha’i
community together after Doty’s passing. The believers con­
tinued to meet in each other’s homes, as before. They re­
ceived correspondence from other Baha’i communities, but
avoided any organization and kept no records. They did, how­
ever, send Struven to Chicago as a representative for the
first Bahai Temple Unity convention held March 22-23, 1909.
That same year Struven reported to the Bahai Bulletin (pub-
120   Deb Clark

lished in New York) that: “Due to this lack of numbers and
the many duties and family cares and ties of our brothers
and sisters, our regular Tuesday meetings average between
6 and 9 in attendance. Then because of our proximity to
Washington and principally for the reason that none of us
have arisen to the actual work of teaching, our progress has
been very slow.”44 In 1906, the Washington Baha’i commu­
nity paid the train fare for Baltimore Baha’is to travel to a
lecture given by Lua Getsinger in Washington.45
When Struven returned from the Chicago convention, he
brought a new spirit with him. It was then that the Balti­
more community decided to “form an organization to help
the Cause along, believing that as a body more work could be
done, and correspondence attended to properly, besides keep­
ing a record of meetings.”45 Acting as temporary chairman of
the newly formed Baltimore “Assembly,” as it was known,
Edward Struven appointed a committee of four: Joseph
Hope, Gertrude Stanwood, Howard Struven, and Maud
Thompson, and Edwin B. Eardley as secretary, to frame a
new constitution and by-laws for the community. The by­
laws were approved on May 4, 1909. It was then decided to
write to ‘Abdu’l-Baha telling him that Baltimore had orga­
nized in this way, and that it was intended as a temporary
organization until the laws of the Kitab-i Aqdas (Baha’u’llah’s
“Most Holy Book”) were adopted. The letter expressed the
community’s appreciation that unity in Baltimore was
achieved through the efforts of the Washington friends, whom
‘Abdu’l-Baha had instructed to support the Baha’is of Balti­
more. They asked ‘Abdu’l-Baha to be Honored Head of their
assembly and to select other honorary members if he so de­
sired. The letter was signed by twenty-five believers.47
The by-laws called for spiritual meetings of the commu­
nity to be opened by the members repeating the Greatest
Name, followed by a prayer read by the chairman of the
The Baha’is of Baltimore, 1898-1990    121

meeting. Unity feasts were to be held every nineteen days,
and other meetings held on Tuesday evenings and Sunday
afternoons. At the end of each meeting, those present would
decide who would lead the next meeting. Parliamentary pro­
cedure was to be followed when business was conducted. Com­
munity officers were to be elected every six months, in March
and September. All the meetings were to close either with
the recitation of a passage from the Hidden Words of
Baha’u’llah or a prayer, or both, and then all should repeat
the Greatest Name. It seems that the community tried hard
to prevent any one person from assuming leadership and
that they adhered to the procedures they had adopted.48
A few weeks after organizing their group, the Baltimore
community wrote to other Baha’i assemblies to inform them
of the names and addresses of their own officers. Believers
from Washington continued to support activities in Baltimore.
For example, Fanny Knobloch was a regular visitor who read
lessons by ‘Abdu’l-Baha at her meetings. Pauline Hannen,
another Washingtonian, frequently attended Holy Day cel­
ebrations and spoke at other Baha’i gatherings. The commu­
nity used booklets on the Baha’i teachings written by Hooper
Harris, Isabella Brittingham, and Paul Dealy.49
In 1909, Baltimore Baha’is included: Edward Struven,
who now worked for the Maryland Viavi Company and lived
in Catonsville; Margaret (Maud) E. Thompson, the wife of a
clerk, who also lived in Catonsville; Estelle Lowndes was the
associate manager of the Maryland Viavi Company. One of
her neighbors, Anna McKhust, was also a Baha’i. Gertrude
Stanwood, an artist, and Sadie C. Ambrose, a dressmaker,
lived only a few blocks from Pearle Doty’s old home, and may
have become Baha’is as a result of her efforts.
Other Baha’is were: Edwin H. Eardley, and his wife
Louisa, and his sister, Beatrice (Eardley), all of whom lived
together. The women ran a hat shop (L & B Eardley Com-
122   Deb Clark

pany) from their home on O’Donnell Street in Highlandtown.
Edwin Eardley worked as a draftsman and served as the
secretary for the community, recording the minutes in a beau­
tiful script. Charles W. Mann was a clerk living near Patterson
Park, and Joseph W. Grant ran a grocery store in the same
area. Charles L. Lampe was a pipefitter living in South Bal­
timore. Winnifred E. Watson was still in the community,
employed as a buyer and living in fashionable Bolton Hill.
Mary E. Lane lived there also. Joseph Hope, a stenographer,
lived just east of the Jones Falls, near the Old Town Mall,
formerly Jones Town, the oldest settled area of Baltimore.50
The Baha’i community established three funds: The
Kappes Fund, to send to Miss Lillian Kappes, a Baha’i from
northern New Jersey, living in Iran at the request of ‘Abdu’l-
Baha to assist the Baha’is there; the Temple Fund; and a
fund for traveling expenses (railway fare for visiting del­
egates) the disbursement of which was left to the treasurer’s
discretion.51
The Bahai Temple Unity was, at that time, the national
executive committee elected by delegates from local Baha’i
communities. The raising of funds for the construction of the
Temple was the subject of much local discussion. Various
means were devised to raise money, such as the donation of
a quilt made by a Baltimore Baha’i. A room was donated by
Miss Dorr in Washington where visiting Baltimore friends
could pay a contribution, in lieu of rent, to be turned over to
the Temple Fund. Also, Cincinnati sent twenty-five “blessing
boxes” in which money could be put for various blessings “as
they come to mind,” like wishing wells. This money was also
sent to the Temple Fund.52
Howard Struven was twenty-seven years old in 1909 when
‘Abdu’l-Baha asked him to travel around the world with Ma­
son Remey to visit Baha’i communities and teach the Faith.
The Assembly in Baltimore gave him a letter, signed by
twenty-three believers, to deliver to ‘Abdu’l-Baha when he
The Baha’is of Baltimore, 1898-1990        123

arrived in ‘Akka. He left on July 20, and the community
invited Washington believers to a farewell gathering for him.
About this trip, Shoghi Effendi later wrote: “Mason Remey
voyaged to Russia and Persia, and later, with Howard
Struven, circled, for the first time in Baha’i history, the globe,
visiting on his way the Hawaiian Islands, Japan, China, In­
dia and Burma.”53
In early September, Howard Struven wrote from Denver
to tell of teaching successes, and from San Francisco to say
he would be sailing on November 17. Both he and Mason
Remey sent letters with news of their trip which were pub­
lished in Star of the West and Bahai News, and which Remey
later compiled into a book. By February 1910, the two had
visited Japan, China, and Singapore, and were teaching in
Burma.54 Struven later told some Baltimore Baha’i's that he
had prayed while Remey lectured, and that when they ar­
rived in the Holy Land, ‘Abdu’l-Baha had embraced him and
praised him for his efforts.55
‘Abdu’l-Baha gave Struven a letter to carry back with
him to Baltimore. It read: “O Ye Merciful Assembly ... He
became the cause of the glory of the believers of Baltimore
and imparted happiness and joy to the friends and maid­
servants of the Merciful. He sacrificed everything in the Path
of the Kingdom and imparted life to many souls.”56
Before leaving on his global trip, Struven had spoken
enthusiastically about the Washington Sunday School, and
urged the Baha’i's to start a similar one in Baltimore. Other
believers took up the task. Grace Mann offered her home at
1920 Orleans Street, and Maud Thompson offered her ser­
vices in gathering children. Pauline Hannen also helped. One
thousand invitation cards were printed up to advertise the
Sunday School, which had its first meeting September 19,
1909. Five children attended, aged five to twelve, as well as
one sixteen-year-old youth.
The community also planned a public meeting for which
124   Deb Clark

a newspaper advertisement was prepared. The ad read: “Can
the religions of the world be united? If so, on what basis?
Free lecture by Howard MacNutt of Brooklyn, New York,
Sunday afternoon, Oct. 24, 1909, 3 P.M., Florist Exchange
Hall, Franklin and St. Paul Streets.” Two hundred invita­
tions were printed for Baha’is to give to friends who “would
be likely to attend.”
Also in 1909, the Assembly noted that Mrs. Carline,
originally from Baltimore but now living in Washington, had
reported on her “successful meeting of colored people held
during the week.”57
Howard Struven returned to Baltimore in September of
1910, and he and Edwin Eardley were elected as delegates to
the Bahai Temple Unity convention held in Chicago. The
Assembly supplied them with letters of credential, and Edwin
left with a number 9 chalked on his suitcase.58
In 1910, the Baha’i funds were again divided into catego­
ries: general use, the Temple Fund, a translator, and for the
convention in Chicago. During the summer, a series of out­
door meetings were planned at the home of Rose Struven,
Howard and Edward’s mother, on Sundays. The speakers
were to be Pauline Hannen, Mirza Ahmad Sohrab, Hooper
Harris, Mons. H. Dreyfus, Joseph Hannen, Lua Getsinger,
Ameen Ullah Fareed, Howard MacNutt, and Mason Remey.59
All except Fareed were members of the Washington or New
York communities.
One day in 1911, Eusibia Day Dorrida and her neighbor
went shopping at a public food market in the city. For Dorrida,
this day was to be a turning point in her life. When she
returned home to unload her purchases, she discovered among
her vegetables a little printed pamphlet, one inch square,
announcing that the Lord of Ages had come and inviting her
to a meeting. She went to the meeting and that same day
accepted the truth of the Baha’i Faith.60
The Baha’is of Baltimore, 1898-1990   125

In 1911, Edwin Eardley was the delegate to the Bahai
Temple Unity convention.61 Howard Struven was the alter­
nate. While in the Chicago area, Eardley visited the Baha’is
in Kenosha, Wisconsin.62 The convention sent greetings to
the Peace Congress which was held in Baltimore on May 6,
1911. In August, Howard Struven was sent as a delegate to
the first annual conference of the Persian-American Educa­
tional Society in Washington, and was on the Hall Commit­
tee. His brother Edward attended also. Perhaps beginning to
demonstrate its independence from Washington, the Assem­
bly told Joseph and Pauline Hannen, who had been asked to
come to Baltimore to conduct Bible studies, that they need
not come any longer.
Both Struven brothers married in 1912. Edward married
Estelle Lowndes, his former coworker, and they moved to her
house on North Avenue. He was now employed as a me­
chanical engineer. Howard married Ruby (Hebe) Moore, Lua
Getsinger’s sister.

Abdu’l-Baha in Baltimore: Although ‘Abdu’l-Baha visited Bal­
timore only briefly, his stay there was extremely important
to the Baha’is there, and anecdotes about his visit became an
important element of the community’s heritage. When the
Baha’is heard of‘Abdu’l-Baha’s planned trip to America, they
began to prepare for his arrival. Five days before his ship
was to arrive in New York, the Baltimore Baha’is were ex­
pecting his imminent visit to their city. The Baltimore Sun
announced: ABDUL BAHA COMING. The article stated that he
would speak on Sunday, April 21, at the First Independent
Christ’s Church (Unitarian).63 They must have been disap­
pointed.
‘Abdu’l-Baha apparently made his plans day by day. When
the believers realized that he would not be coming immedi­
ately to Baltimore, some of them traveled to New York to see
126   Deb Clark

him. According to an oral tradition in the community, Ed­
ward Struven rode the rails to get there. When he arrived,
he was dishevelled from his trip. ‘Abdu’l-Baha had him sit
down and offered him a bowl of Persian rice. When he fin­
ished eating it, ‘Abdu’l-Baha gave him another one.64
The biggest day in the life of the Baltimore Baha’i com­
munity began at Camden Station on November 11, 1912,
when, accompanied by a party of seven—including two trans­
lators and a secretary, ‘Abdu’l-Baha arrived at 11:00 a.m.
from Washington, D.C. He went to the fashionable Hotel
Rennert at Saratoga and Liberty Streets, where he met the
press and took a short rest.
When he got to the Unitarian Chapel on Hamilton Street
at noon, “the hall had been filled for a while before the hour
set for his address, with followers, Johns Hopkins professors,
and many business and professional men.” ‘Abdu’l-Baha stood
on the platform, “enveloped by a long black robe, with an
oriental cap upon his head.” The interpreter was Dr. Fareed,
a Persian Baha’i.65
The News American account of ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s talk included
a three paragraph summary which focused on the parts of
the talk concerned with the unity of religion and the differ­
ence between its essentials and accidental aspects. However,
his remarks in their entirety, as recorded by Jack Solomon, a
stenographer, also specifically referred to the lecture he had
delivered the day before to a largely Jewish audience in a
Washington synogogue.66
The report in the Sun included illustrations depicting
‘Abdu’l-Baha in five different aspects, under the headline:
PERSIAN PHILOSOPHER IN STRIKING POSES. The accompa­
nying article was entitled: WOMEN KISS HIS HAND. Although
the headlines seem rather sardonic, the contents of the ar­
ticle appear to be accurate. ‘Abdu’l-Baha was escorted from
the train station to a waiting automobile by six people, sur-
The Baha’is of Baltimore, 1898-1990         127

rounded by a crowd of well-dressed women. He greeted each
of his followers as they were presented to him by his inter­
preter, Dr. Fareed. The article continues:
At the lecture he wore a robe of black with triangular insert of
light tan in front reaching from hem to neck.
A striking-looking man of about 70 years, he’s of average
height, with a strong rugged face covered with a short white
beard. His cheekbones are high, his eyes bright and flashing.

The article explained that ‘Abdu’l-Baha was distinguish­
able from his companions in that he wore a white turban,
while they wore black ones.
The lecture was delivered in Persian in an impressive manner.
His voice was low-pitched, but at times increased in volume. He
spoke a few minutes before pausing to let the interpreter trans­
late.
He used frequent gestures, the favorite one being an inclu­
sive swing of both arms to show the universality of the doctrine
he propounded. He also frequently leaned over the reading desk
and looked at his hearers.
“God is one, we are his children, submerged in the sea of his
kindness,” was his theme. He said all divine religions had two
parts, the essentials, which dealt with morality and ethical stan­
dards, and the non-essentials which change with time and place.
In proof of this, he compared the teaching of Moses and Christ,
both of whom he styled “His Holiness.” He declared that the
penal code announced by Moses was necessary for the Israelites
travelling through the wilderness, but was repealed by Christ.
Theological dogmas which, he said, had crept into religions were
useless and should be forsaken. Those differences, he declared,
were the cause of the world’s bitterness and strife, and their
elimination would bring about universal peace and love. . . .
After the lecture he declared that the nations of the world
looked to America as the leader in the world-wide movement and
declared the situation of this country not being a rival of any
other power and not considering colonization schemes or con­
quests, made it an ideal country to lead in the movement.
128     Deb Clark

The article reported that there were six thousand Baha’is
in the United States (almost certainly an exaggeration) and
that there were a dozen or so believers in the doctrine in
Baltimore.67
There is a story told by the Baha’is of Baltimore that
relates how two Catholic priests had sneaked into the chapel
during ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s talk. They are supposed to have hid­
den themselves in a doorway behind the stage where he was
speaking. As he lectured, so the story goes, ‘Abdu’l-Baha
walked over and shut the door on the priests.
After the talk, ‘Abdu’l-Baha went to Howard and Hebe
Struven’s home, at 1800 Bentaloo Street in West Baltimore,
a row house facing a courtyard. ‘Abdu’l-Baha stood in the
courtyard with his arms outstretched and said, “Many friends
have I in Baltimore.”68
Maud Thompson missed ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s talk because she
had spent the morning walking out to a farm east of Balti­
more to get a fresh, live chicken to make for lunch. When all
the visitors were at the Struven house, Maud was in the
kitchen busily preparing the meal. ‘Abdu’l-Baha called to her
from the living room. She went into the living room and saw
that everyone was seated, and no chairs were empty. She
thought she saw a twinkle in ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s eye when he
pointed to the floor near his feet and motioned her to sit
down there. Not only was Maud Thompson a stout woman,
but she was tightly laced in a corset, and sitting on the floor
was no small task.69
Ursula Shuman Moore was living with the Struvens in
1912, also serving as community treasurer.70 In a letter to
her sister, Louise Shuman Irani, composed the day after
‘Abdu’l-Baha’s visit, she wrote:
Yesterday, the 11th he came over to our house in Baltimore and
had dinner with us at our table! Did you ever dream that this
The Baha’is of Baltimore, 1898-1990           129

would come to pass. He came to Baltimore about twelve o’clock
and spoke at the Unitarian Church, and then they came out to
our house and we had dinner for him. Many of the Washington
believers came over too and many of the Baltimore believers
came up. We had about 55 or 54 to feed. Had a grand chicken
dinner, with rice and celery, peas, ice cream and cake, and veg­
etable soup. He said we had given him a good dinner, a fine
dinner, and that he ate much. When I brought in the big platter
of chicken and set it before him at the table he said, “Oh, chicken!”
and seemed to be much pleased with it. He said everything was
cooked well. We had him and the Persians in his party sit down
first, 12 at the table, and served them, and then we had four
relays and every body had something. They all seemed so glad to
be there and enjoyed themselves so much. I was so glad for Mother
could be near him and see him. I introduced Mother to him, and
he took her hand and said, “Oh, your Mother!” and looked at her
very kindly. I told him she had been and was sick, and that we
asked that she might be well. He said “In Shalah.” [God willing.]
So I hope she will get well soon now. They did not stay very long,
as they left on the (3 o’clock) train. It surely was a great privi­
lege to have him in our house, and something that we will al­
ways remember.71

Consolidation, 1912-1934: Laura L. Drum was Baltimore’s
delegate to the sixth annual Bahai Temple Unity convention
in 1914, although she was a member of the Washington Baha’i
community. She reported at the convention on Baltimore’s
response to the newly inaugurated system of monthly contri­
butions to the Temple Fund.72
In 1919, when the American Baha’is received the Tablets
of the Divine Plan from ‘Abdu’l-Baha, they learned that he
had grouped the various states into regions. These Tablets
charged the American Baha’is with spreading the Baha’i Faith
all over the country, and all over the world. Maryland, being
a southern state, was part of the southern region, whose
headquarters were established in Washington, D.C.73
130   Deb Clark

After the passing of ‘Abdu’l-Baha, the Baltimore commu­
nity wrote to the new Guardian, Shoghi Effendi, on March
31, 1922, expressing love, gratitude, and their willingness to
serve the Faith.74
In 1926, there were thirteen adults and seven “junior”
Baha’is in Baltimore.7'5 They met steadily in one or two of the
believers’ homes until they decided to rent Maccabees Hall at
522 Park Avenue, for ten dollars a month. Their meetings
were open to “strangers” and believers. Among their visitors
was at least one black man, John Chase.76
Louis Gregory, a prominent black Baha’i teacher, spent a
week in Baltimore in 1927, from January 11 to 17. He fin­
ished up his visit at Morgan College, a black institution,
where he spoke to a group of black ministers.77 It was around
this time that Aleen Lock, in Washington, D.C., made it known
that she thought black Baha’is would be happier if they orga­
nized their own separate Nineteen-Day Feasts. There were
some blacks who either withdrew from the Faith or hesitated
to join it because of this. The repercussions were felt years
later in Baltimore. In the 1950s, the president of Morgan
College, which had been established as a school for blacks,
told a friend who was investigating the Baha’i teachings that
his wife had been interested during the 1920s, but had
changed her mind when she heard about these remarks in
the Washington community.78
Several public meetings were held in 1930. On January
26, Albert Vail, a Baha’i teacher who was also a Unitarian
minister, spoke to some two hundred people at the First Uni­
tarian Church on the topic “What is the Kingdom of God?”
On March 19, Ali Kuli Khan, a well-known Persian Baha’i
teacher, visited the Assembly and spoke on the relation of
the Baha’i Faith to other religions. Meetings and study classes
usually featured readings from recent translations of the
Baha’i scriptures, letters from the Guardian, reports of Baha’is
The Baha’is of Baltimore, 1898-1990      131

who had attended conferences, and notes of travelers who
had been to the Holy Land. Sometimes the Baha’i's studied
biblical proofs, or held classes on public speaking techniques.79
The community followed set procedures for all of its meet­
ings, following agendas that were similar to the order of
church services. A “Program for a Public Meeting” and a
“Program for the Spiritual Board Meeting” were kept in the
back of the Baltimore Minute Book, and seem to have been
established in 1929. The public meeting was to open with a
hymn, the Invocation found on page 3 of the blue Baha’i
prayer book, then another hymn. There followed a short his­
tory of the Cause, a prayer for Guidance (page 37 of the blue
prayer book), a lecture, and then questions. After that came
announcements of future public meetings and a healing prayer
(from page 28 of the prayer book). The meetings closed with
the Benediction, a widely used Baha’i song.80
The Spiritual Board meetings were supposed to open with
the prayer on page 99 of the blue Baha’i World volume. Then
the minutes were to be read, followed by committee reports
and the evening prayer on page 23 of the Baha’i prayer book.
This was followed by new business, a prayer for protection
(page 45) and a healing prayer (page 28). During the 1930s,
many of the meetings were held in East Baltimore, perhaps
at the home of the Mann family or of Beatrice Eardley.
In February of 1931, during the Great Depression, the
Baltimore Assembly took an audacious step: They took out a
bank loan in order to pay for Howard Colby Ives to come on a
teaching trip to their community. He conducted “deepening”
classes for the Baha’is and probably was invited to their homes
for private gatherings with friends and relatives.81 Baha’i
classes continued to be held twice a week in 1932, on various
Baha’i books, including Some Answered Questions, Bahd’u’lldh
and the New Era, The Dawn-Breakers, and the Kitab-i-Iqan.
These efforts appear to have been intended to prepare the
I
!

i
I

SIXTH ANNUAL BAHA’I WORLD YOUTH SYMPOSIUM
c. 1930. Standing (1. to r.): Unknown, Hilda Seidman, Bill Dorrida, Birdie Eardley, Lois Revell,
Maude Thompson Amendt, Raymond Rouse, Anne Hatter, Mrs. Rouse, unknown, Harrison Langrell,
Mildred Elmer. Seated (1. to r.): Jessie Mann Stallings, Mildred Hipsley Long.
The Baha’is of Baltimore, 1898-1990      133

community for reorganization in accordance with new guide­
lines from the National Spiritual Assembly. This reorganiza­
tion was taking place in a number of Baha’i communities at
about this time.
The new Assembly elected in April of 1932 consisted of
seven women and two men. Local committees, comprised of
one or two Baha’is each, were formed to oversee study classes,
Feasts and publicity, and attendance. On April 28, Ives pre­
pared a report for the National Convention on the progress
the Baltimore community had made since his stay there.82
On May 3, 1932, there were then fifteen Baha’is in the city.
The Assembly began to require that new believers study
the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Baha and Bahd’u’llah and
the New Era and acknowledge their understanding and com­
plete acceptance of the tenets of the Baha’i Faith. This was
in compliance with new procedures suggested by the Na­
tional Spiritual Assembly. For the first time, on February 1,
1933, the local Spiritual Assembly of Baltimore voted on and
recorded the enrollment of a new member: It was Hazel Clarke
Langrall, whose mother had taken her to Pearle Doty for
healing when she was a baby, back in 1898.83
Langrall had serious health problems and had been told
by her doctors that she only had a brief time left to live. This
was the second major health crisis in her life, and it spurred
her on a religious quest that would lead her to the Baha’is
again. She learned of the Faith through Eusibia Dorrida, her
neighbor on the 2800 block of Allendale Street, where Mar­
guerite Dorrida Hipsley also lived.84 At the time she entered
the Faith, she did not know that her mother had taken her
to a Baha’i for healing when she was an infant. When she
learned about the incident, she liked to say that she had
been a Baha’i all her life.85
Marguerite Dorrida Hipsley, whose mother had been a
Baha’i since 1911, had always been a strong-minded person.
134   Deb Clark

She was a women’s suffrage activist and an advocate of
women’s rights. She was a member of the Methodist Church
before becoming a Baha’i, but she was dissatisfied with it.
Besides her mother, her sister and brother were all Baha’is,
and they posed questions to her that she would carry to her
minister. Once she asked him about the return of Christ.
The minister replied, “Oh, he isn’t going to come in our day.”
“But he has to come in somebody’s day! Why not our
day?” Hipsley exclaimed. When the minister could not pro­
vide a satisfactory answer, she left his church and was soon
actively involved in the Baha’i community.86
The diversity of the Baha’i community increased during
the 1930s. Ann Hatter, a descendant of Menno Simon, founder
of the Mennonites, and Paul Sadowitz, a Jewish man who
had been interested in the Faith since the 1920s, became
Baha’is. The community also developed good relations with
the Theosophists and the World Federalists.87
Grace Mann was appointed by the Baltimore Assembly
as a committee of one in March of 1933, to order sixty copies
of The Goal of a New World Order, the Guardian’s recent
letter to the Baha’is of America. The letter was to be made
known to every believer. The number of copies purchased
suggests that there were many persons in Baltimore who
considered themselves Baha’is, or who had at one time been
affiliated with the Faith, but who were not included on the
membership list under the new and stricter standards that
had been adopted in 1932.
The year 1933 was the first for which minutes were re­
corded in Baltimore during the summer months. Previously,
the Assembly had only met from September through spring.
A youth committee was formed during this year. Further,
the Assembly had a stamp made which read: “This is au­
thentic Baha’i literature” which they stamped in all Baha’i
books, including those they donated to libraries. An attempt
The Baha’is of Baltimore, 1898-1990      135

was made to have the public library in Baltimore file Baha’i
materials under the heading “Baha’i Faith,” rather than un­
der “Bahaism.”88
Much of the effort of the community was directed towards
the recruitment of new believers. In March 1934, the Baha’i's
rented a regular hall to be used for lectures and as a reading
room. It was located on North Avenue, near St. Paul Street.
The community furnished it with a new leather living-room
suite and lamps. They placed a painted sign in the window
which read: “Baha’i Centre and Reading Room, open from 11
to 4 P.M. excepting Saturday and Sunday” and held public
meetings about every other month in an effort to reach the
public. Visitors were reported at the meetings, some of whom
seemed interested. The official community membership list
was sixteen strong.89
Martha Root, the internationally known Baha’i teacher,
visited Baltimore in 1936, and she stayed at the YMCA. The
title of her lecture at the University Club at 800 Charles
Street was “My World Travels in the Interest of Universal
Peace.”86
Mildred Elmer took a trip to Chicago to visit her relatives
there and attend the World’s Fair in 1936. While there,
she saw the Baha’i Temple under construction in Wilmette.
Returning to Baltimore, she found that her brother was
acquainted with the Baha’is. He took her to a fireside (an
informal introductory meeting) at the home of Hazel Langrail
on a Friday evening. She continued to attend firesides every
Friday for a few years. At last, she wrote a letter to the
Assembly in Baltimore saying that she would like to become
a Baha’i. On the evening that the Assembly met to consider
her enrollment, Mildred nervously waited outside the room,
wondering what the outcome would be. She was accepted
into the community, and two years later she was elected to
the Assembly.91
f
V-A '■
Ica

I

9$^

BALTIMORE BAHA’I CENTER
is seen behind Mildred Elmer (1.) and Marguerite Dorrida Hipsley.
The Baha’is of Baltimore, 1898-1990      137

Hazel Langrall’s son, Clarke, declared his acceptance of
the Baha’i Faith in 1940, at the age of sixteen. He had spent
much time at Green Acre Baha’i School, where he had worked
at Stanwood Cobb’s camp. He was one of only about six Baha’i
youth on the entire East Coast.92
Also in 1940, the Baltimore Assembly decided to find a
larger Baha’i Center in a more central location. Mildred Elmer
and Clarence Percival located a site at 527 North Charles
Street, on the first floor of a fashionable brownstone build­
ing. Volunteers renovated the flat that became the new Center.93
A Jewish woman, Faith Amberg, became a Baha’i in 1942.
She had been a Baha’i for only a year or two when she died,
leaving her estate—two buildings on Gwynn Oak Avenue
and a large sum of money—to the Baha’i community. Gwynn
Oak was a broad, tree-lined street, and the two houses were
only a few blocks from the county line, across which was the
exclusively white Woodlawn area.94 In the 1940s, the area
where Amberg lived was predominantly Jewish.
In order to inherit the estate, the local Spiritual Assem­
bly of Baltimore had to incorporate, and it did so in 1945. As
stipulated in Amberg’s will, a sum of money was sent to the
Guardian of the Faith to be used for the completion of the
Shrine of the Bab in Israel. The Guardian wrote to the com­
munity in his own hand, thanking them. He said: “Your re­
sponsibilities are great as you now are more independent
than most Baha’i communities from a financial point of
view.”95 The Assembly also gave two thousand dollars to the
Green Acre Maintenance Committee, probably from the
Amberg estate.96

Growth and Diversity, 1934 to the present: Since slavery times,
Baltimore had been a segregated city. Jim Crow laws adopted
after the Civil War excluded blacks from public facilities that
whites used and segregated the schools, jobs, stores, restau-
138   Deb Clark

rants and neighborhoods. Albert James became a Baha’i in
1934, in Tennessee and moved to Baltimore in 1937, where
he remained the only black Baha’i until after World War II.
Roland Mann, a Baha’i who lived in all-white Highlandtown,
helped James find a job.97
Still it was very difficult for the Baltimore Baha’is to
make contact with the black community. In February of 1936,
they had made an effort to do so by sponsoring an illus­
trated lecture on the Baha’i Temple, entitled “The Temple of
Light,” at Morgan College, and also at the Enoch Pratt Free
Library.98 Fred Amendt and Maud (Thompson) Amendt
made aggressive efforts to teach the Faith to African-Ameri­
can people. They also lived in Highlandtown, on Kenwood
Avenue.99
It was not until after the war, however, that the strict
barriers of race and class began to weaken. More diverse
types of people entered the Baha’i community, which until
then had been fairly homogeneous. The early believers were
a closely knit group, like a family, still “enamoured with
‘Abdu’l-Baha—thrilled with having met him. . . . The Admin­
istration was important, but not as important as later on.”100
During the 1950s, a few Persian Baha’is came to study in
Baltimore, especially at Johns Hopkins University. There were
also some black women, nurses, who came into the Faith. A
women with an orthodox Jewish background, Betty Feldman,
moved into Baltimore County, and she was the only Baha’i
there during this period.101
In the summer of 1958, Eugene Byrd, a dentist who prac­
ticed in Baltimore, started out for Chicago with his wife.
They stopped in Pittsburgh on the way to pick up their sons
who had gone to the YMCA camp there that summer, be­
cause the one in Baltimore was for whites only. When the
family arrived in Chicago, they found that their motel reser­
vations would not be honored because they were black. Even-
The Baha’is of Baltimore, 1898-1990    139

tually, they found accommodations at the Sheridan Hotel in
Evanston. Their Chicago friend, Herbie Nipson, the execu­
tive editor of Ebony magazine, suggested that they drive up
to visit the newly completed Baha’i House of Worship in
Wilmette, not far from where they were staying.102
Back in Baltimore the Byrd family continued to investi­
gate the Faith. They regularly attended Friday night fire­
sides at the home of Alma Heise, who lived in an all-white
neighborhood in Baltimore where blacks might be arrested if
found on the streets after dark. After a year and a half, they
entered the Faith.103
The Friday fireside conducted by Alma Heise and Bill
Burgess resulted in seven enrollments in 1956, four in the
city of Baltimore and three outside. Heise and Burgess were
the only Baha’is present, and conducted the fireside as a
team inviting two or three friends to their gathering every
Friday night. Sometimes seekers heard of the meetings on
their own and asked to be invited. The firesides were very
informal occasions. The Baha’is would prepare in advance
the point that they wanted to cover, but their delivery was
conversational, seemingly spontaneous, and not overly serious.
In 1960, the first functioning Baha’i group was formed in
Baltimore County. Two years later, an Assembly was elected
in the county, with Howard Struven as one of its members.
The county Assembly was active and helped organize Baha’i
events in the city.
In 1963, the Supreme Court overturned state laws that
sanctioned racial discrimination. The Baltimore Sun ran a
series of articles interviewing prominent Americans on their
views on race and prejudice. Taking advantage of the oppor­
tunity, the Baltimore Baha’is organized a proclamation week,
with four public meetings and publicity on radio, on televi­
sion, and in the newspapers. This resulted in much interest
in the Faith.104
140   Deb Clark

The Byrds attended the National Baha’i Convention in
Wilmette, as delegates in 1963. They were planning to par­
ticipate in Martin Luther King’s march on Selma, Alabama,
in protest of racial segregation. They found a group of Baha’is
at the convention who also intended to join the march, but
they were waiting for the approval of the National Spiritual
Assembly before going ahead. At the last minute, the Na­
tional Assembly gave its blessing, and the Byrds participated
in the march.105
The Baha’is of the county and city of Baltimore jointly
secured the first official proclamation of World Peace Day as
the third Sunday in September, designated by the mayor.
Under the direction of the National Spiritual Assembly, the
communities planned a meeting to commemorate World Peace
Day on September 15, 1963. Nine hundred people attended
the event that evening at the Lyric Opera House in Balti­
more, despite a heavy rainstorm. The audience was both
black and white, with slightly more blacks than whites in
attendance.106
On that same day, in the afternoon, four black children
had been killed in a racially motivated church bombing inci­
dent in Birmingham, Alabama. Robert Quigley, then vice-
chairman of the National Spiritual Assembly, set the tone of
the meeting when he asked the audience to silently remem­
ber the slain children. McHenry Boatwright, an eminent Af­
rican-American baritone, sang the Baha’i prayer “Blessed Is
the Spot,” “prolonging the closing phrases, repeating one sev­
eral times, as he felt the hearts of his listeners drawn to the
prayer.”107 Lerone Bennett, Jr., senior editor of Ebony maga­
zine spoke at the meeting. Although he was not a Baha’i, he
quoted from Shoghi Effendi’s Advent of Divine Justice and
the Baha’i book Race and Man. In an eloquent speech, he
acknowledged that the Baha’i Faith proclaimed the brother­
hood of all races. William Sears, the Baha’i Hand of the Cause,
The Baha’is of Baltimore, 1898-1990    141

told the history of the Faith and the Baha’i teachings of
racial unity. Boatwright returned to the stage and accompa­
nied himself at the piano for the Negro spiritual “He’s Got
the Whole World in His Hands.” The audience was moved to
tears.108 During the week after the program, which attracted
wide media attention, some fifteen hundred phone calls were
received at the Baltimore Baha’i Center.109
The ethnic composition of the Gwynn Oak Avenue area,
where the Baha’i Center was located, changed from predomi­
nantly Jewish to black during the 1960s. Of the two build­
ings left by the Amberg estate, one had to be sold to raise
money to renovate the other which began to serve as the
Baha’i Center. A Baha’i couple, Bill and Martha Dorrida,
lived there as caretakers and acted as the social epicenter of
the community. Martha Dorrida died in 1966, and Bill (later
known to many Baha’is as Uncle Billy) moved in with the
Radpour family in Baltimore County. Some of the other early
Baltimore Baha’is passed away during the 1960s.
Two days after the assassination of Martin Luther King,
on April 6, 1968, riots began in Baltimore that lasted for
three days and resulted in 6 deaths, at least 300 injuries,
420 fires, and 350 looted stores.110 Much of the destruction
took place around Pennsylvania Avenue and Gay Street, and
the riots discouraged suburban shoppers from coming into
the city.
The focus of Baha’i activity in the Baltimore area also
moved outside the city. Fred Lee, a Baha’i in the county,
was much involved with youth activities. In the early 1960s,
he had urged the Baltimore City Assembly to sponsor a Boy
Scout Troop, and in 1964, he hosted a youth conference on
his farm, with 123 youth camping out for the weekend. Dur­
ing the late 1960s, youth began entering the Baha’i Faith in
the Baltimore area in significant numbers.
The Baltimore County Baha’is organized a booth at the
* / 71
h    "I

SOME BALTIMORE BAHA’IS
who attended the St. Louis Bahd’i Conference, 1975. Top row, 1. to r.: Kiser
Barnes, Pamela Prosser, Michael King, Gordon Jacky, Debbie King (with
baby). Third row, 1. to r.: Parvis Ighani, Anne Z. Ighani, Barbara Maschal,
Marlene Jacky, Betty S. Feldman. Second row: W. DuBois Johnson, Mabel
L. Byrd, Eugene D. Byrd, Kathym A. Cleveland. Front row: Danny Prosser,
Jacky child (in back), Angela Prosser (in front), Matthew Maschal, Mildred
Elmer, Marguerite D. Hipsley.
The Baha’is of Baltimore, 1898-1990       143

Maryland State Fair in Timonium in September 1968, and
again in 1969. Called “It Works,” the booth was built of acrylic,
with panels and counters. It attracted youth from upper-
middle-class Dulaney High School, who began attending fire­
sides.111 The firesides were so successful that declarations of
faith became a regular feature every Friday evening. Young
people began to enroll in the Faith so regularly that the
Baha’is would consider the fireside a failure if there were no
enrollments one week.112
The county community organized Sunday morning study
classes to teach the new youth more about the Baha’i Faith
and actively worked to get them involved in Baha’i activities.
There were overnight conferences in Baha’i homes, and a
great deal of energy was expended to make sure that all
youth could attend. Many of the youth became pioneers (mis­
sionaries) for the Faith in Mexico, Finland, the Caribbean
Islands, and other places., and some were among the first
mass teachers in the Carolinas.113 A strong Baha’i Club de­
veloped at Towson State University.
The Baltimore County Assembly incorporated in 1970,
and three years later the National Spiritual Assembly autho­
rized the division of the county into east and west communties.
Baltimore County West incorporated in 1974. Later, the Bal­
timore County East community split again, forming the
Cockeysville Baha’i community, which considered itself the
successor of the original Baltimore County Assembly. The
Baltimore County Central Assembly did not incorporate un­
til 1986. The east County split left many believers isolated,
and the two new communities did not agree on their bound­
ary for some time. Both communities experienced a decline
in activities.
The Baha’i community in the city of Baltimore remained
weaker than the communities in the county, and more tran­
sient. Baha’i college students, sometimes four or five at a
144   Deb Clark

time, would live in Baltimore while going to school. They
were actively involved in the Baha’i community while they
were in the city, but then would move on after their studies
were over.
In 1974, soon after installing cast iron bars on the win­
dows of the Baha’i Center for security, the local Assembly was
held up at gunpoint while conducting a late-night meeting.
After the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979, there was
an influx of Persian Baha’is. The first to arrive were high
school and college students. Later, their parents and other
relatives joined them as refugees from the brutal persecution
of Baha’is in Iran. The older generation, unable to pursue
their careers, knew little English and had little money. They
needed the help of the Baha’i community to get settled.
By the end of the 1980s, there were four local Spiritual
Assemblies in the Baltimore metropolitan area. Each of these
Baha’i communities contained a widely diverse ethnic mix.
The local Assembly in Baltimore was made up of four Per­
sians, three blacks, and two whites. There were about sev­
enty believers on the rolls in the city, but most were inactive.
The Baha’is were largely middle class. The Baltimore County
Central Baha’i community had achieved a good level of unity
and participation. Most of the Baha’is were Persian, with
Persians outnumbering Americans on the Assembly. The west
County community had about thirty believers—including
seven Persians and seven African-Americans-—and held con­
sistent proclamation activities. The Cockeysville Assembly
was revived in 1987, with a majority of Persians in the com­
munity, many of whom were refugees.
The Baha’i community of the Baltimore area has a long
history which reaches back to ‘Abdu’l-Bahd’s visit to
America, and before. Originally closely tied to the Wash­
ington, D.C. Baha’i community, it developed its indepen­
dence and gave birth to new Baha’i communities in outly-
The Baha’is of Baltimore, 1898-1990          145

ing areas. It stands today as an example of racial and cul­
tural unity that is unusal in Baltimore.

NOTES

1. Interview with Clarke Langrall, December 1987, conducted by
the author.
2. Baltimore City Directory, 1893 (Baltimore: R. L. Polk and Co.,
1893). United States Census, Baltimore. Index to the 1860 Federal
Population Census of Ohio, vol. 1, p. 64.
3. Meredith Janvier, Baltimore in the Eighties and Nineties (Bal­
timore: H. G. Roebuck and Son, 1933) pp. 169-71.
4. Ethan Allen Doty, The Doty-Doten Family in America (Brook­
lyn, NY: n.p., 1897) p. 819.
5. Baltimore City Directory, 1894 and 1895.
6. United States Census, 1900.
7. Doty, The Doty-Doten Family, p. 837.
8. Baltimore City Directory, 1898.
9. Baltimore City Directory, 1898.
10. Janvier, Baltimore, pp. 169-171.
11. Baltimore City Directory, 1898, p. 2015.
12. Ibid., p. 2014.
13. Interview with Clarke Langrall.
14. Baltimore City Directory, 1899.
15. Ibid., 1900, 1901, 1902, and 1903.
16. “List of Persons to be Notified Concerning the Classes,”
Ibrahim Kheiralla papers, in private hands.
17. “Supplication Book—Baltimore,” and “Additional Names for
the New York List.” Albert Windust papers. National Bahd’f Archives,
Wilmette, Illinois.
18. I am grateful to Richard Hollinger for providing this informa­
tion. Mr. Hollinger has conducted research on the class origins of the
Bahd’is: A list of persons who signed a petition sent to ‘Abdu’l-Bahd
in 1901 (Thornton Chase Papers, National Bahd’i Archives) includes
the names of 53 from Baltimore. After collating this list, with the
names of Baltimore Bahd’is on the “Supplication Lists—Baltimore,”
it was possible to identify the occupations of eighteen persons using
146    Deb Clark

the Baltimore City Directory for 1900. The “List of Persons to be
Notified Concerning the Classes” was used to identify the addresses
of some of those on the other lists. In some cases there were no
listings for Bahd’f women, but their husbands were listed. In these
cases, the husband’s occupations were used, because these would
have determined the social status of the women. In several instances,
there was more than one person of the same name listed in the
directory, and no address could be located to identify the specific
person who was the Bahd’f. In these cases, the occupations could not
be used.
The occupations were as follows: bookkeeper, carpenter, clerk,
conductor, confectioner, draftsman, inspector, laborer, machinist,
painter, sailmaker, seamstress, student, teacher (3), teamster, and
waitress. The fact that the names of most of the Bahd’is could not be
found in the city directory, however, suggests that a significant per­
centage may have been unskilled laborers, who would not have been
likely to have a listing.
19. In 1909, a letter sent to ‘Abdu’l-Bahd from Baltimore was
signed by twenty-five believers. This is less than half the number
who signed the petition to him in 1901. (Minutes, April 1909, pp. 2-9.
Baltimore Baha’i Archives.)
20. Robert Stockman, The Baha’i Faith in America: Origins, 1892-
1900 (Wilmette, Ill.: Bahd’i Publishing Trust, 1985) p. 119 quoting
Charlotte E. Brittingham Dixon, “How I Became a Believer and Was
Given the Bahai Revelation by and through Visions,” National Bahd’i
Archives.
21. Ibid.
22. Ibid. p. 129.
23. “Supplication Book—Baltimore.”
24. “Minutes of the Baha’i's of Baltimore City,” March 29, 1910,
p. 23. National Bahd’f Archives. (Hereafter, Minutes, Baltimore)
25. Dieter Cunz, The Maryland Germans (Princeton University
Press, 1948) p. 236.
26. Baltimore News American, April 23, 1974.
27. Interview with Nancy Lee, conducted by the author in Sep­
tember 1987.
28. Carl Bode, Maryland (New York: W. W. Morton and Co.,
1978) p. 152-53.
29. Ibid., p. 153.
The Baha’is of Baltimore, 1898-1990           147

30. Ibid., p. 154.
31. Third Annual Report of the Bureau of Industrial Statistics of
Maryland, 1894 (Baltimore: Sun Book and Job Printing Office, 1895)
p. 80.
32. Baltimore City Directory, 1898, 1899, and 1900.
33. Baltimore City Directory, 1898 and 1900.
34. Page one of the Minute Book (April 27, 1909) reads: “Previ­
ous to the organization of the Bahd’fs of Baltimore, it was the custom
to hold meetings at any of the believers’ homes, but since the conven­
tion held in Chicago, March 22-23, 1909, it was thought best to form
an organization, believing that as a body, more work could be done . . .
“In view of the fact that for years, the believers were not in favor
of any order whatever, this decision [i.e. to organize] was reached in
perfect harmony.”
35. Tablets of Abdul Baha Abbas (Chicago: Bahai Publishing So­
ciety, 1915) vol. 2, pp. 444-45. Names from Windust notes.
36. Tablets, vol. 2, p. 459.
37. Sarah Jane Farmer diary, entries for February-March 1901.
Sarah Jane Farmer Papers. National Bahd’f Archives. I am grateful
to Richard Hollinger for this information.
38. Tablets, vol. 2, p. 250.
39. Baltimore Sun, February 1, 1902, p. 7
40. Ibid.
41. Tablets, p. 444 (translated July 9, 1905).
42. Ibid., p. 469.
43. Baltimore Magazine, October 1987, p. 53.
44. Bahai Bulletin, 1909.
45. Financial Statement for December 1906. Records of the Spiri­
tual Assembly of the Bahd’is of Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C.,
Bahd’f Archives. I am grateful to Richard Hollinger for this information.
46. Minutes, Baltimore, April 1909, p. 1.
47. Ibid., May 1909, pp. 2-9.
48. Ibid, pp. 3-5.
49. Ibid.
50. Baltimore City Directory, 1909.
51. Minutes, Baltimore, May 1909, p. 7.
52. Ibid., June 8, 1909, p. 12; July 6, 1909, p. 14.
53. Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By (Wilmette, Ill.: Bahd’i Pub­
lishing Trust, 1944) p. 261.
148    Deb Clark

54. Star of the West, vol. 1 (1910) no. 2, p. 2.
55. Interview with Fred Lee, conducted by the author in Septem­
ber 1987.
56. Star of the West, vol. 1 (1910) no. 9, p. 1 (translated June 17,
1910).
57. Minutes, Baltimore, October 1909.
58. Minutes, Baltimore, 1911, p. 44.
59. Star of the West, vol. 1 (1910) no. 6, p. 12.
60. Interview with Mildred Elmer, conducted by the author in
September 1987. Minutes, Baltimore, 1911, p. 44.
61. Star of the West, vol. 2 (1911) no. 4, p. 3.
62. Ibid., p. 15.
63. Baltimore Sun, April 6, 1912.
64. Interview with Mildred Elmer, conducted by the author on
January 29, 1988.
65. Baltimore News American, November 12, 1912, p. 13.
66. “Talk of “Abdu’l-Baha” (ms.), Dorrida Library, Baltimore
County.
67. Baltimore Sun, November 12, 1912, p. 9.
68. Interview with Mildred Elmer, conducted by the author in
September 1987.
69. Interview with Albert James, conducted by the author in
February 1988.
70. Star of the West, vol. 4 (1913) no. 3, p. 52.
71. Quoted in Allison Vaccaro and Edward E. Bartlett, “‘Abdu’l-
BahA in Baltimore,” Baha’i News (February 1982) pp. 3-4.
72. Star of the West, vol. 4 (1913) no. 13, p. 52.
73. Ibid., vol. 7 (1916) no. 12, p. 113.
74. Minutes, Baltimore, Baltimore Collection. National BahA’i
Archives.
75. Minute Book, pp. 150-51.
76. Ibid., 1926, p. 56; ibid., 1931.
77. Ibid., January 12, 1930, p. 71.
78. Interview with Eugene Byrd, conducted by the author in
January 1987.
79. This information was gleaned from the Baltimore Minute
Book for the years 1930-32.
80. Baltimore Minute Book, p. 143.
81. Minutes, Baltimore, 1931, pp. 101-102.
The Baha’is of Baltimore, 1898-1990         149

82. Ibid., April 28, 1932, p. 114.
83. Ibid., February 1, 1933, pp. 122-23.
84. Interview with Clarke Langrail, conducted by the author in
December 1987. Baltimore City Directory, 1930-1935.
85. Interview with Mildred Elmer, conducted by the author in
September 1987.
86. Interview with Penny Trusty, conducted by the author in
January 1987.
87. Interview with Albert James, conducted by the author in
January 1988.
88. Minutes, Baltimore, February 1933, pp. 121-22.
89. Ibid., March 1934.
90. Baltimore Sun article, n.d. Interview with Penny Trusty, con­
ducted by the author in January 1987. The Baha’i World, vol. 7, p. 89.
91. Interview with Mildred Elmer, conducted by the author in
September 1987.
92. Interview with Clarke Langrall.
93. Interview with Mildred Elmer.
94. Gwynn Oak Park in Woodlawn was rocked by race riots in
1963.
95. Shoghi Effendi to Baltimore Baha’i community, February 28,
1946, Baltimore Baha’i Archives.
96. Baha’i News (1947) no. 196, p. 1.
97. Interview with Albert James, conducted by the author in
January 1988.
98. Baha’i News, vol. 9 (1936) p. 4. Morgan State College (now
University) was established as part of a system of higher education
in Maryland for African-Americans.
99. Interview with Albert James, conducted by the author in
November 1987.
100. Interview with Mildred Elmer, September 1987.
101. Interview with Betty Feldman, conducted by the author in
September 1987.
102. Interview with Eugene Byrd, conducted by the author in
January 1988.
103. Ibid.
104. Baha’i News (1963) no. 386, p. 12.
105. Interview with Eugene Byrd.
106. Baha’i News (1963) no. 386, p. 12.
150   Deb Clark

107. Ibid.
108. Ibid.
109. Ibid.
110. Duane Hickman, “One Hot Fourth of July,” Baltimore Maga­
zine (October 1987) p. 106.
111. Interview with Lynn Fremd, conducted by the author in
December 1987.
112. Interview with Fred Lee, conducted by the author in Sep­
tember 1987.
113. Interview with Lynn Fremd.
-- The Baha'is of Baltimore, 1898-1990 (Used by permission of the curator)