The History of the Bahá'í Faith in Eliot
The connection of the Bahá'í Faith and the town of Eliot goes back to the Farmer family and their good works in the town. Sarah Jane Farmer was the daughter of prominent transcendentalist and inventor Moses Gerrish Farmer and philanthropist Hannah Shapleigh Farmer. Sarah revived the Eliot Library Association and worked to raise the funds for a public library. Her mother, Hannah, built and opened "Rosemary Cottage" in east Eliot where women and children from the cities could come during the summer for the health benefits of fresh air and exercise. "Rosemary Cottage", a few years later, became the Fresh Air Fund's first facility.
Sarah met ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, son of Bahá'u'lláh, the Prophet-Founder of the Bahá’í Faith, in the Holy Land in 1899. She found complete fulfillment of her ideas of social reform in the Bahá’í Teachings. She returned to America with a vision that Green Acre would become a center for truth, peace, and justice. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá visited Eliot in 1912.
Through the personality and influence of Sarah Farmer there gradually developed a community of Bahá'ís in Eliot. Bahá'ís, drawn by Green Acre, came to live here and the community also grew as Eliot residents embraced the Faith. One of the earliest of those, following Sarah Farmer, was Ethel Neall Furbish a descendant of two Scottish prisoners of war, sent to this country as servants, following the Battle of Dunbar.
In 1925 the Bahá'í community here was formally organized and its governing body, the Local Spiritual Assembly elected. Eliot residents worked at Green Acre, supplied fresh foods and opened guest houses for those coming to attend programs. Through the 1960s and 1980s Emma Rice welcomed various groups, including Scouts and Garden Club to the Bahá'í Fellowship House for their meetings. She also conducted a pre-school program for children. Throughout the years, the Bahá'í Community remains active in Eliot's community events and supports those activities which help to unify the town. Presently we host many activities to which all are welcome.
The physical beauty of this place is very wonderful. We hope that a spiritual charm may surround and halo it; then its beauty will be perfect. There is a spiritual atmosphere manifest here ...
- ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
Here on a moonlit night, when the moon is in its full brilliance, when the stars are shining and the air is pure and a sweet breeze is wafting, at such a time to pray and weep before the Court of God has a delight of its own.
- ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
