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Abstract:
Detailed overview of the first American Bahá'í. Provided in draft form as "Love's Odyssey" as well as a link to the PDF published as Thornton Chase: The First American Bahá'í.
Notes:
See also Notes on the Thornton Chase Papers.
This manuscript was later published as Thornton Chase: The First American Bahá'í (Wilmette: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 2001), which is available for download, with the author's permission, at stockman_chase_first_american_bahai_scan.pdf [39 MB]. |
Chapter 20FINAL YEARSFrom his Colorado days until about 1910, Thornton Chase is known to have written only two very short poems. One was a four-verse work to help the Bahá'ís remember how to pronounce the word Bahá'u'lláh.[1] The other was a brief poem of appreciation that Thornton wrote to Sarah Farmer, founder of the Green Acre Bahá'í School in 1906:
O Farmer of this Acre Green:After Thornton moved to California, he wrote poetry frequently, probably as part of the process of integrating his life experience into a meaningful whole during his last few years. His oldest known work from the Los Angeles period is an undated and untitled work, composed circa 1909 or 1910. It may have been intended as a hymn instead of a poem:
Behold the radiant morning!One significant change in Thornton's poetry written after this piece, is that it often had neither rhyme nor rhythm. Such poetry, in some ways simpler than metered, rhyming verse, relies much more on the arrangement of ideas and careful choice of words for its power. A good example is the beginning of "Travelers," an unpublished nine-page work that Chase composed in 1911 and read at the dedication of a new church in Los Angeles:
This traveling world is like a mighty wheel,The poem reflects the "cosmic" perspective Thornton had developed, and his resulting didactic tendency. He described nature for two pages, then turned to humanity. He switched to rhyming, metered verse, yet even in this text only every other line rhymed. In his Colorado days, virtually every line is rhymed:
From realms unknown, through the gates of life,Thornton then resumed using blank verse. He concluded the section thus: We all are travelers to the Holy Land,Thornton turned to Jesus' mission, then quoted psalms--arranged as blank verse--that referred to the coming of the King of Glory, that is, Bahá'u'lláh. Chase closed the poem with a description of the Kingdom of God on earth: The Holy Land, the New Jerusalem.In 1911 Thornton wrote and privately published a poem, "EL ABHA."[8] It was a mystical meditation on the Holy Spirit, or the spirit that eternally fills the Manifestations of God. Thornton described the spirit of God by using nearly every applicable metaphor he knew. His own devotion to God and submission to God's will come through strongly. The poem had nineteen stanzas, but a few convey the essence of the entire work:
I.Thornton's declining health impeded his writing poetry as well as his other activities. In mid-June 1911, he entered a hospital for two weeks to undergo an operation to relieve his continuing bowel troubles. He was able to return to his office by 29 June, but he remained in Los Angeles for the rest of the summer to recover. He wrote to a Bahá'í friend on 13 July that "I am nearly well now, but cannot walk very far yet. I think I shall be better than I have been for two years."[10] Nevertheless, Thornton continued to be active. On Sundays, when his health permitted, he taught a Bible study class at a local church, the Wilshire Christian Church, hoping thereby to introduce some of his pupils to the Bahá'í Faith. Apparently at one of the church's services he even gave a talk, "What sort of a Church does Our Age Demand?"[11] He also maintained his correspondence. Frances Johnson, a Hawaiian Bahá'í who planned to go to Japan, asked his advice about how to teach the Bahá'í Faith to Japanese. Thornton replied that she should stress the concepts of beauty and honor, strong in Japanese culture, instead of God or the idea of love. His letter shows considerable appreciation of Japanese culture and bears no trace of the anti-Japanese prejudice that was rampant in California.[12] Thornton's attitude toward women underwent gradual improvement, though not without at least one setback. In early 1910 several Bahá'í women opposed the creation of any Bahá'í committees in several communities because they believed `Abdu'l-Bahá did not want the Bahá'í Faith to be an organized religion. Furthermore, at the same time Thornton was watching the Chicago House of Spirituality, an organization that he had worked very hard to build, sink into inactivity and discouragement, partly because of actions taken by Corinne True, a prominent Chicago Bahá'í. Chase wrote a long personal letter to a Bahá'í friend of his, expressing frankly his feelings on the importance of organization and saying why he believed women should not serve on Bahá'í governing bodies:
Women are emotional, uncertain, unsteady, unwise in business affairs, carried away by "devotion," given to dreams and imaginations, and I am convinced that as long as the Cause in this land is so largely in the hands of women, it CANNOT PROSPER. They are extremists, lacking balance, unreliable, and this Blessed Cause needs the directly opposite qualities to uphold its banner among the whirlpools of occultisms and psychics that swirl everywhere in American society.[13] Thornton cannot now be asked what he meant by this statement, which was itself emotional and unreasoned. Chase knew women who were active Bahá'ís and who were not extremists or unbalanced. He was in constant correspondence with Gertrude Buikema and Mrs. A. M. Bryant, and even complained to them about the troubles some Bahá'í women caused. He also knew of Bahá'í men who also fit the description above; indeed, he discussed several of them in the same letter. The early American Bahá'í community attracted many eccentrics, and many of them were women. Furthermore, American culture did not give women the same opportunities to develop their talents as men, especially in such areas as business and administration. Chase might have confused their lack of experience with lack of innate ability. A letter Chase wrote in 1911 to Nathaniel Clark, the only male Bahá'í in Denver (the rest of the community was female) gives what is perhaps a less prejudiced view of the differences between men and women:
It is one of the great desires of my heart to see strong, clear-headed, steady-minded, earnest-hearted men attain to this Fountain of Life [the Bahá'í Faith]. Of course, spiritually, there is no difference; men and women are the same; but there is an element of steadiness, calmness, and permanence, which seems to abide more surely in men. . . . Man is more a creature of the head, and woman of the heart, but the real man must be a hearty man also if he is to be a universal man.[14] In his letters Thornton often wrote about the possibility of `Abdu'l-Bahá visiting this continent. In mid-1911, `Abdu'l-Bahá traveled to Europe, visiting London and Paris. Many Americans, unable to wait for this visit, sailed to Europe to meet `Abdu'l-Bahá. Thornton noted that "it was a sorrow to me that I could not go, but it matters not so much, the physical meeting. He who strives to be of service in God's work actually meets Abdul-Baha (the servant of God) because he enters upon the plane of divine service."[15] Thornton's attitude had undergone a remarkable change, when one compares it to the considerable yearning to see `Abdu'l-Bahá that he had expressed in many earlier letters. After visiting Europe in 1911, `Abdu'l-Bahá returned to Egypt, to the disappointment of many Americans, but in early 1912 he traveled to the West again. Without stopping in Europe, `Abdu'l-Bahá boarded a ship in Alexandria that was bound for New York. He arrived in North America on 10 April 1912 and immediately embarked on a very active schedule of touring and lecturing. By July, `Abdu'l-Bahá had visited New York City; Washington, D.C.; Chicago; Cleveland; Pittsburgh; Washington, D.C. again; upstate New York; Jersey City; Boston; Worcester, Massachusetts; Montclair, New Jersey; New York and Philadelphia again; Newark; Englewood, New Jersey; and Dublin, New Hampshire. He gave as many as four talks a day, in Persian, which were translated simultaneously for His audience. At Dublin `Abdu'l-Bahá finally rested for three weeks.[16] Thornton had hoped to travel to Chicago while `Abdu'l-Bahá was there, but an "unusual and abominable business matter" forced him to remain in San Francisco for two months.[17] Nevertheless, he followed `Abdu'l-Bahá's entire trip through correspondence and magazine articles, and disseminated the details he had learned to others through his letters. He wrote what was perhaps his most thoughtful description to the Reverend Dr. George D. Buchanan of Portland, Oregon, who later became a Bahá'í:
You know that Abdul-Baha is in this country. . . . He was very weary when he arrived. . . and since then scarcely any rest has been permitted to him [by the crowds], and he is exceedingly worn and aged and weary. . . . The newspapers of the east have treated him with so uniform courtesy that is a miracle in itself, when it is considered what opportunities for ridicule and satire are offered by his appearance, dress, mannerisms, etc. But there is evidently a certain strength, sincerity, righteousness, wisdom, knowledge, and nobility manifesting from him, as an aura of spiritual power, that even our flippant and calloused news men are restrained by it. As Kate Carew, a noted cynic and cartoonist wrote, after a long interview with him, accompanied by one or two unconventional situations which tempted her to "make fun" of him: "Several times in our interview I had thought: `You dear old man! You fine old gentleman! And now I thought it more than ever. As if anyone could ridicule that pure, white soul!" There you see it. The purifying, uplifting effect He has had upon even a Kate Carew.[18] Thornton also described the impact that `Abdu'l-Bahá had on the crowds who went to hear him:
He pays more attention to the "strangers" than to the so called Bahais. It is as though they needed not his attention, but the masses, the rich, the poor, the ignorant, the learned, they are the ones to whom he gives strength and counsel. They gather by the thousands to see and hear him. They rise involuntarily wherever he enters. They honor him. They seek to touch his hand, and he generously "shakes hands" with all, even the nearly two thousand women gathered at the Peace Society reception given to him at the Astor House, New York. They actually neglected the refreshments, after the addresses were ended, that they might reach him to touch his hand. And just before, he had visited a Mission in the Bowery, where four hundred men gathered to hear him. When he had finished, he went down by the door, and as each man filed past him on the way out, he grasped his hand, and left in it a bright silver quarter as a souvenir of his visit. He had them prepared in a green bag. Over One Hundred Dollars he gave to the Bowery that night. And as he watched the approaching line, and saw a specially hard looking derelict approaching, he was ready for him and gave him two quarters instead of one. What do you think of that?[19] After noting that `Abdu'l-Bahá "has ten times as many invitations as he can accept" and listing all the churches, universities, and voluntary associations where he had spoken, Thornton summarized the message that `Abdu'l-Bahá gave:
He talks of Peace. He says but little regarding metaphysics, unless in answer to some direct question. He talks to people only of Universal Peace; Equality of peoples and sexes; the need of balancing material civilization with spiritual civilization. . . . The Religion he is proclaiming is that of Practice,--to be kind to everyone and everything, to aid the forwarding of universal peace by influence and righteousness. He shows that true religion must prove itself in deeds among our fellow men; that religion and science must agree; that wars are useless, whether between nations or individuals. He preaches Universal Common Sense and the Commonwealth of the World. . . . He antagonizes nothing except ignorance and foolishness, and even these are only childish conditions to be removed by the good sense of human manhood.[20] Thornton's summary reflects his own emphases on religious life and service, and his own language ("human manhood" is an expression typical of Thornton). However, it also accurately and perceptively summarizes the values that `Abdu'l-Bahá repeatedly stressed in hundreds of talks and appearances across North America. Thornton was also excited that his friends had met `Abdu'l-Bahá for the first time, and he worried about the impact that the meeting had on them. As he wrote to Albert Windust, "You have seen Him now! What is your thought? Have you received strength? Have you found disappointments?. . . Did Abdul-Baha aid or encourage you in any way (tangibly or otherwise) in the manner of your [Bahá'í] publishing?"[21] Especially significant was Thornton's fear that meeting with `Abdu'l-Bahá would be a spiritual test or disappointment for his friends. The Bahá'ís of California, Thornton included, greatly looked forward to `Abdu'l-Bahá's visit to their state. However, in late July, while resting in New Hampshire, `Abdu'l-Bahá decided not to travel west again. As a result, he wrote a beautiful tablet to Thornton Chase that invited him to come east:
O thou, my ancient Friend: my Companion and Associate: It was the last tablet that Thornton would receive from `Abdu'l-Bahá. `Abdu'l-Bahá's love for Thornton was exceptionally great, and the tablet has a personal quality, an intimacy, that is rare in `Abdu'l-Bahá's correspondence. `Abdu'l-Bahá also wrote to Willard P. Hatch to say that He did not intend to travel west again.[23] Apparently someone--perhaps John Bosch--organized the California Bahá'í communities to telegram `Abdu'l-Bahá asking him to reconsider. All the Bahá'ís in southern California jointly sent a wire to him; Thornton personally sent one as well. Subsequently, Thornton was able to write to Bosch on 9 August that he had received two telegrams from `Abdu'l-Bahá, dated 7 August. The first read "I hope from the favor of Bahaollah that means be brought about so that I may associate with all of you. Abdul Baha." The second added that "I hope that God may answer your request and with perfect happiness meeting be realized. Abdul Baha."[24] Thornton was thrilled by the possibility that `Abdu'l-Bahá would indeed come west, but he noted that the visit was not guaranteed. On 9 August he wrote `Abdu'l-Bahá a poetic letter of praise that repeated his yearning to see him:
To the Center of the Covenant: Abdul-Baha Abbas.Following the poem's nine stanzas, Thornton concluded his letter with his actual request:
Reveal Thyself to those who can bear the Knowledge! It is not known whether Thornton actally sent this remarkable letter to `Abdu'l-Bahá. Nevertheless, `Abdu'l-Bahá decided to start west. After touring New England in late July and August, He traveled to Montreal, visiting that city during the first week of September. He then visited Buffalo, Chicago, Kenosha, Minneapolis, Denver, Glenwood Springs, and Salt Lake City. All of the Bahá'ís on the West Coast prepared for `Abdu'l-Bahá's visit. He was not expected to travel north or south of San Francisco, hence the Bahá'ís planned to travel to travel there to meet him. Thornton had every intention of being among them. A trip to San Francisco was an easy task for him; at least once he had traveled there from Los Angeles for the weekend just to speak at a Bahá'í meeting.[27] However, Thornton's health did not cooperate. In early September he fell ill while on the road, presumably from a bout of his bowel troubles. Two brief hospitalizations were necessary.[28] After he returned to Los Angeles, his condition suddenly became worse. On 26 September he was rushed to Angelus Hospital and was immediately scheduled for surgery. He hurriedly wrote John Bosch:
They have just brought me to the hospital and are going to operate on me for obstruction of the bowels in about an hour. It is a very serious operation and will tie me up here for two weeks or more. Please let Abdul Baha know.[29] The obstruction, probably a cancer, was not treated successfully; as a result, Thornton suffered five days of great pain. His age--he was sixty-five--and excessive weight were probably complicating factors. Always thinking of others, Thornton had his secretary send to John Bosch a check for $50.00, to repay a debt he owed him. Informing `Abdu'l-Bahá of Thornton's condition proved difficult because he was traveling across Colorado and Utah; finally, on 28 September, probably while in Glenwood Springs, He was contacted. He cabled to Thornton that he was coming west and that "if it were God's will, he would see him soon."[30] On Sunday, 29 September, the Los Angeles Bahá'ís sent telegrams to Bahá'ís all over the West Coast, asking them to pray for Thornton's recovery. On Monday morning Thornton was "very low," but he rallied. That evening, many of the Bahá'ís of greater Los Angeles gathered at Thornton's house to pray for him:
The sun had set when a little group of earnest souls, twenty in all, from various parts of Los Angeles, from Pasadena, Tropico and Glendale, assembled in silence on a street corner amid the bustle and din of the metropolis, to pray for the restoration of their brother to physical health and strength. Footnotes[1]Thornton Chase to Mrs. Emogene Hoagg (copy), 13 November 1907, 1, TC.[2]Thornton Chase, poem in 1906 Green Acre guest book, in Sarah Farmer papers, National Bahá'í Archives, Wilmette, Ill. [3]Thornton Chase, untitled poem, TC. [4]Thornton Chase, "Travelers," TS, 1, TC. [5]"Travelers" 3. [6]"Travelers" 5-6. [7]"Travelers" 8. [8]Thornton Chase, "El ABHA" (Los Angeles: privately printed, 1912). The poem was first written in April, 1911; there is a partial typescript copy bearing that date in TC. It was reprinted in Star of the West 3.12 (16 Oct. 1912): 3-4. [9]Thornton Chase, "EL ABHA," (Los Angeles: privately printed, 1912). [10]Thornton Chase to Ahmad Sohrab (copy), 29 June 1911, 1, TC; Thornton Chase to Mirza Ahmad Sohrab (copy), 13 July 1911, 1, TC. Subsequent letters by Chase are written from Los Angeles; in Thornton Chase to Albert Windust (copy), 20 November 1911, 1, TC, Thornton says he had just returned from a six-week trip that took him as far north as Seattle. Apparently it was his first trip after the operation. [11]Thornton Chase to Mirza Munir Zayn (copy), 9 June 1911, 3, TC; Thornton Chase, "What sort of a Church does Our Age Demand?" TS, TC. [12]Thornton Chase to Fannie Johnson (copy), 27 May 1911, 2-3, TC. [13]Thornton Chase to Charles Mason Remey (copy), 19 January 1910, 3-4, TC. [14]Thornton Chase to Nathaniel Clark (copy), 7 August 1911, 3, TC. [15]Thornton Chase to Nathaniel Clark (copy), 7 August 1911, 3. [16]The best summary of `Abdu'l-Bahá's visit in North America is Allan L. Ward, 239 Days: `Abdu'l-Bahá's Journey in America (Wilmette, Ill.: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1979). [17]Thornton Chase to Albert Windust (copy), 22 June 1912, 1, TC. [18]Thornton Chase to Dr. [George Davidson] Buchanan (copy), 12 June 1912, 1, TC. [19]Thornton Chase to Dr. [George Davidson] Buchanan (copy), 12 June 1912, 1-2. [20]Thornton Chase to Dr. [George Davidson] Buchanan (copy), 12 June 1912, 2. [21]Thornton Chase to Albert Windust (copy), 22 June 1912, TC. [22]`Abdu'l-Bahá to Thornton Chase (copy), translated by Mirza Ahmad Sohrab in New York City on 22 July 1912, TC. [23]`Abdu'l-Bahá to Willard P. Hatch, trans. Mirza Ahmad Sohrab, 27 July 1912, Dublin, N.H., in Willard P. Hatch, "Early Days in Los Angeles Bahá'í Affairs," TS, 1-2, National Bahá'í Archives, Wilmette, Ill. [24]Thornton Chase to "My dear Brother" [John Bosch] (copy), 9 August 1912, TC. [25]Thornton Chase to `Abdu'l-Bahá 9 August 1912, in Star of the West 4.11 (27 Sept. 1912): 187-88. [26]Thornton Chase to `Abdu'l-Bahá 9 August 1912. [27]Lorne Matteson to the author, 1 September 1982, author's personal papers. [28]Los Angeles Bahai Assembly, "Letter from Los Angeles, California," in Star of the West 3.12 (16 Oct. 1912): 5. [29]Thornton Chase to John Bosch, 26 September 1912, TC. [30]Los Angeles Bahai Assembly, "Letter from Los Angeles" 5. [31]Los Angeles Bahai Assembly, "Letter from Los Angeles" 5.
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| Views | 19663 views since posted 1999; last edit 2023-09-21 22:06 UTC; previous at archive.org.../stockman_loves_odyssey_chase; URLs changed in 2010, see archive.org.../bahai-library.org |
| Permission | author |
| History | Formatted 1999 by Jonah Winters. |
| Share | Shortlink: bahai-library.com/251 Citation: ris/251 |
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