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117-712: Green Acre Baháʼí School is a conference facility in Eliot, Maine , in the United States , and is one of three leading institutions owned by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baháʼís of the United States . The name of the site has had various versions of "Green Acre" since before its founding in 1894 by Sarah Jane Farmer . It had a prolonged process of progress and challenge while run by Farmer until about 1913 when she

234-620: A hope becomes, through it a blessed reality now. It has illuminated for me every other expression of Truth which I had hitherto known and place my feet on a Rock from which they cannot be moved. And it is the Manifestation of the Fatherhood - Behá'u'lláh (ed - as it was spelled in those days) - who had taught me to look away from even the Greatest and find within the One 'Powerful, Mighty, and Supreme' who

351-408: A "solemn vow" to building the school for spiritual teachers on 4 February 1894. However, by about 1894 the hotel was called a failure and was boarded up when Farmer approached the investors with the plan to use Greenacre as a place to host lectures on religion. Farmer proposed to her investors to use the closed Inn. By 1897, it was capable of housing 75 or more guests and had a number of cottages around

468-412: A bath in holy water." Later scholars and critics questioned the depth of Whittier's poetry. One was Karl Keller, who noted, "Whittier has been a writer to love, not to belabor." Whittier was particularly supportive of women writers, including Alice Cary , Phoebe Cary , Sarah Orne Jewett , Lucy Larcom , and Celia Thaxter . He was especially influential on prose writings by Jewett, with whom he shared

585-644: A belief in the moral quality of literature and an interest in New England folklore. Jewett dedicated one of her books to him and modeled several of her characters after people in Whittier's life. Whittier's family farm, known as the John Greenleaf Whittier Homestead or simply "Whittier's Birthplace", is now a historic site open to the public. His later residence in Amesbury, where he lived for 56 years,

702-541: A cause that he deemed morally correct and socially necessary. He was a founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society and signed the Anti-Slavery Declaration of 1833, which he often considered the most significant action of his life. Whittier's political skill made him useful as a lobbyist, and his willingness to badger anti-slavery congressional leaders into joining the abolitionist cause

819-525: A center of learning for spiritual teachers - an idea blessed by family friends Arthur Wesley Down and John Greenleaf Whittier . Her father died that spring, 1893, and she had to leave before the Parliament took place. She took a brief trip to Norway with Sara Chapman Bull in her grief, and she made it back to the Parliament only in October 1893 after it was over. Farmer made what she recorded in her diary as

936-599: A few years earlier and she too had adopted the religion. Farmer was publicly linked with the religion in June 1901. Of the Baháʼí Faith, it was explained, "... she has found the common faith in which all devout souls may unite and yet be free." At the time there were some 700 Baháʼís in the United States. Amidst her conflict with Janes and newfound attachment to the Baháʼí Faith she offered free classes in parallel, even conflicting on time, with Janes' Monsalvat school classes. In 1901

1053-692: A hotel initially called the Eliot Hotel or Inn at the site. In 1891 there were paying customers staying at the Inn. Farmer had an originating idea about a spiritual theme for the development of the property in June 1892 and then journeyed with her father to the Chicago Columbian Exposition in late 1892 where she met with Swedenborgian Charles C. Bonney , the "visionary" behind the World's Parliament of Religions , and gained encouragement for her vision for

1170-508: A leading institution of the religion in America. It hosted diverse programs of study, presenters, and been a focus for dealing with racism in the United States through being a significant venue for Race Amity Conventions (later renamed Race Unity Day meetings) and less than a century later the Black Men's Gatherings and further events. The Piscataqua River by which Green Acre Baháʼí school stands

1287-510: A male householder with no wife present, and 28.9% were non-families. 23.4% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.47 and the average family size was 2.89. The median age in the town was 45.4 years. 22.1% of residents were under the age of 18; 5.9% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 21.3% were from 25 to 44; 36.1% were from 45 to 64; and 14.6% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of

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1404-402: A motion made by John Quincy Adams . By the end of the 1830s, the unity of the abolitionist movement had begun to fracture. Whittier stuck to his belief that moral action apart from political effort was futile. He knew that success required legislative change, not merely moral suasion. That opinion alone engendered a bitter split from Garrison, and Whittier went on to become a founding member of

1521-462: A new resolution that barred Congress from discussing petitions that mentioned bringing slavery to an end. Congress approved them on December 12, 1838, which became known as the "Atherton Gag"; Whittier referred to Atherton in one of his many abolition poems as "vile" by having allied himself so closely with his fellow Democrats from pro-slavery South. It was not until 1844 the House rescinded that gag rule on

1638-418: A park named after him,) Buddhist Sister Sanghamitta before she left for India as a new convert, B. S. Kimura of Japan, in 1902, Dharmpala, M. Barukatulah, Baha Premanand in 1904, and C. Jinaradadaen in 1905. Fadl and Khan were profiled along with a review of the religion in 1903. Ralph Waldo Trine wrote a book while at Greenacre and published it in 1903. Additionally music concerts became more common – one of

1755-1023: A prominent Hindu monk serving in interfaith awareness efforts spent nearly two months there in the summer of 1894. His words were printed in the short lived The Greenacre Voice established with the school-and-conference center running at least to 1897. A review appeared in the local Boston Evening Transcript . A short list of presentations was published in the newspaper even as far away as Chicago also featured academic scholars as well as priests presenting on religions: Professor Ernst Fenollosa, Boston Museum of Fine Arts – "The Relation of Religion to Art"; Rev. Dr. Edward Everett Hale, "Sociology"; Rev. Dr. William Alger, "Universal Religion"; Edwin Meade, "Immanuel Kant"; Professor Thomas C. Wild, "Union for Practical Progress"; Frank B Sanborn , "The Humane treatment of Mental and Spiritual Aberrations"; Margaret B. Peeke from Sandusky Ohio, "The Soul in its search after God"; and Abby Morton Diaz, "The Work of humanity for humanity" were among

1872-463: A series of articles in the Boston Transcript and went to Green Acre to learn more. He conversed with Sarah Farmer. Thornton Chase , the "first occidental Baháʼí" was also there giving a series of talks. It was on that occasion that Cobb joined the religion. Others were also there giving talks, as well as a meeting of civil war veterans. Ponnambalam Ramanathan 's talk that year was featured in

1989-547: A shipyard, including launching the USS ; Nightingale in 1851. At the time of the founding of the school there were some 1,400 people in Eliot and the town has grown in recent years to near 7,000 today. Sarah Farmer's mother, Hannah Tobey Farmer (1823–1891) was raised Methodist. Her father, Moses Gerrish Farmer (1820–1893) a Dartmouth graduate in 1844, had success in the new field of electrical engineering and telegraph work and

2106-512: A shoemaker for a time, and a deal was made to pay part of his tuition with food from the family farm. Before his second term, he earned money to cover tuition by serving as a teacher in a one-room schoolhouse in what is now Merrimac, Massachusetts . He attended Haverhill Academy from 1827 to 1828 and completed a high school education in only two terms. Whittier received the first substantial public praise for his work from critic John Neal via Neal's magazine The Yankee in 1828. Whittier valued

2223-560: A special tea service and presentations. As an institution Greenacre developed a brief set of "branch" associations including one in Washington D.C. in 1905 that began to host peace conferences. Farmer's connections and determination for peace was such that she was present at the signing of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty and indeed was the only woman on the naval base. The event was remembered in more recent times. Diplomats from

2340-481: Is also open to the public, and is now known as the John Greenleaf Whittier Home . Whittier's hometown of Haverhill has named many buildings and landmarks in his honor including J.G. Whittier Middle School, Greenleaf Elementary, and Whittier Regional Vocational Technical High School . Numerous other schools around the country also bear his name. The John Greenleaf Whittier Bridge , built in the style of

2457-588: Is land and 1.54 square miles (3.99 km ) is water. Eliot is drained by Sturgeon Creek and the Piscataqua River . Eliot is served by state routes 91 , 101 , 103 and 236 . The town is northwest of Interstate 95 and near the New Hampshire border. As of 2022 the median income for a household in the town was $ 93,231, and the median income for a family was $ 106,210. Males had a median income of $ 55,714 versus $ 37,500 for females. The per capita income for

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2574-559: Is poor stuff! I like the man, but have no high opinion either of his poetry or his prose." Editor George Ripley , however, found Whittier's poetry refreshing and said it had a "stately movement of versification, grandeur of imagery, a vein of tender and solemn pathos, cheerful trust" and a "pure and ennobling character". Boston critic Edwin Percy Whipple noted Whittier's moral and ethical tone mingled with sincere emotion. He wrote, "In reading this last volume, I feel as if my soul had taken

2691-468: Is the basis for Eliot maintaining it was "settled" almost a quarter century earlier in 1623. In 1659 the local court decreed that there should be two meeting houses in Kittery. The town's inhabitants disagreed, and held a town meeting on July 17, 1660, where it was: ...Agreed and fully consented unto that this town of Kittery is by free consent divided into three parts for settling of three ministers, one in

2808-433: Is thought to mean feuillevert , after his Huguenot forebears. He grew up on the farm in a household with his parents, a brother and two sisters, a maternal aunt and paternal uncle, and a constant flow of visitors and hired hands for the farm. As a boy, it was discovered that Whittier was color-blind when he was unable to see a difference between ripe and unripe strawberries . The farm was not very profitable, and there

2925-595: Is to be the Redeemer of my life. It is a Revelation of Unity such as I had never before found. By means of its Light, as shown the life of the Master Abbas Abdul Beha, I have entered into a joy greater than any I have hitherto known. Green Acre was established as a means to that end and in proportion as well lay aside all spirit of criticism of others and seek only to live the Unity we find, shall we be able to help others to

3042-557: The North American Review responded to Whittier's collection In War Time, and Other Poems , by calling him "on the whole, the most American of all our poets, and there is a fire of warlike patriotism in him that burns all the more intensely that is smothered by his [Quaker] creed". The passage of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865 ended both slavery and his public cause, and so Whittier turned to other forms of poetry for

3159-499: The Boston Evening Transcript . Others also came to Greenacre. In 1906 among others noted, then Third assistant Secretary of State Huntington Wilson , then retired General O. O. Howard , and Ex-Governor John Green Brady of Alaska all gave talks or hosted meetings. Marsden Hartley took a job as a handyman there and through his association he secured his first exhibition, and was friends with Ober and Lunt. In 1907 it

3276-493: The Cambridge Conferences directed by Janes. An 1895 address book of Farmer's revealed she had contact information on a number of leaders of thought and religion in America. That summer among those that met at the conference center were evolutionists, and Farmer invited Lewis Janes to assist with the program development. Janes was a student of Herbert Spencer . An engine inventor also presented. The conference grew to

3393-624: The English Civil War Battle of Dunbar were resettled there in 1650. These Scots had been force-marched to Durham Cathedral in Durham , England, then tried for treason for supporting Charles II rather than Oliver Cromwell , Lord Protector . The name remains today. According to the United States Census Bureau , the town has a total area of 21.32 square miles (55.22 km ), of which 19.78 square miles (51.23 km )

3510-562: The Holy Grail was kept, though it is most often spelled Montsalvat . However, Farmer and Janes differed often – Janes wanted academic credentials among his speakers and a businesslike plan for the economic solvency of the work by charging everyone rather than trusting on contributions. They had serious difficulty even agreeing on what they were talking about – "This difference of understanding could never have occurred between two men accustomed to business methods," Janes wrote in 1899. Farmer framed

3627-575: The Liberty Party in 1839. In 1840, he attended the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London. By 1843, he was announcing the triumph of the fledgling party: "Liberty party is no longer an experiment. It is vigorous reality, exerting... a powerful influence." Whittier unsuccessfully encouraged Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow to join the party. He took editing jobs with

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3744-777: The Middlesex Standard in Lowell, Massachusetts , and the Essex Transcript in Amesbury until 1844. While in Lowell, he met Lucy Larcom , who became a lifelong friend. In 1845, he began writing his essay "The Black Man" which included an anecdote about John Fountain, a free black who was jailed in Virginia for helping slaves to escape. After his release, Fountain went on a speaking tour and thanked Whittier for writing his story. Around then,

3861-565: The New York Times . A book was circulated in Japan about it too. Prominent Buddhist monk Anagarika Dharmapala stayed at Greenacre where he worked on practices himself and offered classes and talks on specific meditational disciplines as well as quotes on the teachings of the Buddha. He was enthusiastic about the kind of interfaith coming together process of Greenacre. Unitarian Alfred W. Martin closed

3978-602: The Piscataqua River across from Portsmouth and Newington, New Hampshire . The population was 6,717 at the 2020 census . It is part of the Portland – South Portland – Biddeford , Maine metropolitan statistical area . Eliot is home to Ambush Rock, Green Acre , and the Raitt Homestead Farm Museum . Today's town of Eliot was formerly the Middle Parish of the town Kittery, Maine , originally part of

4095-690: The Sagamore and Bourne bridges, carries Interstate 95 from Amesbury to Newburyport over the Merrimack River . A covered bridge spanning the Bearcamp River in Ossipee, New Hampshire , is also named for Whittier. The city of Whittier, California , is named after the poet, as are the communities of Whittier, Alaska , Greenleaf, Idaho , and Whittier, Iowa ; the Minneapolis neighborhood of Whittier ;

4212-503: The "well known" presenters but the distinction of the summer school was of lecturers who were younger and less well known than those of the earlier Concord School of Philosophy maintained by the Transcendentalists previously which closed about 1887 and less about philosophy than of comparative study initially. The sessions were positively reviewed. Sanborn would soon be among the leaders operating at Greenacre. Professor Lewis G. Janes

4329-655: The 1897 season with a talk "Universal Religion and the World's Religions", the theme of which became his life's work. Electrical engineers met at the conference center at least in 1897 as the fiftieth anniversary of the invention of the electric tolley car. The 1898 session on the Monsalvat school listed a variety of people including Janes himself on "Relation of Science to Religious Thought", Swami Abhedananda on "Vedanta philosophy and Religions of India", "Hebrew Prophets" by Prof. Nathaniel Schmidt, "Literature, Ethics and Philosophy of

4446-928: The Church shall heal. Whittier's "At Port Royal 1861" describes the experience of Northern abolitionists arriving at Port Royal, South Carolina , as teachers and missionaries for the slaves who had been left behind when their owners fled because the Union Navy would arrive to blockade the coast. The poem includes the "Song of the Negro Boatmen," written in dialect: Oh, praise an' tanks! De Lord he come To set de people free; An' massa tink it day ob doom, An' we ob jubilee. De Lord dat heap de Red Sea waves He jus' as 'trong as den; He say de word: we las' night slaves; To-day, de Lord's freemen. De yam will grow, de cotton blow, We'll hab de rice an' corn: Oh, nebber you fear, if nebber you hear De driver blow his horn! Of all

4563-585: The Comparative Religion school after Janes, continued the criticism. Others sided with Janes' views including Sanborn and investor Sara Chapman Bull . Meanwhile, a number of eastern teachers presenting their own religions, beyond those of the Baháʼís themselves, began to appear officially on the programs of Monsalvat School beyond those of academically interested non-believers - Muslim Shehadi Abd-Allah Shehadi in 1901, (and later lived in Providence, RI and had

4680-485: The Eliot Library Association and set a number of meetings with speakers while also serving as secretary and helping build a list of patrons of the library of some 700 people. Singer Emma Cecilia Thursby recalled her first visit to what was called "Greenacre" was in 1889. Greenacre is and was situated on a bluff overlooking the river which is a mile wide. In 1890, a group of investors signed a contract to set up

4797-498: The Green Acre Conferences of which Sarah J. Farmer is the director." Amidst this Farmer's personal home burned to the ground in 1904, and Randolph Bolles, whose sister and niece were well known Baháʼís, took up residence living there until he died in 1939. In 1904 and 1905 Japanese diplomats visited Greenacre – Yokoyama Taikan , Okakura Kakuzō and Kentok Hori, signing Farmer's autograph book with quotations and drawings for

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4914-520: The Magees, began to be regular summer visitors. Among the several presenters and singers were a few Baháʼís, as well as W. E. B. Du Bois and Swami Paramananda . Ali Kuli Khan was appointed Iranian Charge D'Affaires in Washington D. C. in 1910. A review of the history of Greenacre was published in 1911 in the local paper though there was more description of the alienness of Vivekananda in racist terms. The season had many speakers. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá , then head of

5031-536: The North, formerly known as the National Enquirer . In May 1838, the publication moved its offices to the newly opened Pennsylvania Hall on North Sixth Street, which was shortly after burned by a pro-slavery mob. Whittier continued to write poetry, and nearly all of his poems then dealt with the problem of slavery. In 1838, Charles G. Atherton of New Hampshire presented five resolutions that were adopted and created

5148-542: The North. For the next ten years, it featured the best of his writing, both as prose and poetry. Being confined to his home and away from the action offered Whittier a chance to write better abolitionist poetry, and he was even poet laureate for his party. Whittier's poems often used slavery to represent all kinds of oppression (physical, spiritual, economic), and his poems stirred up popular response because they appealed to feelings, rather than logic. Whittier produced two collections of antislavery poetry: Poems Written during

5265-675: The Progress of the Abolition Question in the United States, between 1830 and 1838 and Voices of Freedom (1846). He was an elector in the presidential election of 1860 and of 1864 for Abraham Lincoln both times. In the months leading up to the American Civil War , Whittier built a strong national audience. In January 1861, The Atlantic Monthly , which had previous spurned his poetry, praised him for his "keen and discriminating love of right" and his "love of freedom". In 1864,

5382-592: The Talmud" by Rabbi Joseph Krauskopf, "Islam and the Koran" by Emil Nabokoff, "Philosophy and Religions of the Jains" by Vichand Raghavji Gandhi and others. A diary of Charles W. Chesnutt noted he was a replacement speaker for Walter Hines Page for a talk in 1899 on the condition of African-Americans in the South, and commented on witnessing a diversity of clothing representing cultures of

5499-580: The Vermonters, 1779 " anonymously in The New-England Magazine in 1838. The poem was mistakenly attributed to Ethan Allen for nearly sixty years. Whittier acknowledged his authorship in 1858. During the 1830s, Whittier became interested in politics, but after losing a congressional election at age 25, he suffered a nervous breakdown and returned home. The year 1833 was a turning point for Whittier; he resurrected his correspondence with Garrison, and

5616-761: The Vermonters, 1779 , which he had anonymously inserted in The New England Magazine. The poem was erroneously attributed to Ethan Allen for nearly sixty years. This use of poetry in the service of his political beliefs is illustrated by his book Poems Written during the Progress of the Abolition Question . Highly regarded in his lifetime and for a period thereafter, he is now largely remembered for his anti-slavery writings and his poems Barbara Frietchie , " The Barefoot Boy ", " Maud Muller " and Snow-Bound . A number of his poems have been turned into hymns , including Dear Lord and Father of Mankind , taken from his poem " The Brewing of Soma ". The latter part of

5733-827: The Whittier neighborhoods of Denver and Boulder , Colorado, as well as a school and a park there. Both Whittier College and Whittier Law School are named after him. A park in the Saint Boniface area of Winnipeg is named after the poet in recognition of his poem "The Red River Voyageur". Whittier Education Campus in Washington, DC , is named in his honor. SS Whittier Victory a World War II ship named after Whittier College. Whittier Peak and Mount Whittier in Washington and Mount Whittier in New Hampshire are mountains named after him. The alternate history story P.'s Correspondence (1846) by Nathaniel Hawthorne , considered

5850-580: The addition of other issues to its platform. He eventually participated in the evolution of the Liberty Party into the Free Soil Party , and some say his greatest political feat was convincing Charles Sumner to run on the Free-Soil ticket for the U.S. Senate in 1850. Beginning in 1847, Whittier was the editor of Gamaliel Bailey 's The National Era , one of the most influential abolitionist newspapers in

5967-424: The audience, not by the teachers." The early collection of religious interests was wide - Farmer participated with Spiritualist trance-speakers who appeared to channel her father so convincingly the family dog responded, a fact William James took note of. One of the first such promulgators of spiritual insight there was Carl H. A. Bjerregaard where he would frequent through at least 1896. Swami Vivekananda ,

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6084-476: The care of early psychologist Dr. Edward Cowles. Farmer's last public appearance at Green Acre was in 1909. The season was successful with singer Mary Lucas (who had joined the religion in 1905,) and many others. That year the Green Acre Fellowship board voted to rebuild Farmer's residence on the site of her father's home at a cost of $ 5000. Farmer changed her will to bequeath Greenacre to the Baháʼís in

6201-464: The charge for the entire season of classes with Janes' group was five dollars for the Monsalvat school – in inflation terms that would be $ 140 in 2014. Schmidt featured Farmer and Greenacre in a chapter "Freedom and Self-Surrender" of a book Restless Souls: The Making of American Spirituality published by the University of California Press in 2012: The struggle at the heart of liberal spirituality ...

6318-481: The classes and insisting on academic credentials and approaches to understand the diversity of religions. Janes' disconnect from Farmer had reached the point of shutting down the Monsalvat school. There were also tensions between Sanborn and Janes and among other groups. There had been speculation on Farmer being bought out, creditors were nervous, and her business partners had thought to force Farmer to sell out. While her partners were seeking to meet with her, Farmer

6435-512: The conference got printed in the Boston Evening Transcript . The Monsalvat School for the Comparative Study of Religion , a progressive or liberal development seen against conservative religious experience, was established formally in 1896 as an institution hosted at Greenacre and the first director was Lewis Janes. Monsalvat was named after the sacred mountain in Wagner's Parsifal where

6552-403: The court to attend church across the Piscataqua in either the towns of Dover, New Hampshire or Portsmouth for one-half their going rates. Prior to Eliot's incorporation as a town on March 1, 1810, the Upper Parish had been in conflict with Kittery's other parishes since at least 1791. In 1791, the parish's minister died. His successor, according to a large faction of the parish's inhabitants,

6669-415: The day. He met with individuals on other days at Green Acre or the home of Kate Ives, the first woman member of the religion, offering advice and a listening ear to each. Eliot, Maine Eliot is a town in York County, Maine , United States. Originally settled in 1623, it was formerly a part of Kittery , to its east. After Kittery, it is the next most southern town in the state of Maine, lying on

6786-467: The east part as followeth, one at Nichewancick [today's Berwick] which bound ae to come doown unto Thompson point brook formerly called the black Brook and from that Brook the second division is to go downward to the great cove below Thos. Spinney's Point and the third division to go down from the great cove unto Brave Boat Harbor with Capt. Champernown Island, all of which three divisions according as they are divided each division to bear their own charges for

6903-443: The end of that interview she cried "... strange tears of ecstatic happiness, and went to her room to recover the composure which had been shaken by these surprising and illuminating events." This list of questions is referred to in another briefer recollection. Anise Rideout had a similar record of the incident. Rideout reports that ʻAbdu'l-Bahá wrote an inscription in Farmer's Bible dated March 26. For Maria Wilson's part she also joined

7020-414: The era of the Fourth Party System also known as the Progressive Era . About 1905 a formal board to supervise Greenacre called the "Green Acre Fellowship" superseded the earlier voluntary one and was arranged with five trustees – Francis Keefe, Aldred E. Lunt, Horatio Dresser, Maria Wilson, and Fillmore Moore, (two were Baháʼí, three not.) In the summer of 1906 Stanwood Cobb learned of the religion from

7137-418: The event of her death via an agent of Phoebe Hearst. Her family involuntarily committed her to a mental institution in July 1910, At the same time the by-laws of the institution allowed Farmer to appoint 3 of its 5 trustees, fill vacancies, and remove any of the trustees. All this was just before the centenary of the town of Eliot itself was celebrated including at Greenacre. Meanwhile, early Canadian Baháʼís,

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7254-440: The face of the changing realms of support Phoebe Hearst was particularly stabilizing for Farmer in 1902 followed by Helen E. Cole in 1906. Another factor in the progress of Greenacre was that steamer boat service from Portsmouth ran regularly in 1895, and the arrival of electric train service in Eliot near the hotel in 1902. Finally in 1902 Farmer initiated a voluntary board – a "Fellowship" – "a sustaining body to help carry forward

7371-416: The family moved to Eliot and Moses retired. The home they built in Eliot was called Bittersweat, or Bittersweet-in-the-Fields. Hannah established a memorial non-segregated service called "Rosemary Cottage" as a retreat for unwed or poor mothers and working women in Eliot where, for a donation of $ 7 ($ 181 in 2014,) families would have a two-week vacation, up to 40 at a time in 1888. In 1887, Sarah re-animated

7488-446: The first such story ever published in English, includes the notice "Whittier, a fiery Quaker youth, to whom the muse had perversely assigned a battle-trumpet, got himself lynched, in South Carolina". The date of that event in Hawthorne's invented timeline was 1835. Whittier was one of thirteen writers in the 1897 card game Authors , which referenced his writings "Laus Deo", "Among the Hills", Snow-bound , and "The Eternal Goodness". He

7605-407: The first was directed by early Baháʼí Edward Kinney. Myron H. Phelps, as part of the transition of the Monsalvat School in his position as director in 1904 and 5 gave a talk on the religion at the 1904 conference following his 1903 book, (though it was later judged to be full of inaccuracies by the Baháʼís.) Articles based on the work were printed in various journals, some noting Greenacre as well. In

7722-436: The formation documents of the Fellowship also used "Green Acre" - nevertheless Schmidt notes the change in use as a dividing line among the groups involved. Another name sometimes used is "Green-acre-on-the-Piscataqua" dating from 1897 and in modern times. Greenacre itself as a name for the site seems to predate the building of the hotel. Some five or eight hundred people were there to hear ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's first talk. The talk

7839-436: The intensity of my gazing. I do not think his voice naturally particularly fine, but he uses it with great effect. He has wonderful dramatic power ... I like him better than any public reader I have ever before heard. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1870. Whittier spent the last winters of his life, from 1876 to 1892, at Oak Knoll, the home of his cousins in Danvers, Massachusetts . Whittier spent

7956-453: The job of editor of the National Philanthropist , a Boston-based temperance weekly. Shortly after a change in management, Garrison reassigned him as editor of the weekly American Manufacturer in Boston. Whittier became an outspoken critic of President Andrew Jackson , and by 1830 was editor of the prominent New England Weekly Review in Hartford, Connecticut , the most influential Whig journal in New England . He published " The Song of

8073-440: The maintenance of their own minister. The Upper Parish, then known as the Parish of Unity, later became the town of Berwick (incorporated in 1713), with the uppermost part of Kittery along the Piscataqua becoming the Upper Parish. Left without a meeting house or minister, the residents of a newly created Middle Parish between the Upper and Lower along the river between it and Spinney's Cove [Great Cove] were permitted by order of

8190-472: The opinion of the older and more established writer, pledging that if Neal did not like his writing, " I will quit poetry, and everything also of a literary nature , for I am sick at heart of the business." In an 1829 letter, Neal told Whittier to "Persevere, and I am sure you will have your reward in every way." Reading Neal's 1828 novel Rachel Dyer inspired Whittier to weave New England witchcraft lore into his own stories and poems. Garrison gave Whittier

8307-456: The passionate abolitionist began to encourage the young Quaker to join his cause. In 1833, Whittier published the antislavery pamphlet Justice and Expediency , and from there dedicated the next twenty years of his life to the abolitionist cause. The controversial pamphlet destroyed all of his political hopes, as his demand for immediate emancipation alienated both Northern businessmen and Southern slaveholders, but it also sealed his commitment to

8424-612: The peace of God is there; To worship rightly is to love each other, Each smile a hymn, each kindly deed a prayer. His sometimes contrasting sense of the need for strong action against injustice can be seen in his poem "To Rönge" in honor of Johannes Ronge , the German religious figure and rebel leader of the 1848 rebellion in Germany: Thy work is to hew down. In God's name then: Put nerve into thy task. Let other men; Plant, as they may, that better tree whose fruit, The wounded bosom of

8541-427: The poem was set in 1924 by Dr. George Gilbert Stocks to the tune of Repton by English composer Hubert Parry from the 1888 oratorio Judith . It is also sung as the hymn Rest by Frederick Maker, and Charles Ives also set a part of it to music in his song "Serenity". Whittier's Quakerism is better illustrated, however, by the hymn that begins: O Brother Man, fold to thy heart thy brother: Where pity dwells,

8658-507: The poetry inspired by the Civil War , the "Song of the Negro Boatmen" was one of the most widely printed, and, although Whittier never actually visited Port Royal, an abolitionist working there described his "Song of the Negro Boatmen" as "wonderfully applicable as we were being rowed across Hilton Head Harbor among United States gunboats." Nathaniel Hawthorne dismissed Whittier's Literary Recreations and Miscellanies (1854): "Whittier's book

8775-552: The point the Inn itself was too small and a tent camp arose as well as buildings to provide shelter from rain or sun were added. In 1896, Sanborn organized an "Emerson Day" (after Ralph Waldo Emerson ) and it continued for more than a decade. That year a formal reunion of the Concord School of Philosophy was also held. In addition to the talks on art, actual musical concerts, painters, sculptors, poets began to make appearances at Greenacre. Strong calls for peace against war from

8892-714: The property with a grassy plain that sometimes hosted a tent camp. Following the enthusiasm of the Parliament, Farmer set up the beginnings of using the Greenacre Inn as a summer center of cross-religion gatherings and cultural development. She had success attracting support from Bostonian businessmen, wives of businessmen and politicians, most especially Phoebe Hearst . The work was inaugurated in 1894 with her words "The spirit of criticism will be absolutely laid down – if it comes in it will be gently laid aside; each will contribute his best and listen sympathetically to those who present different ideals. The comparison will be made by

9009-519: The prospect of one movement serving as a singular focus for the universal religion. Nevertheless, Farmer focused the efforts of the institution on Baháʼí themes. In her words in 1902: My joy in the Persian Revelation is not that it reveals one of the streams flowing to the great Ocean of Life, Light and Love, but that it is a perfect mirror of that Ocean. What, in Green Acre, was a vision and

9126-562: The religion and was the first Baháʼí to move to Boston. After being in Haifa and Egypt the women also spent some time in Paris among a small group of Baháʼís after the visit, and Rome. The Summer 1900 program went on without Farmer, though the Monsalvat school was suspended that year. Farmer returned to the United States in November, injured on arrival according to one account. There were also reports that

9243-421: The religion on one occasion, and on another wanted to ask him a series of questions in the context of a review of her whole life - but when she wrote it all down she left the notebook in the hurry of being called to come to him in the early morning. She reported he answered the questions spontaneously and in the right order starting in such a way that the translator was confused because no question had been asked. At

9360-567: The religion, embarked on travels to the West following release from imprisonment. While the regular season at Greenacre ran in July, he was there from 16 to 23 August. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá referred to renaming it "Green Acre" vs "Greenacre" in relation to the Baháʼí presence where the founder of the religion is buried - referring to Acre, Syria . Though Farmer herself referred to "Green Acre" since 1902 and publicly in 1903 and

9477-629: The religion, was also there. Esther Davis reports others were there that summer of 1901: she herself, Raffii, the translator at one of Farmer's meetings with ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, and "Mother Beecher" (Ellen Tuller Beecher.) Mary Hanford Ford was there giving one of her talks on literature, and it was at these classes with Abu'l-Faḍl it is considered she joined the religion. Out of this the community of Baháʼís began to form in Boston . Farmer and ʻAbdu'l-Bahá began an active exchange of letters some twenty-plus of his which were gathered and printed initially in 1909 and then

9594-544: The religion. However, in Farmer's life and the structure of Greenacre there was crisis. According to scholar Eric Leigh Schmidt Sanborn was working for a "creation of a new shrine" for transcendentalism akin to reforming the Concord school centered on Emerson and used his coverage work of Greenacre in newspaper stories to frame that development while at the same time Janes drifted explicitly from Farmer's approach by charging people for

9711-501: The remainder of his life. One of his most enduring works, Snow-Bound , was first published in 1866. Whittier was surprised by its financial success; he earned $ 10,000 from the first edition. In 1867, Whittier asked James T. Fields to get him a ticket to a reading by Charles Dickens during the British author's visit to the United States. After the event, Whittier wrote a letter describing his experience: My eyes ached all next day from

9828-523: The royal grant to Sir Ferdinando Gorges known as the Piscataqua Plantation. Kittery was incorporated in 1647, today distinguishing itself as "the oldest incorporated town in Maine." While this may be so, settlements upriver on the north side of the Piscataqua River in today's Eliot were established considerably earlier, owing to more favorable conditions for harborage, timber, and shipbuilding. This

9945-520: The same divine realization. Farmer opened the 1901 session at Greenacre with an address "The Revelation of Baháʼu'lláh and its relation to the Monsalvat School" while others gave related talks – "The New Jerusalem, or the City We Want", "Lecture on the Persian Revelation", and "Utterances of Baháʼu'lláh." Mírzá Abu'l-Faḍl , among the most scholarly trained Baháʼís of the time, was there, and his talk

10062-490: The same time a few became interested in the Baháʼí Faith at Green Acre – Harlan Ober and Alfred E. Lunt were Bostonians who joined the religion in the summer of 1905 at Greenacre with Ober learning of the religion first through Lua Getsinger and Alice Buckton , and then Lunt learned of the religion from Ober. Ober had been in shipping interests. Ober and Lunt were leaders in Republican party politics on college campuses, in

10179-411: The school as a place for encounter between religious leaders for "a fuller realization" of unity among religions, and relied on generosity and enthusiasm to overcome the challenges of economy. Nevertheless, the school and Greenacre continue to operate and was noted in newspapers. The August 1897 season opened with the new lecture hall the "Eirenion", ("place of peace",) and Sarah Farmer and Greenacre made

10296-454: The standards of judgment and found to be complete. Some repudiated their former beliefs in the sanctity in pure inspiration. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá then visited Farmer at her home. That evening ʻAbdu'l-Bahá addressed the audience at the Eirenion and he wrote a prayer for Farmer. He was in the program speaking August 16, 17, 18, and 19 with Herbert Peckham speaking at most of the remaining schedule of

10413-410: The stresses of editorial duties, worsening health, and dangerous mob violence caused Whittier to have a physical breakdown. He went home to Amesbury and remained there for the rest of his life, ending his active participation in abolition. Even so, he continued to believe that the best way to gain abolitionist support was to broaden the Liberty Party's political appeal, and Whittier persisted in advocating

10530-493: The summer of 1892 at the home of a cousin in Hampton Falls, New Hampshire , where he wrote his last poem (a tribute to Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. ) and where he was captured in a final photograph. He died at this home on September 7, 1892, and was buried in Amesbury, Massachusetts . Whittier's first two published books were Legends of New England (1831) and the poem Moll Pitcher (1832). In 1833 he published The Song of

10647-403: The third edition in 1919. Nevertheless, Farmer did not embark on a heavy handed approach to the presence of the religion and made various compromises to limit its mention and presence, and this fits the Baháʼí teaching about not proselytizing . Her problems did not go away though Janes suddenly died in the fall of 1901. A memorial was held at Greenacre September 6. Fillmore Moore, the director of

10764-478: The town was $ 41,551. About 3.08% of families and 6.47% of the population were below the poverty line , including 7.1% of those under age 18 and 3.5% of those age 65 or over. As of the census of 2010, there were 6,204 people, 2,509 households, and 1,783 families residing in the town. The population density was 313.7 inhabitants per square mile (121.1/km ). There were 2,669 housing units at an average density of 134.9 per square mile (52.1/km ). The racial makeup of

10881-489: The town was 48.8% male and 51.2% female. Voter Registration: 29.72% Republican. 27.27% Democrat. 2.01% Green Independent. 41.00% Un-enrolled. State Representative: Michele Meyer(2018 D) State Senator: Mark Lawrence (2018 D) US Representative: Chellie Pingree (2016) (D) Eliot's form of government provided by its charter is Town Meeting, Select Board, and Town Manager. John Greenleaf Whittier John Greenleaf Whittier (December 17, 1807 – September 7, 1892)

10998-419: The town was 96.8% White , 0.7% African American , 0.1% Native American , 0.5% Asian , 0.3% from other races , and 1.5% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.2% of the population. There were 2,509 households, of which 31.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 59.0% were married couples living together, 8.3% had a female householder with no husband present, 3.7% had

11115-461: The translator at the meeting had come to the United States with Farmer on the return voyage. She was noted back in Eliot in May 1901. An organizational meeting came together May 22 and dedicated a site on nearby "Mount Monsalvat", as Farmer called it, to eventually host a school. Kate C. Ives was among those present. That Spring of 1901 she also met with Phoebe Hearst , who herself had been to see ʻAbdu'l-Bahá

11232-454: The treaty meeting attended functions at Greenacre. Some 300 attended, including a few reporters from Japan, though President Roosevelt and the Russian delegation did not. There were several talks presented on peace including by Minister Takahira and Ali Kuli Khan, who, in a letter to his wife Florence Breed Khan , called it the most important day in the history of Green Acre to that point. At

11349-462: The vision that she found in the Baha'i faith of a new age of religious unity, racial reconciliation, gender equality, and global peace was the fulfillment of Transcendentalism's reform impulses and progressivism's millennial dreams. To her skeptical associates, her turn to the Persian Revelation represented a betrayal of their deepest ideals as free-ranging seekers whose vision of a cosmopolitan piety dimmed at

11466-563: The week. Several of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's talks were gathered and published in The Promulgation of Universal Peace pages 253–275. He also visited the homes of other Baháʼís – Mason Remey, Carrie and Edward Kinney. At other talks members of the audience wept during his prayers or fainted. He spoke to a girls club camp group by the river on August 19. In a letter he declared Farmer was not insane but experiencing "religious exultation" and not suffering from female hysteria as these things were viewed in

11583-592: The world. Farmer's farewell address for the 1899 season was printed in the Boston Evening Transcript and contained warm thoughts of the development of the work and its ongoing goals. A beatific booklet Greenacre on the Piscataqua of some 22 pages with a section written in August 1899 and another in September 1900 was published. Baháʼís have identified a quote from the religion in the 1899 program and speculate Farmer had heard of

11700-552: Was "Lectures on the Revelations of the Báb and Baháʼu'lláh of Persia". Ali Kuli Khan, to serve as his translator, arrived in the United States in June. Abu'l-Faḍl had accompanied Anton Haddad, the first Baháʼí to live in the United States, on his return trip to America. They had been sent by ʻAbdu'l-Bahá . The later well known Baháʼí Agnes Baldwin Alexander , later appointed to a high office of

11817-495: Was a sanitorium . The 1908 season went on though with perhaps a reduced schedule. Fillmore Moore pressed her to surrender the right of trustee appointing and issued a pained statement in 1909. Writer Diane Iverson feels Farmer progressed in her hospitalization over a broken heart from the contention over Greenacre. Her care transferred to a private duty nurse in Portsmouth and from there, when she "became 'too much to handle'", into

11934-478: Was a heartfelt Christian, though he has also been called a Spiritualist and Transcendentalist. Moses and Hannah married in 1844 and Sarah was born 1847. It is said that the Farmer's home, before they lived in Eliot, was part of the Underground Railroad . It is unclear when the land in Eliot came to be owned by the Farmer family. However, they lived in a variety of places in New England until, after 1880, when

12051-526: Was a man of "unfair character" imposed by "a small party" of people. He was rejected by "a large majority", and a new minister was installed in 1792. The internal strife between inhabitants didn't stop there. The minority faction, angered by the removal of their minister, petitioned the Legislature in 1796 to be set off to the Upper Parish, which was accordingly done. The inhabitants of the second Parish, which

12168-485: Was about ways of knowing the truth – he disavowed individual approaches like pure reason, simple authority, individual inspiration, etc., but affirmed: [A] statement presented to the mind accompanied by proofs which the senses can perceive to be correct, which the faculty of reason can accept, which is in accord with traditional authority and sanctioned by the promptings of the heart, can be adjudged and relied upon as perfectly correct, for it has been proved and tested by all

12285-464: Was already aboard the SS Fürst Bismarck out of New York as a guest of Maria P. Wilson trying to release herself of her worries in first week of January 1900. Wilson and Farmer ran into friends Josephine Locke and Elizabeth Knudson aboard ship – and eventually learned they were on the way to see ʻAbdu'l-Bahá who was leader of a new religion and had in their possession an early prayer book. Wilson

12402-574: Was an American Quaker poet and advocate of the abolition of slavery in the United States . Frequently listed as one of the fireside poets , he was influenced by the Scottish poet Robert Burns . Whittier is remembered particularly for his anti-slavery writings, as well as his 1866 book Snow-Bound . Whittier was born to John and Abigail ( née Hussey) Whittier at their rural homestead in Haverhill, Massachusetts , on December 17, 1807. His middle name

12519-459: Was dubious but eventually the ladies changed their plans and went along. They waited in Egypt where there are pictures of her with Mírzá Abu'l-Faḍl and scenes there, before leaving for Haifa March 23, 1900. A few years later her friend Mary Hanford Ford related some of what took place meeting ʻAbdu'l-Bahá as a second hand account. A few facts are detailed - Farmer had met ʻAbdu'l-Bahá and accepted

12636-463: Was first introduced to poetry by a teacher. His sister Mary Whittier sent his first poem, "The Deity", to the Newburyport Free Press without his permission, and its editor, William Lloyd Garrison , published it on June 8, 1826. Garrison, as well as another local editor, encouraged Whittier to attend the recently opened Haverhill Academy. To raise money to attend the school, Whittier became

12753-461: Was indisposed after converting to the Baháʼí Faith in 1900. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá , then head of the religion, visited there during his travels in the West in 1912. Farmer died in 1916 and thereafter it had evolved into the quintessential Baháʼí school directly inspiring Louhelen Baháʼí School and Bosch Baháʼí School , the other two of the three schools owned by the national assembly, and today serves as

12870-525: Was invaluable. From 1835 to 1838, he traveled widely in the North, attending conventions, securing votes, speaking to the public, and lobbying politicians. As he did so, Whittier received his fair share of violent responses, being several times mobbed, stoned, and run out of town. From 1838 to 1840, he was editor of the Pennsylvania Freeman in Philadelphia , one of the leading antislavery papers in

12987-477: Was left without a meetinghouse and left to worship across the river at half rate in the town of Portsmouth, New Hampshire , accused the members of the other two of conspiring against them. The town was likely named for Reverend John Eliot of Boston , a friend of General Andrew P. Fernald, the town agent largely responsible for its separation. A section of northern Eliot bordering on York came to be known as Scotland Bridge after Scots prisoners of war from

13104-467: Was named from Abenaki Native Americans of the Wabanaki Confederacy describing where a river separates into several parts – "a place where boats and canoes ascending the river together from its mouth were compelled to separate according to their several destinations." The town of Eliot was founded 1810 from Kittery, Maine , which itself was founded in the 1600s. By the mid-1800s the area served as

13221-488: Was only enough money to get by. Whittier himself was not cut out for hard farm labor and suffered from bad health and physical frailty his whole life. Although he received little formal education, he was an avid reader who studied his father's six books on Quakerism until their teachings became the foundation of his ideology. Whittier was heavily influenced by the doctrines of his religion, particularly its stress on humanitarianism, compassion, and social responsibility. Whittier

13338-555: Was over the firmness and fragility of religious identity in the modern world. ... Was the point precisely the freedom of spiritual seeking? Or was the real point to find a well-marked path and to submit to the disciplines of a new religious authority in order to submerge the self in a larger relationship to God and community? ... Farmer's eventual acceptance of the Baha'i faith or "the Persian Revelation" ... discomfited her liberal, universalistic friends, many of whom preferred ongoing inquiry to actually finding one path to follow. For Farmer,

13455-490: Was still possible to review things at Greenacre without mentioning Baháʼís. May Wright Sewall spoke in 1907 at Green Acre. Newspaper coverage began to cover the division and resolution at Greenacre and Farmer managed to keep the reputation of Greenacre high through 1907. Coverage of events occurred in Indianapolis. Baháʼís sometimes objected that contradictory ideas were presented together while others sometimes objected there

13572-459: Was there giving talks on "Darwin and Spencer", "Social Tendencies under Evolution" and "Life as a Fine Art" and would also soon take a leading role in developments as well. There was also something of a windstorm that year. The "school" had a winter session in Cambridge with several repeat appearances hosted by Sara Chapman Bull . Indeed, these winter sessions continued some years and came to be called

13689-424: Was too much Baháʼí coverage. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's advise to Farmer was to be more direct about the religion and less supportive of "mouldered, two thousand years old superstitions". However, in 1907 other events took hold when, at the age of 60, Farmer fell off a train car in Boston, was injured and never fully recovered. She checked herself into McLean Hospital possibly with a severe injury to her back, when it

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