Bernard Jacobsen

Bernard Jacobsen

Bernard M. Jacobsen was an early American Bahá’í who lived in Kenosha, Wisconsin. He met ‘Abdu’l-Bahá when he visited Kenosha during his 1912 tour of America.

Background

He served as Chairman of the Kenosha Bahá’í Assembly in the early 1900’s. One of his struggles as Chairman was encouraging some of the Kenosha Bahá’ís to stop their drinking habits. By 1906 he was giving weekly lectures on the Bahá’í Faith to the Kenosha Bahá’ís.

In April 1909 he was elected as the inaugural Secretary of the Executive Board of the Bahá’í Temple Unity, a precursor to the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States, at the first Bahá’í National Convention of the United States. He was also appointed to a Committee responsible for purchasing a site for an American Mashriqu'l-Adhkár by the Board a few days after the Convention, which secured twelve lots of land on May 17, 1909.

Bernard was serving as Treasurer of the Mashrak-El-Azkar Building Fund by 1914 and continued to serve on the Board of the Bahá’í Temple Unity as Secretary until 1915. He gave a talk on the Life of Bahá'u'lláh at the site where the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár was to be built at a Celebration of the Centennial of the Birth of Bahá'u'lláh in 1917.

Family

Bernard had a son, Earl Bernard (September 19, 1897 - February 1922), and a daughter, Alita.

Earl Bernard joined the US Navy in 1918 and served as first class machinists mate on Submarine Chaser 432 during WWI. He left the Navy in 1920 and enrolled to study Commerce at J. B. Stetson University in Jacksonville, Florida in 1921, however he had to return to Kenosha in January 1922 as he was ill due to gas poisoning he had suffered from serving in an engine room during his time in the Navy. He passed away due to chronic nephritis due to the poisoning in February 1922, and was buried with a Bahá’í ceremony.