Charles Greenleaf
Charles Greenleaf | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | May 6, 1857 Near Cold Spring, Wisconsin, USA |
| Died | May 24, 1920 Boston, Massachusetts, USA |
| Appointed by | Shoghi Effendi |
| Spouse(s) | Elizabeth Roemer |
| Children | Albert and Charles |
Charles Hermon Greenleaf (May 6, 1857 - May 24, 1920) was an active member of the early Chicago Bahá'í community, a co-founder of the Behai Supply and Publishing Board which became the Bahá'í Publishing Society, and was named by Shoghi Effendi as one of the nineteen Disciples of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
Life[edit]
Charles was born into a Protestant family on a farm near Cold Springs, Wisconsin in 1857. The family moved to California in 1859 and Charles grew up there.
He studied law in Illinois, and worked as a clerk of the Illinois Senate in Springfield while a student. In 1878 he was the youngest in his class to be admitted to the Illinois Bar. He was employed as a lawyer by the Illinois Trust and Savings Bank of Chicago, and worked there for twenty-two years. He married E. Elizabeth Roemer on August 8th, 1882.[1]
He was a friend of Thornton Chase and he and Elizabeth attended classes on the Faith taught by Ibrahim George Kheiralla with Thornton in Chicago in 1897. He completed the course of lessons on October 5th, 1897.
Shortly after Charles became a Bahá'í Kheiralla asked the American Bahá'ís to sign a letter requesting that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá confer Infallibility upon him with regard to Bahá'ís in the West. Charles initially saw no problem with the request at the time, but Elizabeth convinced him not to sign the letter, making the Greenleafs some of the few early American Bahá'ís to remain faithful to the Covenant.[2] Charles was described as one of three pillars of strength of the Cause in its early days in America along with Thornton Chase and Arthur S. Agnew after his passing.[3]
He was elected to the first Bahá'í administrative body in Chicago when it was founded in March 1900, and continued to serve on it into 1901 when it was re-organized as the Chicago House of Spirituality. Around this time he began teaching the Faith at a daily meeting held by the Bahá'ís in Kimball's Restaurant.[4] He co-founded the Behais Supply and Publishing Board of Chicago with Arthur S. Agnew and Frank Hoffman in 1900, and it was incorporated by June that year.[5]
The House of Spirituality was a male only Institution, and Chicago Bahá'ís had a separate female administrative body called the Women’s Assembly of Teaching. Charles wife, Elizabeth, was a member of the women's body, and when the two groups came into conflict in 1902 Charles stopped attending the weekly meetings of the House of Spirituality for three years.[6] Thornton Chase noted that Charles appeared to be alienated from the Chicago community in a letter written in June, 1902.[7] Charles began attending meetings regularly again from 1905 to 1907, and intermittently from 1907 on.
He was one of the first people to teach the Faith in Urbana, Illinois, speaking at a Unitarian Church with a Persian Bahá'í in 1907 or 1908.[8] He received a Tablet from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in 1907, which included the following quote:
"O thou who art firm in the Covenant! Thy services, and those of thy revered wife, are acceptable in the Kingdom of Abhá, for ye have made your home a nest for the birds of God, and have engaged in teaching the Cause of God. Ye are truthful gardeners of the Garden of God, and two agreeable servants of the Holy Threshold. This confirmation must become the source of joy to life and repose to the conscience."[9]
Charles chaired the United States National Convention in 1911 and 1912,[10][11] and he gave a public talk on the significance of a Mashriqu'l-Adhkár during the 1914 National Convention.[12] In 1917 he opened the Festival celebrating the Centennial of the Birth of Bahá'u'lláh in Chicago.[13]
He passed away in the home of William Harry Randall in Boston in 1920, and was posthumously named a Disciple of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá by Shoghi Effendi in Bahá'í World, Volume III.[14]
References[edit]
- Robert Stockman. "Greenleaf, Charles Herman". Retrieved January 26, 2010.
- https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=138586593
Notes[edit]
- ↑ Star of the West, Vol. 11, pp 321-322
- ↑ Baha'i News (1973). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 510, Pg(s) 8-9. View as PDF.
- ↑ Star of the West, Vol. 11, p 321
- ↑ Baha'i News (1976). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 548, Pg(s) 14. View as PDF.
- ↑ The Inter Ocean, 05 Jun 1900, Tue, Page 11
- ↑ https://bahai-library.com/stockman_greenleaf
- ↑ http://www.h-net.org/~bahai/notes/vol2/ch.1897-02.html
- ↑ Baha'i News (1964). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 405, Pg(s) 14. View as PDF.
- ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1945). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada. Wilmette, Ill. Volume 9 (1940-1944), Pg(s) 608. View as PDF.
- ↑ Star of the West, Vol. 2, No. 4, p 1
- ↑ Star of the West, Vol. 3, No. 4, p 1
- ↑ Star of the West, Vol. 5, No. 10, p 1
- ↑ Star of the West, Vol. 8, p 191
- ↑ https://bahai-library.com/tags/Boston
