Helen Goodall

Helen Goodall
Born	March 13, 1847 Winterport, Waldo County, Maine, USA
Died	February 19, 1922 San Francisco County, California, USA
NSA member	Bahá’í Temple Unity 1909 - 1910
Works •  Media

Helen Sturtevant Arey Goodall (March 13, 1847 - February 19, 1922) was an early American Bahá'í. She helped establish the Bahá'í Faith on the west coast of the United States and in Hawaii, and served on the first national administrative Bahá'í body in the USA, the Bahá'í Temple Unity.

‘Abdu’l-Bahá spoke highly of her, and she was able to accompany him often during his visit to the United States in 1912. She was posthumously named a Disciple of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá by Shoghi Effendi.

Life

Helen was born in Maine in 1847. She moved to California in 1867 and became a teacher in San Francisco where she married Edwin Goodall in 1868.

She first heard about the Faith in 1898 from Lua Getsinger who hosted classes on the Faith in the home of Phoebe Hearst. She was unable to attend Lua's class while it was being run, so she traveled to New York with her daughter, Ella Cooper, to learn about the Faith from Anton Haddad who they met on September 19th. Ella was invited to accompany the first western Bahá'í pilgrim group to the Holy Land, departing on September 22nd.

Helen moved to Oakland, California, in February 1899 and helped establish a Bahá'í community there which was the first on the west coast of the USA. In 1903 Kanichi Yamamoto, the first Japanese Bahá'í, moved to Oakland and was employed by Helen as a butler in her home, and in 1908 Kanichi was married with the wedding taking place in Helen's home. In late 1907 Helen went on pilgrimage to the Holy Land and met ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, returning to America in January 1908.

The first Feast in Oakland was held in Helen's home on March 3, 1908, and Feasts continued to be held in her home. In July 1909 a Tablet sent by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was read by Helen at a Feast. Helen was elected to the Bahá'í Temple Unity, a precursor to the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States, when it was established in 1909 and served on the body for a year.

In 1909 Helen's husband passed and she moved to live with her daughter, Ella, in San Francisco, leaving her house in the care of Kanichi for the purpose of hosting Bahá'í meetings which took place weekly.

When ‘Abdu’l-Bahá came to visit the United States in 1912 Helen and Ella went to see him in Washington and accompanied him to Chicago. During this time ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said of Helen:

"Mrs. Goodall's value is not known now; it will be known in the future. She has no other thought than to serve the Cause. God has certain treasuries hidden in the world which he reveals when the time comes. She is like one of these treasuries."

He summoned Helen and Ella to New York in July so that he could see them once more before departing America, however the plans of his visit were changed so that he could visit the west coast of the United States, and Helen and Ella secured a house in San Francisco for him and his entourage to stay. On October 16, 1912, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá hosted a Feast attended by one hundred and twenty people in Helen's home. Helen drove ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to the train station to Los Angeles so that he could visit the grave of Thornton Chase, and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá insisted that she be a member of the party travelling to Los Angeles, which stayed in the city for two days. When ‘Abdu’l-Bahá left San Francisco for New York he addressed Helen as the spiritual mother of the Assembly and said to her "I leave my sheep in your care."

Helen traveled the west coast to speak to newly formed Assemblies on the Covenant in the years following ‘Abdu’l-Bahá's visit. In 1915 she attended the first International Bahá’í Congress held in San Francisco with Ella, which they had traveled the Americas extensively to help organize speakers and sessions for. In 1916 when the first of the Tablets of the Divine Plan were sent to America she immediately began producing copies, distributing them, and contacted the Star of the West to encourage their hasty publication and Assemblies to encourage pioneers to arise, despite travelling with her family at the time the Tablets were received.

In 1920 Helen made a second pilgrimage to the Holy Land accompanied by Ella, Kathryn Frankland and Georgia Ralston, and remained there for a month. She fell ill after hearing the news of the Ascension of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in 1921 and passed away in San Francisco the following year.

References

Bahai.media has a related page: Category:Helen Goodall

External Links

Helen Arey Goodall on WikiTree - family tree