Kansas

Kansas
Location of Kansas
Statistics:
Number of Bahá'ís
-	Bahá'í source
-	Non-Bahá'í source	1,263
History: Firsts
-	Local Assembly	1935, Topeka

Kansas is in the center of the continental United States. It was included by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá as one of the Central states which He likened to the heart of a person.

News of the Bahá’í Faith reached Kansas in December 1868, just months after Baha'u'llah reached Akka. In the summer of 1897, Enterprise, Kansas was the second place where the Faith was taught in North America. A small community resulted, but the believers had not been taught about how to function as a community, so no joint activities were held. Most eventually went on to other interests. A few remained connected to the Faith for the rest of their lives and through them, the Kansas Bahá’í community has continued. A resident remembered that one held "religious meetings" in her home and she and her daughter traveled to see ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Chicago in 1912.

‘Abdu’l-Bahá wrote to a few people in Kansas, in one letter to a believer in Wichita, describing it as "that vast and remote country." It was vast and remote from the Holy Land!

Spiritual Assemblies have been formed in two dozen cities, but few have been able to continue in existence. The first Spiritual Assembly was formed in Topeka in 1935, but it took a decade before it was firmly established.

As with the general population, there are more Bahá’ís in the larger cities, and more toward the Eastern part of the state than the West.

Kansas has produced two members of the Universal House of Justice. Hugh E. Chance was born in Winfield, Kansas, and grew up on a farm nearby. His family moved away when he was a child. He was one of those elected to the first House of Justice in 1963. When he retired from service on the House of Justice, he and his wife, Margaret, were invited to return and settle in Winfield. Both are both buried in the Tisdale cemetery just a few miles east of Winfield, a mile from the farm where he grew up.

Dr. David Ruhe moved to Kansas with his family in the 1954 when he became first head of the audio-visual department of the Kansas University Medical Center. From there he was elected to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States in 1960. He was elected its Secretary in 1963. In 1968 he was elected to the House of Justice.

Internationally renowned painter, Walter Hatke, is from Kansas, as is internationally published, award winning historian and poet, Duane L. Herrmann.

In 1997 Bahá’ís of Kansas celebrated their centennial in America Hoffman's Park in the tiny city of Enterprise where the first Bahá’í class had been held a century before. Special guests were the two Kansas members retired from the House of Justice. The centennial celebration included a parade through downtown Enterprise, a Chautauqua style program featuring a drama re-enactments, one portraying the responses of early Kansas Bahá’ís to the new Revelation, a fried chicken dinner and an art gallery of works by Kansas Bahá’ís.

Several pages of the Kansapedia section of the Kansas State Historical Society website feature elements and individuals important in Kansas Bahá’í history.

Cities

Contents: Top - A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

A

America City. An individual wrote to 'Abdu-Bahá from there, but no more is known and the town no longer exists.

Arkansas City. A Spiritual Assembly was formed there for one year at Ridvan 1987.

Atchison. A resident wrote to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in 1920, but no community has yet developed there.

B

Bel Aire. An unusual city within a city (it is completely surrounded by the larger city of Wichita), a Spiritual Assembly was formed there 1987-1989.

C

Cottonwood Falls. Ted Livingston, was Bahá’í and mayor of the town briefly before his death.

D

Derby. A Spiritual Assembly was formed there 1983-1990 and 1991 for a couple more years.

Dodge City. A Spiritual Assembly was formed 1978-81 and 1987-91. A small Bahá’í community remained several decades after that.

E

Emporia. The first Bahá’ís lived there in the 1950s. The Spiritual Assembly was formed in 1970 until 2005.

Enterprise. First Bahá’í community in Kansas (1897), second Bahá’í community west of Egypt. Two believers traveled to Chicago in 1912 to see ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.

G

Garden City. A spiritual Assembly was formed there briefly.

H

Hays. A Bahá’í community appeared overnight in the early 1970s and a Spiritual Assembly was formed briefly: 1973-78, 1998-99, 2002-03.

Hutchinson. The first Bahá’í lived here in the 1950s but a community did not develop until the early 1970s. The Spiritual Assembly was formed in 1973, incorporated in 1985, and functioned several decades after that.

K

Kansas City. The first Bahá’í to live in Kansas City, Kansas was Mary M. F. Miller in 1898. A couple years later she and her husband returned to Enterprise, Kansas where, years before, he had established the Methodist church and was its minister. It was decades before a second Bahá’í lived there. In 1958 the Spiritual Assembly was formed, incorporated in 1965, and functioned several ecades after that.

L

Lawrence. In the summer of 1897 the Lawrence Journal carried news items regarding the Bahá’í classes in Enterprise but it was half a century later before the first Bahá’í lived there. A Bahá’í lived their briefly in 1915. The Spiritual Assembly was formed in 1964 and has remained to this day. It was incorporated in 1966. The Bahá’í club on the campus of Kansas Univerity is one of the oldest in the country.

Leewod. A Spiritual Assembly was formed there in 2018.

Lenexa. A Spiritual Assembly was formed there briefly in 2002.

Lenora. The smallest city in Kansas to ever have a Spiritual Assembly. With a population of just 900 a Spiritual Assembly was formed 1979-84. The City Manager was one of the Bahá’ís.

M

Manhattan. The first Bahá’í lived there in the 1950s but a community did not develop until the 1970s. A Spiritual Assembly was formed in 1974 until 2000, with a break in 1996-97. It was incorporated in 1980.

N

Newton. A Bahá’í community appeared overnight in the early 1970s, but was not a stable one. A Spiritual Assembly was formed periodically over the years: 1971-72, 1975-78, 1984-88 and 1989-92.

O

Olathe. A Spiritual Assembly was formed there for a brief time.

Overland Park. A Spiritual Assembly was formed in 1975 and it has functioned since that date.

P

Pittsburg. A spiritual Assembly was formed 1977-80.

Prairie Village. A Spiritual Assembly was formed 1981-83 and 1986-89.

S

Salina. A Spiritual Assembly was there from 1968 to 1981 with a break in 1973-74.

T

Topeka. First resident Bahá’í arrived in 1906 and the community has been continuous since then. In 1918 members of the community wrote to 'Abdu'l-Bahá. His reply to the signatories constitutes a membership list for the time. No other records exist, but newspaper reports cover teaching activities beginning in 1914. The first administrative activity occurred in 1920 when a Treasurer was elected. The community was revived in 1934, though the first Spiritual Assembly was not elected until 1935, and incorporated in 1968. Surrounding Topeka, Shawnee County had a Spiritual Assembly sporadically from 1994-2002.

W

Wellington. In 1973 two sisters resident there presented the Bahá’ís of Wichita with the guestbook of a Chicago hotel which their mother managed in 1912. 'Abdu'l-Bahá was a guest there and inscribed a brief prayer in the guestbook consoling her on the recent death of her young son. The book was forwarded to the National Spiritual Assembly. A Spiritual Assembly was formed there a decade later.

Wichita. The first Bahá’ís lived there in 1902 and wrote to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá that year. His reply referred to Wichita as, "the vast and remote country." Pioneers arrived from Topeka in 1935 who stayed about ten years. In 1947 the present Bahá’í community began. A Spiritual Assembly was formed in 1955 and reformed in 1962. Wichita was the first community in Kansas to have its own permanent Center in 2002.

Winfield. A Spiritual Assembly was formed there 1985-1999. From 1985 until their deaths Hugh and Margaret Chance lived there after his retirement from service on the Universal House of Justice. They are buried in Tisdale Cemetery just east of Winfield, a mile from the farm where he was born.

References

"The Bahá’í Faith in Kansas, since 1897," Duane L. Herrmann, Buffalo Press, Topeka, 1994.

"By Thy Strengthening Grace, the First One Hundred Years of the Bahá’í Faith in Topeka: 1906-2006," Duane L Herrmann, Topeka Bahá’í Assembly, 2006.

"Barbara Ehrsam and the Bahá’í Faith in Kansas: 1868-1924," Duane L Herrmann, Kansas History: a Journal of the Central Plains, Summer 2022, pp.70-87.

“The Bahá’í Faith in Kansas: 1897-1947,” Duane L Herrmann, "Community Histories," Richard Hollinger, ed, (Kalimat Press, 1992) pp.66-108.

External links

• Kansas Bahai Community at 100 article by Duane L. Herrmann