Rose Hilty

Rose Abuehl Hilty was the first Bahá’í to live in Topeka, Kansas. Her parents immigrated to Kansas from Switzerland. She married Leonard Hilty, the oldest son of Barbara Ehrsam. They had three daughters. She and he attended the first Bahá’í class in Enterprise, Kansas in 1897 in his mother's home. Only she accepted the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh as being true. In 1906 her family moved to Topeka, where she became the first Bahá’í.

She returned briefly to Enterprise when, unknown to her, a second Bahá’í in Topeka declared her faith in 1915. This was Bertha Hyde sister of Mable Hyde Paine in Urbana, IL. Teaching the Faith had begun before this when George Latimer had stopped to visit his cousin in Topeka in 1914. When Mary Hanford Ford came to Topeka to lecture, she also taught the Faith. In 1918 a study class too shape with Albert Vail coming from Chicago. That year members of this class signed a letter to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. The level of activity declined when Hyde moved from Topeka, but Rose Hilty and some other maintained their interest, she writing to Auntie Victoria.

in 1933, when Orcella Rexford came to Topeka to lecture, which resulted in a renewal of Bahá’í activites, some of those individuals visited Rose Hilty who was elderly and infirm at the time. She died shortly after this interview. Notes from that interview formed the basis of Topeka Bahá’í history. She is buried in the Topeka Cemetery with her husband and one of their children.

See also

• HILTY, Rose - bahai-library.com