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Mary Arch (1870-1937): Early Believer in Durham, NC

Mary Arch (1870-1937) was the first Bahá’í known to have accepted the Faith in Durham, North Carolina.

At the 1935 national Bahá’í convention, delegates consulting about race amity recommended a survey of "racial, religious, and ethnic backgrounds of American Bahá’ís."

Mary Arch was part of the Washington, D.C., Bahá’í community at that time. Individual believers who were known to local spiritual assemblies and groups were asked to fill out a Bahá’í Historical Record Card. By 1937, the survey produced an early, if incomplete, picture of the national community. Among the total 1,183 respondents, 99 believers identified themselves as black. Among those 99, five had learned of the faith in the South. And of those five respondents, one—Mary Arch—reported finding the faith in Durham.

On her card, Mary noted that she had been born September 13, 1870, in Orange County, North Carolina, and accepted the Faith in January 1923 in nearby Durham. She described herself as being of "African" origin, "Colored," "Brown," married, and a former Baptist. She did not add details explaining how she found the faith. However, letters (included below) written to fellow Bahá’í Leonore Barnitz during her Washington years may help to convey the depth of her belief and of her connection to the community.[Insert image]

Early Years

Mary was the daughter of Rosa Strayhorn, an Orange County, N.C., woman born into slavery in 1845. Her father is unknown. A property tax record of 1860 indicates that "Rose" and her apparent sister Charity, brother Sandy, and mother Patsy were among family members given as property to various heirs of the John Strayhorn estate. Mary may have spent childhood years in a large household, headed by her grandparents, that had reunited formerly enslaved family members. Unlike her mother, Mary attended school and learned to read and write.

On September 28, 1892, a Mary Strayhorn, 22, and John Martin, 21, were married in Orange County by Baptist minister A. W. Atkins. On August 12, 1895, Mary's eldest son (Willis) Sherwood L. Martin was born. In 189X and 1899, respectively, son Lee and daughter Augusta were born to Mary and her apparent second husband surnamed Green (first name unknown, but described in 1917 as "now dead").

Among the events of that time that significantly affected the North Carolina black community was the Spanish American War. It is unknown if anyone from Mary's family volunteered, but it seems likely that she knew or knew of fellow black residents who did.

By 1900, Mary and her three children were part of her mother's household, living on a rented farm property with Mary's sister Gatsey, 21, and brothers Adolphus and William. Mary and Rosa both worked as washer women. Nearby (in the same census district, and listed on adjacent lines of the census report) was the farm owned by Stephen Archer, Jr. (of a family described more often in later records as Arch). Stephen was descended from a freeborn black family. Living with him were his two unmarried sisters, his nephew Toma (Thomas Croker), and his own 23-year-old son Calvin (known in later records as Henry Calvin Arch, son of Nancy Shaw).

By the time Mary was 38, she and Calvin Arch had settled in to the marriage that would last the rest of their lives The 1910 census found the family on rented farmland along Hillsboro & Durham Road in Eno Township, Orange County. The household included Sherwood, 16; Lee, 13; Augusta, 11; Donell (Henry Donald) Arch, 5; Rosenelth (Rose) Arch, 3: and Elizabeth (Lizzie) Arch, 1. Cousin Thomas Croker, then XX, also lived there. The children all attended school and learned to read and write. It seems likely that the family attended nearby Piney Grove Missionary Baptist Church, founded in 1888 and still located in Hillsborough today . Piney Grove was among the many new churches created in the area's black community after the end of the Civil War, and both Calvin and his aunt Kate were buried in its cemetery

Although the Arch homestead was on farmland, it lay close to urban development taking place in Durham while the children were growing up. If one started from the Orange County seat of Hillsborough, Eno Township lay to the east, bordering Durham. Two main rural roads ran east through the township. In the northeastern direction, St. Mary's Road led toward old plantation properties where more than 900 slaves had once labored. In a more southeastern direction ran Hillsboro & Durham Road, roughly parallel to railroad lines that included a stop at nearby University Station. In some places, their land bordered the property of tobacco and hydroelectric magnate B. N. Duke. This placed their family close to Durham's tobacco mills and a growing business center including the entrepreneurial black business district of Hayti ("Black Wall Street").

Mary's mother, Rosa, was granted some property as recorded in a property deed of August 8, 1910 . In 1914, Calvin and Mary also purchased land. The family experienced significant life events during World War I: In 1917, Augusta married C. Walter Edwards of Orange County. On April 2, 1918, Sherwood, employed at some point at A.W. Gary in Washington, NC--but who noted his home contact as Mary Arch, University Station, on military records--enlisted for military service. He served in the European theatre from June 10, 1918, to Feb. 24, 1919.

During these years, the Great Migration (1910-1970) was well under way, as black residents of the South moved northward for jobs in the cities and to distance themselves from the harsh realities of the Jim Crow South (including particular financial hardship for black farmers at that time). The eruption of racial violence embodied by the Red XXXX of 1919 caught the attention black communities throughout the South.

Mary and some of her family became part of the migration in 1926. Mary and Calvin visited a Washington, D.C., notary to sign paperwork on September 3, 1926, selling land at what seems to have been a much-reduced value. In 1929 they would visit the notary again to sell Mary’s quarter share of a tract of land in Orange County, left to her and her siblings by her mother Rosa. At that point, it may be that Calvin and Mary no longer owned property in North Carolina; his death certificate in Durham in 1936 indicated only RFD2, a rural farm designation.

Life as a Bahá’í

Mary's Bahá’í life began somehow in Durham in January 1923.That date falls after the earliest known visits to North Carolina by travel teachers like Louis Gregory but before a more robust round of visits and invited talks during the late 1920s, indicative of growing connections in intervening years with local black residents and organizations. In the Washington Bahá’í community, home to teachers who traveled to the South, the year 1921 had been notable for its first Race Amity Conference, carried out with like-minded groups. Efforts to repeat that accomplishment foundered in the following years but saw a burst of new energy in 1927. Gayle Morrison writes:

The year 1927 marked the beginning of a new stage of progress toward racial unity by the American Bahá’í community. Race was discussed at length and with unprecedented frankness at the Nineteenth Annual Convention held that April in Montreal. … Then a pilgrim recently returned from the Holy Land, Edwina Powell, spoke on the subject of race, as [Shoghi Effendi] had asked her to do. She reported that [he] had stressed that it was no longer enough to have meetings in public halls that were open to all races, for the homes of the Bahá’ís must be open as well. “It is our duty to recognize social equality as well as spiritual equality….” Shoghi Effendi’s message, as she sought to convey it, was that the elimination of racial prejudice was “of supreme importance at this time.

That was the same year Mary became a member of the Washington Bahá’í community, having taken up residence in the city with her daughters Rose and Lizzie, and to an extent unknown, Calvin. It does not seem that any of Mary's immediate family followed her into the faith.

In 1927 the Washington Bahá’ís also offered a series of regular public talks on Bahá’í themes, publicized in the the Evening Star and open to the public at the Playhouse on 1814 N Street NW, not far from the rooms where the Arch family stayed. In 1929, the community was part of another major interreligious peace event.

From 1927 until 1933, Mary's daughters Rose and Lizzie were roomers along with their mother in a sequence of addresses that were categorized as "Colored Housing" in the Washington city directory. Mary worked as a maid or "domestic," Rose as laundress, stenographer, and typist; and Lizzie as laundress, waitress, and clerk. Their addresses changed often and included 716 Lamont NW in 1927, 3121 11th NW in 1930, and 1003 Lamont NW in 1931, among others.

Mary likely knew the family of black Bahá’í Alice V. Ashton Green, who in 1929 married a World War I veteran, Hardie D. Green. Hardie had grown up in Durham but lived in Washington at the time of their marriage. Other black Bahá’ís in the community during those years would have included Pocahontas Pope, born in North Carolina and likely of Native American lineage, though she may have been less active in the faith in those years.

Mary's devotion to the faith, her awareness of its teachings and central figures, and her ties to the Bahá’í community are evident in letters and postcards she sent over the years to Washington Bahá’í Leonore Barnitz, which are part of the Leonore Barnitz Papers in the Bahá’í National Archives.

A Christmas postcard signed "from a Bahá’í friend on His path" was mailed to Leonore from 1338-13th St. City by Mary (date stamp unclear). During a span of years when Guardian of the Faith, Shoghi Effendi, urged the white Bahá’ís to invite black Bahá’ís into their own homes as well as to the integrated public gatherings they had begun, it seems Mary had been invited to Leonore's home. The following letter of May [or August] 1929 indicates her connectedness to the community, the warmth of her friendship with Leonore, her awareness of activities, and an eagerness to learn more about the faith and to go on pilgrimage to the Holy Land:

Miss Bonet Dear friend yours to hand contents notice yes with Pleasure I will Be glad of the Pamplets and all the Litature you have to help this poor and week Servent of his to Better understand the Teachings

Dear sister I don’t think I will Be able to get over to your Place Sunday after meeting I wish I could would be glad to tell you just how I feel about the Cause and my hearts Desires for Sacrifice that is my Daily Praer and meditation I say for me oh I hope to here from the Holy land two Well your little Prear that was inclosed was Just the thing that my heart Desires I hope to Be able to commit it to memory soon Will find inclosed Postage asking you Please mail them out to me next week are as soon as you get time Please don’t fail to Suplicate the Master in my Behalves of Being a faithful Servent Sorry I could not get out to the feast I will Close Love to your mother and you also I Remain as Ever yours in his Service Mary Arch

My ad is 3121 – 11 – St NW City

Later that year she wrote again, expressing her wish to carry the message of the Faith, and wondering if anyone had yet communicated to the Holy Land about her wish to visit there:

Miss Bonet

9/16-29 3121 11 St City

Miss Bonet

Dear friend while I was reading some of the words of the Master seems that you rested on my mind So I will write you a few words of love. I feel your Prayers are making me strong and I feel like at times that I just want to lay down everything and go out and carry the message. I feel like my time will soon Be here for me to go on my journey. Pray for me I am trying all I know to sever myself from all Save God the little Prayer I received in your letter has done me so much good I want to get myself just like it says Also the Master says he that rises to assist this Cause shall be Blessed. I am Praying for complete sacrifice from all else save God. You said in your letter you hope I would hear from the Holy Land some day has any of the friend [written to Shoghi Effendi about] my faith and Desires to carry the message. I feel like I want to write him. But if the friends has wrote him I will wait and see what he says. Blessed is those who wait on the Lord. I will close. Hope to hear from you again soon with love to all. And the Abha Greetings as ever in his Path

Mary Arch

Meanwhile, back in North Carolina, Augusta's family had grown by 1930 to include Charlie, Henry, Irine, Virginia, and Lucelle. The family lived in Chapel Hill while Walt worked cleaning fraternity houses at the University of North Carolina.

In a 1934 letter, Mary suggested that eye problems made it difficult for her to read. Since she is able to write the letter, and her earlier letters attest to her reading of the writings, she may here have been explaining a reluctance to read aloud at gatherings. (The condition does not seem to have kept her from working, as City Directories continued to list her as employed as a maid.) Finding that her own words could not describe the experience of finding the faith, she relied on the Bible, conveying the experience in mystical terms that may reflect her missionary Baptist background:

1328 Corcoran St NW

April 11,1934 City

Miss Barnitz

Dear Bahai Sister while thinking of you this a.m. I thought I would drop you a line and So I am well hope you are also [T]his I am writing you to tell you why I don’t read not that I can’t read but my eye is so weak and the Dr says it contains both sights and sight at night makes one to see and the other one interupts So I am unable to see the letters plain. I was afraid you would not understand in the day I can see fine now you can see from this why I don’t attempt to read my heart is willing to do anything for the upbuilding of the Bahai Cause. I want to give you a little sketch of my spiritual birth you will find this in (over)

2/ Isaiah 6ch and 6vs then flew one of the Seraphims unto me having a live coal in hand which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar

7 vs

and he laid it upon my mouth and said Lo this hath touched thy lips and thine iniquity is taken away and they sins purged

Read from the Bible and you can Better understand it I wish I could be able to tell you my experiences in becoming a Bahai and I ask your prayers that I may prove faithful to the Cause of God. Since that happened to me I only talk when the Spirit come in and burns out all self and take possession and the words that issues from my mouth then I know that it is true because it is from the Holy Spirit I am only a vail for the Spirit.

Well I will close this But my heart is not closed I am yours in his Service

Mrs. M. Arch

Later Years

In January of 1936, Mary wrote to Leonore Barnitz, telling about a dream she had about teaching the faith:

Received Jan 7th 1936

To Leone Baritz 527 Morton St NW City

Dear Friend Yours Rec found me well hope you are family are well and Had a Happy Christmas also hope you all a prosperous new year I want to thank you kindly for the nice prayer you sent me it seems to reach a tender place in my heart I read it most every day and concentrate on those blessed words revealed by the master also I want to share with you a vision I had New Years Night.

2 Between 12 and one oclock I was in a strange country and all around me was people of all colors and nationalities and I was giving the mesage to them Later all disapeared and left me all alone. So I waited a few minutes and a few of them came back asking me to please tell them of the message and I did so and when I woke I was so happy that I had been able to meet someone that really wanted to hear the message. So I am asking your prayers that I may be strong and obedient to the command of God. Excuse bad spelling

yours in his Service Mary Arch

The next month, Calvin died at Lincoln Hospital, a hospital for black people in Durham. According to the death certificate, Calvin had not worked in his occupation as laborer for three years when, on Feb. 6, 1936, he was hospitalized with gangrene of both feet (noted as a complication from frostbite damage). Augusta, noted as Gussie Edwards, is listed as “informant” on his behalf. The certificate described his current address only by a rural mail delivery number, RFD2.

Mary herself passed away in Washington the next year, at age 67 after a brief illness. Her ardent wish to visit the Holy Land had apparently never come to fruition. The Evening Star published her obituary on Sept. 19, 1937:

Departed this life Thursday, September 16, 1937, after a brief illness, MARY C. ARCH, the beloved wife of the late Henry Arch. She leaves to mourn their loss three daughters, four sons, one brother and one sister. Remains resting with L. E. Murray & Son, 12th and V sts. n. w. Funeral Monday, September 20, at 1 p.m. Interment in Woodlawn Cemetery.

In a letter written the next month, the Washington Bahai community reported her passing to the National Spiritual Assembly, who in turn shared an In Memoriam item in the national publication, Bahá’í News.

The Local Spiritual Assembly regrects to inform you that on Thursday, September 16[,1937], Mrs. Mary Arch departed this world for the Abha Kingdom. She was much beloved by the friends here. It is suggested that an announcement be carried in the 'In Memoriam' column of the the next number of Bahá’í News. In His Service, George D. Miller, Secretary

Add excerpt or Note

The city-to-city connections that Calvin and Mary had created in the family continued after their passing. Some of their children stayed in the South, while others stayed in Washington. The latter included Henry Donald (Donell) Arch and at least one of his sisters. At 38, Donell had followed in Sherwood’s footsteps by enlisting for military service, this time for World War II. On the enlistment records he listed Dupont Laundry Company as his employer and listed a sister in the city as someone who would always know where to find him.

Henry Donald Arch was registered for the draft on February 16, 1942, at the time of World War II (birthdate Jan. 22, 1904), then living at 1545 Columbia St. NW in Washington, DC. One of his sisters must have remained in DC, too, at 1443 T NW, as Donell referred the military to his sister there as someone who would always know where he was. At the time Donnell was working at Dupont Laundry Company. [Hardie Green’s passing maybe include as a footnote as he was married to a Bahai]

History of the Faith in Durham Since That Time

Since Mary had learned of the faith in 1923, many visits had been made by traveling teachers and the roots had taken hold among families across the state.

During September [1928], Louis Gregory traveled southward, stopping to lecture for the New York Assembly, Civic Club, Riverton, N. J., Philadelphia Assembly, Minor Normal School, Washington, D. C., Washington Assembly, and thence to Durham, N. C., where 540 High School students heard an address on “The Meaning of Bahá’i (Light)”. Other groups addressed by Mr. Gregory at Durham were Forum of North Carolina, Mutual Life Insurance Company, White Rock Baptist Church and Inter-Denominational Ministers’ Alliance. This latter address received powerful endorsement by two ministers already attracted. The faculty and students of North Carolina College for Negroes, an institution visited by Mr. Gregory on his first teaching journey to the South eighteen years ago, heard the Message on October 8. Lack of space prevents more than a brief summary of the further services rendered during recent months by this devoted servant of Bahá’u’lláh. The following groups were visited during October, November and December, 1928; Christian College, Franklynton, N. C., New Hope Baptist Association, The Y.M.C.A., Y.W.C.A., Shaw University, Inter-Denominational Ministers’ Union, Public School, St. Augustine College, Oberlin Public School, and Washington High School, Raleigh, N.C. Mr. Gregory had the pleasure of meeting several people who recalled the Bahá’i address delivered by Mrs. Keith Ransom-Kehler at the State Colored Teachers’ Association two years ago.

And, as described on the current Triangle Baha'i website:

From its earliest days in North Carolina, the Bahá’í Faith has appealed to the diverse peoples in the state, just as it has to people across the country and the world. Throughout the Faith’s long history in North Carolina, Bahá’ís have repeatedly crossed the color line, as evidenced by family histories and community building from Wilmington to Asheville.

Although there were isolated Bahá’ís in various communities in the 1940s, a notable event occurred in 1955 when a prominent Bahá’í (a North Carolina native who had been living in Boston) spoke at an integrated meeting in a white couple’s home in Durham.

The Local Spiritual Assembly of Raleigh was formed first in 1957, followed by Durham in 1962. The Durham Bahá’í Community held a Race Amity Day in the summer of 1964, highlighting “race unity” as the most challenging issue facing America, and the community continues to observe this as Race Unity Day every year. Chapel Hill followed by organizing an Assembly in 1971.

A Bahá’í club was created on the campus of North Carolina Central University in Durham in 1964, followed by clubs on other campuses in the area

With Baha'i centers already established in Durham, Raleigh, and Efland, the Triangle area also became home in 2022 to a first-of-its-kind regional Baha'i institute, located about 12 miles from the University Station area where Mary and Calvin raised their family.

Research into the early spread of the Faith in North Carolina is continuing.

Notes

ODB 36/287 John Strayhorn estate by commissioners to Susan Strayhorn & Sidney G Strayhorn & Willie N Strayhorn & Malitha Ann Borland & D G Strayhorn & Egbert H Strayhorn, 28 Aug 1860, No 1 to Susan Strayhorn, slaves Patsy, Clara & Isaac; No 2 to Sidney G Strayhorn, slave Mary; No 3 to Willie N Strayhorn, slave Mary & Henry; No 4 to Malitha Ann Borland, slaves Fanny, Dilcy & Sandy; No 5 to D G Strayhorn, Negro March Blacksmith; No 6 to Egbert H strayhorn, slaves Rose & Charity.

Mary’s father is unknown (as described both on her marriage certificate of 1909 and on the 1901 marriage certificate of her younger sister, Gatsey).

When the war effort ramped up in 1917, more able bodied men were sent off to Europe to fight leaving their industrial jobs vacant. The labor supply was further strained with a decline in immigration from Europe and standing bans on peoples of color from other parts of the world. All of this afforded the opportunity for the Black population to be the labor supply in non-agricultural industries.

Names are jotted on the back and may indicate others in the community at that time? May list the people in a photo? Josephine Pattison, Mrs. Beaver and Mrs. Smith; dove McCeney - photogrpahs; Grene Pattern Haywood; Margit (Marguerite Sears?); Laura Dreyfus-Barney; Minever and …others; 1715 11 Nov 9 8 o’clock (address and time of an event)

Mary's earlier marriage to a Green could indicate some earlier connection in North Carolina. However, there were many Greens among black families in the area. Without knowing the full name and family connections of Mary's second husband--and given the cloudiness surrounding names and relationships of former slaves and their descendants in the public records of that time--it has been difficult to ascertain whether she and Hardie knew one another during their earlier years in North Carolina.

Henry Donald Arch was registered for the draft on February 16, 1942, at the time of World War II (birthdate Jan. 22, 1904), then living at 1545 Columbia St. NW in Washington, DC. One of his sisters must have remained in DC, too, at 1443 T NW, as Donell referred the military to his sister there as someone who would always know where he was. At the time Donnell was working at Dupont Laundry Company. [Hardie Green’s passing maybe include as a footnote as he was married to a Bahai]