Get to know Sarah Jane Farmer, An Early Baha’i 1847-1916
Founder of Green Acre Baha’i School
I am Sarah Jane Farmer.
From the beginning of my life, I was raised to devote my energies to serve my fellow human beings. Inspired by my father, who was an inventor, and my mother, who was a philanthropist, I dedicated my life to promoting universal peace and brotherhood.
In 1890, I joined four businessmen to open a hotel in Eliot, Maine, later named Green Acre by one of the poets who stayed there.
Two years later, I had a vision of a school that offered conferences on progressive subjects in sciences, arts and religion, open to all races and creeds. This vision became the future of Green Acre.
In 1894 I raised the world’s first known peace flag and dedicated Green Acre to the ideals of peace and religious unity; Thus began the Green Acre Conferences which brought together leading writers, educators, philosophers, artists and activists.
When first I heard of the Bahá’í Faith at the Parliament of Religions, I added a quotation from Bahá’u’lláh in the 1899 Green Acre program.
In 1900, during a time of great personal anguish, I traveled to Palestine where I had the bounty of meeting Abdu’l-Bahá. There, I became devoted to the Bahá’í Faith and its teachings on the oneness of humanity, the necessity and inevitability of world peace, and the oneness of religion.
This new religion supported all of the ideals of Green Acre, so I brought it home and supplemented the lectures with teachings and principles of the Bahá’í Faith. From 1900 to 1909, Green Acre provided a focal center for the development of the early Bahá’í community. It brought me great joy to offer Green Acre as a center to foster Bahá’í ideals like the oneness of humankind, world peace, race unity, and the equality of women and men.
In 1905 I heard that the signing of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty was to take place at the Portsmouth Shipyard. This treaty was to put an end to the brutal Russo-Japanese war. I took a chance and invited the American, Russian, and Japanese delegation to a special celebration at Greenacre. The Japanese delegation accepted and the Japanese minister and I addressed the conference on the subject of peace. I was so excited about the end to this war, that I managed to obtain a pass to the shipyard, so I could witness the signing of the treaty.
My school became blessed when ‘Abdu’l-Bahá visited it in 1912 conferring upon Green Acre another unique distinction as the only school imbued with the spirit of His presence.
If you visit Greenacre today, you will see my vision in action, and you will read these heartfelt words: “It has been our privilege to stand with open door, calling to all who hunger and thirst for the abundant life to come and be assured that it is possible to find it now.”