Chronology of the Bahá'í Faith in Canada

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Date 1941-0, ascending — sort newest first

date event tags firsts refs
1941 (In the year) Long-time Alberta resident Mabel Pine moved to Edmonton from Vermilion. [OBCC:217; Edmonton Bahá'í History]
  • She had first arrived in Edmonton in 1912 where she studied to become a nurse. Some time after graduation she moved to BC where she accepted the Faith.
  • In 1925 she returned to AB where she spent the rest of her life promoting the Faith. [The Distance Traversed a presentation by Bev Knowlton and Joan Young 2022]
    		•  Mabel Pine; Vermillion, AB; Edmonton, AB
    1941 10 Jan Emeric Sala spoke at the Marlborough Hotel again. The chair-person of that meeting was Beth Brooks, who became three months later on April 20, 1942, the seventh local believer. Her declaration was just in time to form the first Local Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Winnipeg. [Bloodworth, Grains of Wheat p18] Emeric Sala; Winnipeg, MB
    1941 8 Apr The passing of Urbain Joseph Ledoux (b. August 13, 1874 in Ste Hélène de Bagot, Quebec). He was buried in Saint Joseph's Cemetery Biddeford, Maine.
  • He is believed to be the third French-Canadian to become a Bahá'í outside of Canada. [OCBB94]
  • He gave an address to the National Convention at the Hotel McAlpine on the 28th of April, 1919 entitled The Oneness of the World of Humanity. [SoW Vol 10 May 17, 1919 No 4 p58] "This talk 'sounded so French-Canadian' that later francophone believers could still be moved to tears in reading its text." [OCBB94]
  • He received widespread publicity for his opening of bread lines in New York (The Stepping Stone) and for "auctions" of the jobless to employers in New York and Boston during the Depression of 1921. He was received by President Warren Harding shortly after arriving in Washington, D.C. in September 1921. Ledoux spent a little over three months in Washington, D.C. 1921-22 campaigning for a public works program funded by a tax on companies that made excessive war profits during World War I. His tactics included setting up a hotel housing the unemployed on Pennsylvania Avenue, an auction of the jobless, speaking before the unemployment conference, calling for the arrest of international arms conference delegates. He walked around the city carrying a white umbrella, a lighted lantern and a Bible or a copy of the Sermon on the Mount saying he was like Diogenes searching for an honest man.
  • Urbain Ledoux is shown in Boston in 1921 auctioning off an unemployed man. He conducted these auctions in New York and Boston in order to garner publicity for the plight of the unemployed and to find work for the jobless. He called himself "Mr. Zero" because he said he didn't want any publicity for himself.
  • "Mr. Zero" returned to Washington in 1932 with the Bonus Expeditionary Force, leading an unauthorized march on the White House July 16, 1932 that resulted in his arrest along with two others. The march frightened President Herbert Hoover who set in motion the eviction of the bonus marchers from the city—a move that backfired on Hoover and helped to cement his reputation as someone uncaring about the plight of the nation's unemployed. Photos.
  • Find a grave.
  • His obituary in the New York Times April 10th 1941.
  • He is reported to have "rescued" 85 year-old Sarah Farmer in Portsmouth where she was being held in a sanatorium against her will. [Boston Post 4 August 1916]
  • See a story from Ephemeral New York.
  • There is a short description of Urbain LeDoux in He Loved and Served: The Story of Curtis Kelsey p 33-34.
    		•  Urbain Ledoux (Mr Zero); Social action; Ste Helene de Bagot, QC; New York, USA; Boston, MA; Washington, DC
    1941 May Lulu Barr pioneered to Saskatoon from Hamilton where she had learned of the Faith from Mabel Rice-Wray Ives two years earlier in May 1939. She stayed for two years with no apparent results. [OBCC186] Lulu Barr; Mabel Rice-Wray Ives; Hamilton, ON; Saskatoon, SK
    1941 Jun Dorothy Sheets became the first Bahá'í to enroll in Calgary, AB. [OBCC184] Dorothy Sheets; Calgary, AB first Bahá'í to enroll in Calgary, AB.
    1941 20 Jun The passing of Howard Colby Ives (b. 11 Oct 1867, Brooklyn, New York, d. Pulaski County, Arkansas, USA). He was buried in Pinecrest Memorial Park and Garden Mausoleum, Alexander, Saline County, Arkansas. [BW9p608-613; Find a grave]
  • He and his wife Mabel spent nearly the last twenty years of his life as itinerant teachers. (Often teamed up with the Obers and the McKays) For example they came to Toronto in November of 1938 and stayed for about 10 months. During that time Mabel gave more than 150 lectures in Toronto and about 70 in Hamilton, Toronto's expansion goal. Howard, who was had had heart problems and who was rapidly losing for sight and hearing at the time, complemented her abilities by doing personal deepening with receptive souls. [TMLF62-67, SEBW139-154]

    Some of his works were:

    • The Ocean of His Utterances Unpublished study course in the Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh using the books of Bahá'u'lláh, Abdu'l‑Baha, and Shoghi Effendi, compiled and with commentary by Ives. Not yet formatted.
    • Portals to Freedom (1937) A collection of anecdotes and history of Abdu'l-Baha's travels to the United States, as told by one observer. [BEL7.1313 to 7.1320]
    • The Song Celestial (1938) A mystical book about Mr. Ives' search for God, in which a seeker asks God various questions, and God responds. [BEL7.1321-1322]
  • Also see Mother's Stories: Recollections of Abdu'l-Baha by Muriel Ives Barrow Newhall (Daughter of Howard and Mabel Ives)
    		•  Howard Colby Ives; In Memoriam; Travel Teachers; Mabel Rice-Wray Ives; Toronto, ON; Hamilton, ON
    1941 28 Jun - 2 Jul First summer School in Canada in Montreal was held in three different homes, the Schopflochers', the Salas' and the Maxwells'. Reports of the number of people attending vary from 17 to 25 to 30. Those attending were from Montreal, St. Lambert, Moncton, Hamilton, Toronto, (among them a new believer named John Robarts), Ottawa Rouyn, and Winnipeg. Three non-Bahá'ís also attended and enrolled shortly thereafter.

    The varied program provided daily talks and discussions based on the outline 'Deepening the Spiritual Life'; study of the first part of 'The Promised Day Is Come' (led by Miss Winnifred Harvey); separate talks on 'Bahá'í Administration' (Siegfried Schopflocher, Ragnar Mattson, and Lou Boudler); 'Bahá'í Attitude towards Christianity' (Mrs. Agnes King); and 'Post-War Reconstruction' (John De Mille). Lorol Schopflocher contributed an account of her journeys to Central America and the British West Indies, and Emeric and Rosemary Sala gave us stories of their experiences in Venezuela and Columbia. [OBCC268; BW9:28; TG84; BN No 149 December 1941 p5]

    		Summer schools; Winnifred Harvey; Siegfried Schopflocher; Ragnar Mattson; Lou Boudler; Agnes King; John De Mille; Lorol Schopflocher; Emeric Sala; Rosemary Sala; John Robarts; Montreal, QC First summer School in Canada in Montreal
    1941 (Summer) The war years brought an unexpected development in the Bahá'í community in Canada. Government restrictions on foreign currency exchange reduced the attendance by Canadian Bahá'ís at the Green Acre and Geyserville summer schools in the United States. After the 1941 National Convention, Rowland Estall was charged with the start—up of Bahá'í summer schools and conferences in Canada. With the financial help of Siegfried Schopfiocher, the first such gathering took place in Montreal from late June to early July of that year. A month later the Ontario Bahá'ís hosted a summer school at Rice Lake, and a summer session took place in Vernon, British Colombia. From then on summer schools became a regular feature of Canadian Bahá'í life. [BWM48-49] Summer schools; Montreal, QC; Rice Lake, ON; Vernon, BC
    1941 3 - 9 Aug The Spiritual Assembly of Toronto held it first annual Ontario summer school at Glen Lynden Farm, Rice Lake. 29 attended. The general theme was "Our Colossal Responsibility." They were blessed by a cablegram from Shoghi Effendi saying that he was delighted, and praying for success of the Ontario Summer Session. [TG84; BN No 149 December 1941 p6; OBCC164,268]

    See photo at Worldwide Community of Bahá'u'lláh]

    		 Summer schools; Rice Lake, ON 1st summer school in ON
    1941 29 - 31 Aug First Summer School in Vernon, BC. Less than 20 attended. [OBBC 164,268] Summer schools; Vernon, BC First Summer School in Vernon, BC

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