# Greenacre on the Piscataqua

*Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-20 — 1 clipping.*

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> Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Anna Josephine Ingersoll, Greenacre on the Piscataqua, New York: Allegiance Publishing Company, 1900, bahai-library.com.
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> 
> r]^l^^       OtC   13 ^^^'
> 
> GREENACRE
> X
> ON THE
> PISCATAQUA.
> 
> ANNA JOSEPHINE INGERSOLL.
> 
> NEW YORK:
> THE ALLIANCE PUBLISHING COMPANY,
> "LIFE" BUILDING.
> 
> 87857
> Library of Conqrose
> Twti Copies Received
> 
> DEC      13 1900
> Copynght entry
> 
> No
> 
> SECOND COPY
> Odiv«red to
> 
> OHD£R DIVISION
> DEC       171900
> 
> Copyright, 1900,
> by
> Anna Josephink Ingersoll.
> A GLIMPSE OF GREENACRE.
> GREENACRE ON THE PISCATAQUA.
> 
> the traveler speeding tlirough
> TONew  England on the Eastern
> Division of     the        Boston & Maine
> Railroad there        is    no hint of any
> special attraction         at the plain       lit-
> 
> tle   station   of   Eliot.       A   drive    of
> three miles takes          you past      thrifty
> homes, with meadows               reaching to
> the    broad, swift         Piscataqua,     and
> through     stretches       of   dense   woods
> down to the river           bank, wrhere      al-
> 
> most at the entrance to Long Reach
> Bay stands      the Greenacre Inn.             It
> 
> isa quiet spot, with gently sloping
> banks, and off to the west lies a long
> meadow with its fringe of apple trees
> and birches reflected in the waters of
> the bay. There is a sense of space and
> distance,   a limitless expanse of sky,
> a broad sweep of river and bay with
> the distant low-lying banks, and far
> beyond, ever changing in hue against
> the sunset sky, range the foothills
> of the White Mountains.           With the
> going     down    of the sun      a golden
> bridge spans the waters glowing and
> radiant at our feet.
> Once there was a desperate strug-
> gle here;    men fought for their lives,
> while women and children hurried for
> shelter over the fields to the garrison
> house with its high stockade.         There
> are yet signs to be seen of this old
> house, and in the fields         about the
> plough has turned up       many an ar-
> row-head.      As late as 1747 the men
> of this     district   carried firearms   to
> church.
> Down in the hollow below the Inn
> where the apple         trees   and locusts
> bloom, there was a large ship-yard
> in the fifties, where the keel of many
> a good ship was         laid.   The fleetest
> sailing vessel of her day.       The Night-
> ingale,   built   to    carry Jenny Lind
> Goldsmith back to Sweden, floated
> out on the tide from these cool, green
> shores.  She never fulfilled her pur-
> pose, and years after was captured
> by the government with a cargo of
> wretched human beings bound for the
> slave market.
> The EHot of to-day is a quiet farm-
> ing town of 1,500 inhabitants, lying
> for six miles along the         banks of the
> beautiful Piscataqua, just over the
> Maine border       line,     four miles from
> Portsmouth, New Hampshire. There
> are three or four churches, a grocery
> store or two,     and one hotel. Green-
> acre Inn,    built ten years ago by a
> company of enterprising Eliot peo-
> ple. The Inn, a small house holding
> about one hundred people, was for a
> few years a resort for Bostonians.
> Here John Greenleaf Whittier came,
> drawing about him a circle of friends.
> In      1893,   that       wonderful    year,
> when, through the World's                Parlia-
> ment of Religions, men were brought
> to a recognition of the fundamental
> points of contact in the religions of
> the world,      Miss Sarah     J.   Farmer,
> only daughter of Moses G. Farmer,
> the inventor, conceived the idea of
> continuing at Eliot, Maine, her birth-
> place, the     movement inaugurated at
> Chicago She determined to form a cen-
> .
> 
> tre at the Greenacre Inn, where think-
> ing   men and women, reaching out
> to help their fellows through means
> tried and untried, might find an audi-
> ence recognizing not        alone revealed
> truth, but truth in the process of
> revelation.      It   was   believed     that
> for those of different faiths, different
> nationalities, different     training,    the
> points     of contact might be found,
> the great underlying principles        — the
> oneness of truth, the brotherhood of
> man   ;   that to the individual this spot
> might mean the opening door to free-
> dom, the tearing down of walls of
> prejudice and superstition. The teach-
> ers and lecturers on this broad plat-
> THE GREAT TENT.
> form were to give their services with-
> out remuneration. There was no en-
> dowment    fund, and the expense of
> their transportation and entertain-
> ment was met through voluntary
> contributions.  Where else in the
> world's history do we find such an-
> other cornerstone?
> In July, 1894, Greenacre Inn    was
> opened to guests under Miss Farmer's
> management. Less expensive accom-
> modations were to be had in the farm
> houses about.      An encampment    of
> 
> tents pitched on the river bank, over
> in the meadow where the old garrison
> house stood, gave those desiring it
> the freedom of open-air life. Although
> six miles from the sea, the tide rises
> high at Eliot, and the opportunities
> for salt-water bathing are fine.
> The great lecture tent seating three
> hundred was raised just beyond the
> stone wall of the meadow. The after-
> noon of the third day of July had
> been appointed for the opening exer-
> ;
> 
> cises of the Greenacre Lecture Course,
> 
> and only a few had gathered.           Mrs.
> Ole Bull, of Cambridge, delivered the
> address of welcome.         At the close of
> the exercises we stood with heads un-
> covered to raise the stars and stripes.
> For days the sky had been dark and
> lowering, but as we sang ''The Bat-
> tle   Hymn of the Republic," the clouds
> parted a little and a flood of sunshine
> illuminated the scene.        It was   with
> every man's hand to the rope that
> the flag of our country went up, and
> under it there floated for the first
> time over these green fields a white
> flag with the legend *' Peace " upon it.
> The first year brought such men
> as Henry Wood, Frank B. Sanborn,
> Edward Everett Hale, O. C. Dolbear,
> Lewis G. Janes, Ralph Waldo Trine,
> Vivekananda, W. J. Colville and oth-
> ers, and they have continued to come
> 
> such    women    as       Ursula   Gestefeld,
> 
> Helen Van-Anderson, Josephine Locke,
> Abby Morton Diaz.            The programs
> JPPIPJ
> of the succeeding years have added
> many names of value—J. Vance Che-
> ney, John Angus MacYannel, William
> Norman Guthrie, John S. Clark, S. T.
> Rorer, Edna D. Cheney, William Ord-
> way Partridge, Samuel Walter Foss,
> Carroll D. Wright, Samuel Richard
> Fuller, MaryA.LivermorejEmily Per-
> kins Stetson, Elizabeth Boynton Har-
> bert, Edwin Elwell, Lucia Ames Mead,
> Helen M. Cole, Kate Tannett Woods,
> Edwin Markham, George D. Herron,
> Julia Osgood, Edward S. Morse, Wil-
> liam Lloyd Garrison, W. T. Harris,
> H. W. Stetson,        Lyman   C.   Newell,
> Egbert Morse Chesley, Sara G. Far-
> well, Thomas Ryan, Mary Lowe Dick-
> erson,   John   J.   Enneking, Frederick
> Reed, Filmore Moore, Mary Proctor,
> Mitchell Tyng, Ellen Crosby, Helen
> Weil, Josiah     Strong,   Henry Hoyt
> Moore, W. H. Tolman, Thomas Van
> Ness, T. Yanaguchi, Ethel Puffer,
> Rachel Foster Avery, John Bowles,
> Benjamin F. Trueblood, Neal Dow,
> J.   T. Trowbridge, Alfred Norton, El-
> len A. Richardson,     Arthur Dow, Ly-
> sander Dickerman, Sadie American,
> Lilian Whiting, Ernest F. Fenollosa,
> Theodore F. Wright, C. A. L. Tot-
> H. Hindobro, Amanda
> ten, Caroline
> Deyo.
> A wonderful sifting      process has
> been going on through these years,
> working silently for the most part,
> eliminating the      man with the per-
> sonal ''ism," the ''fad," the so-called
> crank, and sometimes finding, in the
> abundance of what the world calls
> chaff, the kernel of wheat.
> 
> Since the first season the order of
> the day has been much the same.           At
> nine    o'clock devotional    exercises in
> the lecture tent, and then the leisurely
> trooping up over the         hills   to   the
> Lysekloster pines, where, in pleasant
> weather, the platform of the morning
> is   a carpet of pine needles under a
> great pine   tree.   On rainy days, the
> morning lectures are given under a
> i
> SWAMI'S PINE.
> tent in the pines,      and the afternoon
> lectures   during the last few years
> have been given in the new lecture
> hall, The Eirenion; but on bright
> days ^sre listen to music and the lec-
> ture of the day in the great tent, with
> its sides ^de open to the river, and
> 
> with all the life and freedom of the
> summer about. At sunset there is a
> quiet hour in the tent, and once or
> twice a v^eek a musical program. The
> music school, under the direction of
> Miss Mary H. Burnham, has been
> an important factor in the Greenacre
> work.
> In 1896 the general lecture course
> was divided      into   conferences begin-
> ning Sunday afternoon and continu-
> ing one week, and a Nature School
> out in the woods and fields was
> formed for the children, under Daniel
> Batchellor and Melvin G. Dodge.        In
> this    same   year,    a school of com-
> parative religions      was founded un-
> der the directorship of Doctor Lewis
> G. Janes, director of the     Cambridge
> Conferences.
> This school has been one of the
> strongest features of the Greenacre
> Lecture Course.     The sessions have
> been held during August under the
> pines.  The motive has been compara-
> tive study  and never propagation of
> doctrine. During the four years Lewis
> G. Janes, director of the school, has
> given a number of valuable lectures
> upon various      subjects.   This   last
> summer's work held nothing more
> broadly helpful and suggestive than
> Dr. Janes's course upon social science
> and applied          The Swamis
> religion.
> 
> Yivekananda, Saradananda and Ab-
> hedananda have in turn expounded
> the profound philosophy of the Ve-
> danta.
> The history,    ethics   and theology
> of the   Talmud were presented by
> Rabbi Joseph Silverman; the teach-
> ing of Jesus by Jean du Buy, and the
> religion and philosophy of the Jains
> 'm
> by Virchand R. Gandhi;          Nathaniel
> Schmidt of Cornell University gave
> this year an exceptionally interesting
> course on ancient         Hebrew philoso-
> phers.     A brilliantly    dramatic pre-
> sentation of the sacred and religious
> customs     in   Mohammedan countries
> was     given    by the Syrian Shehadi
> Abd-Allah Shehadi.        From the stand-
> point of the Christianized Hindu, T.
> B. Pandian described the social condi-
> tions and missionary work in India.
> Lack of space alone forbids the men-
> tion of many other valuable contribu-
> tions to this program.        The discus-
> sions after the lectures are carried on
> with a calm, judicial temper, a cour-
> tesy,    a respect for the opinions of
> others, an evident desire for Truth
> ^'
> 
> and not for victory," that cannot fail
> to make them educational.
> As we glance over the programs of
> the years Ave find Edward Griggs on
> ''The Art of Living," Smith Baker's
> morning classes on developmental
> psychology with their wonderful les-
> sons in life, W. S. Tomlin's talks on
> music, E. P. Powell on *'The Evolu-
> tion of a Home," Hezekiah Butter-
> worth on **The Art of Story Tell-
> ing." Francis B. Hornbrook talks on
> Browning, B. O. Flower on Marcus
> Aurelius and Epictetus,W. D.Howells
> reads his    *'Etruria,"   Annie Besant
> lectures   on ''Immortality," C. H. A.
> Bjerregaard on        ''The Mystic Life,"
> John Fiske on " The Cosmic Roots of
> Self-sacrifice," Lester A. Ward on
> 
> "The Real Moral Evolution," Joseph
> LeConte on The Relation of Biology
> '
> '
> 
> to Philosophy," Henry Wood on
> "Thinking as a Fine Art," Bolton
> Hall on "Single Tax," Frederick Spier
> on "The Eight Hour Law," Eltweed
> Pomeroy on "Direct Legislation,"
> Henry Blackwell on "Woman Suf-
> frage," J. H. Hyslop on "Problems of
> Physiology," Booker T. Washington
> on "Tuskegee," Elihu Thomson on
> " Electricity of the Future," Cyrus F.
> 
> Brackett on '' The Past and the Pres-
> ent Outlook of Electrical Science,"
> Jacob Riis on ^*How the Other Half
> Lives."
> Rare opportunities for help have
> been given along metaphysical lines
> by Charles Brodie Patterson, Horatio
> Dresser, Paul Tyner, Ellen             M. Dyer,
> Emma Louise Nickerson, Helen Yan-
> Anderson and others.
> Who can forget Emerson Day in
> the Cathedral Pines      !    Frank B. San-
> born, the presiding       officer,     v^as   the
> last   resident   member          of   the Con-
> cord School of Philosophy, and the
> friend  and companion of Emerson
> and Thoreau. We sit about under
> the trees and listen to tender intimate
> touches from Emerson's life and expe-
> rience.   We hold his letters, written
> seventy years     ago,       in    our   hands.
> Then Charles Malloy gives a series of
> Emerson readings, with lines and in-
> terlines of interpretation, the wealth
> of a lifetime of study.       The great tent
> is   crowded Sunday afternoon with
> the people of the countryside to hear
> Edward Everett Hale. He gives us a
> mighty summing up of the reasons
> for peace,   from the spiritual as well
> as   from    the historical standpoint.
> For three summers under a tree in
> the Lysekloster pines we have spent
> a morning ^th Joseph Jefferson in
> informal discussion   .   In the afternoon
> the tent is again crowded to hear him
> on ''The Possibilities of the Drama,"
> from  the   standpoint of a great
> actor.
> One summer under these same pines
> Dharmapala, the Buddhist, pitched
> his tent;    sometimes teaching from
> the platform, but         more often from
> the door of his tent, a striking        fig-
> 
> ure in his     orange robe.     Seventeen
> different faiths were represented that
> year at Greenacre.        How times have
> changed since the good people not   —
> —
> many miles distant heard in the
> dead of night the click of the horses'
> i6
> JOSEPH JEFFERSON.
> ;
> 
> hoofs carrying their minister forty
> miles to Salem to be tried for witch-
> craft   !
> 
> The Parliament of Religions, Sun-
> day, August 30, 1897, was a notable
> occasion. The tent was crowded to
> OYerflowing, the sides wide open to
> the river and the fields. A platform
> beautifully decorated with pines was
> occupied by a remarkable group of
> persons     :    Miss Farmer, in the centre
> Lewis G. Janes, presiding; Yirchand
> R. Gandhi, representative of the Jains,
> and yellow tur-
> in native violet dress
> ban Charles Brodie Patterson of the
> ;
> 
> broad school of mental science Sara-   ;
> 
> dananda, the Vedantist, in the flame-
> colored robe and turban of his order,
> and by his side the Quaker, Edward
> Rawson; C. B. Young, Boston, and
> William A. Key, London, of the
> Unitarian church;             Horatio Dresser,
> editor      of    the Journal of Practical
> Metaphysics; K.           S.   Guthrie of the
> Episcopal church;             Paul Carus,   edi-
> 
> tor of the Monist and Open Court,
> of Chicago   ;
> Jehanghier Cola in the
> -white dress of the Parsee, represent-
> ing Zoroastrianism       ;   Mrs. Ole Bull,
> founder of the       Cambridge Confer-
> ences; Alfred Martin, pastor of the
> free church of Tacoma, Washington,
> and Rabbis Fleischer and Berkowitz,
> of Philadelphia. The brilliant assem-
> bly, the picturesque colors, the scent
> of pine, the setting of river and mead-
> ow, the earnest, listening company,
> the few simple words of the speakers
> showing the essential unity of religion
> — all served to make an occasion not
> to be forgotten.
> Although many charming             circles
> 
> have been formed in the farmhouses,
> the social life centers naturally about
> the Inn, where     most of the lecturers
> have been entertained. There is sim-
> plicity of life, a charming absence
> of conventionality, an almost invari-
> able recognition of the        man   apart
> from circumstances.          Small   circles
> 
> i8
> meet on the piazza, along the river
> bank or in the meadows, discussing
> questions with the recognized leaders
> of thought.    ''And the people speak
> from their character, not from their
> tongue."    When else could you hear,
> without surprise, in the momentary
> lull   of a hotel dining-room?     —   *'I        do
> not know whether the spirits return
> to this earth, but      I   do   know that
> progress is the law of the soul."
> There are opportunities day after
> day for the individual to take his
> problem to the one best fitted to help
> him, and the personal contact has
> proved as great a factor in develop-
> ment as any words from the plat-
> form.    Many a life of inaction has
> been awakened here into service.             *'
> In
> the light of greater lives we see the
> vision of our own."
> In the fact that thousands have
> come to Greenacre, and thousands
> have been turned away for lack of
> accommodations, in the virility and
> force of the minds gathered here, in
> the questions discussed from the plat-
> form that affect the moral welfare
> and therefore the rational progress of
> the world   — in the renewing of the
> individual, who, touched by the spirit,
> is born   into a larger love for pushing
> starving humanity       — in all this   is de-
> 
> monstrated the need for such a centre
> in the social organism.
> In a word, Greenacre can best be
> characterized as a centre.       It is   not
> an organization    ;   it is not an institu-
> 
> tion,   "the lengthened shadow of one
> man," but a great spiritual, formative
> centre, the trend of thought broaden-
> ing with the need of the times.
> The crucial test is therefore not a
> test of the value and purity of the
> ideal, but a test of methods and their
> 
> practical application.   Can a move-
> ment depending only upon voluntary
> aid live in the world to-day? Only
> last year a man died in London, who,
> during the last sixty years, has taken
> care of thousands of orphans.
> The
> money necessary to support this
> immense work was given unsolic-
> ited and used according to the strict-
> est    business   principles.    So far as
> Greenacre      amalgamates        with the
> highest ethical standards of the busi-
> ness world, the truth       it   stands   for,
> just so far, ''armed with the Sword
> of the Spirit," will it penetrate into
> the heart of the grossest materiaHsm,
> and bring forth the willing tribute of
> an awakening spirit-loving service.
> Greenacre, August, 1899.
> 
> This year, 1900, marks the sev-
> enth season of the Greenacre Lecture
> Course.      It was decided to     make of
> it a Sabbatical year, a year of quiet
> rest, one in which to review the past
> 
> and consider the future. Although no
> programs have been issued, there has
> been an average of three lectures a
> week, with a daily morning devo-
> tional,       and an attendance of nearly
> nine hundred persons.        Edward Ev-
> erett        Hale,   Charles Brodie Patter-
> son,     Samuel Richard        Fuller, Ralph
> Waldo          Trine,   Edward     Cummings,
> Paul Tyner, Helen M. Cole, Lyman
> C. Newell, Ellen M. Dyer, R. C. Doug-
> las,    Swami Abhedananda,           Fillmore
> Moore, Florence Richardson, Richard
> Ingalese, Jeandu Buy, and Charles
> Malloy have spoken from the plat-
> form. A much needed rest has made
> necessary Miss Farmer's absence the
> last season.
> 1901 will undoubtedly mark a new
> era in the development of this move-
> ment a movement which stands, let
> :
> 
> it    be remembered, not for personality
> or place, but for life, for progress.
> 
> Anna Josephine Ingersoll.
> Greenacre, September, 1900.
>
> — *Greenacre on the Piscataqua (Used by permission of the curator)*