# Root, Martha

*Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-19 — 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: Richard Francis, Root, Martha, bahai-library.com.
> ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
> 
> Root, Martha
> 
> Richard Francis
> 
> 1993/1998
> 
> On the 10th of August, 1872 Martha Louise ("Mattie") Root
> was born to Timothy T. and Nancy Root in Richwood, Ohio, Marysville County. She
> was preceded by two brothers, Clarence and Claude, born in 1869 and 1871. The
> family shortly afterward moved to Cambridgeboro, Pennsylvania and operated a dairy
> farm and numerous entrepreneurships. As a child, Mattie was not interested in
> sewing, knitting or cooking as most young girls; she preferred to study books.
> At fourteen, she earned enough money from writing to pay for a trip the Niagara
> Falls. At sixteen, Martha graduated from Cambridgeboro High School and was honored
> for completing studies in orthography, reading, arithmetic, geography, grammar,
> Latin, algebra, geometry, and for having sustained a good moral character. First,
> a trip to Europe, then to Oberlin College for five years where she designed her
> own program to include Latin, Greek, French, German, and English: literature,
> elocution, and rhetoric: finding time for psychology, mathematics and Bible studies.
> In 1893, Mattie became a member of AElionian; and in 1895, without graduating
> from Oberlin, she went to the University of Chicago, published several literary
> essays and was awarded her baccalaureate degree. This was all in the same year.
> 
> Martha's first post was in Union City, Pennsylvania as a
> school teacher and principal of the high school. She also published stories and
> in 1900 became the summer replacement for the society editor of the Pittsburgh
> Chronicle Telegraph. That fall, she worked for the Pittsburgh Dispatch,
> launching her newspaperwoman career. Later, she made another move to the Index
> of Pittsburgh Life, writing articles on automobiles. In fact, she became
> entranced by them, with her first article appearing in the June 29 issue and concerned
> stables for automobiles. It was the houseless carriage, still "stabled," not yet
> "garaged." She sailed to France on the S. S. Statendam and reported on the motor
> scene there. In May of 1902, Martha returned to Pittsburgh and continued writing
> automobile articles for the Index and latter for the Pittsburgh Gazette,
> acquiring the experiences that prepared her for the monumental task ahead.
> 
> Martha met Roy C. Wilhelm from whom she received Bahá'í
> literature and later met with several early believers, among them Thorton Chase
> and Arthur Agnew at a restaurant in Chicago, a place to become known as the "place
> of Saints and Sinners". After some months of concentrated research and contemplation,
> Martha became a Bahá'í in Pittsburgh in 1909. This was a course change for Martha,
> opening new pathways into her mind.
> 
> In September, 1909, Martha wrote an extensive article for
> the Pittsburgh Post siting the history and teachings of the Bahá'í Faith.
> In 1911, she participated in the first annual Bahá'í convention, held in Chicago.
> But the single event that made the greatest impact on Martha's early Bahá'í life
> was the visit to the United States of 'Abdu'l-Bahá in 1911-12, where she attended
> as many meeting as possible.
> 
> Martha arranged for 'Abdu'l-Bahá to present a talk in Pittsburgh
> and was able to have two private interviews with him. The Master presented her
> with a white rose and infused her spirit with His love, for he must have sensed
> her gargantuan capacity for teaching the Bahá'í Faith.
> 
> One of Martha's most memorable Bahá'í gatherings was the
> Unity Feast given by Roy Wilhelm in West Englewood, New Jersey on June 29, 1912.
> She would often write to the Wilhelm's in her gratitude to them for having included
> her in the picnic with 'Abdu'l-Bahá. Another event that made a deep impression
> on Martha was a meeting with 'Abdu'l-Bahá on one of His last nights in New York.
> Also present was Vali'u'llah Varqa, the son of 'Ali-Muhammad Varqa and brother
> of little Ruh'u'llah Varqa, father and son, martyred together in Iran.
> 
> 'Abdu'l-Bahá's visit had greatly affected Martha and an
> outline for a world teaching trip was submitted and on January 30, 1915 she sailed
> out of New York on her first around the world teaching trip. After traveling
> through many countries, she tried to see ''Abdu'l-Bahá in Palestine and visit
> the holy places in Haifa and Akká. The authorities would not permit it. Palestine
> was in a state of war and being occupied by German and Turkish troops and 'Abdu'l-Bahá
> insisted that all Bahá'ís leave the area.
> 
> Martha traveled to Egypt and stayed around six months, working
> as a newspaperwoman, writing about the four to six thousand Jews, expelled from
> Palestine by the Ottoman Empire of Turkey and subsequently rescued by the U.S.S.
> Tennessee and brought to Alexandria. Her interviews of the Jewish refugees gave
> reports of intolerable conditions imposed upon them preceding their flight and
> their political tormentors. Martha also witnessed the military preparations that
> World War I created, such as the movements of thousands of troops and pieces of
> military hardware in Egypt on the way to embark for the Dardanelles; and to her
> astonishment, not one mention of this activity was made by the press.
> 
> In 1915, Martha made a visit to Bombay and latter Rangoon.
> In June of that same year, she traveled on to Japan at the invitation of Agnes
> Alexander, an American Bahá'í teacher there. After a brief stop in Hawaii, Martha
> arrived in San Francisco on August 29, 1915 to conclude the first of many international
> teaching endeavors under the banners of Bahá'u'lláh.
> 
> In the year 1920, Martha encountered a confirming test of
> her faith by a misunderstanding between Agnes Parsons and herself in regard to
> planning the first "race unity" conference to have ever been held within the United
> States. The concept of doing each one's bidding for the sake of unity had backfired,
> resulting in upset and confusion. Martha continued teaching by traveling to Saint
> John, Montreal, London, and Saint Thomas, Canada, to arrange programs. She was
> also, at that time, appointed by the U.S. Bahá'í National Center, then known as
> the Bahá'í Temple Unity, to the Ideas Committee, assisted by Horace Holley, D.
> J. Hanko, Barbara Fitting, Edwar D. Kinney, and an addition of eleven other members.
> Martha had to inspire them to come up with ways to raise money for the construction
> of the Bahá'í House of Worship in Wilmette. She had the powers of experience
> and left no source of help untapped, including asking 'Abdu'l-Bahá for His Blessing
> and Confirmations.
> 
> The work continued onward and onward. In 1921, Martha decided
> to write a book on the Faith. She was in physical pain. She was also having
> to care for her ill father. Nine years earlier, she had developed breast cancer,
> and a unique prescription from 'Abdu'l-Bahá probably aided it into remission.
> This time however, it had focused in other areas. But, despite her pain, she
> continued the work at a reduced rate.
> 
> Martha's next teaching trip was Mexico where there was one
> Bahá'í, Mr. C. P. Forest, and then on to Guatemala in the middle of a political
> revolution. She had arranged for an interview with the president of that country
> but before the set date, he was known as ex- President Herrera.
> 
> On the night of November 3, 1922, at the age of eighty-five,
> Martha's father, T. T. Root passed on. With an inheritance of some money, she
> had nothing to hold her back and divested herself of all that anchors one to the
> earth. At the age of fifty, Martha Root left her home town of Cambridge Springs,
> Pennsylvania, and took up residency in the rest of the world.
> 
> The journeys begun and Martha traveled continuously, almost
> everywhere, throughout the United States, and Canada, then back to Japan. She
> visited China. Martha had eight thousand copies of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's statement on
> teaching the Chinese sent to friends all over the world. Agnes Alexander succumbed
> to Martha's glowing word of Peking and its people and the two pioneers worked
> together.
> 
> The next stop was Australia, New Zealand, and Tasmania preceded
> by a short excursion to Hong Kong. In Australia, she stayed with Clara and Hyde
> Dunn, pioneers from California. The Dunns assisted her in regaining some of her
> health, not to mention assistance in the teaching work.
> 
> South Africa was the next place on Martha's roster, where
> she received the red carpet treatment almost everywhere she visited. Here she
> made several radio broadcast and held constant meetings. Martha also took some
> time to study Esperanto and "rested my brains."
> 
> On November 28, 1921, the Master passed on. In 1925, Martha’s
> attention was drawn to the beleaguered Guardian. In the Will and Testament
> of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Shoghi Effendi's station was designated as "the blessed
> and sacred bough that hath branched out from the Twin Holy Trees," whose shade
> "shadoweth all mankind." At this time, the Greatest Holy Leaf administered
> the affairs of the Faith. The Guardian was preparing to assume his position.
> Known as Bahiyyih Khánum, she had been tempered by forty years of imprisonment,
> deprivation, and cruelty; the conditions were intended to destroy the exiled members
> of the Faith. However, history stands testament to the contrary. It was Martha's
> plan to meet Her and the Holy Family. To the Guardian, Martha appeared as a resplendent
> touch, lighting a world of shadows.
> 
> Martha Root arrived at Mount Carmel on March 13, 1925 along
> with Effie Baker and Corinne True. She had become very close to the Master and
> communed often, even after his passing. Thus, she did the same with Shoghi Effendi
> , her beloved Guardian. They prayed together at the shrines and conferred on
> her teaching work. The beauty and dignity of Bahiyyih Khánum touched Martha deeply.
> 
> The travels continued, on to the north, to Switzerland and
> in 1923, a visit with Queen Marie in Rumania, one of Europe's most noble members
> of royalty. She visited the British Isles and gave lectures at the Edinburgh
> Esperanto congress in 1926. Germany and the north countries were next, then Greece,
> Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia. Despite cautious words from Shoghi Effendi, Martha
> visited the Cradle of the Faith, Iran with an unsuccessful effort to meet the
> shah, Riza Khan Pahlavi. On the 25 November, 1929, Martha Root arrived for her
> second visit to Haifa and the Bahá'í holy shrines. In 1930, she tried to visit
> His Imperial Majesty, Hirohito of Japan. However, the U. S. officials would not
> grant permission at first. With perseverance, she was finally able to present
> gifts and Bahá'í writings.
> 
> It was 1936, the world was an ugly place, and World War
> II was devouring the spiritual essence of man. Martha continued her relentless
> effort to infuse Europe with the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh. Although the work
> went forward, the body was failing, and she knew that time was on the wing, the
> skylark returned home to the United States.
> 
> In 1937, Martha traveled once more to the Hawaiian Islands,
> to China and India; finally traveling to Austral-Asia to finish earlier work there.
> In 1939, Martha returned to Hawaii and after a lengthy illness, on 28 September,
> slipped into unconsciousness and moved from this world. She had begun another
> journey.
> 
> METADATA
> 
> Views20298 views since posted 2004-10-07; last edit 2016-05-03 20:24 UTC;
> 
> previous at archive.org.../francis_root_biography;
> URLs changed in 2010, see archive.org.../bahai-library.org
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> Shortlink: bahai-library.com/1563
> Citation: ris/1563
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> — *Root, Martha (Used by permission of the curator)*