Earliest Baha’is in Iowa?

by Diane Findlay, submitted December 2023

An inquiry to the National Archives produces this response, documenting Kearney B. Griffith and Mrs. Parrie Griffith living in College Springs, Iowa in 1899:

December 26, 2023

Dear Ms. Findlay,

Thank you for your patience while we looked into your question about early believers in Iowa.  With regard to the “Book of Life”, we don’t know of any book by Ibrahim Kheiralla with that specific title.  We think ______ may have been referring to the 1890s enrollment lists kept by Kheiralla or one of his secretaries (the names all seem to be in the same handwriting), which are usually called his “supplication books”.  We checked the volume covering miscellaneous cities and found a couple from Iowa who enrolled in 1899.  An image of the inscription page of the volume, and the page with the couple’s name and city, is attached.  We didn’t find any collections or correspondence of either of these people in our holdings.

Warm regards,

Edward Sevcik

Archivist

Pictured below are the pages from the “supplication book” sent by Mr. Sevcik and a listing from the 1930 Census provided by Terri Rene DaVar. The couple is buried in a cemetery in College Springs–see their Find-a-Grave listing on the Obituaries page.

U.S. National Bahá’í Archives