A History of our Baha’i Relatives, compiled by Henrietta Kroll in 1984

Updated by Katie Verbrugh, presented at a celebration of the Centenary of the Birth of Baha’u’llah in Sioux City on October 24, 1027, submitted January 2024

► Emma Jugel was born June 1, 1864, to Hugo Jugel and Johanna (Werner) Jugel in Wisconsin.  She accepted the Bahá’í Faith in 1897, while working in Chicago; she is on the 1897 list of believers so may have declared even earlier.  She was a true seeker, and investigated other new movements before hearing about the Bahá’í Faith from some of the earliest teachers who came to this country.  It was she who introduced the Faith to other relatives, both in the Chicago area and back in Nebraska, where her parents and their family were living at that time.

Emma married later in life and never had any children herself, but was a loving mother to her husband’s children by a previous marriage.  (I don’t know if any of them were very young as I never knew any of them, and don’t have a date for the marriage.)  I’m not sure where she and her husband, Herman Sebade, lived, but I know that Emma lived for some time after her husband’s death, in Wall, South Dakota.

She spent the last years of her life with her niece, Pauline Luehr, in Waterbury, NE, and died in a nursing home at Ponca, NE, on April 11, 1960.  Other relatives intervened so that she did not have a Bahá’í funeral, but Bahá’í prayers were read at the funeral home by her Bahá’í relatives.  Her body is buried in Graceland Park, Sioux City, IA.

► Pauline Jugel Luehr was Emma’s sister and was born September 6, 1863, in Wisconsin.  I think she was about 3 years old when the family moved to Nebraska.  There were several other children.  Pauline married Henry Luehr on March 7, 1882, and they became the parents of 14 children, 10 of whom grew to adulthood.  Pauline and Henry heard of the Bahá’í Faith from Emma.  Pauline accepted it, and while Henry never formally accepted it, I cannot say that he did not accept in his heart.  Three of their daughters became Baha’is—Frieda, Pauline, and Sophie.  I think Sophie heard it from Emma too, but Frieda and Pauline also worked in Chicago, and may have heard it there.

Henry Luehr died in July 1936 and Pauline on June 6, 1949; both are buried in Graceland Park.

The three oldest daughters of Pauline and Henry Luehr became Bahá’ís in the very early part of the century.  My guess would be that they all believed before 1910. 

► Frieda Luehr married John F. Hay and spent the rest of her life in Michigan.  I have heard that Frieda and John were married in a Bahá’í ceremony.  To my knowledge, none of their 9 children ever fully accepted the Faith, but at this date one grandson is a Bahá’í, as is his wife.  They live in Michigan.  Frieda died April 21, 1969. 

► Pauline Luehr was a long-time Bahá’í.  She lived for many years in California, where she had the opportunity of seeing and being with Bahá’ís.  She never married.  In the 1930s she came back to Nebraska to keep house for her parents in Waterbury, NE.  After their deaths, she kept her home in Waterbury.  Besides her parents, she at various times helped take care of two daughters and a son of her sister, who had died, and also took care of her aunt, Emma Sebade, during her last years.  Later she lived in South Sioux City, NE, and also in Sioux City, IA, for a time.  Her final years were spent with a niece in Fremont, NE, and then in a nursing home, in Fremont, where she died on October 10, 1979.  She had a Bahá’í funeral and is buried in Wakefield, NE.

► Sophie Luehr married David Henry Hays in 1913.  They had two daughters, Henrietta and Frieda. Sophie was widowed in 1917, and raised her girls by doing housework and later did laundry in her home.  Even though she had very little contact with other Bahá’ís, she tried to teach her children about the Bahá’í Faith and lived an exemplary life herself.  Somewhere in the mid 1940s she moved to Council Bluffs, IA, where she was one of the first Bahá’ís.  Years later, when Council Bluffs finally was able to form a Bahá’í Assembly, she was one of the nine.  She remained on the Assembly until, forced by age and health, she had to leave Council Bluffs.  In August 1973, she went to live with her daughter near Sioux City, IA.  She died in a Sioux City nursing home on September 11, 1977.  Sophie had a Bahá’í funeral and is interred at Memorial Park Cemetery, Sioux City, IA.   

Sophie’s two daughters both became Bahá’ís. 

► Frieda became a Bahá’í in Council Bluffs, probably before 1950.

► Henrietta declared her faith in Bahá’u’lláh in 1951.  A year or so later, her husband, Ralph W. Kroll, also declared*.  Ralph died November 17, 1971, and had a Bahá’í funeral.  Of their 10 children, the five daughters have all become Bahá’ís since May, 1981, when the youngest was the first to declare. 

Compiled by Henrietta Kroll, October, 1984. 

*Records at the National Archives office indicate Ralph Kroll declared on May 1, 1958. 

Addendum from Judith Williams: Leonard and David Kroll, sons of Henrietta and Ralph declared as well but do not remember the dates. Leonard never married nor had children. David married and has four children; none of them have declared. Judith’s daughter Audrey Swanson Miner, who grew up and enrolled in northwest Iowa, makes five generations!

Photos below: 1) Emma Jugel (date unknown); 2) Sisters Frieda Luehr Hay, Pauline Luehr, and Sophie Luer Hays (date unknown); 3) Pauline Jugel Luehr & Henry Luehr wedding, ~1882; 4) Henrietta’s five daughters–Marjie Baker, Rosemary Goebel, Janet Johnson, Judith Williams, Katie Verbrugh 5) Ralph & Henrietta Kroll wedding, December 24, 1935