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Abstract: Biography of a travel-teacher, translator of the Writings into Italian, and the first pioneer to Italy. She had a great impact on her fellow believers during her lifetime, but is little-recognized today. |
Dr. Martin died when Emogene was very young and her mother Maria Frances remarried. Apparently her stepfather did not wish to take on the responsibility of rearing a daughter, so Emogene went to live with her uncle William Henry Wright and his wife in San Francisco. While Emogene's parents had no formal church affiliation, their daughter seems to have been of a religious disposition from an early age. She joined the Congregationalist Church and played the organ in its services. When she completed secondary school, around 1887, at the age of eighteen, Emogene attended the Irving Institute, a boarding school and seminary for fashionable young ladies in San Francisco. Two years later, about 1889, Emogene married a well-to-do engineer named John Ketchie Hoagg. Hoagg's father was a New York entrepreneur of Dutch descent who made a great fortune in building and managing flour mills.
The young couple lived together without major event for about six years. Perhaps they tried to conceive children, but, if so, their attempts were fraught with failure. Emogene decided that she wanted to learn how to sing properly, and that the place for her to learn was Italy. On the 24th of April 1895, at the age of twenty-six, Mrs. H. Emogene Hoagg set out from Sausalito, California where she resided with her husband, and headed for Italy, arriving in Genoa and then moving on to Milano on the 16th of May. Soon thereafter she moved from the Continental Hotel to live with a family. She seems to have settled in Milano because it was there that she found a voice teacher who agreed to instruct her in the art of classical Italian singing. Milano was the home of the famous La Scala opera house, of a great conservatory of music, and a flourishing cultural life. During the following three years she seems to have done a fair amount of travelling in Europe. According to her own reckoning, in 1896 she visited several cities in Switzerland. She learned Italian well, and seems to have picked up some French and German as well. Indeed, Emogene, like many other singers, had an ear for languages. She was to acquire considerable fluency in Persian a few years later, and Spanish in her seventies.
In 1898 Emogene returned to California and to her home and husband. There is no correspondence dating from 1895-1898, so we do not know whether or not Emogene and her husband were in regular contact during her Italian sojourn. However, in subsequent years they kept closely in touch with one another. At some time after her return from abroad, Emogene paid a social call on Mrs. Phoebe Apperson Hearst, a family friend and wife of the famous American publisher, Randolph Hearst. She visited Mrs. Hearst's country "hacienda" in Pleasanton, California, not far from Emogene's residence in the Bay Area, apparently remained as her guest for a few days and was invited to return. There she met Mrs. Lua Getsinger, the wife of Dr. Edward Getsinger and a prominent Bahá'í teacher of the epoch. Emogene described that encounter to her friend Ella Goodall Cooper (as quoted in "Bahá'í World," volume X, p. 520): "Conversations on prophecies were frequent, and my curiosity as to the source of her knowledge was aroused. Mrs. H. advised me to see her on my return and she said: 'She has something that will interest you.'" When she returned to visit Mrs. Hearst she took daily lessons with Mrs. Getsinger, and reports (Ibid.): "My interest augmented from lesson to lesson. The first commune, 'O My God, give me knowledge, faith and love,' was constantly on my lips and I believe those words from the Fountain of Eternal Light awakened my soul and mind to a faith that has never wavered." At that time, seekers who wished to be enrolled as believers were asked to attest to their new convictions by signing a letter — rather like a summary manifesto — which was then conveyed to 'Abdu'l- Baha for His approval.
In September of 1898 Emogene returned to Milano to continue her vocal training, travelling via Paris with Mrs. Hearst and her party who were on their way to the Holy Land (on the first Western Bahá'í pilgrimage). In Milano she discovered three Italians who were receptive to the Bahá'í teachings, Professore Rienze, Carlo Eduardo Bonsignori and Mario Forni. Perhaps these were the first Italian believers in the Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh. In 1899 Emogene visited Domodonsola with Miss Calimberti. Perhaps this is not the only travelling she did that year, inasmuch as her study with the Milano voice teacher came to an end. In that year she also received her first Tablet from 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Who acknowledged her summary manifesto, and welcomed her lovingly into the community of believers. Emogene left Milano and travelled to Paris in search of a new voice teacher, and there she met the American believer Mrs. Helen Ellis Cole, a cousin of Mrs. May Maxwell, and a resident of New York City. Together they resolved to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. They journeyed to Palestine with Miss Alma Albertson and Mrs. Cole's personal maid, spending fourteen days in Haifa and 'Akka, including ten days in the house of 'Abbud, where the family of 'Abdu'l-Bahá was living at that time. Their visit seems to have spanned the last week of November and the first week of December 1900.
Mrs. Cole and Mrs. Hoagg wrote down everything they heard, everything they read, everything they could get their hands on during this pilgrimage. Their pilgrim notes are organized by topic, into six "chapters" composed of various numbered subjects. Included in these notes was 'Abdu'l-Bahá's first recorded exposition to the Western believers of the Bahá'í teachings with regard to the two worlds experienced by man; the world of creation; the Kingdom of the Prophet of God; the purpose of God; the true meaning of reincarnation, of evil, of new birth, of the birth of Jesus, of love, and belief. Also, this represented the first time that the Master spoke of the proofs of the Babi and Bahá'í Revelations, a theme which Mirza Abu'l-Fadl was to develop in considerable detail in his talks and his book "The Bahá'í Proofs," first published in 1902 (in a translation from Arabic into English by 'Ali Quli Khan, the father of Marzieh Gail). Toward the end of her visit to the Master, 'Abdu'l-Bahá told Emogene that He wished her to go to Port Said in Egypt, and there to study with Mirza Abu'l-Fadl Gulpaygani, the foremost Bahá'í scholar of his time, on the true interpretation of the Bible.
From December 1900 through January 1901 Emogene spent a month in Port Said, taking lessons from Mirza Abu'l-Fadl twice a day, in the morning and in the evening. She was instructed in the home of Nuru'llah Effendi, and during the course of her study she had three translators: Nuru'llah Effendi translated from Persian and Arabic (for Mirza Abu'l-Fadl employed both languages with absolute fluency) into Italian; Ahmad Yazdi Effendi translated into French; and, after two weeks, Antun Effendi Haddad was sent to Port Said, and he translated into English. Antun Haddad had been taught the Faith in Egypt, although he was originally from Lebanon, and he had proceeded to the United States in 1892 to introduce the Faith in that country in the company of Ibrahim Khayru'llah. When Khayru'llah refused to recognize 'Abdu'l-Bahá as the authorized leader of the Bahá'í community, in the aftermath of his pilgrimage of 1898, in which he was a guest of Mrs. Hearst, Antun Haddad saw the error of his associate's judgement, and chose instead to follow 'Abdu'l-Bahá. While studying at the Protestant Syrian College (thereafter the American University of Beirut) in Lebanon, and subsequently through full-time residence in the United States, from 1892 to 1900, Antun Haddad had learned well to read, to write and to speak English. Indeed, he undertook some of the earliest translations of Bahá'u'lláh's Writings into English. 'Abdu'l-Bahá knew that he could trust Antun Haddad to render Mirza Abu'l-Fadl's words exactly, and perhaps He also knew that Emogene Hoagg was a soul who could absorb the truths that only the greatest Bahá'í scholar could impart. Some of Emogene's notes from these lessons in Port Said are extent; they reveal her grasp of Mirza Abu'l-Fadl's detailed commentary on the verses, the words, the symbols of the Bible. Emogene continued her study with Mirza Abu'l-Fadl in the United States, at Green Acre and perhaps also in Washington, D.C., upon her return to her native land.
In February 1901, Emogene returned to Paris from Port Said. Her visit there was very short, during which she encountered Marie Hopper and other believers — most of whom seem to have been Americans residing in France. When she sailed from Paris for New York, in April 1901, she discovered that her fellow passengers included Mrs. Lua Getsinger! Arriving in New York she had another surprise: 'Abdu'l-Bahá had sent Mirza Abu'l-Fadl to the United States to counteract the pernicious influence of Ibrahim Khayru'llah upon the believers, and he was at Green Acre teaching the true interpretation of the Bible and other spiritual subjects. Emogene reunited with her friend Mrs. Helen Cole in New York and together they travelled to Green Acre to study with the great teacher.
It is not clear where Emogene was between May 1901 and January 1903. Perhaps she spent some of that time studying with Mirza Abu'l-Fadl in Washington, D.C. whence he repaired when not engaged at Green Acre. In January 1903 Emogene returned to California. Occasional Bahá'í meetings had been held in the palacial residence of Mrs. Helen S. Goodall (and her daughter Mrs. Ella Cooper), in Oakland, across the Bay from Emogene's home. Emogene seems to have attended these meetings, and, in 1907-1908, when these two believers went on pilgrimage, Emogene established regular weekly classes for studying the Bahá'í teachings, later adding a second weekly class for deeper study. In November 1907, with Mrs. Goodall and Mrs. Cooper abroad, Emogene represented the California believers at a consultation in the home of Mrs. Corinne True in Chicago, called to initiate the establishment of the first Mashriqu'l-Adhkar of the West. Perhaps it was during this period that her mother Marian Frances, and her sister (half-sister?) and brother-in-law became believers. While there is no record apparently of her husband John Ketchie Hoagg formally declaring his allegiance to the Bahá'í Cause, it is to be noted that Emogene's husband was emotionally and financially supportive of his wife's Bahá'í activities throughout their marriage, and that on one recorded occasion, on the 13th of May 1914, 'Abdu'l-Bahá said to Emogene: "Now he is my son-in-law for you are My daughter."
Once again there is a gap in the historical record, and we do not know what Emogene was doing between 1908 and 1912, but it seems most likely that she spent the entire period from 1903 until 1912 in the San Francisco Bay Area. Anyone who has lived in that area knows well enough how lovely, how pleasant, how congenial this environment is, and Emogene seems to have kept herself very busy with her Bahá'í activities. On the 11th of April 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá arrived in New York, remaining in the United States and Canada until His departure on the 5th of December. During that period Emogene accompanied the Master whenever possible. The only written record she has left of His visit are the notes she kept of His talks in Dublin, New Hampshire, from the 29th of July to the 9th of August. Emogene accompanied 'Abdu'l-Bahá to Green Acre and also on His visit to the Bay Area in California.
It seems that Emogene could not bear to be separated from the Master. Some months after His departure she wrote asking His permission to visit Him in Egypt, where He was then residing. When she received His permission she left immediately, although she was ill. Her husband, ever the loving friend, insisted that she take a companion on her journey, and she took Mrs. Wise, a believer from the Bay Area. She sailed from New York on the 9th of October 1913, arriving in Port Said on the 29th of that month. There she met her friend Ahmad Yazdi Effendi, and telephoned 'Abdu'l-Bahá at the Hotel Victoria in Ramleh, His residence at the time. On the 31st of October she was reunited with the Master. Together with His entourage they left Ramleh for Jaffa on the 24th of November, proceeding to Haifa the following day. From then until the 20th of July 1914 she was almost daily in the presence of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, in Haifa, in 'Akka, wherever He resided. She wrote a diary, transcriptions of the Master's talks, and letters throughout this period. Some of these priceless remnants have been collected, while others may have yet to surface. This record, even in its present fragmentary form represents an invaluable depiction of the life of the Holy Family, as well as painting a detailed portrait of Emogene herself.
On the 28th of June 1914 'Abdu'l-Bahá told Emogene that He wished her to leave soon to teach the Cause in Italy. Subsequent to this, on the 15th of July He said she should travel to London, Paris and Stuttgart to counteract the disruptive influence of Dr. Aminu'llah Farid and Mirza Assadu'llah, both of whom had been prominent Persian servants of the Cause — Dr. Farid as the medical doctor most intimately associated with the Holy Family and as the principal translator of the Master's discourses during His North American tour in 1912; Mirza Assadu'llah as one of the most influential and magnetic Persian Bahá'í teachers, and one of the learned believers sent to America by 'Abdu'l-Bahá to counteract the pernicious influence of Ibrahim Khayru'llah. This pair, related by marriage, had disobeyed and rejected the authority of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, and continued to associate with the believers, trying to convince them that 'Abdu'l-Bahá's wishes could be ignored. Emogene departed from Haifa on the 20th of July, arriving in Paris on the 28th of July and on the 2nd of August in London. In Paris war was rumored, and by the time she arrived in London, Germany had declared war on Russia.
As Charles Mason Remey and George Latimer, two stallwarts of the early Western Bahá'í community, were then in Germany, it was not necessary for Emogene to travel to Stuttgart.
She apparently did not find any trouble in Paris, but in London she found trouble and the damaging duo as well. For a number of months she resided in London, meeting occasionally with Farid and Assadu'llah and seeking to dissuade them from their rebellion — she candidly reports these conversations, as well as their inflexible disobedience. She had been sent by 'Abdu'l-Bahá to reassure the believers that 'Abdu'l- Baha was the true leader of the Bahá'í community, that they could depend on His leadership, in the midst of war without and rebellion within.
On the 29th of November 1914 the English believers celebrated the appointment of 'Abdu'l-Bahá as the Centre of the Covenant. Apparently this represented the culmination of her mission to the European believers. On the 4th of December 1914 Emogene travelled to Paris, and then on the 16th of December on to Geneva, leaving Geneva for Milano on December 23rd. She remained a pioneer in Italy, obedient to the Master's command, for almost a year. Undoubtedly with the permission of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Emogene departed Napoli for New York on the 27th of October 1915, arriving in New York on the 12th of November. On the day of her arrival, she reports having had lunch with Roy Wilhelm, and then attending a meeting to commemorate the birth of Bahá'u'lláh (on the 12th of November 1817) at which Howard Colby Ives, Horace Holley and Juliet Thompson spoke. Emogene travelled to Washington, D.C. on the 18th of November and then returned to California, exhausted and ill at the end of that month.
Most of the next three years were spent at home in the Bay Area.
No diary has been found for 1916. There are periods in her life in which either she kept no diary or her diary has been lost. Emogene did keep some notes for 1917, from 13 April to July 29, and then again from 22 October to December 3. Then there are no entries for 1918, and a few notes describing a journey in 1919. The diary resumes in 1920. On 13 April 1917 Emogene left her home for Salt Lake City, where the Committee for Investigation was meeting. Once more, this time at the request of the Bahá'í leadership, Emogene was involved in counteracting the influence of Bahá'ís who had turned from the Centre of the Covenant. This time the group or rebels were based in Chicago, and they had established a Reading Room and their own interpretation of the Bahá'í teachings and had rejected the authority of the elected Bahá'í community leadership who had been specifically blessed in their endeavours by 'Abdu'l-Bahá in repeated communications.
Emogene proceeded from Salt Lake City to Washington, D.C. and then on to Boston on 28 April for the Temple Unity Convention, the national convocation of the believers. At the Convention Emogene was elected to the Temple Unity, the equivalent at that time of the National Spiritual Assembly (later to be established under the guidance of Shoghi Effendi), along with Mrs. True, Mrs. Parsons, Mr. Randall, Mr. Ober, Mr. Lunt, Mr. Wilhelm, Mr. Hall and Mr. Khan. Emogene noted that on 6 May, apparently when she was in New York subsequent to the Convention, Roy Wilhelm received a Tablet from 'Abdu'l-Bahá permitting the American believers to pay Huququ'llah, the "Right of God." She stayed at the Ansonia Hotel in New York on 7 May, and then changed to another hotel when her husband arrived in New York on 16 May. On 23 May she departed for Chicago, remaining until July 16, almost two months, except for a couple of side trips to Indianapolis and St. Louis — there she did her utmost to try to resolve the fragmentation of the Chicago community, to reconcile the advocates of Reading Room to the Master's divine authority and to His wish that the Bahá'í be united in obedience to one elected council. She found these malcontents inflexible, adamant in their objections, determined to plot their own course. After these two months in Chicago, Emogene seems to have taken a vacation, going to Seattle and then to Glacier Park, Montana.
In October 1917 Emogene was back on the move, leaving for Los Angeles on October 27 and then proceeding to New York on November 1. Her husband joined her in New York, and then, on 8 November, they went to Washington, D.C. Here, in the nation's capital, was held the Centennial of the Birth of Bahá'u'lláh, on 12 November 1917, and this event was chaired by Emogene. The Committee of Investigation was reappointed by the Temple Unity, and Mr. Remey, Mr. Latimer and Emogene were among those selected. Emogene returned briefly to San Francisco and then left for Chicago on 3 December, to try once again to resolve the division among the believers.
In 1918, Emogene's beloved husband, John Kettie Hoagg died. Emogene promptly sold their home in San Francisco, sold its furnishings, and proceeded to devote herself for the rest of her earthly sojourn entirely to the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh. On 26-30 April 1919 Emogene attended the Temple Unity Convention, held at Hotel McAlpin in New York City. She served on the National Reception Committee, but did not address the Convention. It was at that Convention that Mirza Ahmad Sohrab presented the Tablets of the Divine Plan, revealed in 1914 but not fully communicated to the Western believers until after the end of the First World War (1914-1918). In July 1919, in response to the Master's call for Bahá'í teachers to bring the Bahá'í message to the multitudes whom it had not yet touched, Emogene set out for Alaska with Miss Marian Elizabeth Jack, a believer and artist from New Brunswick, Canada. The singer and the painter set out to introduce the Alaskans to the Bahá'í teachings. They arrived in Nome on 26 July and took a freighter up the Yukon River, leaving literature at every stop, and speaking to the people they encountered if time permitted. They reached a real cross-section of the Alaskan people, from a Chinese restaurant owner in Tenana to the Governor and his wife who invited them to receptions on Christmas and New Year. They taught in a barber shop in Wrangel; at a masked ball in Sitka; on the sidewalk in Ruby; at the Odd Fellows Hall and in Juneau, and later, in that same town, at the invitation of the Mayor, at the City Council Chambers; at the Women's Club, the movie theatre and the high school auditorium in Anchorage. On New Year's day 1920 they were joined in Anchorage by Mrs. Georgia Grayson Ralston of San Francisco, who accompanied them on their teaching trip until they sailed home from Vancouver on 28 February 1920. In eight months they had travelled 6000 miles.
After returning to her hometown at the beginning of March 1920, Emogene did not pause for long. On 20 April she was on a train headed for the Twelfth Annual Mashrekol-Azkar Convention and Bahai Congress on 24-29 April, at the Aldine Club in New York City. On the first day of the Convention, Emogene spoke briefly of her teaching trip to Alaska, saying in part: "There are over nine millions of respectful, well- bred people. They are most appreciative and noble. I hope the teachers will go to them. They will be received everywhere with wonderful cordiality." (Star of the West, XI:4, p. 62) Emogene then proceeded to Washington, D.C. on 2 May and ten days later boarded the S.S.Canopic for Naples, arriving 26 May. But this time Emogene was not staying in Italy. She touched down in Italy on her way to visiting 'Abdu'l-Bahá in the Holy Land. She arrived in Haifa on 7 June and did not leave until 27 November. During those six months in 1920 with the Master, Emogene studied the teachings at the source.
She kept a diary as well as notes of the Master's talks. These have yet to be studied and will certainly yield a rich treasury of information about the life and daily teaching of 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
On 3 December 1920, Emogene arrived in Naples. She remained in Italy for about a year. On 5 December 1921 she received a telegramme from Bahiyyih Khanum, announcing the passing of 'Abdu'l-Bahá. On 16 December she was on a steamer heading for the Holy Land, where she arrived on 23 December. Among the believers then resident in Haifa were Ruhi Effendi, Dr. Lotfullah Hakim, Mr. and Mrs. Schoplocher, Mr. and Mrs. Bosch and Miss Ethel Rosenberg. On 5 January 1922 they commemorated the "feast of fourty days," marking the fortieth day after the passing of the Master. This commemoration continued a practice which Bahá'u'lláh had approved in word but apparently not established in writing. On 7 January the Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Bahá was read for the first time. This reading had been delayed to enable Shoghi Effendi, the eldest grandson of 'Abdu'l-Bahá to return to the Holy Land from England, where he was attending Oxford University. Emogene remained for three months to attend to the family of the Master — she was a particularly close friend of Monever Khanum, the daughter of 'Abdu'l-Bahá. On March 15 Shoghi Effendi asked Emogene to return to Italy to continue teaching the Cause, and on 27 March she departed to take up that task, with Monever Khanum as her companion. They arrived in Naples on 1 April and proceeded to Milan. Then together they journeyed to Germany, leaving on 2 May, and spent some months visiting Bahá'í communities, returning to Milan on 25 September. There are incomplete diary entries for this period, so it is not clear when Monever Khanum returned to the Holy Land. Emogene remained in Italy until 1928, establishing herself in Rome in 1922, in Florence for three years in 1923, and then perhaps returning to Milan for her last two years as the first Bahá'í pioneer to Italy.
In 1928, at the request of Miss Julia Culver and with the approval of Shoghi Effendi, Emogene relocated to Geneva, Switzerland, to help administer the International Bahá'í Bureau. This institution had been established by Mrs. J. Stannard, who was compelled to give up this work due to ill health. The Bureau was the precursor of the International Bahá'í Community, and was established in Geneva because this city was the location of many international agencies. The Bureau served as a clearing-house and transfer point for communications between the Guardian and the European believers. Miss Culver financed the Bureau, and Emogene managed it. A monthly bulletin was published from 1927-1935. Mrs. Anne Lynch and Miss Margaret Lentz also served the Bureau during those years. In 1931 Shoghi Effendi summoned Emogene to Haifa to assist him in the preparation of "The Dawn-breakers." Emogene was fluent in French and Italian, and was conversant also in German and Persian, and her language skills may have been of considerable service to the Guardian. She remained in the Holy Land for about a year, and then returned to serve the International Bahá'í Bureau until 1935.
At 66 years of age Emogene returned to the United States, and served principally as a travelling teacher. In 1937 a mimeographed outline entitled "Three Worlds" was issued in New York by the Bahá'í Publishing Committee; this same outline was revised and republished the following year with the new title "Conditions of Existence: Servitude, Prophethood, Deity." Emogene gave classes based on this outline in various locations, including the Green Acre Bahá'í Summer School (23-27 August 1937) and the Louhelen Ranch Bahá'í Summer School (9-19 July 1938). The Green Acre course (only three days in duration) was a much abbreviated version of the course offered at Louhelen (ten days long).
The Louhelen program is outlined here, with all of the topics listed by day of presentation:
- July 9:
- "The world of God"
"God: Unknowable Essence...Supreme Center" - July 10:
- "The world of Command"
"Kingdom of Command...Primal Emanation"
"Manifestations: Oneness with God...Primal Mirrors"
"Holy Spirit...Christ Spirit"
"The Will...the Word...Universal Reality"
"World of Divinity" - July 11:
- "World of Creation"
"Beginning of Creation...worlds...purpose...nature"
"World of Humanity...Reality...Potentiality...Rational Faculty" - July 12:
- "Manifestations"
"Essential Oneness...Distinction...Sovereignty...Purpose and Mission"
[Humanity]
"Prayer... Faith... Rebirth...Immortality"
"Education: Material...Human...Spiritual Obligations...
"Service...Sacrifice...Material and Divine Civilization...
"Reward...Retribution" - July 13:
- "Bahá'u'lláh: Him Whom God will make manifest"
"Prophecy...Glory of God...Day of God"
"Oneness with God...Distinction...Greatest Name... Covenant"
"Proof and Power of Mission...Infallibility... Succession...Cycles" - July 14:
- "Bab: Inaugurator of the Babi Dispensation"
"Prophecy"
"Essential Oneness"
"Primal Point...Forerunner"
"Qa'im...Sovereignty" - July 15:
- "'Abdu'l-Bahá: Collective name which will gather all the people"
"Prophecy"
"Station...Mystery of God...Branch"
"Center of the Covenant...Interpreter"
"Mission...Will and Testament" - July 16:
- "The Administrative Order"
"Source...Authority"
"Establishment...Twin Pillars...Institutions... Functions...Goal"
"Instructions: Hands of God...Council of Nine"
"Universal House of Justice"
"Secondary House of Justice"
"Local Assemblies"
"Bahá'í Fund"
"Convention"
"Nineteen-day Feast
"Mashriqu'l-Adhkar"
"Deepen in the Cause"
"World commonwealth"
"Upon everyone obligation to teach"
"Must be detached"
"Inner life" - July 17-19:
- "Review...Discussion"
One of the distinctive features of this course is that the course outlines prepared by Emogene for these two summer schools cited specific references from the Bahá'í Writings and letters of the Guardian for each topic. These course outlines and Emogene's "Three Worlds" and "Conditions of Existence" on which they are based represent Emogene's profound, comprehensive and systematic grasp of the Bahá'í teachings. They also demonstrate her disciplined and well-organized manner of thinking and her humility — she does not add a single word of her own in her outlines for the study of the Bahá'í teachings.
In 1942, at the age of 73, Emogene responded to a call for Bahá'í teachers to travel in Latin America, accepting an assignment to Havana, Cuba. To prepare for this visit she familiarized herself with Spanish so that she could instruct the Cubans in their native tongue. Shortly after returning from this trip, and while in California, Emogene had a heart attack. She remained in California to convalesce until spring 1943, and then moved to Greenville, South Carolina in order to save the Local Spiritual Assembly from lapsing. Due to her ill health, she took up residence in the sanitorium (small private hospital) of Dr. William T. Bidwell, a chiropractor and naturopath, and a fellow Bahá'í. In June of 1943, while Emogene was still residing at the sanitorium, Mrs. Marian C. Lippitt joined the ranks of the patients there and these two believers met. Mrs. Lippitt remained at the sanitorium for five weeks, and during this period Emogene taught her the system of classifications she had employed in her published study outlines entitled "Three Worlds" and "Conditions of Existence." Ruth D. Meurer recalled that Dr. Bidwell hosted a Bahá'í conference at his sanitorium during the last week of June 1943; present at that conference were Emogene Hoagg, Terah Cowart-Smith, Luda Dabrowski, Villa Vaugh, Marian Crist Lippitt, Virginia Camelon, Dorothy Campbell, Ann Stokely, Adeline Loghe, Esther Sego, Charles Mason Remey, Teen Bidwell, Mrs. Hogan, Mrs. McDonald and Ruth D. Meurer. The last three persons mentioned were not believers at that time. Ruth wrote: "Every morning I went down early and had coffee and Mrs. Hoagg told me much of the Bahá'í Faith and of life in the Holy Household. Mrs. Hoagg was a tall stately woman of truly regal mien. I came back on July 1st and enrolled July 6, 1943. I was truly confirmed."
About one year after her arrival in Greenville, South Carolina, in May 1944 Emogene was well enough to journey to Wilmette, Illinois to attend the thirty-sixth Annual Convention of the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada, and the commemoration of the centenary since the declaration of the Bab, on 22-23 May 1844.
Upon her return to Washington, D.C., she expected to embark upon a teaching trip to Green Acre, Montreal, and Florida, but once more she fell ill and was compelled to retire to her apartment in the home of Mr. and Mrs. G. Marion Reid, in Charleston, South Carolina. In September 1944, finding that she needed a companion to look after her, she moved in with Miss Leone Barnitz, in Washington, D.C. In October she transferred her residence to the De Mille household, living with them for nine months, until July 1945. On 2 October 1945, Emogene once more arrived in Charleston and took back her apartment there. She had another heart attack, had to spend some time in the local hospital and then returned to her apartment. Miss Josie Pinson moved in with her and stayed with her until her passing. On 15 December 1945, at the age of 76 years and three months, Emogene passed away.
During the last few years of her life, and up until very shortly before her death, Emogene was often described as working, day and night, to complete her magnum opus, a compilation on the "Three Conditions of Existence" with quotations cited in full from the Bahá'í Writings and various other Scriptures. This voluminous work was completed before her death, typed by Mrs. Agnes DeMille and forwarded to the National Bahá'í Center in Wilmette, Illinois, in 1947. God willing, it will be edited and published at some point in the future, not as a tribute to Emogene — for she would not want any such personal recognition — but as the first comprehensive study of its kind in the history of religion. This work of Emogene's was the first attempt to codify the teachings of the Prophets of God with respect to the fundamental categories of existence revealed in the Bahá'í Writings, and which Emogene had outlined in "Three Worlds," and "Conditions of Existence." Although her compilation has not yet been published, Emogene's approach to the study of the Bahá'í Writings was continued in the work of Mrs. Marian Crist Lippitt, a part-time resident of another Charleston, in the state of West Virginia.
Bibliography
Cooper, (Mrs.) Ella Goodall, "Henrietta Emogene Martin Hoagg 1869- 1945," The Bahá'í World, volume X, pp. 520-526
De Mille, (Mrs.) Amine, Letters addressed to Mrs. Marian C. Lippitt
Ibid., "Emogene Hoagg, an exemplary pioneer," Bahá'í News, no. 511, October 1973, pp. 6-11
Hoagg, (Mrs. H.) Emogene, "Three Worlds," study outline; New York: Bahá'í Publishing Committee, 1937
Ibid., "Conditions of Existence: Servitude, Prophethood, Deity," study outline; NY: BPC, 1938
Ibid., Hand out for students at Green Acre Bahá'í Summer School course on "The Dispensation of Bahá'u'lláh," 23-27 August 1937
Ibid., Study Outline for students at Green Acre Bahá'í Summer School, ibid.
Ibid., Study Outline for students at Louhelen Ranch Bahá'í Summer School,9-19 July 1938 course on "Conditions of Existence: Servitude, Prophethood, Deity"
Ibid., Hand out for students at Vogel Park (California?) course on "Some Answered Questions," n.d.
Ibid., Diaries and Personal Notes for 1895, 1898, 1900, 1913-1914, 1917, 1919, 1920-1923
Ibid., Pilgrim Notes for 1900, 1912, 1913, 1920, 1921
Ibid., Notes of talks by Mirza Abu'l-Fadl for 1900-1901
Lippitt, (Mrs.) Marian Crist, Autobiographical notes
Meuner, Ruth D., Statement regarding her Bahá'í acquaintances, including Emogene Hoagg, undated
Pinson, (Miss) Josie, Circular letters of 1 January and 20 January 1946 regarding the passing of Emogene Hoagg
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