Bahá'u'lláh's Garden:
Jacksonville, Florida, 1919-1969

by Kathryn Louisa Vernon

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2. About this manuscript

The date of this book is unknown. Handly Caraway, who provided this document to the library, shares what he knows. Some names removed, as we did not ask permission to credit them:

I first became aware of the book's existence in 2002 after a friend, Laurence Layne, and I started writing the biography of Dr. Walter Bryant Guy (1869-1940). At that time, the secretary of the assembly in Jacksonville, Florida copied the pages referencing Dr. Guy for us to use in our project. After that, I became concerned that we should try to preserve this document, as I didn't know if this was the only copy extant. When I contacted S. later (ca. 2009) in Jacksonville and asked permission to scan the document, I was referred to B. of Jacksonville, who had just scanned it in .tif format. B. had also, I believe, secured a headstone for Kathryn Vernon in the Jacksonville cemetery near the grave of Dr. Guy. Previously, her grave was unmarked. B. provided me with a digital copy of the book, and a member of our St. Johns County Bahá'í community converted the tif file to pdf.

I vaguely remember meeting Kathryn Vernon in Jacksonville after I became a Bahá'í in 1974. I believe that she was the secretary of their assembly from 1934 to 1969. My Bahá'í teacher for most of 1973 was Mae Thitchener of St. Augustine, who is mentioned in the book. I suspect that Kathryn used the notes that she made as secretary to construct the detailed information about visitors, etc. in her history. I don't know when it was written. [-H. C., 2015]