Sarah Farmer

= Sarah Farmer, Green Acre, and the Portsmouth Peace Treaty =

By Anne Gordon Perry

Sarah Farmer, founder of the Green Acre Conferences (now Green Acre Bahá'í School) was a woman with vision and a remarkable, life-long commitment to international peace and religious dialogue. On September 5, 1905, she was the only woman present at the signing of the “Portsmouth Peace Treaty” negotiated through the diplomacy of President Theodore Roosevelt to end the long and brutal Russo-Japanese War. Obtaining a pass to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard on the day of the signing, and hidden from view, she observed a dramatic moment in the history of negotiations for peace.

Who was Sarah Farmer, and why was she so interested in peace?

Sarah Jane Farmer (1847–1916) was the daughter of humanitarian Hannah Tobey Shapleigh Farmer of Eliot, Maine, and pioneer electrical inventor Moses Gerrish Farmer of Boscawen, New Hampshire. The Farmers were transcendentalists who were associated with the abolitionist and other progressive movements. Their home was a way station on the Underground Railroad.

Sarah grew up knowing such people as Sojourner Truth, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Harriet Tubman, Julia Ward Howe, and John Greenleaf Whittier, who later gave Green Acre its name. These associations contributed to Sarah’s understanding of social problems and the importance of peace, freedom, and equality.

In 1890, Sarah Farmer joined four businessmen to open a resort hotel in Eliot. Two years later she had a vision that Green Acre should offer conferences on progressive, universal subjects—the sciences, arts, religion—open to all races and creeds. In 1894, Sarah dedicated Green Acre to the ideals of peace and religious unity. Then she raised the first known peace flag in the world, explaining: "In looking for an emblem we wanted something that would be a call to everybody and fit everybody—and we felt that the Message that had been brought to the world by prophet after prophet was the message of Peace. So we have put on a large banner over our heads—PEACE."

The Green Acre Conferences

In the years leading up to the 1905 Portsmouth Peace Treaty, Green Acre became known for its animated (and sometimes controversial) summer conferences that offered a forum for dialogue with the theme of peace. The conferences brought together leading writers, educators, philosophers, artists and activists, who spoke on such subjects as international peace, religious tradition and practice, the arts, sciences, education, nutrition, and philosophy.

At the 1904 closing ceremony, the conference participants dedicated the program to the resolution of the Russo-Japanese War. The great operatic singer Emma Thursby, in Japanese costume, sang the national anthem of Japan, followed by all singing the national anthem of Russia.

Events of 1905

Hearing that negotiations had succeeded and the signing of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty was to take place at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Sarah Farmer invited President Roosevelt and the Japanese and Russian delegates to a special celebration at Green Acre. The Japanese delegation accepted the invitation and spent the day at Green Acre on August 31. Under a large tent and following music about peace, the Japanese Foreign Minister Komura, Persian diplomat Ali Kuli Khan, and Sarah Farmer addressed an audience of over three hundred people on the importance of peace. Sarah Farmer obtained a pass to the Shipyard on the day of the signing, September 5, and was the only known woman who observed the proceedings."'Sarah Farmer and the Bahá'í Faith"'

In 1900, during a time of personal anguish for Sarah Farmer when many resisted her vision of Green Acre and tried to thwart her efforts, she traveled to Palestine and met ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the son of the Founder of the Bahá’í Faith. He confirmed her vision, predicting that Green Acre would become a great meeting ground, especially for the unity of East and West. Sarah found, in the teachings of the Bahá’í Faith, the perfect expression of her own beliefs—the oneness of humanity, the necessity and inevitability of world peace, and the oneness and progressive unfoldment of religion.

Green Acre TodayAfter a transition from its early days and turbulent leadership during Sarah Farmer’s last years, the Green Acre Fellowship was established to help it evolve into a Bahá'í center of learning. Today, Green Acre continues to foster such Bahá'í ideals as the oneness of humankind, world peace, race unity, and the equality of women and men.

Sarah Farmer’s efforts to bring peace to the world will perhaps be more widely recognized in the future. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, son of the Founder of the Baha'i Faith, predicted that her value will “appear among the nations of the world.” He also said that women will be at the forefront of leading the world to peace and international arbitration. Sarah Farmer was such a woman, and Green Acre remains as her legacy.

See also "Green Acre on the Piscataqua" by Anne Gordon Perry et al.