View source for Julia Lynch Olin

'''Julia Lynch Olin (1882-1961)'''

Copyright 2006, Will Johnson, [mailto:wjhonson@aol.com wjhonson@aol.com], Professional Genealogist, All Rights Reserved.  This page is protected from unregistered editors.  If you'd like to contribute, please log-in.

Julia Lynch Olin was the second daughter of [[Stephen Henry Olin]] (1847-1925) and his first wife [[Alice W Barlow|Alice Wadsworth Barlow]] (1853-1882).  Stephen was born on the campus of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wesleyan_University Wesleyan] (in Middletown, Connecticut) during his father, Stephen's presidency of that place.  Stephen would later become a copyright law attorney in New York City, [[New York]] and a trustee for many years of the New York Public Library.

Julia was born Oct 21, 1882 at "Elsinore", her wealthy grandfather's summer home in Glen Cove, New York.  Her mother Alice (1853-82) died shortly after Julie's birth.  Her grandparents both died in 1889 at which time Elsinore was sold.  Her maternal grandfather was the wealthy financier [[Samuel Latham Mitchell Barlow]]. ([http://content.ancestry.com/iexec/?htx=View&r=an&dbid=50000&iid=109321923&fn=steph&ln=olin&st=d&ssrc=&pid=678151 His obit])

She first married in Dec, 1902 to [[J. Philip Benkard]] (1873-1929) and had two daughters [[Phyllis Benkard|Phyllis]] and [[Elsie Benkard|Elsie]].  In Dec 1920, while she was in Paris, they divorced and she then married, in May 1921 in Paris, to [[Lewis Stuyvesant Chanler]] (1869-1942), the ex-Lieut. Gov. of New York.  Lewis was a descendent, through both sides of his family of John Livingston, Rector of Ancrum (d 1672), and through his mother a member of the wealthy Astor family of New York, who had come from Germany.

Sometime after her return from France, Julia attended some lectures about 1925 or 1926 and through these joined the Baha'i organzation.

In the Dec 1929 engagement notice of her daughter Elsie, it mentions that Julia was living at 132 East Sixty-Fifth in New York City.  Her daughter Elsie married [[Charles H Clarke]] in 1930 in "...a Bahai ceremony presided over by [[Ahmad Sohrab]]." and this couple resided at [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oyster_Bay,_New_York Oyster Bay, New York].

Her association with Ahmad Sohrab led to the creation of the New History Society and the Caravan of the East and West.  Her house in Manhattan was christened the "Caravan House".  The New History Society published a number of works.  Caravan was an organization to introduce young people to the Baha'i religion, a sort-of youth core, before joining the main body.  At one time Caravan boasted of having tens of thousands of members all over the world.

Sohrab and Julia were ordered to submit to the New York Baha'i organization, to be under their aegis and they refused.  For this Sohrab was excommunicated from the religion in 1939 by Shoghi Effendi, the then-head of the religion.  Later the Baha'i organization sued Sohrab to try to stop him from using the name Baha'i for his efforts.  The organization lost this case, setting the precedent that the name Baha'i, standing for a religion, may be used by anyone.

== Works ==
*[http://www.h-net.org/~bahai/diglib/books/P-T/S/sohrab/LP.htm ''Living Pictures. In the Great Drama of the 19th Century'']. (with Ahmad Sohrab) New York: The New History Society, 1933. Reprinted. H-Bahai: Lansing, Michigan, 2004. (this link includes her picture)  This link has since been purged by H-Net.
*Seven Valleys, by Bahá'u'lláh (trans. Julie Chanler), 1936
*Brand, & Sohrab [libretto Max Brand, and Julie Chandler; Music Max Brand]. The Gate: Scenic Oratorio for Soli, Chorus, and Orchestra in Two Parts (19 Scenes). 61. New York: Associated Music Publishers, 1944.
*''His Messengers Went Forth,'' by Julie Chanler, Illustrated by Olin Dows. Published by Coward-McCann, Inc. New York. Copyright 1948
*Ioas, Chanler, & Sohrab. ''Three Letters''. [11] leaves. New York: Caravan of East and West, 1954.
*''From Gaslight to Dawn'', New History Foundation, NY 1956

==Original documents==
*<i>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Times New York Times]</i>, [[JuliaLynchOlin1|May 25, 1921; pg 14 Lewis S Chanler Weds Mrs Benkard]]<br>

*<i>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Times New York Times]</i>, May 17, 1928; pg 25 "[Died] In Paris, May 16, after a short illness, Phyllis, elder daughter of J. Philip Benkard, and Julia Olin Chanler."

*<i>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Times New York Times]</i>, [[ElsieBenkard1|Dec 11, 1929; pg 29 Miss Elsie Benkard Engaged To Marry]]

==Secondary sources==
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Lynch_Olin "Julia Lynch Olin"] on Wikipedia
*[http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=jfowkes55&id=I02910 "Fowkes from the Past"], (Family research database) by J Fowkes, hosted at the WorldConnect Project at Ancestry.com
*[http://www.h-net.org/~bahai/notes/vol2/newhist.html Summary of "From Gaslight to Dawn"] by Julie Chanler (Part 1)
*[http://www.h-net.msu.edu/~bahai/notes/vol2/newhist1.html Summary of "From Gaslight to Dawn"] by Julie Chanler (Part 2)
*[http://www.wesleyan.planyourlegacy.org/heritage.php Olin Associates] page at Wesleyan mentions a bit of biography on the Olin family
*[http://www.genealogics.org/getperson.php?personID=I00418305&tree=LEO "Lewis Stuyvesant Chanler"] Genealogics, by Leo van de Pas

[[Category:Biographies]]
[[Category:Bahai individuals]]
[[Category:Bahai divisions]]
[[Category:New York]]