New Hampshire Individuals of Note

As a child and young adult, Mary Baker suffered from chronic ill health, was very delicate, and had a nervous temperament.  While suffering from an illness in 1862, she visited Dr. Phineas P. Quimby in Portland, Maine and was cured by his method of "mind cure."  Dr. Quimby was trained in hypnotism, and used this and careful talking to his patients about their illness to effect cures.  It is one aspect of present day psychological counseling.  Mary spent some time studying with Quimby, taking notes, and preparing what later became the basis for her life work.  In 1875 she published Science and Health. This work presents the foundations for her teaching and for the beliefs of Christian Science. 

Mary Baker Eddy believed that the Bible stories of the healing work of Jesus provided the foundation for a true understanding of illness.  She came to believe that the "eternal mind" was the source of all being and there was no separation of mind and matter.  Instead, for her, spirit or mind was the one reality and illness comes from error in belief and understanding.  The true healer dispels the individual’s belief in disease, and so brings the patient into harmony with truth and this cures the patient.  Thus, the mind controls the body, and is the cause and cure of all disease.  This teaching holds strong appeal to those who feel the need of a faith in eternal goodness, since it teaches that, by exercising our minds correctly, we will be in touch with the everlasting good, the divine principle of universal harmony. 

As she attempted to explain to others the reasons for her recovery from a bad fall and concussion in 1866, many individuals were touched by her revelations.  Mary Baker Eddy then began to hold meetings to explain her ideas.  Soon she began to give lessons at $300 for 12 sessions and used her first book, The Science of Man, as the text.  Mary Baker Eddy had thought her teachings on healing would be accepted by the established churches, but this was not to be.  With the publication of Science and Health some reviews rejected the concepts, but others believed the book was the most important they had ever read. 

In 1875 she resigned from the Congregational Church, and in 1876 she established the Christian Science Association, which in 1879 chartered the Church of Christ, Scientist.  The purpose of the new church, according to the manual of the Mother Church, was to commemorate the word of our Master (Jesus) and reinstate primitive Christianity and its lost element of healing.  The church in Boston grew, but not without controversies which actually brought more attention to the new Church. 

In 1882 Eddy opened the Massachusetts Metaphysical College where she taught the tenets of Christian Science.  In 1883 a Journal of Christian Science was founded which spread the teachings on a monthly basis.  Interest in Christian Science grew steadily and Eddy lectured to large crowds in Chicago, New York, and Boston, and the London Times carried accounts of developments.  In 1889 Eddy moved to Concord, N.H. and from there reorganized the church and laid plans for the building of the Boston Mother Church. 

In 1906 McClure's Magazine, a noted muckraking publication that had carried articles on Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Monopoly, carried articles denouncing the management and teachings of Mary Baker Eddy.  The New York World joined in the attacks.  The attacks are often quoted, and in studying about Mary Baker Eddy, it is important to seek several sources to gain a balanced view of her life and work.  She was disturbed by the publications and determined to establish an honest and worthy newspaper.  In 1908 the Christian Science Monitor published its first edition.  Also in 1908 Mary Baker Eddy moved to Chestnut Hill where she died on December 3, 1910. Some thought that Christian Science would die out when Mary Baker Eddy died, but in 1990 there were over 1800 Christian Science congregations in the United States and there are others in over 60 nations. Her book, Science and Health, which went through over 50 editions in her lifetime, is, next to the Bible, the most published religious book dealing with aspects of Christianity.

Mary Baker Eddy had a long and varied life.  She was born on a farm in Bow, N.H., the youngest of six children.  In 1834 the family moved to Sanbornton Bridge (Tilton).  She was a sickly child and missed school often but read a great deal.  Her brother, Albert, studied law under Franklin Pierce.  In1843 she married George Washington Glover, who died before their first, and her only, child was born.  She was destitute and was forced to send her son, George W. Glover Jr., away to be raised by friends, the Cheneys. 

In 1853 she married Dr. Daniel Patterson, a traveling dentist.  Life was not happy as he traveled a lot and she was often ill.  He volunteered for dental service in the Civil War and was captured and imprisoned.  He escaped but found it hard to settle down after these experiences.  Mary, still sickly, was studying with Dr. Quimby.  They moved to Massachusetts and lived in Swampscott, and later Lynn where she developed her ideas about Christian Science and did her first teaching about it.  In 1868 Dr. Patterson left his wife, and they were later divorced. 

In 1877 she married Asa Gilbert Eddy, a member of the Christian Science Association.  He died in 1882 and she spent the rest of her life teaching, writing and organizing the Church of Christ, Scientist.  She faced several controversies during her last years including a law suit which attempted to prove she was incompetent to run the church.  She was very successful at spreading her ideas and left an estate of over 2.5 million dollars.  Her birthplace in Bow may be visited as well as the Mother Church in Boston.

WOK

Eddy, Mary Baker.  Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.  Boston: Christian Science Publishing Society, 1934.

Peel, Robert.  Mary Baker Eddy.  New York: Holt, Rinehart, Winston, 1966. 3 Vol.

Smith, Louise A.  Mary Baker Eddy.  New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1991.

"We Knew Mary Baker Eddy."  Boston: Christian Science Publishing Society, 1979.