While in Lynn Mrs. Patterson continued to take an interest in Spiritualism. The older Spiritualists of Lynn remember her taking part as a medium in a circle which met at the home of Mrs. George Clark in Summer Street. Mrs. Richard Hazeltine says:

  My husband, Richard Hazeltine, and I went to the circle at Mrs. Clark’s and saw Mrs. Glover pass into the trance state, and heard her communicate by word of mouth messages received from the spirit world, or what she said and we believed were messages from the spirit world. I cannot forget certain peculiar features of these sittings of Mrs. Glover’s. Mrs. Glover told us, as we were gathered there, that, because of her superior spiritual quality, and because of the purity of her life, she could only be controlled in the spirit world by one of the Apostles and by Jesus Christ. When she went into the trance state and gave her communications to members of the circle, these communications were said by Mrs. Glover to come, through her as a medium, from the spirit of one of the Apostles or of Jesus Christ.

  Mrs. Mary Gould, a Spiritualist medium in Lynn, remembers that at one time Abraham Lincoln was one of Mrs. Glover’s controls.

  In the winter of 1866-67 Mrs. Patterson met Hiram Crafts at a boarding-house in Lynn. Crafts was a shoe-worker of East Stoughton, who had come to Lynn to work in a shoe factory there for the winter. Mrs. Patterson tried to interest every one she met in Quimby’s theories and saw in the serious shoe maker a prospective pupil. What she told Crafts of this new system of doctoring appealed to him strongly; he was a Spiritualist and was deeply interested in psychic phenomena. After he returned home, he sent for Mrs. Patterson to come to East Stoughton and teach him. She joined the Crafts, accordingly, in the early part of 1867, and lived for some months in their home at East Stoughton — now Avon — instructing Mr. Crafts in the Quimby method of healing.

  TO THE SICK.

  DR. H. S. CRAFTS,

  Would say unhesitatingly, I can cure you, and have never failed to cure Consumption, Catarrh, Scrofula, Dyspepsia and Rheumatism, with many other forms of disease and weakness, in which I am especially successful. If you give me a fair trial and are not helped, I will refund your money.

  The following certificate is from a lady in this city,

  Mrs. Raymond: —

  H. S. CRAFTS, Office 90, Main street:

  In giving to the public a statement of my peculiar case, I am actuated by a motive to point out the way to others of relief from their sufferings. About 12 years since I had an internal abscess, that not only threatened to destroy my life at that time, but which has ever since continued to affect me in some form or another internally, making life well nigh a burden to bear. I have consulted many physicians, all of whom have failed to relieve me of this suffering, and in this condition, while growing worse year by year, about three weeks ago I applied to Dr. H. S. Crafts, who, to my own, and the utter astonishment of my friends, has, in this incredibly short time, without medicines or painful applications, cured me of this chronic malady. In conclusion, I can only quote the words of a patient who was healed by his method of cure: “I am convinced he is a skillful Physician, whose cures are not the result of accident.” I reside in Taunton, at Weir street Railroad Crossing.

  ABIGAIL RAYMOND.

  Taunton, May 13, 1867. — my14-dT&S&wlm

  An advertisement of Hiram S. Crafts, which appeared in a Taunton newspaper, May 13, 1867. Mr. Crafts had moved from East Stoughton to Taunton, taking his wife and Mrs. Eddy with him.

  Early in the spring Crafts went to Taunton, taking his wife and Mrs. Patterson with him, and opened an office. He was the first of Mrs. Eddy’s students to go into practice. His advertisement in a Taunton paper is reprinted herewith. Mrs. Patterson did not practise herself, but remained with the family to teach and advise Crafts. Concerning Mrs. Patterson and her relation to the Crafts, Ira Holmes, brother of Mrs. Crafts, makes the following affidavit:

  Ira Holmes, being duly sworn, deposes and says:

  I am 76 years of age. I reside in Stoughton, Massachusetts. I first met Mrs. Mary Patterson, now known as Mary Baker G. Eddy, of Concord, New Hampshire, in the year 1867. She was then living at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Hiram S. Crafts in East Stoughton, which is now called Avon. Mrs. Hiram S. Crafts is my sister, and Hiram S. Crafts is a brother of my wife, Mrs. Ira Holmes. The two families were, therefore, intimately connected, and I was acquainted with what occurred in the Crafts home.

  Hiram Crafts and his wife, Mary Crafts, told me that they first met Mary Patterson in a boarding house in Lynn, Mass., where Hiram and Mary Crafts lived temporarily while Hiram Crafts was working in a Lynn shoe manufactory. Mr. and Mrs. Crafts were Spiritualists, and they have told me that Mrs. Patterson represented to them that she had learned a “science” that was a step in advance of Spiritualism. She wished to teach this science to Hiram Crafts, and after Mr. and Mrs. Crafts had returned from Lynn to their home in East Stoughton, Massachusetts, Mrs. Patterson came to their home for the purpose of teaching this new science to Hiram Crafts. I have heard her say many times, while she was living at Crafts’ that she learned this science from Doctor Quimby. I have heard her say these words: “I learned this science from Dr. Quimby, and I can impart it to but one person.” She always said this in a slow, impressive manner, pronouncing the word “person” as if it were spelled “pairson.”

  From my sister, Mary Crafts, and her husband, Hiram S. Crafts, I learned that Hiram Crafts had entered into an agreement with Mrs. Patterson to pay her a certain sum of money for instructing him in Quimby’s science.

  After Hiram Crafts had learned it, he took some patients for treatment, in East Stoughton, but in a short time he, with Mrs. Crafts and Mrs. Patterson, moved to Taunton, Mass., for the purpose of practising the healing system which Mrs. Patterson had taught him. I never knew of Mrs. Patterson treating, or attempting to treat, any sick person. I understood, from her and from Mr. and Mrs. Crafts, that she could not practise this science, but could teach it, and could teach it to only one person.

  While Mrs. Patterson lived in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Crafts, she caused trouble in the household, and urged Mr. Crafts to get a bill of divorce from his wife, Mary Crafts. The reason Mrs. Patterson gave for urging Mr. Crafts to divorce his wife was, that Mrs. Crafts stood in the way of the success of Mr. Crafts and Mrs. Patterson in the healing business. Mrs. Crafts, my sister, was gentle, kind, and patient, and in no way merited Mrs. Patterson’s dislike of her. Mrs. Crafts waited upon Mrs. Patterson, did the housework and marketing, and in every way sought to advance the interests of her husband, Hiram S. Crafts. When Mrs. Crafts discovered that Mrs. Patterson was attempting to influence Mr. Crafts to apply for a divorce, she, my sister, Mary Crafts, prepared to pack up her possessions and to leave her husband’s house. The result of this was that Mr. Crafts would not consent to lose his wife, and as Mrs. Crafts would not remain unless Mrs. Patterson went away, Mrs. Patterson was obliged to leave the home of Mr. and Mrs. Crafts. This was while they were residing in Taunton, Mass. After Mrs. Patterson’s departure, Mr. and Mrs. Crafts returned to East Stoughton to live, and Hiram S. Crafts no longer practised the healing system taught by Mrs. Patterson.

  I make this statement of my own free will, solely in the interest of justice.

  Ira Holmes.

  COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS

  NORFOLK, SS:

  Stoughton , February 7, 1907.

  Then personally appeared the above named Ira Holmes and acknowledged the foregoing instrument by him subscribed, to be his free act and deed, before me.

  Geo. O. Wentworth, Notary Public.

  Many years afterward, when the Crafts were living in Hebron, N. H., and Mrs. Eddy had retired to Concord, N. H., she sent for Mr. Crafts and paid his expenses to Pleasant View to deliver into her hands his copy of the manuscript which she had used in teaching him, — probably a copy of the Quimby manuscript, — which he did.

  After leaving the Crafts, Mrs. Patterson seems to have gone to Amesbury to the home of Captain and Mrs. Nathaniel Webster. Concerning Mrs. Webster and Mrs. Patterson’s stay at her house, Mrs. Mary Ellis Bartlett, a granddaughter of Mrs. Webster, makes the following affidavit:

  Mary Ellis Bartlett, being duly sworn, deposes and says:

  I am 55 years of age, and I am a citizen of Boston, Massachusetts. I am the daughter of William R. Ellis and Mary Jane Ellis, and the granddaughter of Captain Nathaniel Webster and Mary Webster, who for many years resided in Amesbury, Massachusetts. In the years between 1865 and 1870 my grandparents, Captain and Mrs. Webster, were living in Amesbury, Mass., at what is now No. 5 Merrimac Street. Captain Webster was a retired sea captain, and at that time was superintendent of cotton mills in Manchester, New Hampshire, of which E. A. Straw, his son-in-law, who was later Governor of New Hampshire, was agent for many years. My Grandmother Webster was a well-known Spiritualist. Grandfather Webster was away from home, attending to his business in Manchester, much of the time, returning home to Amesbury about once in two weeks, to remain over Sunday. My grandmother was, therefore, much alone, and because of this, and for the further reason that she was deeply interested in Spiritualism in all its forms, she had at her house constant visitors and charity patients who were Spiritualists. Invalids, cripples, and other unfortunate persons were made welcome, and my grandmother took care of them when they were ill and lodged and boarded them free of charge. She had, or believed she had, spiritual communications in regard to their various ailments, which she followed in prescribing for them and in her treatment of them. My grandmother was what was called a “drawing medium” and a “healing medium.” She drew strange pictures under the influence of the spirits. Many of these pictures are now in existence, and some of them are in my possession, having been given to me by my grandmother.

  Grandmother Webster had a room in her house which was used for spiritual’séances, and for all grandmother’s spiritistic work. This room was on the ground floor, situated in the rear of the front parlour. It was decorated in blue, according to the direction of grandmother’s spirit control, — blue being a colour favoured by the spirits. The room was furnished with the usual chairs, tables, couch, etc., but this furniture was called by my grandmother and her Spiritualist friends, “spiritual furniture,” because it was used only for spiritual purposes. There was a couch which grandmother called her “spiritual couch.” She thought she could sleep upon it when she could not sleep elsewhere. Upon it she took her daytime naps, and sometimes during a restless night she was able to sleep if she lay upon this couch. There was a table in the room which was used for the laying on of hands by the Spiritualists at the’séances held in the room, and there was an old chair which had belonged to Captain Webster’s mother, in which grandmother always sat for her spirit communications. Above this room, which was known as the “spiritual room,” was a bedroom.

  One night in the autumn of 1867, as nearly as I can fix the date, a woman, a stranger, came to my grandmother’s door, and told her that she had been led by the spirits to come to her house, for the reason that it was “a nice, harmonious home.” My grandmother, who was sympathetic and hospitable, and, above all, a devoted Spiritualist, who would never turn another Spiritualist away, upon hearing this, exclaimed, “Glory to God! Come right in!” The woman thus admitted told my grandmother that she was Mrs. Mary Glover, a Spiritualist, and that she had been drawn as above described to my grandmother’s house. Mrs. Glover did not explain further why she came and did not say from what place she had come. My grandmother gave her the use of the bedroom over the spiritual room, and also the use of the spiritual room. Here grandmother and Mrs. Glover continued to hold spiritualistic’séances, in which Mrs. Glover took an active part, passing into the trance state and giving what grandmother believed to be communications from the spirits.

  Mrs. Glover became permanently settled at Grandmother Webster’s house. She was treated as a guest, was waited upon, and was cared for in every respect. My Grandfather Webster, coming home and finding Mrs. Glover established in the house, was displeased because she was there. He told my grandmother that he did not want Mrs. Glover to remain. . . . But Mrs. Glover continued to live in the house, and after a few months, during which my grandmother’s admiration for Mrs. Glover had begun to grow less, Mrs. Glover informed my grandmother that she had learned a new science which she thought was something beyond Spiritualism. She said she had learned it from Dr. Quimby of Portland, Maine, and that she had brought copies of some of his manuscripts with her. She talked about it and read the manuscripts to my grandmother, who did not, however, believe that the “science” was an improvement or a step beyond Spiritualism. From that time forward Mrs. Glover talked of Quimby’s science. She was writing what she told grandmother was a revision of the Bible. She always sat in the spiritual chair at the spiritual table in grandmother’s spiritual room to do her writing, and sometimes after she had written for hours, she would gather up all the pages she had filled with writing and tear them up, because she could not make them read as she wished.

  My father, William R. Ellis, was in 1867 living in New York, with his three children — myself, my sister, and my brother. My mother had died three or four years before. Our family had always spent the summer school vacation at my grandparents’ home in Amesbury, Mass., and when it was time for us to leave New York, my father always went to Amesbury in advance of the rest of us, in order to clear my grandmother’s house of broken-down Spiritualists and sick persons, so that we might have enough room in the house and because he thought the atmosphere of so much sickness and Spiritualism was unwholesome for young children.

  My father, upon first seeing Mrs. Glover in the house, had told my grandmother that she, Mrs. Glover, should not be permitted to remain. . . . . . . . . . . My grandmother, upon being urged by my father and grandfather to dismiss Mrs. Glover, at last told her that she was no longer welcome and asked her to go away. Mrs. Glover ignored my grandmother’s request and continued to live in the house . . . . . . . .

  Failing to succeed in getting Mrs. Glover to leave the house, my grandmother sent for my father. He arrived in the early evening of the following Saturday. When grandmother had told him of the trouble and how Mrs. Glover refused to go away, she asked my father to see if he could not make Mrs. Glover leave the house. My father commanded Mrs. Glover to leave, and when she steadfastly refused to go, he had her trunk dragged from her room and set it outside the door, insisted upon her also going out the door, and when she was outside he closed the door and locked it. I have frequently heard my father describe this event in detail, and I have heard him say that he had never expected, in his whole life, to be obliged to put a woman into the street. It was dark at the time, and a heavy rain was falling. My grandparents and my father considered it absolutely necessary to take this step, harsh and disagreeable as it seemed to them.

  The above statement is made partly from my own personal knowledge, and partly from hearing it many, many times from my father, my grandmother, and my Grandfather Webster, who have related it to me and others of the family until it has come to be a well-known part of our family history. I make this statement of my own free will, solely in the interests of justice.

  Mary Ellis Bartlett

  STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS,

  SUFFOLK, SS:

  Personally appeared the above named Mary Ellis Bartlett, and made oath that the foregoing statements covering eleven sheets, each of which is subscribed by her, are true to the best of her knowledge and belief, this sixth day of February, 1907.

  Herbert P. Sheldon, Notary Public .

  When Mrs. Glover was thus left without a lodging-place for the night, Mrs. Richardson, another of Mrs. Webster’s Spiritualist guests, who was in the house at the time, was moved to compassion and took Mrs. Glover down the street to the house of Miss Sarah Bagley, a dressmaker, who was a fellow Spiritualist.

  DR. ROUNDY AND WIFE,

  CLAIRVOYANT, Magnetic and Electric Physicians, have recently furnished a house on Quincy avenue, in Quincy, Mass., where they are still Healing the Sick with good success. Board and treatment reasonable. Address, Quincy, Mass.

  6w* — June 6.

  ANY PERSON desiring to learn how to heal the sick can receive of the undersigned instruction that will enable them to commence healing on a principle of science with a success far beyond any of the present modes. No medicine, electricity, physiology or hygiene required for unparalleled success in the most difficult cases. No pay is required unless this skill is obtained. Address, MRS. MARY B. GLOVER, Amesbury, Mass., Box 61.

  tf† — June 20.

  MRS. MARY LEWIS, by sending their autograph, or lock of hair, will give psychometrical delineations of character, answer questions, &c. Terms $1.00 and red stamp. Address, MARY LEWIS, Morrison, Whiteside Co., Ill.

  June 20. — 20w*.

  The above advertisement, in which Mrs. Eddy offers to teach a new kind of healing based on a “principle of science,” appeared July 4, 1868, in the Banner of Light, the official organ of New England Spiritualists. Mrs. Eddy was then living at the home of the Websters in Amesbury, and the number of Captain Webster’s post-office box was 61.

  Photograph by H. F. Currier

  MARY BAKER G. EDDY

  From a photograph taken in Amesbury, Mass., in 1870

  ⁠

  From a tintype. Mrs. Eddy helping an Amesbury photographer to get a successful picture of a baby.

  Miss Bagley took the friendless woman into her home, and here, in addition to the small sum which she paid for her board, Mrs. Glover taught Miss Bagley the Quimby method of treating disease. Miss Bagley developed such powers as a healer that she soon abandoned her needle and began to practise “professionally.” Mrs. Glover was generally known in Amesbury as a pupil of Dr. Quimby, and it was rumoured in the village that before Mrs. Glover was through with her “science” she was going to walk on the waters of the Merrimac. Two Amesbury girls were so interested in this report that, one afternoon when Mrs. Glover attended some merrymaking on the river bank, they went down and lingered on the bridge, hoping that she might be tempted to try her powers on that festal occasion.