Longyear Quarterly News, Summer 1971

QUARTERLY NEWS MARY BAKER EDDY MUSEUM and Historic Sites VOL. 8, NO . 2 PUBLISHED BY LONGYEAR HISTORICAL SOCIETY YOUNG PIONEERS THAT MARY BAKER EDDY recognized wit and was much sought after socially. the intelligence, love , and dependability At the age of twenty, however, he was so of youth is illustrated by Longyear's impressed by the healing of Mrs. Arm current photographic exhibition of stu strong through Christian Science that he dents - young in Mrs. Eddy's day- who ordered a dozen copies of Science and advanced the Cause of Christian Science Health with Key to the Scriptures by to such a degree that their work lives Mary Baker Eddy. He kept one for him after them. self, gave one to Mr. Armstrong, and The exhibition is being arranged for disposed of the rest among his family and the special benefit of visitors to the 1971 friends, several of whom later held re Biennial College Organization Meeting. sponsible positions in the Christian Science Each of the early workers included came movement. Mr. Neal gave up his banking into the practice of Christian Science be career, as did Mr. Armstrong, and they cause of a desire to help and heal mankind. turned wholly to the practice of Christian Many of them were members of Mrs. Science healing. Mr. Neal moved to Arkan Eddy's 1898 class, the last she taught. sas City, Kansas, and thereafter lived in turn in several different towns in Kansas these areas for Christian Science help. Often he drove great distances by horse JOHN C. LATHROP in Mrs. Eddy's study and buggy or by sleigh in answer to these at Pleasant View, near the sculpture she appeals. His healings included cases of total called her "white student." (My. 259) blindness, cancer, and tumors. He had been established in Kansas City for about a year employed in Freeport, Michigan, where when he was asked by the Publication his father had practiced law during his Committee to come to Boston. At first he lifetime. In 1886, John went to New York refused, but when told that the request City to join his mother, who had settled had been made by Mrs. Eddy he responded there in November, 1885, at Mrs. Eddy's at once, beginning work January 1, 1893. request to help establish Christian Science When the original edifice of The Mother in the area. Soon John had a new position Church was under construction, he and and he wrote his former Michigan em Thomas W. Hatten were chosen to guard ployer who responded with this high the cornerstone, pending its placement in praise, "You have the right stuff in you to the building. They remained in the work attain the highest position in the gift of your employer.'' He was about sixteen at JAMES A. NEAL as he appeared about the shanty for "three stormy nights, while one time he left the Midwest for Boston. of the Directors stayed there during the the time. Some two years later, his New daytime.'' 1 Throughout his life Mr. Neal York employer wrote John's mother that In 1886, James A. Neal was living in continued to love and practice the work of he was "the best young man I have ever the home of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Arm healing. had with me." With such promise for a strong in Irving, Kansas, and was employed As a young boy, John Carroll Lathrop successful business career John, neverthe as a cashier in Mr. Armstrong's bank. He revealed noble qualities of mind combined less, turned at the age of twenty-five to was a popular young man with a ready with native practicality. At the age of the practice of Christian Science. The fourteen he began the study of Christian years in the business world had given him Quarterly News Summer 1971 Science after the healing of his mother, time to answer questions of doubt as to '-' © Longyear Foundation 1971 Vol. 8, No. 2 Mrs . Laura Lathrop, in 1885. As soon as the truth of Christian Science, described Subscription, $3.00 Annually possible after her healing, she had class by him in a helpful article, "Spirituality," Sent without charge to Friends ·Of Longyear instruction with Mrs. Eddy. John was then in the August 1898 Christian Science November 2015: Minor edits have been made to this newsletter to reflect new 117 information that has come to light since the original publication. Journal. He, too, served the Cause of by Mrs. Eddy to take the first steps and was unwavering in his recognition of Christian Science in many capacities and toward establishing a church in Cam "the ineffable riches of a pure heart," and spent a total of eighteen months in Mrs. bridge. When the church was organized, in his acknowledgement of her demon Eddy's household, over a period of five William P. McKenzie and she were ap stration of the "spiritual reality whose busy years. pointed by Mrs. Eddy as Readers. Later every breath overcame the human with --. Among the young lecturers in Mrs. she was active as a Christian Science the divine.''3 Later he taught Christiaii Eddy's time was Carol Norton of East teacher in California, having as one of her Science classes in Connecticut. port, Maine, who, at the age of twenty, pupils Mrs. Eddy's granddaughter, Mary Meanwhile, young people were active left a thriving business as sole manager of Baker Glover Billings. in the Middle West, none more so than a sales agency to begin the practice of Alfred Farlow, who became the first Com Christian Science. He came of a distin mittee on Publication for The Mother guished family background and was cousin Church and whose career has been de to Henry W. and Samuel Longfellow. scribed in the Quarterly News, Spring, After class with Mrs. Eddy in 1898, he 1970. was almost immediately appointed a lec Another proof of the capacity and turer. He progressed rapidly as lecturer, initiative of young people was demon teacher, writer, and healer. In his own strated at Schofield, Wisconsin, by a group words, "Truth is always the 'Ancient of of Christian Science Sunday School pupils. Days.' The central facts of life remain un They ranged from the ages of eight to changed; but our mortal sense of man as fourteen and had been brought together the idea of the infinite Mind, advances in March 1896 by Miss Mary E. Graves, a and ascends."2 primary student of Mrs. Eddy living in BLISS KNAPP, (third from left) as a young man Schofield. They held services in her home, bicycles with Rev. Irving C. Tomlinson, John W. reading first the regular Lesson-Sermon Reeder, and Rev. William P. McKenzie (left to right). prescribed for each Sunday, and follow ing with exercises conforming to the rules About the time Emma Easton was for teaching children given by Mrs. Eddy helping to organize the Cambridge church, Bliss Knapp was a student at Harvard in the Christian Science Journal for College and as the son of a member of October 1895. By 1898 the finances of the Board of Directors of The Mot-her the Sunday School were in good condition Church, he gathered together the Christian with nine dollars in the treasury and thr Science students at Harvard for informal class voted to build a church in this small talks by some of the pioneer workers. industrial town which had no church This was the beginning of the institution building of any denomination. Work was which was later to be known as the begun in October 1898 and many in the Christian Science College Organization. community helped. The boys and girls The work was carried forward by Edwin C. were tireless in raising funds and materials EMMA EASTON at the age of seventeen Johnson and others, and in 1904 college themselves. The planning of the building was awarded the degree of C.S.B. by Mrs. organizations were formally authorized in and its construction were carried out Eddy. a By-Law in the Church Manual. On gradu entirely by these young people, with the Emma Easton (Newman), descendant ating from Harvard in 1901 , Mr. Knapp help of the local lumberyard. The build of a founder of Hartford, Connecticut, went directly into the practice of Christian ing, measuring twenty by forty feet, and had a distinguished father who in March Science and in May 1904, three years later, seating I 00, was completed and dedicated 1893 became pastor of The Mother he was appointed to the Board of Lecture Church. Rev. David Augustus Easton and ship by Mrs. Eddy. Mrs. Easton entered Mrs. Eddy's March Joseph G. Mann at the age of twenty Primary Class in 1889, and Emma was two in 1886 was accidentally shot through invited to attend with her parents. Al the heart by a friend at target practice. As though she was only seventeen, Mrs. Eddy he lay dying, a practitioner who was visit was aware of her receptivity to Christian ing in Broad Brook, Connecticut, where Science and bestowed on her the degree the Manns lived , came to the house and of C.S.B. at the close of the class. In healed him. The experience so transformed 1891, at the age of nineteen, she became Joseph that he turned to Christian Science a registered practitioner, listed jointly to bring mankind its wonderful healing with her parents under Pittsfield, Massa power. He was soon in the practice and in chusetts, in the Christian Science Journal. 1898, out of gratitude for his healing, he Mrs. Eddy later conferred upon Emma came to Mrs.

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