History of Bow, (Merrimack County) New Hampshire United States of America

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Mary Baker Glover Eddy, the discoverer and founder of Christian Science, was born in Bow, near Concord, N.H., in 1827; daughter of Mark and Abigail (Ambrose) Baker. Among her ancestors she numbered Gen. John MacNeil of New Hampshire, a hero of the battle of Lundy's Lane; Sir John MacNeil of Scotland, British ambassador to Persia, and Gen. Henry Knox, the Revolutionary officer. Mary M. Baker (her maiden name including the initial "M," afterward discarded) was educated at the Ipswich seminary, her first instructor in the higher branches being Mrs. Sarah J. Bodwell Lane. Her next teacher was Mr. Courser of Sanborton Bridge academy. She subsequently came under the training of Professor Sanborn and that of her brother, the Hon. Albert Baker. She became proficient in natural philosophy, chemistry, astronomy, rhetoric, moral science, and the Latin, Greek, Hebrew and French languages. She was baptized as an infant by the Rev. Nathaniel Bouton, pastor of the First Congregational church, Concord, N.H., of which her parents were devout members. She was received as a member of the Congregational Trinitarian church at Tilton, N.H., to which place her parents removed whe:x she was a child, in 1839, and was a member of that church, 1839-79. On being questioned as to her belief respecting the faith as taught by the Congregational Trinitarian denomination, she declined to accept the doctrine of foreordination and predestination as given in the catechism, but was accepted to membership notwithstanding this avowed heresy. In 1843 she was married to Col. George W. Glover of Charleston, S.C. About this time she began to study and experiment in curing diseases by the homoeopathic system and became a convert to the method, practising it for several years, but did not take a diploma as she could not combine with the science of healing the practice of surgery on account of her aversion to the dissecting room. At that time women were not eligible to admission to medical societies or to the profession as regular practitioners, and this limitation was one of the causes of her demanding the right to the administration of the art of healing by women as well as men. In 1866 she discovered Christian Science and formulated her theory as applied to healing disease and practised it with marked success when in 1867 she determined to teach The Science of Mind Healing and received her first pupil. The Rev. Theodore C. Platt, pastor of the Congregational church, Tilton, N.H., under date of Jan. 13, 1875, after Mrs. Eddy had left the state and when she had confessed to him the enlargement of her spiritual sense in the direction of her alleged discovery of the power of Christianity to heal the sick, and after she had submitted to him copies of her published work for examination, gave her the letter of dismissal worded as follows: "This certifies that Mrs. Mary M. Glover is a member of this church in good and regular standing. At her own request she is dismissed from this church and recommended to any evangelical church in Lynn. When received there, her particular connection with us will cease." Finding numerous converts to Christian Science she established in 1881 the Massachusetts metaphysical college in Boston and there personally taught the Science "that translates Mind, God, to mortals." Her pupils rapidly increased and in 1898 numbered several thousand, and the annual income from the college became $40,000. The first Christian Scientist association was rounded by her in 1876 and the National Christian Scientist association in 1886. After the death of Colonel Glover, Mrs. Glover was married in 1877, to Dr. Asa G. Eddy, of Chelsea, Mass. He died in 1882. In 1878 Mrs. Eddy accepted a call to the Baptist Tabernacle pulpit, Boston, where she preached with great success to crowded houses until her own church "The First Church of Christ, Scientist," was organized in 1879. In 1894 the church built upon a lot in Boston, presented to them by Mrs. Eddy, and estimated to have been worth $40,000, a church edifice that cost over $200,000. It was known as the "Mother church" of the organization, a testimonial to "Mrs. Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science," and she was made pastor emeritus of the church. In 1898 Mrs. Eddy gave to the church in London $1000, built a Christian Science hall in Concord, N.H., at a cost of about $20,000, and donated to trustees for the purpose of building a Church of Christ, Scientist, in that city, $100,000. She conveyed to The First Church of Christ, Scientist,of Boston, Mass., besides the lot, the real estate of the Christian Science publishing society, valued at $22,000, and the literary publications of the society and all moneys and assets thereof, estimated to be worth $50,000. Mrs. Eddy was made a life member of the Society for the prevention of cruelty to children, Boston, Mass.; of the Society for the prevention of vice, New York city; of the Victorian institute, London, England, and of the Daughters of the American Revolution. In 1883 she established the Christian Science Journal and for several years was its proprietor and editor. She is the author of: Science and Health With Key to the Scriptures, the authorized textbook of the denomination (1875); Retrospection and Introspection (1891); Unity of Good and Unreality of Evil (1887); People's Idea of God (1886); Christian Healing (1886); Rudimental Divine Science (1891); No and Yes (1891); Christ and Christmas: an illustrated poem (1893); Pulpit and Press (1895); Church Manual of the First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Mass. (1895); Miscellaneous Writings (1897); Christian Science versus Pantheism (1898). She is also author of the tenets of the Church of Christ, Scientist.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Bow, (Merrimack County) New Hampshire

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