Article December 27, 1930 Issue

Mary Baker Eddy was born in the rural community of...

Kellogg Patton, Committee on Publication for the State of Wisconsin,—Green Bay

Press-Gazette

Mary Baker Eddy was born in the rural community of Bow, New Hampshire, five miles from the city of Concord. Her father was a justice of the peace for his township, a deacon of his church, a school committeeman, and for many years chaplain of the state militia. Among his friends were the clergy, the lawyers of Concord and surrounding towns and a governor of his state, upon whose staff a son served (see Life of Mary Baker Eddy by Sibyl Wilbur, p. 4).

Mrs. Eddy's mother was Abigail Ambrose of Pembroke, New Hampshire. She was a daughter of Deacon Nathaniel Ambrose, a pious, public-spirited man, who gave much money for the Congregational church in Pembroke. Mrs. Eddy's mother and the grandmother of Hoke Smith, a governor of Georgia and, later, United States Senator from Georgia, were sisters. This is sufficient to indicate the character of Mrs. Eddy's parentage.

As to the charge that Mrs. Eddy was not much of a reader.—that is to say, not a woman of culture,—nor a woman of original thought as author of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," two recent utterances of prominent men bear forceful testimony to the contrary. As to Mrs. Eddy's culture, United States Senator George H. Moses of New Hampshire, who was well acquainted with Mrs. Eddy, has the following to say: "She was earnest, sincere, cultivated. I don't mean she had that basic culture that is gained from a college course. ... But she had native ability, supplemented by a good common school training, and the educational guidance of New England clergymen, prominent educators, and a brother who, entering public life via the law office of Franklin Pierce, might have gone far but for his untimely passing. Moreover, she was naturally of an intellectual type, and during the days when I knew her was constantly extending her mental horizons by reading and study." Dr. Lyman P. Powell, author of many books and magazine articles, rector of St. Margaret's Episcopal Church in New York City, and sometime president of Hobart College, has this to say regarding her as Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science: "Christian Science as it is to-day is really its founder's creation. ... As a whole the system described in Science and Health is hers, and nothing that can ever happen will make it less than hers."

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