From the Papers: A letter that launched two careers

In January 1881 Mary Baker Eddy founded the Massachusetts Metaphysical College in Boston. Over the next nine years, she taught nearly 50 Primary, Normal, and Obstetrics classes there, to many hundreds of students from all over the United States, as well as a few other countries. At a time when many long-distance communications were handwritten letters carried by train, how did these students, the majority of whom Eddy had not previously met, become introduced to her? And how did they arrange to take her classes?

A series of letters the Mary Baker Eddy Papers team recently encountered, in its ongoing work of digitally publishing Eddy’s correspondence, sheds some light on those questions. It also shows the impact that a single letter had in catalyzing two significant careers in Christian Science.

‘I wrote you about two ladies’

Ellen Brown Linscott, who had taken Eddy’s Primary class in 1883 and Normal class in 1885, was actively healing and teaching in Chicago. On August 19, 1886, she wrote this in a letter to Eddy:

I think I wrote you about two ladies who wish to join your first class in Sept. One of them Mrs. Ruth or rather, Mrs. W. G. Ewing is the wife of the United States District Attorney for Illinois. Just such a woman as you want, one who is able to talk, write, and will make a fine healer too. The other is Miss. Willsi a lovely character, and both are people of social position: Will write you their addresses….¹

The class Linscott referred to began on August 30, 1886—only 11 days later. Nevertheless, on the day the class began, both Ruth B. Ewing and Lucinda Willsie were in attendance. And they both went on to have significant careers that contributed much to the cause of Christian Science over the following four decades.

Given the communications technology and modes of travel that existed in 1886, it seems remarkable that attendance for these two women could have been arranged in such a short time. But between August 19 and August 30, a flurry of correspondence took place among Linscott, Eddy, and Ewing—and examining it, we can see how the story unfolded.

‘I wish to take every step’

On August 23, four days after Linscott wrote her letter, Ewing herself wrote to Eddy:

… Circumstances render it important for me to know soon and definitely with regard to my prospects of entering a class whether it be next week or later –

 

I am not ignorant of what I have proposed to do in seeking to carry on the study of Christian Science

 

Near two years ago my husband [William G. Ewing] was treated by Mrs [Annie V. C.] Leavitt of Cambridgeport Mass. and last October I took a course in the rudiments of the Science with Miss Ellen Brown [Linscott] I can truly say that it seems to me that I entered through that experience into new life for in the understanding of this truth “behold, all things have become new.”

 

I wish to take every step that is needful to advance my own understanding of the Truth and with the hope of doing more to enlighten others —²

That same day, Eddy wrote to Ewing:

Through my student Miss. E. Brown [Linscott] I am informed of you as interested in Christian Science, and your name is given to me as an applicant to enter my next class. Have telegraphed to you when it will commence³

Although the Mary Baker Eddy Papers collection does not contain the telegram Eddy mentioned, we know Ewing received it, because the next day she wrote to Eddy again:

Very soon after posting my letter to you yesterday I received your telegram bidding me come into your class on Monday 30. inst.

 

I take this means of explaining my first communication and also of assuring you that I hope and expect to be present at the time designated Believing that I am guided in this by the Spirit of all Truth I rejoice in the near prospect of meeting you and of receiving instruction from you directly though I truly know and love you through your writings⁴

Only six days later, having made her arrangements and traveled from Chicago to Boston, Ewing was indeed in attendance in Eddy’s Primary class when it opened on August 30. The next item we find related to this matter, dated that day, is the receipt issued to Ewing for the tuition she paid.⁵

Ewing went on to join the Christian Scientist Association in October 1886 and studied with Eddy two more times, taking the Normal class in 1887 and the Obstetrics class in 1888. She was among the 12 students chosen to give an address on Christian Science at the Congress of Religions at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, and that same year she became a member of The Mother Church in Boston. Ewing was also ordained pastor of First Church of Christ, Scientist, Chicago, and later elected its Second Reader. She was listed as a practitioner and teacher in The Christian Science Journal from 1889 until her passing.

Ewing’s husband, William G. Ewing—whose healing in about 1884 had first sparked the family’s interest in Christian Science—eventually left his successful legal and judicial career and also embarked on a career in Christian Science. He joined The Mother Church in 1899 and that same year was invited by Eddy to serve full-time on the Christian Science Board of Lectureship, a position he held until 1910. In a 1901 letter to him, Eddy remarked that he was “our best lecturer.”⁶ In 1902 he became the first Christian Scientist from the United States to lecture in Great Britain, and in 1904 the first to lecture in Mexico. He also became a member of the General Association of Teachers. The Ewings had two daughters, Mary and Ruth, who also devoted their lives to Christian Science through their practicing, teaching, and lecturing work.

In this way, Ruth Ewing’s letter to Eddy on August 23, 1886, became the first of hundreds that would pass between her family and the Christian Science leader, detailing and documenting how their relationships deepened. All are in the process of being published on the Papers website.

‘I am very anxious to come to you’

The other prospective student Linscott recommended to Eddy, Lucinda Willsie, first reached out to Eddy on June 13, 1886:

I am very anxious to come to you. to enter a class for the first course, this Fall. I have been through the first course with Miss Ellen Brown [Linscott]. I was her first Student- & when I went to her- about the second course- she said she did not teach it. & advised me to go to you…. [T]his is my life work.– And a delightful work it is to me. For the more I understand. the more beautiful the science grows– ….⁷

Because Willsie also was present when the class opened, it seems likely that Eddy had telegraphed her at the same time she contacted Ewing. The Papers collection likewise contains her tuition receipt dated August 30, 1886.⁸

After completing Eddy’s August 1886 Primary class, Willsie, like Ewing, went on to be an important and active worker in Christian Science for the rest of her life. She became a member of the Christian Scientist Association and took the Obstetrics class from Eddy in 1888 and the Normal class in 1889. Having worked for several years as an assistant librarian for the Chicago Public Library, Willsie had by 1899 become the librarian of the Christian Science Reading Room in Chicago. She also served in Eddy’s Massachusetts household in 1910 and was a Journal-listed practitioner and teacher from 1895 until the time of her passing.

Linscott’s letter from Chicago to Boston, written 11 days before the start of Eddy’s August 1886 Primary class, launched two remarkable careers in Christian Science. Including Ewing and Willsie, 26 students traveled to attend, from such places as California, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. The correspondence in the Papers collection provides details about these students, their previous experience with Christian Science, and their motivations for studying with Eddy, including how they came to learn about or be recommended for the class. Each letter reveals its own part of an interesting and unique story.

Please note: Quoted references in our From the Papers article series reflect the original documents. For this reason they may include spelling mistakes and edits made by the authors. In instances where a mark or edit is not easily represented in quoted text, an omission or insertion may be made silently.