From the Papers: Insights on Eddy’s writings—the Phillips family of Lynn

“It was a beautiful group! Needing but canvas and the touch of an artist to render it pathetic, tender, gorgeous.” Thus begins an article by Mary Baker Eddy found in her book Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896.¹ She went on to describe a heartwarming Thanksgiving scene in detail:

Age, on whose hoary head the almond-blossom formed a crown of glory; middle age, in smiles and the full fruition of happiness; infancy, exuberant with joy, – ranged side by side. The sober-suited grandmother, rich in experience, had seen sunshine and shadow fall upon ninety-six years. Four generations sat at that dinner-table.…²

The article gives no clue as to what year that dinner took place, or in whose home. Neither do we learn the names of the family members and guests present. But historical research provides answers to at least some of these questions—and reveals a larger context.

It turns out that this piece is a revision of an article published in the December 1883 Christian Science Journal. But its history goes back even further; Eddy first published it in late 1864, in the Lynn Bay State newspaper. There it had the title “Day After Thanksgiving.”

In the fall of that year, Eddy (then Mary Patterson) was living with her husband, Daniel Patterson, in a boarding house in Lynn, Massachusetts. She had become friends with Thomas and Hannah Phillips, a Quaker couple, and attended the dinner in their home that she would later write about. In addition to Thomas and Hannah, others present that day possibly included their daughter, Susan Oliver; their son, Dorr Phillips; Thomas’ sister, Abbie M. Winslow; and Abbie’s husband, Charles Winslow. Definitely in attendance was “the sober-suited grandmother, rich in experience”—Mary L. Phillips, the mother of Thomas and Abbie.

Eddy’s friendship with the Phillips family would continue. She stayed briefly with them the summer of 1866, just a few months after the healing in February that marked her discovery of Christian Science.³ The family was a support to her at that time, when she faced financial struggles and the deterioration of her marriage. Although Thomas and Hannah Phillips never became Christian Scientists, Susan M. Oliver—although at first skeptical—eventually joined The Mother Church (The First Church of Christ, Scientist) on June 23, 1903.

Oliver wrote two letters to Eddy, on November 30, 1886 and March 3, 1887. Both are transcribed and annotated on the Mary Baker Eddy Papers website. These are the only such communications in our collection, and no reply from Eddy is extant. Both letters show a warmth and familiarity that offer some evidence of Eddy’s close connection to Oliver and her family.

Oliver’s November letter, apparently written the day after a personal visit with Eddy, reads in part:

I have been thinking how kind you were to me last eve. I felt much happier for seeing you.…⁴

She also mentions a member of the Winslow family in the March letter: “I am going to Lynn this aft to see Aunty Winslow, and shall tell her how much you are to me.⁵

That woman was Thomas’s sister. Abbie. And in a letter from our collection, which Eddy wrote to her early student Sarah O. Bagley on October 20, 1868, she talked about healing Winslow of lameness:

I had at Lynn a sweet visit, stopped at Mr. Winslow’s. When I went there Mrs. Winslow was very lame and sick, had not walked up stairs naturally for years and given up trying to go out at all. I stopped two days and when I came away she walked to the Depot with me almost a mile.⁶

Sibyl Wilbur published details about that healing in a 1907 series on Eddy’s life in Human Life magazine, based on interviews with the Phillips family. The details also appeared in Wilbur’s 1908 biography of Eddy. Wilbur wrote that Abbie’s husband, Charles, offered Eddy money if Abbie were healed, but that she refused payment. Also that “She [Abbie] who had not taken a step for sixteen years arose and walked, not once but many times.”⁷

Another healing in the Phillips family involved Dorr Phillips, who was suffering from a painful infection on one of his fingers. Wilbur wrote that he was in such discomfort that he couldn’t sleep at night and missed school. Eddy offered to heal the condition, and soon Dorr had forgotten about it and found it had disappeared.⁸

It is doubtful if Dorr Phillips ever attempted to seriously practice Eddy’s teachings. But inasmuch as an 1866 document sets forth her terms for accepting him as a student, he may have considered doing so:

I am to intruct him up to the point of practic[ILLEGIBLE]<i>ng it. <are–> — A written agreement to pay for me one years board, commencing this year, and including fuel. One hundred dollars per year for five successive years after he first c[ERASED ILLEGIBLE LETTERS]<ommen>ces practice- not including the first year. of his instruction–⁹

Wilbur’s accounts of these healings, based on interviews, are helpful. Similarly, documents in The Mary Baker Eddy Library’s reminiscence collection shine light and understanding on events described, or alluded to, in Eddy’s correspondence.

The warmth and good cheer shining through Eddy’s account of that 1864 holiday dinner must surely have helped cement the enduring friendship and mutual respect that existed between her and these families. Knowledge of this, and of her healings of family members, exemplifies what historical research can accomplish, uncovering further information about some of the articles in Miscellaneous Writings.