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To read this
entire issue of the Quarterly News, which includes historic
photographs, you may purchase back issues by calling Longyear
Museum at 1-800-277 8943 or 1-617-278-9000.
Longyear Museum
Quarterly News
Winter 65 - 66
Vol. 2, No. 4
SWAMPSCOTT
LONG BEFORE
the strident noises of automobile, airplane, or heavy lorries
had penetrated the countryside, Swampscott lay peacefully wrapped
in the harmonies of nature. The ocean waves breaking against the
rocky shore, fishing barges riding the waves near the town docks,
the farmer with cart and wagon moving along the roadside, or urging
his horse forward with plow or harrow in the fields, a dog's clear
bark in the evening, the cry of birds against the sky-these were
the sounds that nurtured men in these early times.
In the midst
of this natural beauty at Swampscott, Mary Baker Eddy, then Mary
M. Patterson, to use her pen name of those years, had found a
hospitable resting place during the late fall, winter, and early
spring of 1865 - 1866 in the comfortable house of Mr. and Mrs.
Armenius C. Newhall at 23 Paradise Court, as Paradise Road was
then known. Mr. Newhall was a fish merchant and dealer in provisions.
Since 1855 he had been acquiring land in the area and had built
his house on a two and a half acre site with many natural attractions.
The Newhalls were people of refinement and taste and around their
two story white house, they had developed gardens, an orchard,
and a lawn sloping back to a pool of clear water shaded by the
sweeping branches of a willow tree. Across the further reaches
of the land wandered a stream which the owner named Jordan. Back
of the house was a stable and observatory.
On the northeast
line, the Newhall house abutted onto the "country seat of
Hon. E. R. Mudge ... a quaint and artistic imitation of an English
park," as it was described by Mrs. Patterson in a letter
to the Editor published in the Lynn Reporter of April 4, 1866.
it was in the Newhall home that Mrs. Patterson and her husband,
Dr. Daniel Patterson, rented rooms in the late autumn of 1865.
Their entrance was from a side piazza. An enclosed stairway led
to a landing on the second floor which opened into a bedroom and
kitchen area that was filled with light. From large windows, Mrs.
Patterson could see the wide sweep of the sky, its changing blues
and greys, and could watch the kindling sunsets and the gentle
dawning of the day. She loved to walk along the nearby seashore,
and when the winter winds howled around the house, she fed the
snow-birds at her window. It is probable that her memories of
this period in Swampscott inspired some of the metaphors of Truth
found in her later works since her love of nature was closely
interwoven with her writing.
Although the
house had few of the refined details which characterized the mansions
built somewhat earlier in Boston and Salem by Charles Bulfinch
and Samuel McIntire, the Newhall home was well constructed in
the sound building traditions of the day. The proportions of the
rooms had dignity; there were well shaped cornices over doors
and windows; there was a graceful stairway in the entrance hall,
and, what was rare in early houses, ample closet space. The kitchen
available to Mrs. Patterson was large and convenient but it is
probable that her thoughts turned more often to writing and books
than to cooking. At this time she was a frequent contributor to
the Lynn Reporter, and very likely wrote for other publications.
By 1865 she was fairly well established as a writer, having written
with considerable success for New Hampshire and Maine newspapers,
and for such periodicals as "The Covenant," "Freemason's
Monthly Magazine," "Godey's Lady's Book," and other
publications of this type. Two of her poems had been included
in the 1860 "Gems for You," a popular gift book. While
at the Newhalls' she wrote "Our National Thanksgiving Hymn"
(Po. 78), and "To the Old Year-1865" (Po. 26). The latter
poem revealed her deep involvement with the problems of the North
and the South and the untimely death of Lincoln. It was published
on page I of the Lynn Reporter of January 13, 1866. In an excellent
brochure entitled, "The Birthplace of Christian Science,"
published some years ago by Longyear Foundation, Miss Alma Lutz
says, "Mrs. Patterson was forty four years old when she moved
to Swampscott. She was in better health than she had been for
many years.... She was a fine looking woman, graceful and slender,
with deep blue-grey eyes and fair skin. Her brown hair was arranged
in curls about her face as was the fashion of the day. She dressed
well and becomingly in spite of her limited means, usually wearing
black with violet or pale rose trimmings. Sometimes people called
her affected because she had the mannerisms of a lady and was
very particular about social forms, but she was only following
the traditions of that rather artificial era."
This was a
period of personal unhappiness for Mary M. Patterson. Her jovial
and wayward husband was seldom at home, travelling ext.ensively
in New Hampshire, answering calls for dental services and lecturing
on his experiences as a prisoner in the Confederacy's Libby Prison
at Richmond, Virginia, and later at a prison in Salisbury, North
Carolina, from which he made his escape. Mrs. Patterson's writing
at this time was a great comfort to her and also contributed to
her meager resources.
She did not
allow personal neglect to remove her from church and community
life. She attended the Congregational Church in Swampscott and
was an active member of the Linwood Lodge of the Good Templars
of Lynn, whose members worked for prohibition legislation and
total abstinence. On January 25, 1866 she participated in a meeting
at Marblehead of the Essex County Templars Union and wrote a spirited
account of this lively meeting which was published in the Lynn
Reporter of February.3, 1866.
Mrs. Patterson
was on her way to attend a meeting of the Good Templars at Lynn
on February 1, 1866 when she slipped on the ice and was severely
injured. The account of this accident, her recovery on February
4, and the revelation that led to the great discovery, has been
well recorded in the standard biographies of Mary Baker Eddy,
and we refer our readers to such accounts as may be found in Clifford
P. Smith's "Historical Sketches," Sibyl Wilbur's "The
Life of Mary Baker Eddy," and Lyman Powell's "Mary Baker
Eddy," as well as Mrs. Eddy's own account in "Retrospection
and Introspection".
It is interesting
to note that nine years were to pass from the time of Mrs. Patterson's
revelation and healing before she completed the writing of her
textbook, Science and Health (its original title), in her Broad
Street home in neighboring Lynn. The testing years of challenge,
examination, and study enabled her to know without a shadow of
a doubt that she had discovered the true Science of the healing
Christ, and that she could prove it by practical application.
It is not
surprising that Mary M. Patterson underwent periods of doubt and
physical relapses during the spring of 1866 but as the weeks passed
her conscious awareness of God as Healer reasserted itself and
her joyous nature was again expressed in an article published
in the Reporter of April 4, 1866. Meanwhile the Newhalls had decided
to offer their house for sale. Mrs. Patterson must seek another
place to stay, but not until she had turned her pen to aid the
Newhalls in finding a purchaser. She wrote in the Lynn Reporter
of April 4: . . . "Swampscott is a pretty pleasant, yea,
a delightful summer residence. Sweet air, pure water, glorious
Old Ocean, specked along our coast by fishing barges, cawing wild
geese and squalling tame ones.... Summer birds are not yet, but
the voice of the turtle will ere long be heard in the land. The
snow-birds and your humble servant have had a brief flirtation,
which ended with winter, in a genuine friendship ... the background
of the birds -the beautiful skies- . . . are spiritually bright,
beautifully blue, and wondrous in their change. . . . But, night,
the moon and Old Ocean are a glorious trio, and one that does
not deceive. To watch the moonbeams on the wave, to listen to
the voice of many waters sending up solemn-sounding anthems to
the moon -then to catch an occasional glimpse, in another survey
of thought, of one's spiritual self is to see what shadows we
are and what shadows we pursue. But the people and the steeples
are the most natural ideas of the character of a place, and these
ideas are distinctly drawn here.
"The
Orthodox clergyman, Rev. Mr. Clark, gives us weekly a lesson,
strong, clear and logical. . . . The grammar school, under the
tuition of Mr. Ellis, is in a very flourishing condition. . .
. A new hall is being fitted up for Seaside Temperance Lodge.
"But
there are other New-halls here. ... Mr. A. C. Newhall's residence,
in Paradise Avenue, has a very commanding view.... The arrangement
and decoration of the grounds does credit to the taste and eccentricity
of the owner. Near the terminus of a gracefully sloping lawn is
a fountain of crystal water, the basin of which is beautifully
bordered by the weeping willow, while within it gold and silver
fishes are swimming dreamily in the sunlight. Fruit trees . .
. are ranged in stately rows, while strawberry beds, currants
and gooseberries are scattered about in admirable confusion. .
. . A winding brook strays through the grounds, which the owner
designates the Jordan of the place. . . . This beautiful residence,
the owner informs me, he would sell. What a chance to suit oneself
is this!"
What a superb, intuitive talent for promotion is here disclosed
by Mrs. Patterson!
The house was sold and Mrs. Patterson moved to the P. R. Russell
residence at the corner of Pearl and High Streets, and a little
later to Mrs. George D. Clark's Boarding House at 35 Summer Street,
then to the John Wheeler residence on Burrill Street - all in
Lynn. A few weeks later she again joined the Newhalls in their
boarding house in Swampscott known as "The Wave."
Her contributions to the Lynn Reporter during the Swampscott period
seem to have been resumed on August 4, when she reported the Dedication
of Temperance Hall, corner of Market and Summer Streets, Lynn.
A dedicatory hymn, written by her for the occasion and set to
music, was sung by the audience as the opening number of the program.
(To be continued)
© Longyear Foundation 1965 Vol. 2 No. 4
To read this
entire issue of the Quarterly News, which includes historic
photographs, you may purchase back issues by calling Longyear
Museum at 1-800-277 8943 or 1-617-278-9000.
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