Image Gallery
Mrs. Eddy's Household at Pleasant View
Pleasant View (ca. 1903)
This view from the back lawn shows the tower, extra wing, and covered veranda that Mrs. Eddy added to the house before moving there in July 1892. Her study in the tower and her adjoining bedroom are on the second floor. The veranda outside her windows gave her a quiet place where she could go each day “to talk to God,” as she told a member of the household. Photo by Kimball Studio, Concord, N.H.
Calvin A. Frye (ca. 1906)
Calvin Frye stands on the front walk inside the gate to Pleasant Street. In 1881, after his mother’s sanity was restored by Christian Science treatment, Calvin studied with Mrs. Eddy in Lynn. He then joined Mrs. Eddy’s household as her chief assistant and secretary in August 1882. He stayed on, without a single vacation, for twenty-eight years until December 1910. Photo by one of the amateur photographers in the household
Minnie Weygandt (at Pleasant View, ca. 1905)
Cook and housekeeper Minnie Weygandt (at right) sits across the kitchen table from Pauline Mann, sister of Joseph and August Mann. Minnie, like Calvin Frye, was an amateur photographer. Strips of her photo negatives hang, drying, on the wall. Minnie had experienced Christian Science healing in 1886 in her hometown in Iowa. By 1895 she was a domestic in the Boston home of Edward and Caroline Bates. In the dead of winter 1899, she answered a call to join the Pleasant View household. She served there for the next eight years.Photo by one of the amateur photographers in the household
Joseph G. Mann (photographed in 1910)
In 1886 Joseph had been healed by Christian Science of the near-fatal effects of a bullet wound in the chest. In 1898 he left a successful healing practice in Boston to become supervisor of the grounds at Pleasant View. He was joined later by other members of the Mann family, including his brother August, who became the coachman. Portrait by Haley Studio, Connecticut
Laura Sargent (ca. 1900)
Laura, seen here on the porch at Pleasant View, became a dedicated Christian Scientist after she, her sister, and her mother had experienced healings. Mrs. Sargent attended Mrs. Eddy’s class in Chicago in 1884. In 1890 Laura joined the household in the rented house on State Street in Concord, New Hampshire. Sometimes alternating with Clara Shannon, she continued to assist Mrs. Eddy at Pleasant View and at Chestnut Hill during the next twenty years. Photo by one of the amateur photographers in the household
Clara M. Sainsbury Shannon (in a 1917 portrait)
Clara Shannon had been a trained concert singer in Montreal, Canada. Healed by Christian Science, she studied with Mrs. Eddy in 1888. She then left her concert career to become a Christian Science practitioner and teacher in Montreal. In 1894 Mrs. Eddy asked her to join her household, where Clara served for long periods during the next ten years. After leaving Pleasant View, Clara moved to London, England, to pursue her healing and teaching work there. Photo by Burnham Studio, London
John Carroll Lathrop (ca. 1900)
John’s mother, Laura Lathrop, had been healed of a longstanding debilitating illness and had become a pillar of the Christian Science movement in New York City. John studied with his mother and later was invited to attend Mrs. Eddy’s last class in 1898. He served at Pleasant View during several critical periods between 1900 and 1903.
Portrait, unidentified studio
Minnie Adelaide Still (ca. 1908)
Adelaide Still, photographed during the time she was serving as Mrs. Eddy’s personal maid at Chestnut Hill, Mass. As a young woman in England, Adelaide had been beset by poverty and hopelessness. After she found Christian Science, her life improved. In 1906 she emigrated from London to the United States, and soon after, was asked to join the household at Pleasant View. She was with Mrs. Eddy through 1910. After Mrs. Eddy’s passing, she and Laura Sargent stayed on as caretakers at Chestnut Hill.
Portrait, unidentified studio
John G. Salchow (ca. 1906)
The sturdy son of a German immigrant farm family in Kansas, John Salchow learned of Christian Science from Joseph Mann. Reading Science and Health, he was healed of a long-standing stomach disorder. On a winter morning in 1901 he received a letter calling him to Pleasant View. By noon he was on the train headed east — the man “who left his plow in the field to serve his Leader.” He served as groundskeeper in Concord and at Chestnut Hill through 1910.
Mrs. Eddy Visits New Hampshire State Fair (1901)
Mrs. Eddy tours the New Hampshire State Fair, August 1901. Her visit to the fairgrounds below Pleasant View occurred soon after her decisive victory in the much publicized Woodbury libel suit that had been brought against her. Calvin Frye, ever on the job, sits on the box beside the driver, August Mann. Mrs. Eddy’s guests in the landau carriage that day were Judge and Mrs. Ewing.
Photo in local newspaper
