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Pioneer Portraits: Christian Science Pioneers in the American Midwest

January 18, 2010

In the Image Gallery for January, portraits and historic photos from Longyear's collection bring you face-to-face with some inspiring Christian Science pioneers. Their histories tell how spiritual conviction, rugged individualism, and courage enabled them - and others like them - to introduce Christian Science along the American frontier in the 1880s.

 

Each of these images has a story to tell. Here in this gallery is Janet Colman, who, all alone, went halfway across the continent to teach the first Christian Science class ever held west of the Missouri River. 

Here are banker Joseph Armstrong and his young clerk, James Neal, both of whom gave up their business careers for a new calling, left trails of Christian Science healings wherever they traveled, and suffered persecution for their pioneering work.

Here is young Alfred Farlow who, with his younger brother Will, healed, lectured, and taught Christian Science in many frontier towns, sometimes in the face of fierce opposition.

Here is Mary Epley Gross who, just twenty-three years old, "went out alone with God" to a town she had never seen and worked there night and day, effecting healing after healing.

The stories of these and other courageous Christian Science pioneers are told in this Image Gallery and also in Longyear's documentary film, "The Onward and Upward Chain."

 

 

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