Elizabeth Buswell, C.S.D.

Portrait by Allan G. Cram. Original Longyear Collection.

Biography

ELIZABETH BUSWELL and her husband Ezra were among the first Christian Scientists west of the Missouri River. In 1884, while living in Beatrice, Nebraska, Ezra heard about healing through prayer and urged his wife to go to a Christian Science practitioner in Omaha for treatment of a malady which had yielded neither to medical care nor to climate. Elizabeth went reluctantly, but returned home completely healed. Her subsequent enthusiasm for Christian Science led her to share it with anyone who would listen, and in 1885 she helped organize a group of students who were taught by Mrs. Eddy’s student Janet Colman, in the first class held west of Chicago. Between 1887 and 1889, Mrs. Buswell traveled to Boston for three classes with Mrs. Eddy at the Massachusetts Metaphysical College. Later, when her husband was serving as First Reader in Concord, New Hampshire, Elizabeth Buswell proved a help to Mrs. Eddy, who was living at Pleasant View at the time.

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