Julia Bartlett, a student of Mary Baker Eddy’s, journeyed to five states and two provinces in Canada to heal and teach between 1884 and 1889. Many people who came into Christian Science through her treatments or instruction went on to make their own strong contributions to the Cause. Brief profiles of a number of these students are included below.
Although some featured here had less direct contact with Miss Bartlett, all of them helped Christian Science grow in the towns she visited. And a good number went on to have instruction directly from Mrs. Eddy. In turn, Mrs. Eddy placed certain of these students in important roles in Boston or sent them out to heal, teach, and establish branch churches across the country, ranging from Philadelphia to Spokane, Washington.
Read the main story of Miss Bartlett’s travels in the Fall/Winter 2026 Longyear Review.
The Watsons
After Ada Watson heard Julia Bartlett speak in Littleton, New Hampshire, in 1884, she was healed by Miss Bartlett’s Christian Science treatment. She and her husband, Walter Watson, took a class with Miss Bartlett later that year. They shared Christian Science locally for a time, but soon they moved to Boston to become active in church work at the center of the movement.
They stayed in close touch with their teacher, who arranged for them to meet Mary Baker Eddy. During that meeting in Mrs. Eddy’s home at the Massachusetts Metaphysical College on Columbus Avenue, she joyously shared with the Watsons that she had “found the spot” on which she would later build her church.1
Mrs. Watson became a public practitioner of Christian Science and briefly assisted at Mrs. Eddy’s homes, while Walter Watson worked for The Christian Science Publishing Society for more than 30 years.2 One church member described the couple as “full to overflowing of innate kindliness, … steadfast to the core.”3
The Goodalls
Mary Tarbell Goodall, a young woman from Littleton, was healed by Julia Bartlett in Boston in the early 1880s. Her family hosted Miss Bartlett twice when she later taught classes in Littleton.4 Mrs. Goodall’s father, Charles Duane Tarbell, was a Congregational deacon. Both he and another of his daughters also were healed as a result of Miss Bartlett’s treatments, one account suggests.5
Mary and her husband, F.E. Goodall, along with others in Littleton, donated money to the building fund for what would later be known as The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston.
“Especially dear to me is the outspoken interest in Christian Science from my native hills N.H., the birthplace of its discoverer and founder,” Mrs. Eddy wrote in a note of thanks. “Hoping and working with you all for the deliverance of the sons of men from their captivity and the ushering in of a full and free salvation from sin, sickness, and death.”6
In 1889, the Goodalls moved to Spokane, Washington, and started a church in their parlor.7 Mr. Goodall later served as that church’s president.8
Mr. Goodall’s aunt, Berenice Goodall, took class instruction from Miss Bartlett and then from Mary Baker Eddy.9 She became a Christian Science teacher, and when the church in Boston was reorganized as The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in 1892, she was among the First Members, a group that participated in its early governance.10
The Knapps
Ira Knapp and his wife, Flavia Stickney Knapp, lived in Lyman, New Hampshire, when they heard of local people being healed through Christian Science—including patients of Julia Bartlett during her visit to nearby Littleton. By one account, Mr. Knapp went to Littleton to ask about treatment for his wife. Miss Bartlett had so many patients she had to turn people away. But he wrote to Mrs. Eddy, who put him in touch with another Christian Science practitioner, Mary Harris.11
With help from Mrs. Harris, both Mr. and Mrs. Knapp soon had healings, and they both took classes with Mrs. Eddy in 1884 and 1885. They became Christian Science practitioners in New Hampshire before moving to the Boston area. Ira Knapp also took Normal class in 1888 and became a Christian Science teacher. He served for many years on the Christian Science Board of Directors. At Mrs. Eddy’s request, Flavia Knapp began teaching Christian Science in December 1892.12 (Read more here: Ira Knapp: An Obedient Disciple — Longyear Museum).
The Shipmans
Emily Shipman Wells first heard about Christian Science from a traveling saleswoman in Lisbon, New Hampshire, who encouraged her to see Julia Bartlett in Boston for Christian Science treatment. Mrs. Wells arrived at Miss Bartlett’s unable to sit up, but she was soon healed and the joyful news reached members of her family in both New Hampshire and Vermont.13
Emily’s sister-in-law, Ellen “Nell” Shipman, then looked into Christian Science and was healed of a longstanding shoulder injury. She in turn healed Emily’s brother, James Shipman, after he injured his finger severely in some machinery.14
This healing made an impression on James’ daughter, Emma Shipman. “During this visit of Aunt Nell’s, I remember particularly our talks about Christian Science,” Emma recalled. “She told me that God was Love; that He was good; that He never made disease, and that Christian Science would heal it.”15
Emma eagerly read her father’s copy of Mrs. Eddy’s book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures and was healed of chronic headaches and asthma.
Both Nell and Mary Shipman Dillingham, another of Emma’s aunts, took a class on Christian Science with Miss Bartlett in the mid-1880s, most likely during one of several trips Miss Bartlett made to New Hampshire.16 They also attended a Primary class with Mrs. Eddy in Boston in September 1888.
Emma was living with some of her aunts in Lisbon while attending high school, and Mrs. Eddy visited them on her way to see the Knapps in nearby Lyman in 1888.17 As Emma recalled it, Mrs. Dillingham said to Mrs. Eddy at that visit: “‘Tell us what you are, that is, tell us what you are to the world.’ Mrs. Eddy replied, ‘As Mary Baker Eddy, I am the weakest of mortals, but as the discoverer and founder of Christian Science I am the bone and sinew of the world.’”18
Emma Shipman helped establish the White Mountain church in Fabyans, New Hampshire. The small stone building accommodated summer visitors after the congregation for Sunday services had outgrown the space offered by the nearby White Mountain House hotel. The church was dedicated in 1898. That same year, Mrs. Eddy invited her to attend her last class. Miss Shipman was listed in The Christian Science Journal for more than 50 years. She healed, taught, wrote many articles, and served in such positions as president of The Mother Church.19 (Read more here: Emma Shipman’s Work for the Cause — Longyear Museum).
The Rounsevels
Emile Rounsevel and her husband, Royal Rounsevel, became interested in Christian Science around the time Julia Bartlett came to Littleton in 1884, though it is not clear if they had a direct connection to her.20 Mr. Rounsevel had lumber and hotel businesses, and the Christian Science congregation in Littleton met in a building he and his wife owned.21 The town’s Christian Science Society built a church edifice nearby in 1925.22
The Rounsevels also owned White Mountain House in Fabyans, where Mrs. Eddy stayed on a visit in 1888.23 They supplied land for the White Mountain church in the same town, and in 1898, Emile Rounsevel served as First Reader there, with Emma Shipman as Second Reader.24
Jane Rand
Jane Rand attended an 1885 class taught by Julia Bartlett in Lisbon, New Hampshire.25 Mrs. Rand, a widow, followed up by taking a class from Mrs. Eddy the next year. She moved to Boston and was listed as a Christian Science practitioner in The Christian Science Journal from 1896 until 1917.
Mrs. Rand wrote to Mrs. Eddy in 1910 about a passage in Science and Health that she had taken to heart. It helped her maintain a sense of youthfulness, and she shared how she was demonstrating this by continuing to go out regularly, receive callers, and take patients at age 85. This letter included a passage about gratitude for Mrs. Eddy:
“We read in one of our favorite Psalms that ‘He shall cover thee with His feathers.’ If gratitude might be considered as ‘covering’ as ‘feathers’—what a bountiful abundance would surround, envelop, and protect a person who is daily receiving countless expressions of gratitude from all parts of the world, from those who have been benefited by the teachings of this Founder of Christian Science. The writer counts herself as one of this numberless throng. [She has received] blessings from this religion which teaches the Allness of God and the omnipresence of Love and Truth, of which all who will may be partakers.”26
Janette Weller
Janette Weller, a tailor in Littleton, was healed of tuberculosis by reading Science and Health.27 This may have preceded Julia Bartlett’s first public talks in the town in 1884, but Walter Watson recalled seeing Mrs. Weller, a friend of his, at the talks.28 Mrs. Weller went to see Mrs. Eddy in Boston that spring and took her Primary class that September.29
Mrs. Weller practiced Christian Science healing in Littleton for about five years before taking Normal class from Mrs. Eddy in 1889.
Several women “paid high compliments to your talk last evening,” Mrs. Weller wrote to Miss Bartlett from Littleton one winter. “They thought you made the subject very clear to the people. All express themselves as much pleased with the results of your work in this place.”30
“Miss Bartlett’s students do good work, and seem to have the Truth very clear as far as she took them,” Mrs. Weller wrote to Mrs. Eddy in 1886. “She leaves them with confidence that they can heal, but that they must press forward to a higher standard, and put themselves under your instruction as soon as possible.”31
Mrs. Weller accompanied Mrs. Eddy on a visit to the White Mountain House in 1888 (one of the owners, Mrs. Rounsevel, was Mrs. Weller’s sister).32
In addition to sowing seeds in Littleton, Janette Weller did pioneering work as a Christian Science practitioner and teacher in Philadelphia; Binghamton, New York; and Spokane, Washington, before settling in Boston.33 (A chapter about Janette Weller is included in Longyear’s book Paths of Pioneer Christian Scientists by Christopher L. Tyner .)
Ellen Cross
Ellen Cross was a farmer’s daughter in Vermont, with family ties to Littleton. A neighbor’s daughter traveled to Boston and returned rejoicing in a healing of invalidism after Christian Science treatment from Julia Bartlett. Miss Cross, herself an invalid at that time, made a similar trip to Boston to see Miss Bartlett, and she, too, was healed.34
She took a class on Christian Science from Miss Bartlett in Littleton.35 Then she attended Primary class with Mrs. Eddy in 1885 and Normal class in 1886. She went on to help establish Christian Science in Syracuse, New York, as well as Baltimore, and to lovingly nurture the spiritual growth of her students.36 Her Christian Science practice spanned about 45 years.
M. Anna Osgood
M. Anna Osgood lived in McIndoe Falls, part of Barnet, Vermont. She learned about Christian Science in the mid-1880s, possibly from Julia Bartlett’s visit to McIndoe Falls.
Miss Osgood took a class on Christian Science with Miss Bartlett, who wrote to Mrs. Eddy sometime after that class, “Miss Osgood is doing beautifully.”37 In 1886, Miss Osgood had the opportunity to take not only Primary class with Mrs. Eddy, but also Normal class.
In 1888, she was among those who visited with Mrs. Eddy on her trip to the White Mountain House.38 On that trip, both she and Mrs. Weller were gathered with about eight other students in a room adjoining Mrs. Eddy’s smaller room. After Mrs. Eddy had talked with them an hour or more, she arose to retire, remarking, “Now I shall go to my room and detach myself from mortal mind and attach myself to immortal Mind.”39
M. Anna Osgood spent some time working in Syracuse. Later, Mrs. Eddy requested her to go to Philadelphia, where she healed and taught Christian Science for several decades.
Elizabeth McCulloch
Elizabeth McCulloch of Truro, Nova Scotia, studied with Julia Bartlett in 1887. She had several follow-up classes with Miss Bartlett, though it’s not clear if any were in Nova Scotia or if she traveled to take them in Boston. Miss McCulloch was listed as a Christian Science practitioner in The Christian Science Journal off and on in the early 1900s in Nova Scotia. At some point, she moved to Boston.40
“In common with other students I had the great privilege of helping our teacher to raise the one thousand dollars that Mrs. Eddy asked [Miss Bartlett and other loyal students] to raise in order that The Mother Church might be dedicated,” Miss McCulloch wrote to the Christian Science Board of Directors in 1928.41 Miss Bartlett “was loving and kind to her students and always thoughtful of them.”
Read the main story of Miss Bartlett’s travels in the Fall/Winter 2026 Longyear Review.
