John G. Salchow, C.S.

Portrait by Ruth Colman. Original Longyear Collection.

Biography

JOHN G. SALCHOW, a native of Junction City, Kansas, was living there with his family when he first heard of Christian Science in the early 1880s. Asked to come to Pleasant View in 1901, he served Mrs. Eddy in many capacities, including gardener and maintenance man for the house and grounds. When Mrs. Eddy and her household moved from Pleasant View to Chestnut Hill in 1908, it was “Faithful John,” as she called him, who, on their arrival at the house, noticed the newsmen gathered around the entrance. Hurrying to Mrs. Eddy’s carriage, he lifted her in his arms and carried her inside, thereby foiling the newsmen who had wanted to interview her. Mr. Salchow enjoyed amateur photography, a hobby he pursued while working for Mrs. Eddy, and in 1911 he published exterior and interior pictures of the Chestnut Hill home in his Souvenir Album of the Home of Rev. Mary Baker Eddy, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. John Salchow worked at The Mother Church as a utility man for many years.

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