Mary was grateful for the restored health Quimby gave her. She spent hours discussing and exchanging ideas with him. She returned to Quimby not only for treatment but also to learn more about his methods. Mary’s health initially improved radically under Quimby’s treatment, which included a combination of mental suggestion and what might now be called therapeutic touch. Mary initially thought that Quimby possessed an understanding of God’s law and was ready to proclaim him as the discoverer of the true nature of the healing done in Bible times. In 1862, Mary sought help from Phineas Quimby, a magnetic healer in Portland, Maine, on whom she looked as a living example of a modern practitioner of spiritual healing. In 1862 Daniel Patterson was captured by Confederate soldiers while sightseeing on the battlefield at Bull Run. A rented house in Rumney offered shelter for a year or two, but her husband was often away from home.Īfter the Civil War began in 1861 Mary heard that her son George Glover had run away to join Union Army. He ran into financial difficulty and mortgaged Mary’s furniture, jewelry and books, but was still unable to keep up the payments on their property in Groton. The exact nature of her illnesses, and their possible psychosomatic or hysterical (as it was called at that time) nature, is unknown.ĭaniel Patterson proved to be unreliable and unfaithful. ![]() Struggling with chronic illness and personal loss, Mary sought relief in various alternative treatments of the day, including the Graham diet, hydropathy (water therapy), mesmerism and homeopathy, which she studied in depth. Patterson showed no interest in providing a home for young George, and in 1856 the Cheneys moved to Minnesota, taking young George with them. To support his semi-invalid wife, Patterson bought a half interest in a saw mill on their property. To be near her son, Mary and Patterson moved to North Groton in 1855, hoping he would adopt the boy. Daniel Patterson, a dentist and relative of her father’s second wife, and moved to Franklin, New Hampshire. Mary then placed George in the care of the Cheneys, a childless couple with a small farm in North Groton, New Hampshire. In 1851 Mary’s sister Abigail Tilton offered her a home, but son George was not welcome. Still suffering from recurring bouts of illness, Mary was often bedridden during this period. Mary’s mother died in November 1849 and about a year later, her father married Elizabeth Patterson Duncan, who did not welcome either Mary or her child. However, the school was not accepted by the public and soon closed. Her success there led her to open an experimental school in 1846 – an attempt to introduce kindergarten methods. Mary wrote political pieces for the New Hampshire Patriot and worked as a substitute teacher in the New Hampshire Conference Seminary. ![]() ![]() The social climate of the times made it very difficult for a widow to earn money. Mary freed her husband’s slaves, and returned to her parents’ home in New Hampshire, where her first and only child, George W. In 1844 the Glovers traveled to Wilmington, North Carolina, where George Glover died of yellow fever on June 27, 1844. On December 10, 1843, Mary Baker married George Washington Glover, 32, a building contractor, and sailed with him to Charleston, South Carolina. She was healed of the fever after prayer. Amid this clash of views with her father Mary developed a fever, which at last prompted her father to set aside his stern beliefs. ![]() When Mary was twelve she rebelled against the Calvinist doctrine of predestination: the belief that a horrible decree of endless punishment awaited sinners on a final judgment day. In her autobiography, she wrote: “One day, when my cousin, Mehitable Huntoon, was visiting us… the call again came, so loud that Mehitable heard it… Mary responded to the voice with the phrase from Samuel: ‘Speak, Lord for Thy servant heareth.’ …never again to the material senses was that mysterious call repeated.” Her parents sought help from physicians for her ailments, but the treatments brought only temporary relief.Īt age eight, Mary began to hear voices calling her name she would go to her mother, only to learn that her mother had not called her. When not in school, she read and studied extensively at home, writing prose and poetry from an early age. Mary’s formal education was interrupted by periods of sickness. Mary Morse Baker was born on Jin Bow, New Hampshire, the youngest of six children of Abigail and Mark Baker.
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