9/21/2004:
North Dakota’s first Christian Science Church was dedicated in Grand Forks on this date in 1905.
The newly found religion of Christian Science had come about through the efforts of Mary Baker Eddy. She was born in New Hampshire in 1821 and was plagued by illness throughout most of her life. Her parents took her to many physicians, and tried many treatments, but nothing kept her healthy. Because of this, she missed much of her formal education as a child. She made up for it by reading, and she was also fond of writing prose and poetry.
The family was deeply religious, and Mary was no exception. However, she rejected their Calvinist beliefs in predestination. Even as a young girl, she turned to the Bible and to prayer for understanding and inspiration, especially when she was ill.
Mary Baker married George Glover, a promising contractor, when she was 22. They moved to the Carolinas, but he died the following year, three months before their son was born. Mary moved back home with her mother, who soon died, as well. In 1850, still battling ill health, Mary was destitute and had no choice but to place her child in the care of the family’s former nurse.
Three years later, Mary married a dentist, Daniel Patterson. Unfortunately, he turned out to be irresponsible and unfaithful, and he later deserted her.
Mary continued search the Bible for answers to her health questions. She had learned to avoid harsh 19th-century medicine; instead, she experimented with diets and studied homeopathy. She became intrigued to learn about placebos being able to change peoples’ health – it reinforced her notions that belief played a powerful role in healing processes.
The Civil War was raging when Mary sought help from a popular healer, Phineas Quimby. She improved dramatically under his treatment, which was a combination of mental suggestion and therapeutic touch. When she suffered a relapse, she returned to Quimby to learn more about his approach – she felt that he had maybe rediscovered Jesus’ healing method. But, she concluded Quimby’s success came more from his forceful personality and hypnosis training.
Mary suffered a severe fall on an icy sidewalk that left her in critical condition in 1866. She once again turned to her Bible. Then, while reading about Jesus’ healing, she found herself suddenly well. She later said it was the moment she discovered Christian Science.
Mary couldn’t explain what had happened, but her convictions about divine healing grew. After nine more years of intensive study, healing activity, and teaching, she published her landmark book, Science and Health. In it, she explained what she believed was the “science” of Jesus’ healing method, which she felt was divinely natural and… repeatable.
Mary once more tried marriage, this time to a man who gave her unflinching support. But once again, she suffered great loss when Asa Gilbert Eddy died only five years later.
Mary had since been teaching her system of healing to hundreds of people who carried their newfound knowledge out into the world. Disappointed that existing Christian churches didn’t embrace her discovery, she started her own in 1879… the Church of Christ, Scientist. Mary Baker Eddy died in 1910, five years after the Grand Forks branch of her church opened.
Dakota Datebook written by Merry Helm