EDDY, MARY BAKER:* Discoverer and founder of Christian Science (see
Science, Christian);
b. at Bow, N. H., July 16, 1821; d. at Newton,
Mass., Dec.
3, 1910.
Her parents were Mark and
Abigail Ambrose Baker, and she numbered among
her ancestors a member of the
Provincial Congress
and. soldiers in the War of the Revolution. She
was educated at an academy at Tilton, N. H.,
and by private tutors, among whom was her
brother, Albert Baker, a graduate of Dartmouth
and a member of the New Hampshire legislature.
As a young woman, Mrs. Eddy was delicate sad
markedly individual. During her middle life she
was a, confirmed invalid, until the healing incident occurred which ushered her to the threshold
of Christian Science. In 1843 she married Major
* Statement from the Christian Science Committee on
Publication of the First Church, Boston.
George W. Glover, a contractor, of Charleston,
S. C., and
removed with
him to that city, where
she was left a widow in June, 1844. She returned
to New Hampshire,
where her
only
child,
George
Washington Glover, was born. In 1853 she mar
ried Daniel Patterson, from whom she was di
vorced in 1873, on the ground of desertion. In her
search for health Mrs. Eddy went in 1863 to Port
land, Me., to consult P. P. Quimby, a magnetic
healer. Mrs. Eddy was temporarily benefited, but
later had a relapse. In 1866 she recovered from an
accident, which was the immediate cause of her dis
covery of Christian Science. A fall on the ice re
sulted in severe internal injuries. In her extremity
Mrs. Eddy turned to her Bible and was healed. In
1877 she married Dr. Asa G. Eddy, one of her early
students in Christian Science, who died in 1882.
The text-book of Christian Science, Science
and
Health with Key
to the Scriptures, was published by
Mrs. Eddy at Boston in 1875. In 1881 Mrs. Eddy
chartered the Massachusetts Metaphysical College
in Boston. The charter for the First Christian Sci
ence Church was obtained in June, 1879; and in
that year Mrs. Eddy was called to become its pas
tor. Mrs. Eddy founded, and for a long time edited,
The Christian Science
Journal, a monthly magazine.
Mrs. Eddy's principal works are: People's Idea
of
God
(1886);
Christian Healing (1886
); Unity
of
Good
(1887);
Retrospection and Introspection (1891
);
No and Yes
(1891); Christ
and
Christmas (1893);
Pulpit
and Press
(1895); Church Manual (1895);
Miscellaneous
Writings
(1897); Christian Science
versus Pantheism (1898
); and
Message to the Mother
Church
(1900-02).
Eugene R. Cox.
Bibliography:
A. Brisbane, Mary Baker G. Eddy, Boston,
1908; Sybil
Wilbur, Life of
Mary Baker Eddy, New York,
lsos.
