Mary Baker Eddy (1821 - 1910)
Born at Bow (NH); died at Concord (NH).
Founder of Christian Science; religious author.
Portrait by John Nelson Marble, 1916.
Presented to the State by Trustees of The First Christ, Scientist, Boston (MA), 1949.

Mary Baker was the youngest of six children born to Mark and Abigail Baker. Both parents were active in the Congregational Church at Bow.

Mary and her siblings were educated at district school, but Mary left school because of illness and was educated at home. Later she attended Sanbornton (NH) Academy, and she took extra schooling from Professor Dyer H. Sanborn, of the Academy, after completing her regular studies.

Mary Baker married Major George Glover at age twenty-three (1844) and the couple moved to South Carolina. Mary became pregnant, but her husband died a few months later. Mary moved back to New Hampshire and her son, George Glover II, was born there.

The young widow had numerous health problems over the next two decades, and her son George was raised by a neighboring family. Eventually the neighbors moved west, taking young George with them. His mother had no idea where her son was for many years; when they finally met, years later, they were unable to establish a mother-son relationship, and George Glover II went west again.

In 1866 Mrs. Glover had a severe fall on an icy street. She was carried into a nearby house in critical condition. She did not respond to medication; but on the third day she asked for her Bible and read (Book of Matthew 9:2) of Jesus' healing of a palsied man. Suddenly her health improved, and this incident is credited with the beginnings of a doctrine which thirteen years later (1879) was formally organized as The Christian Science Church.

In 1876 Mary Baker Glover met an incurable invalid, Asa Gilbert Eddy. Mr. Eddy's health improved; he proved a great supporter of the widow's religious doctrine (her book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures", was published in 1875). The couple rnarried on New Year's Day, 1879; they were together for three years until Mr. Eddy's death in June 1882.

In 1892 Mary Baker Eddy asked that her church change its name, from The Christian Science Church to The Church of Christ, Scientist. This change was made. In 1892 Mrs. Eddy founded The Christian Science Publishing Society, which continues today. In 1904 Mrs. Eddy gave land one block from the State House, Concord, for The First Church of Christ, Scientist. The Mary Baker House, in Concord, is open as an historic house during the summer months.

Reference: "The New Hampshire Troubador", August 1946.