THEI #14
Research Report
WORLD WIDE WEB EDITION
#14
A THEI Special Extended Research Report:
& A Road Trip to his 'Heaven' IN Earth
Page One
History has a habit of serving up reruns
"The people have not yet been deprived of their constitutional liberties so far as the franchise* is concerned, but beyond that they have lost their industrial, commercial and executive powers through the machinations of the commercial pirates who fortify themselves behind the entrenchments of predatory and accumulated wealth. If we are under the reign of a monopolistic oligarchy we have no one to blame for it but ourselves."
Dr. Cyrus R. Teed 1839-1908
*The right to vote
Financial Crisis. No real choice for our next president. Illegal Immigration & Population Explosion. Wars in far off places. Nuclear threats from Other Regimes . So What's new?
I could use my time and space to write a long report on the problems facing us today, but I'm tired of doing that. Besides I can actually say everything needed to be said about the two major problems we are presently facing in about one sentence. Two at the most. The present financial crisis will be solved when the controllers are ready for it to be "fixed" the same way they always "fix" it; by having the Treasury Dept. print more worthless, fiat money. Then selling it to the privately owned Federal Reserve Bank for a few pennies per bill. Finally the controllers flunkies who run the FED will lend it back to us after deciding how much interest they can squeeze out of the American taxpayer. And the same people who own the crooked FED banks are the same dirty folks who control both presidential runners. [Scroll down to Issue #11 "Will the World Please Come to Order?"]
There is enough gloom and doom out there right now that you don't need any more from me, so I've decided to use this issue of THEI to look back 100+ years or so and go on a field trip. Back to a time when our ancestors were - believe it or not - facing almost the same problems we face today and examine how one group of people faced those challenges, or rather tried to leave those problems behind and work on other more earthly challenges.
As a people we seem to do all right when one or two of the problems presented at the beginning of this report is facing our country. But when they hit us all at once, as is the present circumstance, it kind of makes you want to go back to bed and pull the covers over your head.
Here is a scanned page from a copy of LIFE magazine from May 21, 1951 that I have in my files. I find this report to be utterly remarkable when viewed from today's perspective. This report is indisputable proof just how long our government can ignore a serious problem as long as there is no continuing citizen outcry.
And Here's just one example of concern for one of the ongoing financial crisis' of those times.
April 6, 1962:
Can Financial Crisis Destroy Us From Within?
By Sen. Harry F. Byrd
EXCERPTS
It was with a good deal of reluctance and, I will say, a good deal of sadness that, as chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, I was compelled to ask for an increase in the Federal debt limit . . .
I did so because I was told that if the debt limit was not increased, out government could not pay it's current bills. . . .
I do not recall in my long service on the Senate Committee of Finance that there ever arose such a condition as was presented to us. . . .
It had to be recognized that that the failure of the government to pay its bills would create chaos at home and abroad in the free world. . .
If we go back to the turn of the last century, starting after the end of the War of Secession (incorrectly referred to almost universally as the United States Civil War) we find that many of the same type problems which face our nation today faced United States citizens of the late 1800s and early 1900s. Enter Cyrus Teed. As David Standish wrote in his extremely detailed history of Hollow Earth beliefs in the section titled, Cyrus Teed and Koreshanity:
Teed had seen it's horrors [the Civil War] first hand. . . . President Grant's administration set new standards for incompetence and corruption . . . The transcontinental railroad, completed in 1896 . . . had been financed by a group of crooked promoters who hired Congressmen to do their bidding . . . Businesses were mainly small farms and small private enterprises. But in the 1870s and 1880s, greed, materialism, and the application of Darwinism to the social fabric inspired the first of the robber barons to suit up and begin constructing the vast impersonal corporate trusts that would dominate the American economy by 1900, amassing profits in the multimillions while their factory workers living in grimy cities grubbed along at sixteen-hour days for crummy wages. Amazing! All you have to do is change some robber barons names and the industries they control and the above information could be presented as today's news on any mainstream talking head show. Standish continues with more history that is currently, with just a few very small changes, repeating itself;
The primarily Anglo ethnic makeup of the United States was being altered as Germans, Italians And Eastern Europeans poured in - nearly 12 million between 1870 and 1900. . . . These new arrivals sent cultural jolts through the formerly homogeneous communities where they settled, as well as giving unwanted competition for jobs. [Sound familiar? The only difference, and it's a huge one, Teed's generations "new arrivals" were at least coming here legally].
Much of the upheaval during this time was fueled by economic problems, the two largest manifestations being the panic of 1873, which dragged into a prolonged depression, and the worst panic of 1893. . . . More examples of history repeating itself.
[And if you really want to compare the history of the turn of this century with the turn of the last, then compare the recent hurricane Ike with the hurricane of 1900, which by-the-way, also slammed into Galveston Texas head-on and STILL holds the record as the worst natural disaster to hit the United States in recorded history].
Way back then, at the turn of his generations century, Dr. Cyrus R. Teed wanted to escape, and help others escape, the hell-bound sinful and corrupt society that seemed to prevail at the time. And he had a plan. . . a BIG plan.
However, when it came to escaping from this unwanted corrupted world with an assembled group of followers who believed as he did Dr. Teed had it over on Dr. Raymond Bernard. While Bernard wasted away his short life looking for a way into the interior of the planet to create his paradise, Teed didn't have to waste any time looking for an entrance to a subterrean kingdom. . . . He reached the conclusion that we already lived INSIDE the earth. And Furthermore, he claimed he could scientifically prove it! He also wasn't expecting to find a paradise that already existed where once reached it would be an occasion for high-fives and the start of a life of lounging around drinking Coronas all day. Teed believed in the old, traditional Yankee way of acquisition . Through hard work. He'd have the chosen ones - his followers - build his 'Heaven' for him.
As with Dr. Raymond Bernard, I'll spend little time here telling the story of Cyrus Teed and his hollow earth beliefs except as it pertains to our story. The study of that part of his beliefs is readily available in many books such as the extreamly informative, "must read" history of the, Hollow Earth (2006) by David Standish, which I extensively quoted above and Subterranean Worlds (1989) by Walter Kafton-Minkel. Additional information is also available on many sites on the web. You can even read or download Teed's book explaining his theory of mankind living inside a hollow sphere , The Cellular Cosmogony in e-book format for free.
However for the real purpose of this report - to research and understand how a few others in the past dealt with the problems we face today, and try to realize and understand the lifestyle changes and sacrifices they had to make during and after the transition Marsha and I decide to take a road trip to the only documented "inner earth" settlement IN the world, Dr. Cyrus Teed's Koreshan Unity colony. It's located in the small West coast Florida town of Estero just south of the popular gulf coast town of Ft. Myers and is now a Florida State Historic Site. We are anxious to share with you what we learned on our trip to Dr. Teed's settlement. . . .
WE'RE INSIDE - COME ON IN!
A photo visit to Cyrus Teed's 'Heaven' IN Earth:
The Koreshan Unity Settlement
Color Snapshots: by Dennis Crenshaw or Marsha Ward.
Black and White Historical Photos: Copyrighted by, and used with the permission of, the Koreshan State Historic Site Archives.
A special THEI thank you to Michael Widner, Koreshan Archivist and to volunteer tour guide for the Florida Park Service, Jean Neher.
This small notice appeared in:
The Cook County Herald (Chicago Ill)
January 8, 1902
Teed Will Move 'Heaven'
Cyrus Teed is about to move the "heaven" from Chicago for good. The new location is at Estero, Lee County, Fla.
According to a booklet on the Koreshan Unity Settlement published and distributed by the Florida Endowment for the Humanities and available at the township site, Cyrus Teed first came to Florida in 1893 and he actually moved the first handful of his followers to Florida in 1894 to start building a new settlement he believed would become a New Jerusalem. (1) His long term plans included housing, jobs and educational facilities for 10,000 god-fearing people. He envisioned a utopian community which would be totally self sufficient, and eventually the industrial, cultural and religious hub for mankind eventually extending throughout the entire civilized world.
As Dr. Teed explained,
"It is the purpose of the Koreshan Unity to inaugurate the construction of a great city. It is the preparation for the establishment of an industrial system, designed by revolution - not riotous, but peaceable, to extend throughout the world, and to have its center of operation in Estero" [Florida]. (1)
Knowing that Cyrus Teed BELIVED we lived inside the earth and KNOWING positively that I am living in Florida I decided it was past time for me to visit his settlement. After all this is the only 'inner earth colony' that I actually have directions to and can afford to visit. While I had researched and published information on Cyrus Teed, the man who lived inside the earth, for years, and even though the remains of his Koreshan Unity settlement is only 315 miles away from my home in Jacksonville I had never been to the Historic site. In fact I hadn't been in that area of Florida since the early 60s, years before I'd ever heard of Cyrus Teed or the Koreshan Unity Settlement. So Marsha and I decided that it was high time we went down and checked it out.
After spending a pleasant day and night in the historical Gulf Coast town of Ft. Myers, we headed south on Highway 41 - more popularly known locally as the Tamia
mi Trail, which was completed in 1923 and conviently planed so that it sliced right through the Koreshian tract of land - Out of Ft. Myers we found ourselves on a crowded divided highway with the high concentration of strip malls, roadside businesses, condos and retirement RV Parks that we have come to expect while traveling in our popular retirement State. That was a complete change from the route way back in the 1960s when I had visited the the gulf coast as a young man. At that time the area consisted mostly of widely separated small farming and ranching communities and coastal fishing villages. And of course the area today would have been completely unrecognizable to the settlers of Teed's Koreshan Unity colony. . . except possibly the visionary, Dr. Cyrus Teed himself. When Teed first brought his group to Estero there were no roads into their tract. The only way to get to their new home site was to travel by boat the five and a half miles up the wild Estero River from the Gulf of Mexico. Compare our photo of the Estero River with one of many Koreshan archive photos of the warterway . 
However upon leaving the bumper to bumper traffic on highway 41 and turning West on Corkscrew Rd and then back North into the entrance road of the Koreshan State Historic Site we immediately noticed a change from the hectic Timiami Trail. The small two lane blacktop road leading into the park took on an instant feeling of peacefulness . Off in the distance we could hear birds singing and the lanscaped borders of the highway gave way to the more natural deep green nettles of the tall pines and the brighter yellow-green of the palmetto palms that border the small entrance access road that looked as rural Florida had looked before the flood of development, and, as I remembered the terrain looking during my last trip to the area way back in the early 60s.
As we pulled up to the small State Park Department booth to pay the reasonable 4 dollar admission we were pleasantly surprised to see that the park was "America's First Two Time Winner" of the National Gold Medal award for Best State Park in the Nation.
From the parking lot it was just a short walk down a crushed shell path to the entrance of the community. A series of crushed oyster shell paths wind throughout the community just as they were landscaped to do over 100 years ago. Of course when Cyrus Teed first saw the land in
1893 most of this portion of Florida was a seldom traveled wilderness and you probably would have had to hack your way through the undergrowth with a mechete.
The first building you see as you enter the settlement is the Founder's House which was where Cyrus Teed lived when he wasn't off traveling the country on his lecture and recruitment tours. This is the oldest structure on the grounds that was actually built by the Koreshans. (1) 
Following a path to our left we found ourselves facing the most impressive building of the 11 remaining structures, the Planetary Court, a standing monument to Teed's unpopular belief (at the time) in woman's equality. Compare todays photo with archive photos of the Planetary Court.
Waiting on the porch was Jean Neher, a Volunteer of the Florida Park Service who was there to give us a tour of the house and an excellent overview of the settlement, its founder and the long gone residents.
Cyrus Reed Teed was born in the State of New York in 1839. His family were Baptist Ministers, so he was raised in a Conventional Christian Home. He became a Doctor. (2)
Cyrus Teed was always interested in unconventional experiments which often involved using dangerously high levels of electricity. In the Autumn of 1869 During one such experiment he was badly shocked and knocked out. While unconscious he claimed to have had a vision. He claimed to have seen God in the form of a beautiful woman and to have learned the secrets of the universe. Reincarnation, a mother/father God, apathy for woman, solitud
e, and communal living combined with a belief that the world was a hollow sphere and that our world was on the inside. These would become the cornerstones of Cyrus Teed's Religion.
Inspired by his illuminating vision and the occulted knowledge he had received, Cyrus Teed vowed to use this new understanding to, as he put it "save humanity." . . .
. . . Teed adopted the name Koresh which is Hebrew for Cyrus and named his Religion Koreshanity and started on his quest for utopia. (3)
"He believed in the early Christian aspect and definition of what today we call Marxist type Communist, and that is "take from each according to their ability and give to each according to their needs." Eventually it boiled down to "what's mine is mine and what's yours is mine too." When people came to join, they had to go through a trial period, then they had to give Teed and the Commune, the Corporation, their physical goods, material goods and then he would take care of them for the rest of their lives." . . . Charles Dauray, Chairman CEO, Collage of Life Foundation , Inc. (3)
During that time he tried to start several communes in New York but every one of them failed. He ended up in Chicago. Once he got to Chicago he no longer had problems gaining followers. He ended up with 50 followers. Following that success he next went to San Francisco. He started to pick up people in California. He realized that for the first time he was going to succeed. And he did. It had taken him 25 years and he was now 55. He came down to Florida in 1893 and acquired this land, 300 acres. Before he died he had increased the groups holdings to 7500 acres. (2)
After acquiring the first 300 acres he went back to Chicago and told his people to pack up. . . that they were going to relocate in Florida and work towards building a New Jerusalem.
"May we so unite our energies so as to build for ourselves and for those who may be influenced by our own united efforts and the achievement of collective joys, a habitation in which spiritual, moral and social unity shall prevail." . . . Cyrus Teed. (3)
Some of Teeds "Angels," as he called this followers, didn't really want to move to the swamps of Florida which was reportedly full of man eating alligators, poisonous snakes and millions of mosquitoes. However after listening to the persuasive vision of their charismatic leader some of them finally agreed to follow him into this untamed wilderness.
The first adventurous pioneers that did agree to come had to live in tents and they worked very hard clearing the land and getting the site livable. Another group followed a little later. He ended up with between 200 and 250 people here. (2)
Those who came to Estero from Chicago in 1894, found it a test of their courage and ability. To leave the safe and comfortable life of a big city and begin a new order in a hot, humid, bug-infested wilderness is a chronicle of their faith in Dr. Teed and his teachings. The Koreshans brought their furnishings, books, even a grand piano. This was to be their permanent home. (3)
"For the first two years they were basically clearing land , sleeping on the ground in the mud, surviving on peanuts, it had to be very, very rough for these people. But by about 1904 they were up to about 50 buildings and they were a full thriving community". . Michael Heare, Park Service Specialist, Koreshan State Historical Site. (3)
So they came down here and started building out of necessity, things they really needed like a lumber mill, a bakery [interior view] , a dining hall [interior view], some living quarters. Then they branched out with a school, a laundry room, a store, the generator building, a cement plant, a publishing company with its own printing presses. (2)
In 1903 they built the Planetary Court. It was called the Planetary court because it was built for the seven ladies who lived in it who represented the seven known planets. (2) [ Teed/Koresh was the 'sun' and 'the mother of Christ', Victora Gratra, represented the moon].
You might wonder why these seven women deserved a big house like this to live in. Everybody else lived in dormitory style housing but these seven women ran the place. Dr. Teed lived in the Founders Hall but he was hardly ever here. He was running all over the country, recruiting people, lecturing and taking care of his business interests away from here. He was gone for weeks, sometimes months and trying to keep both places operating, [in Florida and Chicago] so, when he wasn't here it was the responsibility for these seven women to run the whole place. Any time there was a problem it was up to them to solve it. They had a school, a publishing house, taking care of 200 people. . . any kind of situation that arose these women had to take care of it. (2) 
As a reward for taking care of the everyday business of running the thriving colony this showplace was theirs to live in.
The husbands didn't sleep here. Once you moved to the Unity settlement you had to spend the rest of your life celibate so the husbands slept in the dormitories. This house was for the seven ladies and no body else. (2)
Three of these ladies had 3 or 4 children each and the children lived in the children's dorm. Children were brought here, but none were born here because the entire settlement was celibate. Once the family moved here they had to live a pure lifestyle. Once you moved here you agreed not to interfere in any way with the raising of your own children. No one ever objected because it was wonderful. They were educated so well, so wonderful, they were taught proper grammar, proper table manners and when they got older they were required to take vocational training, working in the publishing house or the bakery or in one of the other many imterprises the settlers involved themselves in. It worked real well. After Dr. Teed died several of the young men went out and started their own publishing house, or bakery or laundry and were quite successful. (2)
But it wasn't all work and no play. Under Dr. Teed's leadership music, the arts and live plays were enjoyed by all. The Koreshans neighbors from Ft. Myers and other outlying areas came regularly to enjoy plays, shows and concerts put on by the Korshan actors, orchestra, String Quartet and a house band. At one time they even had their own tennis court. Teed and Victoria Gratra intertained dignitaries in the Planetary court. Among their distingueshed guests from near by Ft. Myers were Thomas Edison, Henry Ford and Harry Firestone. In later years they organized and hosted industrual and art exhibits. The small Koreshan settlement looked as though, Just as Dr. Teed was planning, it was become the local area of culture and the arts. For awhile all was in harmony around Lee County. From the photos in the archives these opeople realy enjoyed themselves. Cruses on the river. Teas for the ladies in the gardens. Then Tweed went too far. He started trying to get a foothold in local politics. Locals outside of the Koreshan community began to get worried. His published beliefs about blacks having equal rights with whites became known and didn't set well with his neighbors. Tempers between the fractons begin to flare up. In the end Cyrus Teed became a victum of trying to move his master plan forward.
In death, as in life, Cyrus Teed was surrounded by controversy. His death was the result of a street fight he was involved in with a town Marshal after he tried to gain control of local politics during the 1906 elections. For a complete detailed study of that controversy read Cyrus Teed and The Lee County Elections of 1906 by Elliot Mackle available at the Florida Historical Society site.
With a better understanding of the settlements history, Teed's plans and how it all worked as explained by Jean Neher, and the video Untold Stories - Koreshan Unity, The Search for Utopia , Marsha and I struck out on our own to explore this amazing community that is forever locked in a different era.
From the Planetary Court we took a leisurely stroll down one of the crushed shell paths which wander through remnants of the original exotic plants and trees still scattered around the well kept grounds to the location of the Dining Hall area. All that remains to mark the spot is the dinner bell. The three story dining hall was once the largest structure in Lee county. The two top floors were dormitories for the Sisters. Unfortunately the structure was demolished in 1949. (1)
Next we visited the restored Bakery building. According to the guide booklet the Koreshans could "produce 500-600 loves of bread per day for the members and to be sold in the Koreshan store." (1)
Our next stop was the Membership Cottage which, according to our guide booklet was". . . typical of the individual houses of the members. Built of local pine, with lap of vertical siding, they typically had wood shake roofs. Roof pitches were high, and since ceilings were often open to the roof rafters, this design allowed the sultry summer heat to rise to the the roof top. Most of the members' houses were not painted but left to weather naturally" (1)
Towards the back of the settlement was the "industrial" area of the compound, the laundry & drying yard, the large machine shop, built primarily to contain "the steam power machinery that served the adjacent laundry" (1) 
Here are two views of the a Schofield Iron Works sream engine. According to the sign, it is the type used, by the Koreshans in their local saw mill. It was used in conjunction with a steam producing boiler to provide steam for the engine.
Here's the small machine shop where the Koreshans "manufactured small special tools, kitchen items and provided repair services." (1)
Of special interest to me was the Electric Generator Building built in 1908. The equipment used to supply the colony's electricity was originally powered by steam and was later converted to diesel. This was another area where the Koreshan community was 'light-years' ahead of their times. Thomas Edison had a summer home in nearby Ft. Myers and he, along with Henry Ford and Harry Firestone were among those locals who were friends of Cyrus Teed and visited the small settlement on many occasions.. When Edison proposed that Ft. Myers convert their town to using electrical power to light up the town the locals refused, being afraid of the dangers involved, but the Koreshans, realizing that it could make life easier for them, said bring it on. While the rest of Florida, and in fact most of the country, were still living with coal oil lanterns and gas lights, the Koreshan Unity community was awash with electric light from Thomas Edison's contraptions.
From there we returned down the white shell path to the garden areas. According to our guide booklet in the days of the colony there were extensive vegetable gardens where they "found success with a variety of vegetables. . . Some . . . Were grown commercially and shipped, but the farming and gardening were the mainstays of the Koreshan tables." (1) There were "two types of orchards: those consisting of a single type of fruit tree, such as orange or grapefruit, and those . . . Of a mixed variety of fruit trees, including avocado, lemon, lime, mango, tamarind, fig, olive, banana, guava, gooseberry, sugar apple, coconut, and other nut trees." (1) While not much of this remains, there is a lot of the Pleasure Gardens which were "developed for purely aesthetic purposes, as a place for nourishing the spirit rather than the body" (1)to see. There is enough original greenery, fountains and scenic spots on the extensive grounds left to realize that, 100 years ago the settlement was indeed a paradise.
As the paths meandered through the peaceful setting of exotic trees such as the rare monkey puzzle tree from Africa (left) and beautiful flowers and orchards (right) we realized just how well planned and layed out the grounds of theKoreshan Community had been. Many of the plants and trees had come from cuttings given to the commune by Thomas Edison from his guardens at his home in near by Ft. Myers.
Down by the Estero River the area still looks much as it did back when Dr. Teed first came to Florida.
Here we see an artistically designed water fountain. And below a bird bath, both were made using cement from the Unitys own cement factory.
Leaving the fast-lane modern world behind and taking a leasure stroll through the remains of the Unity settlement grounds and gardens gave us time to reflect. Had Dr. Teed been just a little more main-stream. Had he not insisted that the settlers remin celibate. Had he not believed that his was to be an eternal life, then, it is very possable that his vision of a viable utopia type settlement would still remain here on the banks of the age old Estero River setting an example for all mankind and offering an alternate possibility for todays troubled world.
We also visited the Art Hall, where the Koreshans put on their plays and concerts for the commune members and anyone else in the outlying communites tht cared to attend. Unfortunately the building was closed due to recent renovation and hadn't been reopened yet. I was sort of disappointed that I couldn't get inside the Art building because this is where Cyrus Teed's hollow globe which he always took around the country for use during his lecture tours is on display. However, we were able to take pictures of it through the window. To bad but the globe was closed up and all we could see was the outside of the globe which was, of course, uninhabited.
I saved one place we visited to end this report with although we had been there earlier in our walking tour, bcause I felt that a quote from her would be a fitting end to the report.
That was the cottage of Lillian "Vesta" Newcomb. According to the bulletin board outside of her cottage:
Lillian was born on November 19, 1878 in Stockton California. Her mother, Harriet attended Koreshan Unity meetings in San Francisco. After her husbands death, in 1892 her mother took Lillian and her brother James to live with the group in Chicago. In 1894 Lillian left her mother and brother behind to be among the first Koreshans to move to Estero. It was here that the 16 year old Lillian was dubbed "Vesta" by Dr. Teed. She was one of those who
lived in a tent, slept for 10 months on the sometimes muddy ground and one winter survived solely on peanuts. During her long life she worked in many capacities at the settlement. She served as the persona
l maid to Teed's second in comma
nd, Victoria Gratia in the Planetary Court, taught the children in the school, operated the linotype machine at the Guiding Star Publishing House, helped run the dining room, worked in the saw mill and assisted in the laundry. Vesta died on April 5, 1974, being one of the last of the original Koreshans to live in the colony.
In an interview shortly before she died a reporter asked her whether or not she still believed that she lived inside the earth. Vesta answered, "I did until the boys landed on the moon. When that happened I knew it couldn't possibly be true."
I wonder, if she were alive today, what she would say upon learning that many believe we never landed on the moon. That it was all faked.
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SIDEBAR: That Other Koresh
One other interesting fact that I found out from Jean Neher. During our tour someone in the group asked a question that Jean told me is asked by someone in almost every group she meets.
"Did David Koresh and the Branch Davidian group that were wiped out in Waco Texas by government agents have a connection to Teed's Koreshans?"
The answer, of course, is no. The Branch Davidians broke away from the Davidian Seventh Day Adventists sect in 1955. David Koresh real name was Vernon Wayne Howell. For the "official" reasoning behind his name change see the Wikipedia description under David Koresh. However a piece of information supplied me by Jean Neher after the tour might say more than is officially recorded. According to Ms. Neher, "Vernon Wayne Howell lived nearby and attended a local Jr. High school for one semester."
With that being the case I think it is very possible that he visited this site and seeing the success of Dr. Teed's colony felt that using the name Koresh might help him succeed in his endeavors just as Dr. Teed had. Just a thought.
LAST MINUTE UPDATE
After I wrote the above, I found this Washington Post report:
The Washington Post (Washington D.C.)
April 9, 1993
Scholar Speculates on Similarities Between Cult Leaders Called Koresh
Like David Koresh, Cyrus Teed "Koresh" was obsessed with the Book of Revelations
EXCERPTS
WACO, Texas - A biblical scholar and expert on cults who has advised federal authorities during the standoff with David Koresh and his followers believes that Koresh modeled himself after the messianic leader of a turn-of-the-century doomsday cult who died after a violent confrontation with a town marshal.
J. Phillip Arnold director of Reunion Institute, a biblical research center in Houston, Wednesday cited striking similarities between David Koresh and Cyrus R. Teed, a former Union Army medical corpsman in the Civil War who changed his name to Cyrus Teed Koresh and founded a religious commune called the Koreshan Unity.
"I've never heard of anyone else calling themselves Koresh before, and I've been reading this stuff for 20 years," said Arnold.
So, Ms. Neher it looks as though you might have hit the nail on the head in regards to the David Koresh/Cyrus Teed Koresh connection.
When we left the Koreshan park we turned left and headed south down the Timiami trail. As we watched the mile after mile of beautifully landscaped highway mediums, the retirement and gated communities and the upscale strip malls that line highway 41 pretty much from Ft. Myers to Naples we realized that Dr. Teed had been right. This area was a small slice of heaven and the people had come in droves.
The Final Hook
But I also wanted to include the information concerning the possible David Koresh connection Ms. Neher had provided and, because it didn't fit anywhere in the main report, I made it a sidebar so to speak.
So. . . .
One hundred years ago Cyrus Teed's death has been attributed to a law enforcement officer because his beliefs didn't match the accepted and he was very vocal in letting it be known.
Like the man said: History has a habit of serving up reruns.
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Sources
All black and white historical photos and documents are the property and are used with the permission of the Koreshan State Historic Site Archives. As you see I have sprinkled this report with links to many of the old photos in their archives but I suggest that you explore for yourself this on-line collection of historical data that is chock full of photos, reports and writings and other hidden gems of information waiting to be mined for a better understanding of this unique early Florida community.
Color snapshots by Dennis Crenshaw & Marsha Ward.
(2) From the park tour given by Jean Neher, a Volunteer of the Florida Park Service .
(3) From the video, Untold Stories - Koreshan Unity, The Search for Utopia [Scroll down to 2nd video].
(4) Koreshan State Historic Site pamphlet (11/06) distributed by Florida State Parks.
Newspaper source: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/
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Dr. Cyrus Reed Teed: the Newspaper Files
As we all know during the period between the last of the 1800s and the start of the 1900s there was only one source of news available to the average man on the street. Newspapers. However, what many do not realize is that the information in the local newspapers of the day was actually pretty up-to-date. The railroads and telegraphs carried the news from place to place in a very timely matter. I was in for a pleasant surprise when I was researching Cyrus Teed and the Koreshan Unity Colony for this report to find that Cyrus Teed was in the press quite often. You can read about his hollow earth and Koreshan beliefs in the books I linked to in the main report of this issue. And I feel that I covered his group and their "Heaven" in depth in the report above. But by reading what was reported about him in newspapers across the country firsthand you can really flesh out this man who walked his whole life to a different drummer. I found in a search of my favorite newspaper research site http://www.newspaperarchive.com/ that he, his beliefs and the Koreshan Unity movement were extensively covered in the press quite often from Florida to Hawaii and everywhere in between. In fact although I know that hardly anyone today would know who he was I feel that after researching him for this report, his name was probably known by most people during that period and that he and his beliefs were probably the subject of conversation when people gathered all across this country. Because of this unexpected circumstance I decided to add this Bonus Report taken from many of the publications of the period. I have quoted more extensivily than normal because all of this information is now in public domain because of its age, and the information is quite telling and enjoyable to read in its original voice.
However, I also ask you to remember that even more than today the newspapers of that time was always looking for news and reports that feature sensational information that will help the publisher sell newspapers. So much of what they reported during the last turn of the century we must read with a grain of salt.
Also with these reports being over 100 years old there is no one who can actually give us eyewitness conformation of the facts. I can't help but wonder what a researcher looking into Cyrus Teed and the Koreshans 100 years from now will think when they runs across the following statement in a book review of David Standish's book, Hollow Earth published in the New York Times on January 28, 2007: "A Koreshan remnant survives today with the cult newsletter Hollow Earth Insider" . . .
There will be no one left alive to tell that researcher of the future that The Hollow Earth Insider cult had but one member. . . your editor, Dennis Crenshaw. Nor will they have any way to find out that in the 16 years that I have been publishing this report in one form or other that, while I've written about Cyrus Teed and his Hollow Earth beliefs several times, this is the first issue I've ever written about anything concerning the Koreshans and in fact the first time I've ever written anything about the cult. P eriod. THEI a remnent of Koreshanism indeed.
Yet, I can see in my minds eye this imaginary future researcher writing in their final report on the Koreshan movement . . . "According to the New York Times members of the Koreshan cult existed well into the 21st century and published a newsletter, The Hollow Earth Insider, bla, bla, bla."
So, while keeping all of that in mind , throw another log on the fire, set down in your favorite parlor chair, turn up the gas lights and take a stroll through the archives of the nations newspapers of a hundred years ago. Read firsthand what was reported about our man the controversial and eccentric, Dr. Cyrus R. Teed.
Source: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/
Search: Cyrus Teed
Between years; 1889 - 1910
Hits: 72
Articles concerning Cyrus Teed started to appear in the nations newspapers in 1889, but before I start reporting in the order of appearance I'm going to present the first article out of order because I believe that this particular article says a lot about our Mr. Teed and his method of pesuasion and besides that it's my favorite article out of the 72 found.
Background: In 1904 the Presidential Election campaign in was in full swing. The top two Democrats running for the number one spot in their party was William Randolph Hearst and Alton B. Parker who, in the end beat out the famous newspaperman to represent the party. Parker won the nomination but lost the election to Theodore Roosevelt, the Republican.
Hawaiian Gazette
June 21, 1904
Dr. Cyrus Teed head of the Koreshan Unity, which believes that the earth is a hollow shell, of which the human race inhabits the interior, and John Temple Graves, the Georgia editor who has been trying to swing Florida in line for Hearst arrived in Tampa on the same night recently each with the intention of addressing an audience on his favorite topic. Graves was delayed and a crowd waited impatiently at the court house for his appearance. Dr. Teed took advantage of the opportunity and mounting the platform proceeded without introducing himself to expound his theories about the convexity of the earth's surface. An old line Democrat from the country, who had come into town to hear Graves, listened to the Koreshan's arguments for some time then arose and addressed the speaker from the middle of the hall: "See here Mr. Graves, I've stood for Cleveland Demmycrats and their radical-like tom-foolery, and I've voted 'er straight like a man; I've stood for Bryan Demmycrats with their 16 to 1 never can win monkey business and I've voter 'er straight like a man; but if you Hearst Demmycrats are a-going to try to make the people of this country believe that we are walking on the mantle of this earth with our heads p'inted to hell and out toes p'inted towards the angels, right here's where I quit the old ship, by gum!"
The Syracuse Standard (N. Y.)
Friday, September 20, 1889
Eccentric Dr. Teed
He is Regarded with Veneration By Old Men and Young Women in Chicago
Eccentric Dr. Cyrus K. Teed a former resident of this city is again heard from. He is in Chicago where he, with 27 or 28 other religious fanatics has opened what they call a Collage of Life. An Associated Press says that what those 28 people [are up to] is something of a puzzle. There are 14 men mostly gray-haired, and 14 women, mostly young and good looking. There is a widespread belief that they live together for anything but a holy or good purpose. But according to their own representation they are religious and scientific reformers, their specialty being a new theory concerning marriage and chastity as related to godliness and immortality. They look up to Dr. Teed as an inspired teacher and some say as a Christ. The paper prints interviews with a number of husbands whose wives have deserted them and joined the Teed aggregation. The husbands unitedly denounce Teed as a breaker up of happy homes
Cyrus K. Reed was formerly a physician and practiced in Utica, Syracuse, Brooklyn and New York. He has always entertained queer religious views and was at all times ready to inflict them on any patient hearer. It is no new claim for him to say he is Christ.
Oakland Daily Evening Tribune (California)
Wednesday, January 14, 1891
A Chicago Messiah
His Teachings Disrupt Oakland Fanatics
L. P. Schuster's Wife a Victim
Mary Singer was his John the Baptist - A New Jerusalem Established on Noe Street in San Francisco.
Fruits of the teachings of Mary Singer and "Dr" Cyrus Teed who recently spent several weeks in this city promulgating a new religion are beginning to show themselves.
They are bitter fruit to those who are related to the disciples of the Teed faith.
It is several months since Mary Singer, who appears to have left a husband in Chicago to act as a sort of John the Baptist in preparing the way for "Dr." Teed, came to Oakland and begin to hold a series of meetings here. She also operated in San Francisco. She professed to believe in the "Dr.'s" claims to divinity, and mixed up science, free-love and communism with the teachings sufficiently to lead a number of persons, mostly women of advanced years and with families to join their circle.
Then came "Dr." Teed who at once blossomed out as a Messiah. He preached at 60 cents a head to people whom Mary Singer had interested in the cause. He advanced the startling theory that he was a Christ, and that within a few months his bodily person would disintgrate, his spirit ascend to heaven, and the dust of morial frame would fall upon the faithful and render them immortal.
Among others who saw, heard and believed him was the wife of L.P. Schuster, a carrage maker at 370 12th Street whose residence is on 35th Street.
Mrs Schuster, in fact, appears to have gone quite daft over the teachings of "Dr." Teed. She is a woman past the age of 50 and has grown children. Dr. Teed promised her endless life on earth and also promised to restore the hearing of her eldest daughter of 29 and is as deaf as a post.
The Chicago Messiah didn't stop here in promising. He professed to be able to make gold at his pleasure, and from the after performances it seems that there was some method to his science, for he caused his dupes to put whateve property into a common fund over which Teed held sway. 
More firmly to rivit the claims upon the minds of his dupes, Messiah Teed preached and in a pamphlet called "The Flaming Sword," which he caused to be printed that "the marrage tie is a legal licence to prostitution;" that it was sinful for marrage folks to live together, as they thereby destroyed or weakened the brain tissue, which it was necessary to keep unwearied, that it might receive the spititial teachings of religion, according to the Chicago plan of Messiah Teed. Next he taught that brotherly love was a true bond between mortals, and that for mutual benefit the property of the individual entirely must be turned over into a common pool.
On the last day of the year L. P. Schuster left his residence to go to his carriage shop and before 11 A.M. Mrs. Schuster had caused all the furnature to be carried away and taken to San Francisco. The piano, silverware and everything of value except a couple of stoves, a stool and a few small insignificant articles were taken. With the furniture there disappeared Mrs. Schuster and her two daughters.
The deserted husband traced them and managed in recovering most of his furniture-all but about $150.00 worth-but he had to pay, not only the return freight charges but the freight charges for taking it away from his house, because the Teed religion seeming not to provide for such expenditure. Last Sunday Mrs Schuster appeared at her husband's residence and demanded the furnature again.
Mr. Schuster, who is a hard working man, came here some years ago from Owatonna Minn. He was even today at his shop on 12th Street and conversed with much feeling on the subject of his wife's religious affairs. He said that Mrs. Schuster is a good woman aside from her religious craze. She had attended Mrs. Woodworth's tent meetings and when the "flee to the mountains" craze came on she wanted to flee. She wanted to sell everything because "something was going to happen." At that time her husband declined to go with her and her children [talked] her out of the idea.
But after hearing Mary Singer and Messiah Teed Mrs. Schuster determined herself to dispose of the household property. She did so as above stated. Mr. Schuster believed that she and her daughters are at 218 and 220 Noe Street, San Francisco where the Teedites have established some sort of New Jerusalem. Here the creed and tenets of the Tweed plan of salvation are taught and practiced.
According to Mr. Schuster he is not the only individual whose wife has become infatuated with the religion of Teed. A Mr. Knight of North Street, near Center, feared that his wife was about to move their goods and [unreadable] to the New Jerusalem on Noe Street, but he placed a guard on the premises and blocked the game.
A Mrs. Harris, who formerly kept a lodging house on San Pablo Avenue, and was divorced from two husbands, is said by Mr. Schuster to be another of the band of disciples.
Mary Singer went back to Chicago some time ago and Messiah Teed is said to be in Portland Or. making converts among the "webfeet." His followers here firmly believe they will live forever says Mr. Schuster, but the carriage maker thinks the Teed will sometime run against a pistol and suddenly "disintegrate."
It is probable that the relatives of some of the duped women will take steps to break up the Teed colony in San Francisco and if the "Messiah" returns to this locality he will doubtless be warmly received. He has promised to start a printing office here and claimed to have a $1000 job promised him as soon as he got type and presses to do it. Just why an all-powered "Messiah" who is capable of making gold should desire to embark in the job printing business in the prevailing low prices and in the face of strong competition in that line is something only his converts can tell.
The Newark Daily Advocate (Ohio)
Monday, October 19, 1891
Railroad Across The Pacific
San Francisco - Dr. Cyrus Teed, a second Messiah, and head of a unique religion community know as Koresh headed for Pittsburg a few weeks ago. During his absence some of the convents revolted and Royal O. Spear and wife have since exposed Teed and his Koreshan home at Metropolitan Hall. Three hundred people were present. Speer said Teed had on foot one of the greatest schemes in the world.
There is a great organization of old German people at Economy, Pa. and they are worth $ 100,000,000. His scheme, Spear says, is to get this, and when he is done he says he is going to build a six track railroad across the continent, shove the dirt into the sea and continue the line right through to China. Some of his followers are so attached to him and have the faith in his Massiahship as to believe him capable to carry it out.
The Galveston Daily News (Texas)
October 27, 1891
The Second Messiah
Dr. Teed Expects to Execute Some Wonderful Feats
Pittsburg Pa. Oct. 26 - The Celibato society of economites, whose wealth has been estimated at $100,000,000 have indorced the doctrine of Cyrus R. Teed who came here from the west to interest the members in the new scet of Koreshan, of which Teed is the head.
On Saturday night it was decided by the board to support Teed in whatever way they could. Yesterday the announcement of the proposed change was made to the economites in church.
Teed clams to be the second Messiah and that he is immortal. In an interview concerning his plans he said:
"I will, in the near furture establish a store in Pittsburg on my system of [unreadable] commerce. I will establish a big control house in Chicago, and expect my co-operative system to come into general vogue in ten years. I did not come here for their money. I want their moral support and their credits. Through their influence I expect to bring closer to me the other five Celibato societies in the country."
Dr. Teed claims that he will execute many marvelous engineering feats after his ideas once [he] gets into power; such as building a six track railroad across the continent and cutting a pathway fifty miles wide through the Rocky Mountains.
Hayarden Independent (Iowa)
May 12, 1892
Teed's Community
The Doctor Will Settle Down In Washington Heights
EXCERPT
Chicago May 9 - Dr. Cyrus Teed has decided to overrule the objections of the inhospitable people of Washington Heights and will locate his Koresan community in the town. . .
The Decatur Daily Review (Illinois)
Saturday Morning June 4, 1892
Dr. Teed Goes Free
Chicago June 3 - Dr. Cyrus Teed, the false prophet and chief mogul of the heaven of his own location was discharged from custody by Justice Everett Friday morning. Teed was charged with [unreadable] intimacy with Mrs. Cole by her husband. Cole failed to appear to prosecute.
The Janesville Gazette (Wisconsin)
Tuesday, December 27, 1892
Dr. Teed May Get The Cash
EXCERPTS
Pittsburg Pa. - The body of Father Henrici, the dead leader of the [Society of Economites] was laid out in the "great house" at Economy yesterday . . .John Duss, the junior trustee, is in charge of the society and will be elected successor . . . The future of the society is a source of considerable anxiety to many of its members . . .Duss is a friend of Dr. Cyrus Teed, the bogus Messiah of Chicago. . . It is said [Duss] was sent there by. . . Teed, who had formed a plan to get control of the Economite millions.
It is claimed by many that [Duss] has all along been working in the interest of Teed, and that now having absolute control he will deliver the society and its property to the Chicago "Messiah."
Tyrone Daily Herald (Pa)
The Economite Society's Millions Safe
EXCERPT
Pittsburg - Concerning the recent stories published throught the country that Cyrus Teed of California had successed in getting hold of the finances of the Society of Economites, trustee John Duss has published a statement . . . Dr. Teed did not get the money and was not after it. . . The affairs are entirely in the hands of the board of elders, and no one person could get control of the society's millions.
The Sunday Herald
Syracuse (N.Y.)
Sunday Morning, April 15, 1894
Doctor Teed's latest
Preparing to build a New Jeruslem in Florida
Away down on the west coast of Florida, 300 miles southwest of Jacksonville, and seventy-five miles north of Ponta Gorda, wherever that is, a small creek struggles through the dense everglades into the Gulf of Mexico, somewhere inland, not far from the mouth of the creek, where alligators grow twenty feet long and moccasins are as thick as pollywogs in an old cistern, Dr. Cyrus Teed, high priest of the Koreshin Unity, is preparing to found a permanent abiding place for the true belivers. On the maps it will some time in the future be known as Estero, for that is the name of the creek. But Doctor Teed prefers to call it New Jerusalem, and all of his followers will know it by that name.
About three months ago, Doctor Teed gained a convert in the person of Gustav Damkohler, an elder German of eccentric ideas. As an evidence of his faith in the doctrines of the Koreshan society, Mr. Damkohler deeded 300 acres of land to the organization and it is upon this newly acquired territory Doctor Teed proposes to build the New Jerusalem. There is nothing small in Doctor Teed's idea of a city. He says the society will purchase enough more land to cover a tract covering thirty-six square miles. Right in the center of the tract, through which Estero creek runs east and west, is where Doctor Teed is going to erect a temple of such magnificence as to cast a ghostly pallor over the famous structure erected by Solomon. This temple will stand on a circular island-if it should ever stand at all-surrounded by a crystal sea furnished by the muddy waters of Estero creek. The diameter of the island will be 1630 feet, according to Doctor Teed's plans and the crystal sea will be inclosed by an arcadium - a continuous structure containing schools and other public institutions.
Doctor Teed has the New Jerusalem all laid out, and the design is a marvelous combination of geometrical figures displayed in colored velvets on a big screen which stands in his study at Washington Heights. Three of the "Angels" in the house worked three weeks on the design, and if it should never be fit for anything else it will make a nice crazy quilt. Doctor Teed calculated that 8,000,000 Koreshites can be supported on the ground to be occupied by the new Jerusalem.
When the city is all finished, with a fleet of trading vessels and the proper wharfage, he estimates that this model city will cost $200,000,000. Where this bagatello is coming from the Doctor does not care to say. Labor is the only capital recognized by a true Koreshite, and since the ground on which New Jerusalem is to stand is supposed to be rich in phosphates, Doctor Teed [believes] that enough money will be found in the course of excavation for buildings.
The Standard (Ogden Utah)
Monday, April 28, 1894
Dr Cyrus R. Teed
Dr. Cyrus R. Teed the "Koresh" founder of a new religion is attracting universal attention by his latest gigantic scheme. This is the building and peopling of a New Jerusalem on the southwestern coast of Florida, an idea of such nature it is hard to believe that he believes it himself. This man is convinced that he is the reincarnation of the deity - the second Christ, that he is flawless, sinless and that the acceptation of his new dogma will-to use his own words-"unfold a new race of men." Dr Teed is a man of unusual persuasive powers and tremendous energies and is about 51 years of age. His followers are claimed to be between 4,000 to 6,000. Dr. Tweed's New Jerusalem is not a reality. He says it only requires 8,000,000 celibate Koresans and $200,000,000 in cash, obstacles not worth mentioning.
The Constitution (Atlanta Georgia)
Thursday, May 17, 1894
EXERPTS
. . . Some of our readers are doubtless aware of the fact that [Dr. Teed] claims to be Christ. He has many followers, some of them well-to-do people, and he has already settled 120 of his "Angels," as he calls them, on his Lee county tract. . . The "Angels" have been at work since last December. They have built a number of houses and about thirty convents have been recruited in the neighborhood. A beginning has also been made on the wonderful temple, which is to be grander than the great Morman tabernacle in Salt Lake City. . . .
Conversation is a profitable art as pursued by teacher Teed. That wily medicine man roped in 240 acres of his 1000 acres by lassoing their owner with the tenents of the Koreshans . . .
Sober-minded people will read these statements with mingled indignation and amusement and they will say that is impossible for Dr. Teed to secure and hold a following. But they do not take into consideration the immense number of cranks in this country. The doctor has for the past four years managed to control quite a colony of "Angels" at Washington Heights, and he may be able to draw many more to his new heaven in Florida.
Some of the stories told of him are incredible. A year or so ago it is said that a lady convert paid him $3000 to transform her into the Golden Minerva. The doctor pocketed the money, and as the lady did not feel any more like Minerva than before her bargain, she kicked and wanted her $3000 back. Teed's reply settled the matter. He said that his convent had obstinately failed to put her mind in the proper subjective condition, therefore, it was her own fault that she had not been transformed. Of course, there could be no answer to this.
But how will the Floridians in and around Lee County like this new experiment? From what we know of them we are satisfied that they will make "Koresh" and his "Angels" behave themselves, and if they cut up any high jinks they will go to court and perhaps to the chain-gang. There is no locality in the south where the people will patiently tolarate a person who claims to be Christ and a crowd of dupes who insist that they are "Angels."
The Newark Daily Advocate (N.J.)
Wednesday, October 16, 1885
(From a section titled "Personal Gossip")
Cyrus Teed, the prophet who teaches that the world is flat, is planning a model city in Louisiana, with streets 400 feet wide, so that a fellow won't be kept awake by the wheels in some other mans head.
The Dubuque Herald (Iowa)
March 12, 1897
New Ideas generate almost hourly in the brain of Cyrus Teed, of Chicago. He thinks of laying out a model city on a Louisiana plain. The street are to be 400 feet wide, and each street is to be arranged in tiers as to have four separate roads, one above the other-the lower for pedestrians, the next for bicylists, then one for wagons and the highest one for railroads.
The Newark Daily Advocate (N.J.)
Friday, March 12, 1897
Teed Is In Trouble
The Koreshan Messiah in a Tangle of Lawsuits
EXCERPTS
It is all over a paltry matter of $200, but the whole fabric of Koreshan threatens to tumble into ruin if the parties to the suit of Hoyt verses Parsons make all the disclosures they say they will. . . .
. . . Next in importance to Dr. Teed in hierarchy of Koreshan is the "mother of Christ" who is known to the world as Mrs. Victoria Ordway of Chicago. Attached to the rule that the adherents of Koreshan must give up their wealth to the cause is a clause permitting them to withdraw their contributions in the event of their leaving the community. If this provision had been lived up to, the suit of Holt verses Parsons would have never been heard of.
The plantiffs are Mr. and Mrs. Warren Hoyt. Mr. Hoyt is the editor of the Haverhill (Mass.) Bulletin and an ex-state legislator. The defendant is Mrs. E.V. Parsons of Boston, who is asking to account for a gold watch, a chain, a trunk and more that $100 worth of dry goods which she is alleged to have obtained from local storekeepers, who charged them to Mr. Hoyt's account.
The story told on behalf of the plaintiffs presents Mrs. Parsons in the light of one who obtained a powerful influence over Mrs. Hoyt, so that the latter was willing and eger to give her everything she asked. Indeed nothing less ocult than [unreadable] is suggested as the explanation for Mrs. Hoyt's amenity to her coreligionist desires.
On the other hand Nrs. Parsons protests that she is a victom of Koreshan. She will not discredit the faith itself- "sublime" is the adjective she applies to it-but she has nothing but words of bitterness for Dr. Teed, it's founder and "Christ;" Mrs.Ordway, the "mother of Christ," and others high in the councels of the mysterious order. She has instituted suits against Teed to recover $2,100, which ahe says he induced her to give him.
As for Mrs. Hoyt's property, she says it was a voluntary gift rendered necessary by the destitute condition in which she (Mrs. Parsons) left the Koreshan "heaven" in Florida. Mrs. Parsons is a physician practicing at 104 Dratmouth Street, Boston, although her home is in Brockton.
The Evening Herald (Syracuse N.Y.)
Monday, June 21, 1897
Teed is a Financier
Will Get Insurance Money on Life of Husband of Mrs. Memsdorf
Dr. Cyrus Teed formerly of this city has created another sensation. At least the sensation is in connection with his Koreshan "heaven" down in the swamps of Florida. Henry Memsdorf whose wife has been so prominently connected with the pecular fanatics has by his death been left everything. It was supposed that he was once rich, but when he died it was found that all he had was two insurance polices for $1,000 each, and they were distinctly stated as going to Mary Lois Memsdorf. None of the children was bequeathed anything, and there was a clause in the will reading "The omission of the children was willful." Mrs. Memsdorf under the rulkes of the "heaven" will be required to turn the polices over to Dr. Teed.
Memsdorf was a prosperous workman in Allegheny until Teed appeared on the scene and "converted" the family. They all went to Florida. Sometime after Mr. Memsdorf came back without a cent, leaving his wife there. He was sick and pennyless, and was picked up one day and taken to the City home in Pittsburgh in a dying condition. At his death his wife was sent for, but she did not come and a story was started that she was being held prisnor at the "heaven." This has since been denied by her by letter, although allegations were made that Doctor Teed did not even allow her to receive her letters until he had opened them.
New Castle News (Penn.)
October 20, 1897
Crisis Is Coming
Dr. Cyrus Teed Pulls Aside The Veil and Takes a Peep Into The Future
There Are signs of War
In Foreign Countries Where Immense Armies Are Being Rased-The Earth, According To The Speaker, Always Existed and Will Last Forever-His Ideas On Other Matters
Dr. Cyrus Teed was greeted in his lecture in Peerless Hall Tuesday evening by an audience of about 100 people, about equally devided as to sex. Although not a believer in the Bible as it is taught in the Christian church at large, he has it at his tongue's end. He said in substance: "We are on the eve of a great crisis which involves our physical, political, social, scientific and religious systems. The excepted religion of today is founded on the Copernicon system of astronomy , which is false. The attention of our best astronomers and scientists today is fixed on the large sunspots. These spots have been studied for years past.. Prof Corrigan recognizes in this phenomenon a convulsion that will eventually distroy the earth. He says that a similar event occurred 23 millions of years ago. Read the 8th chaper of Revalations and you will see the terrible convulsion prophesied. The earth never had a beginning and never will have an end. We have the golden age, the silver age, the brass age and the iron age, each containing a period of 6,000 years, or in all 24,000 years. Now we are in the iron or last age and soon a new era will be ushered in that will be an era of peace when millionares will think that it is not well for them to feed on the fat of the land, in palaces, while the poor, like beggers, die of starvation in hovels. European countries are preparing for war by strengthening their armies and increasing the size of their navies. This is ominous." As the Koreshan was explained in Tuesday's isssue of THE NEWS it is useless to devote more space to it. In regard to religion and personally to God he said: "In reasoning from effect to cause I know that we say 'Who made the earth?' Answer, 'God made the earth.' And who made God? Ah, then we stop. I say the cause of all things-the universe if you will-was not projected from God, unless it was in Him and if it was in him, it always existed, as He always existed; therefore, if He always existed as part of the universe man that was made in the image of God and projected from Him is God Himself. God is in every righteous man and every righteous man is a God; for then in that change we shall see Him as He is, and be like Him. None but the righteous shall see God as Ezekiel saw him." The speaker presented a science without sense; a religion without a God; and a politics of anarchism; and the chief end of man reproduction.
The Syracuse Herald (N.Y.)
Saturdat Evening, Deceber 26, 1908
Dr. Cyrus Teed Dead
Followers of Founder of New Faith Wait For His Resurrection
Dr. Cyrus Teed, the Scracuse man who was the founder of a new faith and posed himself as a Messiah is dead in Florida. His death occurred on Tuesday, but he has not yet been buried and the authorities of Lee County, Florida, threaten to bury the body by force unless his adherents make the imterment.
Teed proclaimed himself "Cyrus the Messanger." He claimed that he could overcome natural death. He predicted his resurrection on the third day and all day yesterday his followers watched over his body, expecting to see him return to life.
Teed's "heaven" in Chicago became notorious and was raided by the police in 1892. He was driven from the city after a demonstration against him which resulted in his nearly being lynched. There were a number of male and female "Angels" living in Teed's colony and a number of homes were broken by women induced by Teed to join his colony.
In 1904 Teed and his followers went to Estero Bay, Florida. Here he proposed to establish a New city of Jerusalum with a population of 10,000,000. He purchased a tract of 4,000 acres.
All Christmas day devoted followers of Teed kept a close watch upon the body of their fancied Messiah, expecting a miracle, but he did not rise fron the dead.
Now some of the bolder members of the colony are expressing doubt and advocating immediate burial, but Victoria Gratia, sucessor to the "Headship," as the chief of the sect is called, insisted upon another day's delay.
Since Teed's death no stranger has been admitted within the limits of the colony. Teed leaves a considerable estate which, according to the law of the Korishans will be devided among all his followers.
A Few Headlines reporting the Death of Dr Cyrus Teed Koresh:
The Fort Wayne Sentinel (Indiana)
December 26, 1908
Fails To Rise From The Dead
Cyrus R. Teed's Koresh Followers Continue to Watch
The Syracuse Herald (N.Y.)
Sunday, December 27, 1908
Teed Slow About Rising
Board of Health May Lower Him - Followers Still Believe He Isn't Dead
The New York Times
Sunday, December 27, 1908
Dr. Teed Has Not Risen
Koreshan Leader's Body Still lies In State Despite Widow's Protest
The La Crosse Tribune (Wis.)
Thursday, December 31, 1908
Expect Messiah Teed New Years
Nashville Tenn.- There is growing confusion among the Koreshans at Bristol, Tenn., over the fact that Cyrus Teed, the dead Missiah of the cult, does not resurrect. They say that if he fails to come to life and spend as much as 10 days among Koreshans, Koreshanity is doomed.
P.B. Silverfriend, vice president of the Koreshan Unikversity and chief disciple of Teed left this afternoon for Estero Florida, where with other prominent members of the cult, he expects to witness the devine manifestations of a resurrection on New Years day. Silverfriend says that if the resurrection fails, 288,000 sincere Koreshans are doomed to spiritual darkness and dismay.
And amazingly, almost two years after his death Dr. Teed was still alive in the American press;
The Fort Wayne Sentinel (Indiana)
Friday, November 18, 1910
Await Coming of the Messiah
Koreshan Colony Expects Their Leader To Rise From The Dead-Singular Drama Being Enacted in Florida
[Boston Herald]
Excerpts
One of the most singular dramas this country has ever seen in a long time is being enacted in a small community in Florida. It deserves to be closely watched for it involves curious problems of human nature. Notice of it was given by a small dispatch to the world which said briefly that the Koreshan colony of Estero Fla. was awaiting the rising from the dead of their leader, Koresh, who died a year ago, and that two men had attempted to unseal the grave, but lost their reason.
Sufficently singular was the dispatch, and singular is the story behind it. Koresh was known "in the world" as Cyrus R. Teed of New York State, the founder of a religious colony. Koresh was the incarnation of the divinity, sinless and all knowing. He could not therefore, die. His body would be changed by what we call death, but it would rise again, trans-figured and glorified, to inaugurate the rule of heaven on earth.
This is what the Koreshans, his followers believed, because he told them so, and they believed all the perfect one said. So when he died (as we say in mortal parlance) they waited for him to come from the grave.
The Koreshans are in the nature of the case highstrung and somewhat ill-balanced people, [unreadable] too with their share of curiosity. Every day they wondered if this would be the day when Koresh would come forth.
Two men, going at night, sought to [unreadable] and a great curse fell upon them. Before the work was half done they rushed from the place stricken with madness. The others, overcome with awe, sealed the grave and took up the long wait again. And the two mad men died.
A Prosperous Colony
The Koreshans have a prosperous colony on the co-operative plan in Florida, are blessed with the world's goods, believe not only in the transmutation of metals, but in the change of matter into spirit, and hold that instead of living on the outside of the globe we are really on the inside. The world is concave not convex.
Cyrus Teed ("Koresh" is Hebrew for Cyrus) was naturally a remarkable man. Physically there was not much to note about him, untill he began to speak. He was undersize and clean shaven; he might at first glance have been taken for any one of innumerable multitude of mild-mannered clergy. But when his small dark eyes began to shine as he talked, when he fixed his audience with an almost hypnotic stare, then it became evident that there was a man marked out from the common herd.
His power over people was enormous. It is told of him that once in California he rose to speak before an assembly not more than modestly well disposed toward him and his ideas, and that in a course of an hour he had collected from them $60,000. Among his followers he was given reverence that amounted to awe, deference that had in it more than a touch of fear. His career was varied. Born in Walton, Delaware county N.Y. in 1839 he had most of his education-not very extensive-in Utica. Then in New York he studied "eclectic medicine" which he practiced with indifferent success.
Then he went to Chicago and presto! The crank became the prophet. He got an audience and he started a paper setting forth his wonderful discoveries. People, mostly women, believed in him and went to live in his "heaven."
A wealthy German left him a tract of land in Florida, and somehow he became possessed of more land in Bristol, Tenn. Money was plentiful in "heaven" those days. The Koreshans established a wood working plant on the Bristol property and conducted their affairs with a marked degree of worldly wisdom.
Dr. Teed had small admeration for social order and denounced it in good, strong terms. "The people have not yet been deprived of their constitutional liberties." he declared, "so far as the franchise is concerned, but beyond that they have lost their industrial, commercial and executive powers through the machinations of the commercial pirates who fortify themselves behind the intrenchments of predatory and accumulated wealth. If we are under the reign of a monopolistic oligarchy we have no one to blame for it but ourselves."
In the Koreshan society at Estero there was [a] community of interests. It was a co-operative organization, and it worked apparently, very well. Koresh, however, was not democratic in all respects. He was perhaps more of a benevolent despot than anything else.
He provided well for the material needs of his followers, and did not make the mistake of binding them [unreadable] laws. He believed in the theater, and said it would be the pulpit of the future. He encouraged the colonists to give plays, and allowed them to dramatize Bible subjects for their religious instruction.
Although Koresh Teed was a shrew and able person he availed himself of the social unrest and of people interested in science. Men of learning had discovered so many things that was startling and revolutionary that it was not hard for him, dealing with people of small education, to go a step further and be believed.
~~~~~~
So there you have it. The strange and wacky world of Dr. Cyrus Teed. It would be easy to just say he was a super-con man. Yet I believe the complete man was much more complicated than that. It is also impossible to deny that he was also a man ahead of his time. He believed in woman's equality at a time when women were considered to be their husband's property. He believed in organic farming and protecting the earth long before that was even a subject of discussion. He believed that the white and black races were equal and should live side by side. As all men. He invisioned the gulf coast of Florida to be the home of 10 million people, living in a tropical paradise. Go check it out.
Like all of us Cyrus Teed was both good and bad, but I do not believe he was evil. In all of my extensive research I could find no where that he was ever convicted of any crime. I guess the only thing I would really say about Cyrus Teed is something my mother taught me when I was very young. . . Judge not, least you be judged yourself.
And for a final word, something I have been noodling around in my brain ever since I started working on this report. . . is it possible that Barrack Obama is this century's Cyrus Teed? After all history does have a habit of serving up reruns.
Last Page:
A THEI Side Trip:
A Ride UP Spook Hill
Or
What's The Point?
Photo by John Nyburg- (C)Southern Card & Novelty, Ormand Beach, FL (386)673-6745 - Used with permission
As a teenager growing up in northern Florida the day came when the rumor of there being a hill in southern Florida where your car rolled backwards uphill was too much of a drawing card. On that day you and several of your friends chipped in their pocket change (gas was 27 cents a gallon) and you all headed off south for adventure and the rumor of a strang Spook Hill in the small town of Ft. Myers.
So while we were in southern Florida visiting the Koreshan Unity settlement I decided that Marsha needed the experience. Back when my friends and I visited the area in my '59 Plymouth Sports Fury convertible (red of course) we had the hill all to ourselves and we made several trips. However this time I noticed that there seemed to always be a couple of cars lined up at the top of the hill waiting for the current car to make its run. The price of fame I guess.
At the top of Spook Hill is a large sign that was erected by the City to help promote tourism in the small off-the-beaten- path town giving one version of the story about the famous south Florida landmark with instructions on how its done. When our turn came Marsha and I drove to the bottom, and following the instructions stopped and placed our front wheels on the white line that the city has painted across the road, put our car in neutral and like magic or voodoo we rolled back up the small hill.
After our run I pulled into the driveway of Spook Hill Elementary School (who's mascot is Casper the Friendly Ghost, . . . who else could it be?) to make a video of a car coasting up the hill towards us.
The next vehicle parked by the sign directly across from us at the top of the hill was a big brand-new red Dodge pick-um-up truck. I could see a tall slim fellow setting at the wheel. Next to him sat a woman, but I couldn't make out her features through the tinted windows. I started filming as he drove off to the bottom of Spook Hill. He stopped with his tires on the white line and he sat there at an idle. And he sat. And he sat. And he sat. Then he pulled forward, made a slow 3 point u-turn and put his tires on the line facing in the wrong direction. And he sat. And he sat. And he sat. By now I'm mumbling into my camera as I continue to film. Finally I said the S word to myself and quit filming. I noticed the line of cars now equaled 4 patently waiting for Red Truck to move so they could get their shot at Spook Hill. Finally he put his truck in gear and drove back up to the small driveway I as parked in, stopped the truck behind me, got out and came over.
"I saw this hill on a postcard in North Carolina and while in Florida decided to give 'er a shot. But she ain't working." He siad with real concern in his voice.
"You didn't do it right," I told him. "You were facing in the wrong direction. Watch the next car."
Of course the next car stopped on the white line, the driver threw it out of gear and the car rolled back up to us as pretty as you please.
"Hell that ain't no hill." He said. "That's an incline. I want to be pulled up the hill," he pointing at the steeper longer hill that is the continuation of the short road after crossing that white line. The hill he had turned around and parked on. He then took a long hard look down toward Spook Hill, shook his head, turned and looked at me in total disgust and said, "What's the point?"
With that said, and without another word, he walked around the truck, climbed into the driver's seat of the cab and slammed the door. Now that she was nearer I could see the woman in the passenger seat. She was setting there straight as a board, mouth clamped into a straight line and arms crossed. As the fellow pulled out and left the area in record time the woman didn't make a move or say a word. Just kept setting there staring straight ahead, arms crossed like a wooden Indian.
Now what you have to realize is that Lake Wales is located in the southern center of the state. Most tourists stay near the expressways which hug both of Florida's coast. To get to Lake Wales you have to get off the freeway and take back roads for at least a couple of hours, probably more. So, while he might not have gotten the point, I had. He had seen Spook Hill on that postcard God knows how long ago and had been curious, so when he and his wife finally took that Florida vacation he left the freeway and the beaches, headed into cattle country for the sole purpose of being pulled up a hill with his wife asking the whole way over, "What's the point."
I really did feel sorry for him because I know, just as well as I know a car rolls UP the incline at Spook Hill, that she'll MAKE her point known sooner or later. You can bet on it.
Take a roll up Spook Hill . . . and bring your gal along, see if she gets the point.
All corespondence to: Dennis.Crenshaw@gmail.com
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Labels: Special Cyrus Teed Issue, Spook Hill
posted by dennis crenshaw at
5:45 AM
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