They moved into an unfurnished room in the house of the Reverend Philemon R. Russell at the corner of Pearl and High Streets, Lynn. Russell, who is said to have been known chiefly for his intolerant hatred of the abolitionists, was a former Baptist minister of the narrowest, most dogmatic variety. His son and daughter-in-law occupied half the house, and the daughter-in-law was at first deeply attracted by Mrs. Patterson and her challenging new religious ideas; but the elder Russell soon had the whole household lined up against the newcomer. A sister, Mrs. Julia Russell Walcott, became in time a mine of sensational stories about Mrs. Patterson.28
According to the Russells, Patterson came to the final parting with his wife after they had been living in this forbidding stronghold of bigotry for a month or two. There is reason to doubt the accuracy of their statement, as subsequent events show, but the dentist apparently did indulge in one of his periodic disappearances, leaving Mrs. Patterson destitute for the time being. As a result, she was unable to pay the weekly rent of $1.50 for lodging, and after a few more weeks Russell had her evicted.
It was at this time that, desperately in need of money and probably at the urging of anxious friends, Mrs. Patterson presented a petition to the city of Lynn. She must have been for the moment in one of the darkest valleys of discouragement, suffering again from the old symptoms which returned when her vision was clouded, for her petition stated that “owing to the unsafe condition of that portion of Market street at the junction of Oxford street, on the first day of February last, she slipped and fell, causing serious personal injuries, from which she has little prospect of recovering,” and it asked for pecuniary recompense for these injuries.29
Here was one of the sharp reversals that marked this unsettled period of transition. In her autobiography Mrs. Eddy wrote that it was not until “the latter part” of 1866 that she gained the “scientific certainty” of the truth of her discovery.30 Appropriately enough she was granted ● ● ●
28 Bates-Dittemore mildly note that Mrs. Walcott “cannot be regarded as an impartial witness.” Bates and Dittemore, Truth and Tradition, p. 119.
29 [“Municipal Matters,” Lynn Reporter, 30 June 1866, p. 2.]
30 Mary Baker Eddy, Retrospection and Introspection (Boston: Christian Science Board of Directors, 1920), p. 24.