● ● ●  small circle of permanent devotees gathered around him. To them, as to the other members of the circle, Mrs. Patterson’s vivid advent may have been somewhat startling, for it was soon clear that she had made as great an impression on Quimby as he had made on her. She was a threat, in a way they may have sensed vaguely, to the preeminence of their idol.

Then there were the Misses Emma and Sarah Ware, daughters of [federal] judge Ashur Ware, who devoted their whole time to serving Quimby and to copying out his scribbled writings.⁹⁵ In a letter twenty years later Emma Ware recalled Mrs. Patterson as “a bright clever lady who took an interest in his ‘theory.’”⁹⁶ Everyone seemed struck by the brightness. Mrs. Hunter later recalled her “sprightly way’s and quickness of wit,” and Quimby himself is alleged to have referred to her as “a devilish bright woman.”⁹⁷

George Quimby, who acted as his father’s secretary, in later life remembered her as being “very intelligent and smart,” and added, “She seemed to take a great interest in his ideas and could see into them, and father talked with her a good deal.” Twenty-year-old George himself “took no interest whatever in his ideas,” and although it was Quimby’s “dearest wish that I might be his successor, still I would not take hold of it, not having a turn that way.”⁹⁸ But he enjoyed running the business side of his father’s flourishing practice and he greatly admired him as a man.

Quimby had a good deal of publicity in the Portland papers in 1862. Soon Mrs. Patterson’s name also began to appear from time to time. In addition to her published letters on Quimby and the editorial  ● ● ●