A young man “who left his plough in the field and came to serve…”

by Mike Davis

Have you ever wondered what active young Christian Scientists were like in Mary Baker Eddy’s time, and what they did to help the cause of Christian Science? Young people played a strong and vital role in the early years of Christian Science and served in various ways. One of them was John Salchow.

I have to say that John Salchow’s reminiscence is one of my personal favorites from the over 800 reminiscences in the Mary Baker Eddy Library’s collection. I love his recollections of so many interesting details of daily life in Mrs. Eddy’s household.

It’s not surprising that John’s introduction to Christian Science came about as a result of healing. A young man of great physical strength and vitality, he grew up on a farm near Junction City, Kansas. And it was there he and his family learned of Christian Science, largely through the Mann family.

Joseph Mann, while living in the East, was accidentally shot through the heart, and then brought back from the point of death and completely healed by a Christian Science practitioner who came to his house. (You can read about his healing in We Knew Mary Baker Eddy, single volume edition, pp.166 - 171.)

Later while Joseph was visiting his two brothers who were grocers in Junction City, John Salchow happened to stop by to see the Manns. There he heard about Joseph’s healing, and had a look at a copy of Science and Health that was lying on a table. John ordered his own copy. When it arrived, he was so excited he at once came in from the fields to read a few pages. He’d been suffering that morning from some kind of “stomach trouble,” a problem he’d had frequently over the years. As a result of his reading those few pages, the stomach trouble immediately disappeared, and he never suffered from it again.

In 1898, Mrs. Eddy hired Joseph Mann to work at her home and farm, Pleasant View, in Concord, New Hampshire. In 1901 she wanted to hire a new employee who could take on many different tasks around the place, and Mann recommended John.

John received the job offer at his farm in Kansas one morning at 10 o’clock, and accepted it so quickly that by noon the same day he was on a train heading east! He remained on Mrs. Eddy’s staff until 1910. Years later he was introduced as “the man who left his plough in the field and came to serve his Leader.”

We know a great deal about what John did as Mrs. Eddy’s employee largely because in 1932 he wrote about it. His reminiscence gives all sorts of details about his life of devotion to supporting Mrs. Eddy, of life on her farm, of his interactions with fellow employees and townspeople, and of Mrs. Eddy’s complete trust in and affection for him.

John certainly led an intensely busy life at Pleasant View:

“My day at Pleasant View usually started about 3:30 to 4 o’clock in the morning in the summer and possibly an hour or half hour later in the winter. I would hoe the garden, milk the cows, feed the pigs…and I would groom [the horses] down. After that there were the lawns and gardens to take care of, ice to take up to the house and cottage, or necessary repairs at the house, barn, or cottage such as plumbing, electric wiring, carpentering, etc. In the evening I milked the cows again and watered the lawn if necessary. It was not often in the summer that my day was over before ten at night.”

Mrs. Eddy’s interest in John’s happiness was shown in numerous ways, like the time he fell in love with a young woman in the neighborhood. He would often take a break from his duties on summer evenings by riding a bicycle for about a half hour through the countryside around Pleasant View. It was on one of these rides that he met Mary McNeil. The two quickly fell in love with each other. But John thought they shouldn’t get married because it might interfere with his work for Mrs. Eddy. However, when Mrs. Eddy learned about the young couple’s love, she gave her blessing to the marriage. Another time Mrs. Eddy took the time to console and comfort John when his dad died.

John in turn responded by loving Mrs. Eddy as a son would his mother. When Mrs. Eddy died, John was again grief stricken. As he put it, “It seemed to me as though all the light had gone out of the world. After such a long and intimate association with my dear Leader it was hard to find myself suddenly with empty hands, unable to serve her, and a great longing came over me to be with her wherever she was.”

John’s distress was evident at Mount Auburn Cemetery on the day of Mrs. Eddy’s funeral. One of the women in attendance, Jeannette McLellan (who was the wife of Archibald McLellan, a member of the Christian Science Board of Directors), came up to him and “gently laid her hand on my shoulder, saying ‘John, she loved you.’… I have always been so grateful to Mrs. McLellan for… awakening me to a better sense of duty and love for those in the world still dear to me. I am glad to say that the belief of death has never meant as much to me since.”

If you’d like to read more about John’s experiences working for Mrs. Eddy, please come to The Mary Baker Eddy Library’s Research Room or give us a call at 617-450-7218.

Mike Davis is a Researcher in The Mary Baker Eddy Library.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 29th, 2008 at 2:32 pm and is filed under Christian Science. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response.