ANNA MILLER STABLER & THE HARLEM BRANCH (H.P.B. BRANCH.)
Though it did not officially begin until April 1892, the seeds of the H.P.B. Branch (Harlem Branch) were planted on the night of Blavatsky’s death, “a time when the outside world was waiting to see whether Theosophy would die with her or continue to exist.”
(Left) Anna Miller Stabler. (Right) 125th Street, west from Seventh Avenue.[1]
Anna Miller Stabler, President of the Harlem Branch, was a young woman from Baltimore, Maryland. The daughter of Cornelia and Francis Stabler. Stabler was of “Quaker parentage” but had “more enthusiasm and sunshine than the members of her faith are generally credited with.”[2] Stabler joined the Theosophical Society February 9, 1890, after hearing a disparaging conversation about Madame Blavatsky. She reasoned “that a woman who was the object of so much criticism must be remarkable.” She bought some books on Theosophy and was at once enamored with the ethos of the movement.[3] When Stabler was confident that she had “assimilated the general outlines of the philosophy,” she organized meetings in a large square studio in the J.M. Horton Ice Cream Building on W. 125th Street & Seventh Avenue, Harlem. (The space for several years had been used as an annex of Walworth College.)[4] Stabler wanted to apply for a Branch but did not have enough minimum members required. On the day of Blavatsky’s passing, “one of their members was suddenly impressed to leave an evening party which she was attending and join the little group which was planning the Branch,” thus completing the number required, and an application for Charter was sent off. It was received by William Quan Judge (General Secretary of the American Section of the Theosophical Society) on May 9, 1891 (the morning after Blavatsky’s death,) who was surrounded by reporters at the time. When asked if the Theosophical Society would survive, he showed the application as “evidence of its vitality.”[5] Judge believed that it was the result of a “thought sent out in [the direction of Harlem] by [Blavatsky,] just as the great soul was passing out of the body and caught by the chief founder and hardest worker of the Branch,” Stabler.[6]
Stabler, being an artist of skill, “tastefully decorated” the space. Tapestries and paintings were there in profusion, and an old sword and a pink sun-bonnet shared a high place on the wall with a portrait of Blavatsky. In one corner of the room stood an upright piano, while a small zither hung at the entrance. (The keys of the zither were arranged in such a way that they swept across the strings as the door opened. This had the effect of producing “bursts of strange, sweet melody.”) For months she paid the rent of a meeting-room, printers’ bills, personally tacking notices to signboards, and distributing cards on 125 Street (the main thoroughfare of Harlem.) Initially the Fernandez family were the only ones who came to the meetings, but Stabler never once thought of giving up. “Converts were made at the painfully slow rate of one a month,” but eventually six members were secured (the minimum number of people required to form a local Theosophical Branch) and a charter was applied for.[7]
LIZZIE CHAPIN & MAUD RALSTON & THE BROOKLYN BRANCH.
(Left) Laura C. Holloway. (Center) Coney Island c. 1890s.[8] (Right) Music Pavilion, Coney Island.[9]
In the summer of 1889, the Theosophist, Laura C. Holloway, established the Seidl Society (a woman’s club that hosted regular world-class concerts in Coney Island, New York.)[10] Two of the founding members of Seidl Society were the cousins Maude Ralston and Elizabeth “Lizzie” Chapin.[11] It was said that Holloway once had a vision, which Lizzie and Maude confirmed, while attending a Seidl Society concert at Brighton Beach, whereby the “astral form” of Blavatsky appeared on the platform beside the conductor, Anton Seidl, and in “furious tones” said: “Damn her [Besant] she’s gone into the Catholic Church.’”[12] Both Lizzie and Maude would join the Brooklyn Branch on November 13, 1890.[13]
Established just around the time that the Seidl Society was founded, the Brooklyn Branch T.S. was chartered in 1889 (though its first public meeting was at Robertson Hall, 164 Gates Avenue in June 1890.)[14] The President of the Brooklyn Branch was Colonel Henry Northey Hooper, a former officer in the Union Army who joined the Society with his wife Eleanor in 1886.[15] Henry Turner Patterson, an affable merchant of Patterson Brothers Hardware, was the Brooklyn T.S.’s Vice-President at the time.[16]
(Left.) Col. H.N. Hooper. (Right.) Henry Turner Patterson.
Maude was a music teacher at the Pratt Institute. She lived at 241 Steuben Street, Brooklyn, with her mother, Mary, and father, Duncan Canning Ralston, a Scottish immigrant.[17] Duncan Ralston was a deacon at the Classon Avenue Presbyterian Church who amassed a modest savings through his work in the grain business and the New York shipping firm, Archibald Baxter & Co.[18]
(Left) Pratt Main Building. [19] (Center) Pratt South Fall.[20] (Right) Classon Avenue Presbyterian Church.[21]
Lizzie was a graduate of the Powers Institute and a popular teacher at the Wilson Industrial School in St. Mark’s Place, Manhattan, and well-known in the missionary circles of New York City. When her father, Frederick Chapin, died in the 1880s, Lizzie moved into the home of, Duncan C. Ralston, a distant relative who became something of a surrogate father.[22]
(Left) Lizzie Chapin.[23] (Right) Wilson Industrial School.[24]
The end of 1891 proved to be a difficult year for Lizzie. The Ralston household had fallen on hard time. Duncan, the main supporter of the household, fell ill and the financial situation looked dire. To make matters worse, both Mary and Maude also fell ill. The entire household became dependent on Lizzie. The anxiety caused a breakdown in Lizzie’s own health. Lizzie’s Christian friends expressed sympathy but offered nothing in the way of substantial assistance. The medical bills were beyond her means, and, as she expressed to her friends, she did not know “which way to turn.”[25]
It just so happened that two Theosophists from London had recently arrived to assist the New York Branch.[26] The first was Claude Falls Wright, a personal secretary of the late Madame Blavatsky. The second was Burcham Harding, editor of the Jenness Miller Magazine.[27] Born in Lynn England in 1851, after completing his education at Winchester College, Harding established himself in the ship-building trade. He joined the Theosophical Society in 1890, after hearing a lecture by Annie Besant.[28]
(Left) Claude F. Wright. (Center) Burcham Harding.[29](Right) Classon Avenue & Gates Avenue.[30]
Laura Holloway, wanting to assist in a way that would not offend Lizzie, arranged for Wright to board at her home for $9 dollars a week. With the additional income Lizzie was able to release herself from debt. The Brooklyn Theosophical Society then helped Lizzie purchase an affordable new home at 464 Classon Avenue.[31] The Theosophists also helped with financial donations to the Wilson School, giving $10 a month for the children’s expenses.[32]
HARLEM
When audiences were finally secured Stabler had to go through the trying ordeal of lecturing before men. But the Harlem Branch was a success and experienced a rapid growth. Many of the people who came to the meetings there, ended up joining the Society—making the H.P.B. Branch one of the most active in the Nation. By the end of 1892 the H.P.B. Branch would grow to twenty-nine members and fourteen associates. On Friday evenings meetings members met for study and discussion.[33] On Sunday evenings open-meetings were held with lectures and gatherings “for conversation and inquiry.”[34] The President for the first year was Charles Seale.[35] (Reflecting the demographics of the neighborhood, the Harlem Branch had an inclination towards topics leaning into Jewish mysticism.[36] One member, Sigmund Stern, would even introduce Theosophical meetings in Boston synagogues.)[37]’[38]
Harriet and Virginia Fernandez.[39]
Among the members were Harriet Fernandez, a widowed mother of three who lived in the rear apartments on the second floor of a tenement at 334 East Fifty-sixth Street. Her late-husband, Antonio L. Fernandez, was a music professor from Cuba who died in 1887. After her husband’s death, Harriet moved the family to New York where she worked as a dressmaker.[40] Her oldest child, eighteen-year-old Virginia, was also a member of the Society. Her youngest, two boys named Victor and Lavourne, though not old enough to be members, were regarded as Theosophical prodigies.[41] Another member was a man by the name of Solomon Frank Hecht.[42]
In the spring of 1892, Judge announced the “Press Scheme,” a means by which “the eyes of hundreds of thousands of readers scattered over an enormous territory” could be presented with “elementary information on the subject of Theosophy” and “open up a channel of information to many who otherwise would have no idea how to procure a document.” The overwhelmingly positive response inspired Theosophists in many other States, and plans for concerted effort on the part of various Branches to arrange for articles “in the whole press of the country” promised to make it possible “for all persons in their neighborhood to obtain the elements of Theosophical truth.” The first concerted push was in found in “a large number of Tennessee and Southwestern papers.”[43]
Instigated by the “Press Scheme,” Hecht, a newspaper correspondent, devised a plan in which the H.P.B. Branch was “more than usually successful in getting noticed in the newspapers.”[44] Within a month of the (official) creation of the H.P.B. Branch, the newspapers of New York were publishing articles on Theosophy with interviews of leading Theosophists in the city. Using the strengths of individual Theosophical lecturers, public perception would begin to change. The effervescent Stabler presented “Shorthand Theosophy,” in the May 1, 1892, issue of The New York World.[45] (It was essentially a version of Judge’s essay, “Theosophical Symbols,” which appeared in the April 1892 issue of the American Theosophical journal, The Path.)[46] The same publication printed Wright’s “As to Cosmic Theories” on May 29, 1892.[47] Presented as an erudite young scholar, several columns were given to Wright’s explanation of the Theosophical theory of cosmic evolution. Marguerite Stuart Lloyd, another member of the Harlem Branch, would later write for The Atlantic.[48] (By the end of the year The Sun would print Judge’s hagiography of Blavatsky in an article titled “Esoteric She.”)[49]
WILSON SCHOOL
In May 1892 Duncan C. Ralston joined the Society.[50] (His wife, and Maude’s mother, Mary C. Ralston would join before the end of the year.)[51] The Branch (which had been meeting at 164 Gates Avenue) offered to rent the parlor of the house as a meeting room—an offer gladly accepted by Lizzie.[52] It was around this time that Lizzie introduced her colleague at the Wilson School, Louise J. Kirkwood, to Theosophy, who subsequently joined that spring.[53] Kirkwood was the sole provider for a sick sister, and while she began teaching at the Wilson School in 1883, she had been a mission teacher since 1879. She was a contributor to St. Nicholas (magazine) and other religious papers, and the author of Illustrated Sewing Primer, with Songs and Music: For Schools and Families, of which 10,000 copies were purchased for use by Christian missionaries all over the globe.[54] She viewed this industrial art as a path out of poverty.[55]
Sewing Class. Wilson Industrial School.[56]
The Wilson Industrial School occupied the large building on the corner of St. Mark’s Place and Avenue A. Forty years earlier the records of juvenile crimes in Manhattan were so high that experimental reformers banded together to create a school for the poverty-stricken children of the city. Compulsory education was not, at that time, a reality. Thousands of families were too poor for schooling. Children roamed streets seeking jobs in the factories and workshops which offered small and irregular wages. In 1851 a few Christian women of various denominations formed an association to create the Juvenile Asylum for Friendless Boys. Something still remained to be done for little girls, the poorest and most vulnerable of which wandered alone on the street-corners begging from door to door and dodging the lumbering frames of drunkards in the saloons where they sold their matches or little books of songs. These girls were brought in from the alleys and given warm meals. By 1890 this charity had developed into a day school where two hundred girls were instructed in basic English, needle work, hygiene, and domestic responsibilities. Named after its founder, Mrs. Wilson, the institution also included an evangelical mission church, a circulating library, and a night refuge offering safe rooms and meals to homeless girls.[57] In 1892 it was stated:
The Wilson Industrial School for Girls, now in its thirty-third year, was the first of its class established in New York City. From very small beginnings it has developed many educational problems year by year, and has so enlarged its work and influence, that it now embraces, in addition to the day school, an organized church and Sunday school, a weekly meeting for mothers, a circulating library, and classes in various domestic industries. The kitchen garden originated here. The elements of cooking were first taught to children here, and the books on these subjects, as well as on sewing, have been called for in the cities of Europe, as well as those of our own West. The sewing boxes, and primers, and the kitchen garden books have been ordered by the Government schools of Alaska and have also been sent to the mission schools of India, China, and Japan. The Wilson school is referred to from all parts of the world as a pioneer in industrial work, and letters are constantly received asking about the methods of the many different branches of work here in progress.[58]
Wilson Industrial School.[59]
THE LEAGUE OF THEOSOPHICAL WORKERS/ THE LOTUS CIRCLE.
This success of the “Press Scheme” was followed by the creation of “The League of Theosophical Workers (LTW,)” a union-type operation for practical operations. Hecht was named the superintendent of the LTW No. 1, based out of the Aryan Lodge Headquarters. The first circular he sent out read as follows:
The League of Theosophical Workers No 1 has completed the preliminaries of reorganization, and what is now wanted is to know who are willing to work, and what they will do. New Members, especially children, are wanted for the Lotus Circle. Can you do anything in this line? Members who can write good newspaper articles are needed. Can you assist in this department? Will you volunteer to do general work, such as folding circulars, addressing envelopes, etc. If so, can you be called upon at any time or only on certain days of the week?[60]
Lizzie’s response was to start a Theosophical Sunday School, known as the New York Lotus Circle.[61] This “latest progeny of the American Section” began on October 30, 1892, at the lecture hall of The Aryan T.S. Its scope was not dissimilar from that of the Sunday School of the churches and the pedagogy for children known as “kindergartens.” Beginning in 1890, the adoption of free kindergartens in public-schools were becoming a priority.[62] Ten days before the founding of the Lotus Circle, in accordance with a Presidential proclamation in July 1892, the children of New York’s public schools honored the 400th anniversary of the “discovery of America by Columbus” by placing their right hand across their heart and pledging allegiance to the flag.”[63]
Lizzie and Maude made new Theosophical songs (and adapted old Church songs,) composed accompaniments, and wrote Theosophical stories for the children. “This is a wise move,” it was said, “for if the work of the T.S. is to be successfully carried on into and through the first seventy-five years of the coming century, it behooves us to look well after those who are to fill up the ranks as the present workers one by one drop out.”[64] Around this time, in December 1892, a magazine called “Childhood” appeared on the newsstands. “The particular area of the world’s interests represented by this journal,” said a review in The Theosophist, “is […] an entirely novel one, and in trying to claim public attention on behalf of the child, [the magazine] is doing a good work.” Theosophists such as Alexander Wilder were among the contributors.[65] There were, of course, opposing opinions regarding Theosophy and education. In December 1892 Charles Eliot, President of Harvard University, wrote an essay for The Forum titled: “Wherein Popular Education Has Failed.” In the essay Eliot states:
No amount of [memoriter study] will protect one from believing in astrology, or theosophy, or free silver, or strikes, or boycotts, or in the persecution of Jews or of Mormons, or in the violent exclusion of non-union men from employment. One is fortified against the acceptance of unreasonable propositions only by skill in determining facts through observation and experience, by practice in comparing facts or groups of facts, and by the unvarying habit of questioning and verifying allegations, and of distinguishing between facts and inferences from facts, and between true cause and an antecedent event.[66]
EDITH ARMSTRONG
(Left) St. Thomas’ Church. (Right) Easter Parade Fifth Avenue & 53rd Street. April 2, 1893.[67]
On February 10, 1893, Edith Armstrong (an Englishwoman who was matron of the Sylvanus Reed Boarding and Day School for Young Ladies on Fifth Avenue & 53rd Street) joined the Theosophical Society.[68] “I was converted to Theosophy by reading Marie Corelli’s novel, ‘Romance of Two Worlds,” she stated.[69] Armstrong states elsewhere:
These books impressed me greatly and gave me food for thought for months. At this juncture I was invited by this same friend to attend a lecture that he had heard of on the Astral Body We had no idea what that might be but wanted to go any how We understood very little of the lecture but we did get many helpful thoughts Leaflets were given us on Reincarnation and Karma and after going to more lectures thinking over all I had heard and reading the few things given me it seemed to me that I had suddenly found an answer to all of life’s questions. All the injustice and wrong were wiped out. Life took on a new and more hopeful aspect. There was no horrible eternity of either bliss or woe. I learned anew that law and order reigned and a living all wise and all just Father ruled the world.[70]
Whether it was planned or not, on March 1, 1893, Armstrong joined the staff at the Wilson Industrial School, “but that fact [that she was a Theosophist] was not suspected by the managers.”[71] At the same time, Songs of the Lotus Circle, an instructional book with fifteen songs used by Lotus Circles was printed by The Path and sold for 5 cents a copy.[72] The work was prefaced with an “Order of Exercises” and a few sentences to be read in unison by the entire Circle. It included the famous hymns such as “Lead, Kindly Light,” and original compositions such as “Tell me, bright Evening-Star,” “God is One,”[73] “Sowing and Reaping,” “The Angels” [74] and others.[75] Lizzie then began the Brooklyn Lotus Circle in her home on Sunday March 12, 1893, with class of twenty-seven students.[76] To fill Lizzie’s vacant position at Aryan Hall, Virginia Fernandez began teaching at the Aryan Lotus Circle.[77]
Facsimile of Lotus Circle card from The Brooklyn Citizen.[78]
A card was furnished to each child at the circle which. As Lizzie explained to her students, the Seal of Solomon (the two triangles in the Theosophical Seal) represented humanity, the triad above it represented the godhead, while the lotus represented the soul. The two lines of poetry were from Whittier.[79] Among the teachers were Mary Amelia Bellows, the daughter of Henry Sanford Bellows, United States Commissioner in Brooklyn, who joined the Brooklyn Branch in the summer of 1891.[80] (Her mother, Hattie Bellows, joined in the autumn of 1892.)[81] There was also Patterson (Vice-President of the Brooklyn Branch.)[82]
1893 Convention.
In April the Convention of the American Section of the Theosophical Society was held at 144 Madison Avenue. At the end of the proceedings, as the Convention was about to adjourn, a reporter in the hall stood up and said: “I come here simply as a student of this subject, and if there is anyone present who has lived before and remembers about it, I would ask that person to please tell me how it feels to be possessed of such unique experience?” There was a subdued laughter from everyone present, yet none of the Theosophists offered an account of reincarnation.[83] Accounts of “past-life memory” would soon be supplied. The coming months would see a number of letters published in The Path describing children recalling their pre-existence.[84]
At the same time, coinciding with the anniversary of Blavatsky’s death, the philologist, Max Müller, published an uncharitable article about Blavatsky titled “Esoteric Buddhism” in The Nineteenth Century (magazine.) Müller writes:
[Blavatsky] founded her Theosophic Society at New York in 1875. The object of that society was to experiment practically in the occult powers of Nature, and to collect and disseminate among Christians information about Oriental religious philosophies? Nothing could be said against such objects, if only they were taken up honestly, and with the necessary scholarly preparation. Later on, however, new objects were added, namely, to spread among the benighted heathen such evidences as to the practical results of Christianity as will at least give both sides of the story to the communities among which missionaries are at work. With this view the society undertook to establish relations with associations and individuals throughout the East, to whom it furnished authenticated reports of the ecclesiastical crimes and misdemeanors, schisms, heresies, controversies and litigations, doctrinal differences and Biblical criticisms and revisions with which the press of Christian Europe and America constantly teems. You may easily imagine what the outcome of such a society would be, and how popular its Black Book would become in India and elsewhere […] It is the fault of those who guide the religious education of young men and women, and who simply require from them belief in certain facts and dogmas , without ever explaining what belief means, that so many, when they begin to think about the different kinds of human knowledge, discover that they possess no religion at all.[85]
A few weeks later, on May 21, 1893, a Sun reporter was tipped off about a scoop at the Lotus Circle in Aryan Hall. He arrived late, however, and missed the meeting. Burcham Harding, the superintendent of 144 Madison, told the reporter:
The topic of reincarnation was the most interesting subject yet taken up by the Circle. The attendance of the Sunday afternoon meetings was growing steadily and at the meeting that afternoon there were nearly fifty young men, women, and children in attendance. The aim…was to avoid religion and to restrict themselves to ethical teachings. The younger children in the class make excellent subjects for the study of reincarnation. It is an actual fact that we have at present, several children who have distinct recollections of their former lives. We have a little girl who died at the age of 5 years, and who had the good fortune to be reincarnated in the same family. When she again reached the age of 5, the same toys which she had used before her death were given to her to play with, and she distinctly remembered them. Reincarnation is a wonderful study. It was taught in the Eastern nations until 500 A.D. when it was laid aside by the Church.
Harding went on to explain that during the six months of the Lotus Circle’s existence, it had studied and discussed the teachings of the world’s religions—of Buddha, Jesus Christ, Confucius, Lao-Tau, Krishna, and Blavatsky. Harding said:
All the pupils, the youngest children included, have become thoroughly conversant with these teachers and their ideas. I find young children far more apt pupils in learning the doctrines of Theosophy than those grown up. The difficulty with grown people is to get over what they have already learned, while with children it is simply shaping the mind to study and become interested in the subjects for the teaching of which the Lotus Circle was organized.[86]
After asking around, the reporter learned that Victor Fernandez, in the middle of their meeting that afternoon, had described to the Circle what he believed to have been his previous existence. Lavourne, the younger brother, had also detailed a series of scenes which suggested to the Theosophists that he had once lived before—in the body of a brother who died before Lavourne was born.[87] Sarah Cape, one of the teachers in the Lotus Circle told the reporter that “Victor Fernandez was a remarkable child,” while Claude F. Wright added that he believed that “Theosophy would go forward with renewed impetus because of the wonderful statements of the Fernandez brothers.”[88] With this revelation, several newspapers, in the following days, visited the Fernandez family the tenement building to get the full story.
(Left) Looking North-East from 66 Broadway. (Right) Lavourne & Victor Fernandez.[89]
Days after the news of the Fernandez brothers began circulating in the papers (along with rumors of Blavatsky following Müller’s article,) Reverend Daniel Redmon of the Society of Christian Endeavor, who was in charge of the Wilson School, had a discussion with the teachers at the Wilson School during dinner. When Redmon talked ill of Blavatsky, Lizzie “took up cudgels for the high priestess of Theosophy so stoutly as to silence her clerical antagonist.”[90]
On May 26, Esther Jennings and Rosalie Rapallo (Board Members of the Wilson School) interviewed Lizzie as to the nature of her beliefs. Satisfied with Lizzie’s answers, they left Lizzie alone.[91] Later that day, Mary Van Buren Sharpless (Director of the Mission) conducted a second interview with Lizzie along the same lines. “I have been told that the representative Theosophist, Madame Blavatsky, was a woman of vile character,” said Sharpless.[92] Then again, on June 2, Mary Amelia Stone (a member of the Missionary Committee,) questioned Lizzie about her involvement with the Theosophy.[93] When Lizzie explained that she was a Theosophist, Stone asked her if she would be willing to cut ties with the Theosophical Society. Lizzie told her that she would not give up her “right to personal opinion for a hundred positions. I have never said a word about Theosophy to any of the pupils but expended all my energy in trying to teach them to be upright.”[94] Later that day Lizzie received a letter from Margaret Collins of the Wilson School Board which stated:
We understand from Mrs. Stone that you desire to resign your position from the school rather than to give up your connection with Theosophists. While we appreciate your years of service, we cannot but say that as Christian women, responsible for the moral and spiritual care of our children, it is our duty not to retain anyone who holds such views.[95]
Sharpless, at the same time, interviewed Kirkwood and Armstrong on the subject of their religious beliefs. When Kirkwood was asked if she would give up Theosophy during her connection with the mission, she was compelled to agree (owing to her responsibility to her sick sister.) She believed that Sharpless meant that she was not to discuss Theosophy in school, or to allow her beliefs in reincarnation, and karma to prevent her from performing mission work. As she had no history of such behavior, Kirkwood had no hesitancy in accepting the condition. Within an hour she was received a letter from Sharpless which read:
We reported our interview with you to the Board, and the ladies accept the conditions which you state, viz. that as long as you remain with us you will abandon all connection with Theosophy and neither do, nor say, anything to influence others to adopt any of the beliefs of that system.[96]
After the press learned that the Theosophists had been supporting the Wilson School with their charitable donations, a New York Times reporter interviewed Redmon at the Wilson School on the evening of June 4, 1893. When asked if Lizzie was dismissed because she was a Theosophist, Redmon, evasively stated that he only recently discovered that she was a Theosophist, when he learned it from another person. “I have no objections to anything which is good, and there is some good, I believe, in Theosophy,” Redmon replied.[97] On June 6, Redmon wrote to The New York World:
This institution is undenominational, but it is evangelical. I do not know what doctrines may be held by individual Theosophists, but Theosophy, while it has much in it which any reasonable person would approve, cannot be considered as anything but anti-Christian. I rejoice in “broad charity,” the watchword of the Theosophists, but when that charity will place Buddha and Mme. Blavatsky on equality with Jesus Christ, I cease to admit it. I believe, therefore, that it is inconsistent for a Christian to be allied to it to support it or to work under its auspices. In my judgement, therefore, the alternative offered by the Board was reasonable and right.[98]
Lizzie wanted to correct any public misconceptions surrounding the nature of her dismissal and held a meeting at the Brooklyn Theosophical Society for her supporters, both Theosophists and non-Theosophists alike. She was celebrated by the general public, with sympathy, for the bold stand she had taken for her beliefs.
I did not resign. I was dismissed. It’s not fair for Miss Collins to place that construction on my statement or belief…I think the reference to the moral effect of the teachings of Theosophy outrageous and insulting. I believe the Board of Directors, by such a statement, have rendered themselves liable for damages. I taught their little ones over ten years, children from four years of age upward, and they all loved me. I never in the whole of my connection with the mission taught those little children anything of religion but the beautiful children’s stories taken from the Bible and Testament. I have written to Miss Collins making a demand for my salary until Dec. 1st next. I was engaged by the year, and not by the month, and my year will not be up until then.[99]
When the Board discovered that Lizzie introduced Kirkwood to Theosophy, Lizzie was charged with the additional offense of attempting to “convert” Armstrong. When Armstrong learned of this, she came forward with the revelation that she had been a Theosophist long before meeting Lizzie. Armstrong subsequently tendered her letter of resignation to the Board, stating:
Ladies: I have seen the articles in this morning’s papers, and as my name is mentioned as a possible convert to Theosophy through Miss Chapin, I wish to state that I was a member of the Theosophical Society before I became a matron of this institution and am so still. If I had been asked last week I should have said so plainly. But I told Mrs. Stone that I would not remain here, and feel that I was bound in my interests, that my own church does not prescribe what books I should read, what lectures I should hear, or through what means I should seek truth, and I will not allow any other denomination or institution to do so either. I write this now that there may be no misunderstanding in regard to my position.[100]
Kirkwood followed Armstrong’s example and wrote a letter of resignation to Sharpless, stating:
In reply to your communication, I wish to say now that you did not quite understand me. I said I was willing to suspend my relations with the Theosophical Society while I am in connection with the mission. I did not promise that I would abandon all connection with the Society, for I would not do that anymore than abandon my belief in Christianity. But considering the fact that Miss Chapin has been dismissed from the school, and the injustice of that dismissal, I do not think that I have the right, either from a Christian standpoint, or from that of the spirit of the age, to permit myself to take any stand which may seem to indicate an upholding on my part of such intolerance. You must understand that I am no less a Theosophist now than I was when I professed to be in our first interview on this matter, and I say now that I do not propose to suspend my relations with the Theosophical Society. I maintain my right to seek for truth from any source.[101]
The Wilson School was in a state of disarray. Armstrong and Kirkwood were told that the matter would be taken up at the regular weekly meeting of the Board on June 16. Kirkwood told the press:
How some people can call such bigotry and persecution Christianity is more than I can understand. Christ’s teachings breathe nothing but love, charity, and tolerance. He insisted upon performing actions in the spirit of the law, but the persecutors of Theosophy want only the letter of the law. If Christianity was what the directors of this mission proclaim out to be, I would resign at once from the Christian Church. But I know that the real Christianity is something grander than these people can conceive. I know that Theosophy has raised my ideals and has brought me to lead a more Christian life than ever before, so I shall continue to consider myself a Christian.[102]
Armstrong stated that she fully expected the directors of the Wilson School to take up their case and reach some decision regarding them, stating:
Of course, we must expect to be discharged if the precedent set in the case of Miss Chapin is to be followed. But we are perfectly resigned to the outcome, whether favorably or unfavorably to us. We have not endeavored to teach Theosophy here, but merely entertained these views, and of we are to suffer for our religious belief we will bear it.[103]
New York reporters found W.Q. Judge, and a handful of Theosophists at the Manhattan Headquarters sending letters and newspaper clippings to their compatriots throughout the world. “It is persecution of the worst sort and as intolerable in this age as the burning of witches would be,” Judge declared. “This action of the enemies of Theosophy will do the cause more good than anything else that could happen.”[104] In an effort to influence public opinion, Judge then arranged for reporters to cover the final session of the Brooklyn Lotus Circle’s six-week season.
On June 11, Lizzie, Maude, and Bellows and a class consisting of a dozen children convened in the front parlor of 464 Classon Avenue. With the movement of her fan, Lizzie called the children to order. She then led the children in singing a hymn. Next, she catechized the children using a diagram placed a blackboard of the Trees of Life and Death. Then the children divided themselves into three classes where they shared their thoughts about Jesus for fifteen minutes. While the children shared their views, Lizzie issued a statement to the press:
We teach the children practically the same things they learn in a Christian Sunday school. We hold Christ up to them as an ideal, as we read to them from the Bible and inculcate the precepts of morality. We tell them that there is but one God, and we talk to them of the spirit and the soul, and familiarize the little ones with the Sanskrit words for the body, soul, spirit, mind, God, &c. We teach them what the kingdom of heaven is within them, and we tell them there is a hereafter. I feel very much hurt at the arbitrary action of the Trustees of the Wilson Industrial School for Girls in removing me. I think the Trustees are intolerant but have no doubt they acted from conscientious motives. They had simply heard about Theosophy and did not take the trouble to investigate. I have left the Wilson School and have heard nothing from the Trustees since I sent my letter to the board. Probably they will not dismiss Mrs. Armstrong and Miss Kirkwood, the other teachers there, who are also Theosophists.[105]
Later that evening Judge delivered an address, “Theosophy Not Anti-Christian,” at an open meeting of the New York Branch. The press was encouraged to attend, for it was intended to reach the Board Committee of the Wilson School. It was hoped that it might have some influence on their consideration of the Kirkwood and Armstrong cases. Judge stated in his address:
Theosophy is not anti-Christian, on the contrary, it is right in line with the higher Christianity as taught by Jesus…Church Christians maintained the infallibility of the Gospel yet admitted the fallibility of man. This was a different thing from Christianity, and that churchmen did not know Christianity. ‘Churchianity’ ignored science—yet science was a part of the Universal Truth. The early Christian fathers taught Theosophical Christianity—that is, they taught the very doctrines of reincarnation, karma, &c., which Churchmen now protested against…The doctrine of reincarnation was taught up to the time of the Constantinople Conference in the year of five hundred and odd, when monks introduced, instead, the dogmas of eternal heaven, eternal hell, and vicarious atonement. “By their fruits ye shall know them.” If Theosophy makes of the Christian a better Christian, of the Buddhist a better Buddhist, and of the atheist a better atheist—it is what every thinker and philanthropist wants. We are satisfied to have Theosophy submitted to this test. The Christians within the ranks of the Theosophical Society understand the gospel better than they ever did, live nobler lives, and tolerate the religious and other beliefs of their fellow men. In the Theosophical Society are to be found men of all religions. Universal brotherhood is our only dogma, and whether or not Theosophy is anti-Christian is left for each of you to decide for yourself, according to how the Theosophical doctrine of universal brotherhood harmonizes with Christianity.[106]
On June 17 Judge sailed for England on The City of New York to attend the Annual Convention of the European Section (Theosophical Society.) Judge stated: “The Wilson school row broke out in New York. Of course, it was carried to London. The comment on it was wide and severe. I was asked several times if it was not possible for a teacher in this country try to hold certain beliefs without suffering for it. I answered the best I knew how.”[107]
THE HARLEM LOTUS CIRCLE.
(Left) Muhammed Alexander Russell Webb. (Right) W. 125th Street & Seventh Avenue.
In late June 1893 Stabler organized the Harlem Lotus Circle with a dozen children. Among the teachers at this “un-sectarian Sunday school” were Alexander Russell Webb (a prominent early America convert to Islam) and Ella Webb. Webb, whose conversion to Islam in Asia was covered extensively in the press, was an old member of the Theosophical Society (having joined the Pioneer T. S. (St. Louis) in 1884.[108] When asked about the seeming incompatibility of Theosophy and Islam, Webb would state that “though he had a become a Muslim, he had not ceased to be an ardent Theosophist, and Islam, as he understood it, was distinctly in accord with […] Theosophical views, as also were Buddhism and the other religions.”[109] Ella echoed the sentiment: “There was nothing inconsistent in [being both a Muslim and a Theosophist], as each belief acknowledged the truths of the other, and the ethical teachings of both was at the bottom the same.”[110] (Webb would be the sole representative of the World’s Parliament of World’s Religions in 1893.)[111]
The question as to whether or not Theosophists should be allowed to teach in a Christian Mission was settled on June 24.[112] Armstrong was dismissed from her position with a note which stated:
It is with much regret that, after the quiet deliberations of the board, the decision has been reached that, holding the views you do, we feel that you cannot be in true sympathy with our work, and we would suggest that your resignation as matron of our institution take place on July 1. A vote of the board provides that your salary be paid to 1st of September.[113]
Armstrong and Kirkwood were forced to resign by the first of July. The Board, however, agreed to pay the salaries of Lizzie, Armstrong, and Kirkwood until the first of September. After their dismissal, Rev. Redmon finally admitted what the Theosophists at the Wilson School had known all along. Redmon told The New York Times:
I have very little to say about the action taken against the matron and two teachers in the school by the Board of Lady Managers. I have no vote in the Board, and it is quite capable of taking care of itself. I belong to the Presbyterian Church and guided by its rules. I have, of course, a very strong objection to the doctrines of Theosophy. I admit, I first called the attention of the Board to the fact that the three ladies were Theosophists.[114]
When Judge returned to New York on July 21, he told the press: “Coming back home I find that the dismissal of Miss Chapin was simply a case of sectarian bigotry. The Wilson school claims to be non-sectarian but has shown the narrowest sectarian feeling. For the first time in fourteen years the school is closed. That shows our growing strength. Theosophical teachers will hereafter be treated with more consideration.”[115] Not everyone agreed, as one editorial in The Brooklyn Daily Eagle stated:
It is said that Miss Kirkwood’s primer is to be used in the public schools in New York. We want to protest against its adoption. A state religion is contrary to the spirit of American institutions and the admission of a theosophical sewing book into the kindergarten is but the first stop in the direction of the substitution of Isis Unveiled for the Bible in the opening exercises of the schools. Our duty is done when we have warned the public of its danger. The managers of the Wilson school deserve the thanks of every patriotic American for calling attention to the danger which threatens the nation.[116]
In the summer of 1893, Lizzie had a discussion with fellow Theosophist, Heinrich Maschmedt, about a farm which he recently acquired in Corinth, New York.[117] Upon Lizzie’s suggestion, Maschmedt decided to convert the farm into a Theosophical Rest-House (retreat,) somewhat along the lines of “Brook Farm” from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Blithedale Romance.[118] To convert the “ancient farmhouse” into a large modern structure, the Theosophists of New York volunteered their services. The Theosophist men would contribute their physical labor (digging trenches, draining, hoeing, raking, planting etc.,) while the women kept the house, and furnished three vegetarian meals a day. The result was a was a series of dwelling houses unique in all America. Pillars of Egyptian obelisks guarded the entrance of the communal homestead, the main building of which carried a sign emblazoned with the Theosophical Seal and the motto “There is no religion higher than truth.”[119] The locals of Corinth heard the term “theosophy” and rumors began to circulate, one being that “the place was designed as a refuge for rich New York women, who had met with ‘temporary mishaps.’” Then the ministers of Corinth told their congregants that “Theosophy was an invention of the evil one, and that those who professed it were worse than benighted infidels.” Maschmedt replied to this by inaugurating a series of lectures and Sunday afternoon meetings in which all were invited study of the “wisdom religion” were extended to the local farming community.[120] At these meetings, W.Q. Judge and others leading Theosophical lecturers tried to dispel misconceptions and explain that Theosophy was a philosophy not a religion, and that for the most part those who visited the farm belonged to mainline denominational churches.[121] Despite these explanatory lectures, suspicion was kept alive in the pulpits of the Corinth churches, whose ministers broadly hinted at the immorality of the city women coming to Maschmedt farm. In September 1893 Maschmedt married Mary Bellows “the handsome and accomplished” daughter of Commissioner Bellows. This effectually silenced the anti-matrimony theorists in the farming community.[122] Maschmedt then purchased a store in town with the intention of holding weekly meetings for the future Corinth Branch T.S., of which Mary Bellows Maschmedt would be the first president.[123]
The Headquarters of the London Branch of the Theosophical Society became short of staff in the summer of 1893, so Stabler went over to England to lend assistance on August 16, 1893.[124] While in London, Stabler organized a Lotus Circle “on the lines which had already proved successful in America.”[125] It was “the first un-sectarian Sunday school established on British soil.”[126]
At the close of the year, the children of the Lotus Circle put on a New Year’s Eve play on December 31, 1893, titled. “The One Truth In Many Guises.” Virginia Fernandez played the role of Wisdom, while the children represented Egypt, China, Judah, Greece Buddha, Christ, and Mohammed. Each carried a richly embroidered banner, and before speaking his lines each took the hand of “Wisdom.”
Anna Cronhjelm Wallberg.[127]
Several ladies prominent in Theosophical circles had charge of the entertainment, which was pronounced a great success.[128] Among them was Anna Cronhjelm Wallberg, the Scandinavian mythological lecturer credited with sparking popular interest in Scandinavian culture at the turn of the century. [129] (She was among the Theosophists to contribute to Childhood, writing an article titled “Swedish Children their Home and School Life,” for the February 1893 issue.)[130] After the performance, Judge spoke to the children of the “Music of the Spheres,” which they might learn to hear if they lived rightly. “You will find, as you grow up,” said Judge, “a great number of religions and peoples, none of which you should despise. You must seek the good in each.”[131]
At the end of the month Stabler returned to New York to resume her responsibilities at the Harlem T.S.[132] (Her luggage arrived three days later.)[133]
AFTERMATH:
On April 11, 1896, Duncan C. Ralston died suddenly from pneumonia. It was only weeks after the death of William Quan Judge.[134] Judge’s successor, Katherine Tingley, continued the Lotus Circle. Lizzie, Maude, and Stabler all remained involved. Lizzie became the President of the Katherine Tingley Branch T.S. (607 East 14th Street, New York City) in September 1896, and ran that Branch’s Lotus Circle.[135] Maude assisted with the production Tingley’s children’s play, “The First Crusade,” which was performed in the theatre of the Knickerbocker Athletic Club in 1897.[136] Stabler became the superintendent of Tingley’s “Lotus Home For Children” in Pleasant Valley, New Jersey.[137] All three would resign by 1898, after internal discord fractured the organizational structure of the American Theosophists.[138]
(Left.) Knickerbocker Club, 32nd Street & Fifth Ave. (Right.) Salt Lake City Lotus Circle, April 13, 1897.[139]
Stabler seems to have grown weary with the Movement by 1899, saying at her last known public appearance at a Theosophical meeting: “I’m disgusted with those people who are always trying to be good. Well, I mean the goody-good kind of good.”[140] On November 30, 1902, she married William Rollinson Whittingham. Their daughter, Virginia Whittingham, was born on October 11, 1903.[141] She died at age 85, on August 14, 1945.[142]
Lizzie and Maude threw their support behind the Griscom-Hargrove Theosophical Society.[143] In 1902 they formed the Atma Association as a spiritual successor to the Lotus School. Lizzie was President, Maude was Secretary, Laura C. Holloway supported in various ways. Meetings were held in Maude’s home at 151 Linden Boulevard (Brooklyn, New York).[144] Their work was met with praise from Brooklyn citizens and churches.[145]
Atma Fairy Stories.
By 1903, Holloway was involved with the operations of a Shaker School, for which she recommended Lizzie as its Headmistress.[146] That same year Maude, Lizzie, and Holloway co-wrote a Theosophical children’s book, Atma Fairy Stories.[147] It was reviewed in the Theosophical Quarterly: “[Its] themes are unusual, as they are based upon occult forces; but they are simply told as befits the audience which they address.”[148]
In 1905 Shyamji Krishna Varma, an early Indian Theosophist who produced the English translation of the rules of the Arya Samaj, founded “India House” at Cromwell Avenue in Highgate, London. It was a residence for Indian youths pursuing higher education in England. The building developed into a prominent overseas hub for political activism and revolutionary Indian nationalism.[149]
The Indian Society of Detroit.[150]
In 1908 Myron Phelps, a Manhattan lawyer and (Griscom) Theosophist established The Society for the Advancement of India. That same year he would open a sister “India House” in New York at 1142 Park Avenue. At India House Lizzie met Swami Premananda Das, one of the original disciples of Ramakrishna. In 1909 Lizzie and Maude moved to a house at 58 Smith Street, in Detroit, Michigan. There they established a Branch of the (Griscom) Theosophical Society and The Indian Society of Detroit.[151] Through this connection Maude would meet and marry an Indian immigrant, Thakar Dev Sharman.[152] In 1922 Maude would publish the influential poem “The Charkha.”[153] Maude and Sharman would later become interested in the Yoga practice associated with Sri Aurobindo.[154]
Maude died in Detroit, Michigan on April 16, 1951.[155] Lizzie died 5 years later in 1956.[156]
SOURCES:
[1] Wittemann, Adolph. Select New York. The Albertype Co. Brooklyn, New York. (1898) [No pagination.]
[2] “Weddings.” The New York Herald (New York, New York.) November 30, 1904; Online publication – Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2003.Original data – 1870. United States. Ninth Census of the United States, 1870. Washington, D.C. National Archives and Records Administration. M593, RG29, 1,761 rolls. Minnesota: Birth date: abt 1861 Birthplace: Maryland Residence date: 1870 Residence place: Alexandria Ward 3, Alexandria (Independent City), Virginia; Anna M. Stabler; “Disciples Of Her Own Sex.” The World. (New York, New York) June 19, 1893.
[3] Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entry 5787. (website file: 1B:1885-1890) Anna M. Stabler; “Disciples Of Her Own Sex.” The World. (New York, New York) June 19, 1893.
[4] “The Walworths.” The Illustrated Phonographic World. Vol. X, No. 11. (July 1895): 261-263.
[5] “White Lotus Day.” The Theosophical News. Vol. I, No. 48. (May 17, 1897): 3.
[6] Ibid.
[7] “Here Is Some Theosophy.” The Sun. (New York, New York.) December 20, 1891; “Disciples of Her Own Sex.” The World. (New York, New York) June 19, 1893.
[8] Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy, The New York Public Library. “Transportation – Horses – Carriages – Wagons – Coney Island [when horse carriages and bicycles were popular mode of conveyance in Brooklyn.]” New York Public Library Digital Collections. Accessed June 10, 2023.
[9] Music Pavilion, Coney Island. Coney Island New York, None. [Between 1890 and 1910] Photograph.
[10] “The Seidl Society.” The Brooklyn Citizen. (Brooklyn, New York) June 16, 1889; Horowitz, Joseph. “A Life in Limbo: Laura Langford and Brooklyn’s Seidl Society.” The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. Vol. XII, No. 1 (January 2014): 80-92.
[11] [Ralston] Michigan Department of Community Health, Division for Vital Records and Health Statistics; Lansing, Michigan; Death Records. [Chapin] Vermont State Archives and Records Administration; Montpelier, Vermont, USA; User Box Number: PR-01776; Roll Number: S-31304; Archive Number: PR-1205-1206.
[12] Sasson, Diane. Yearning for the New Age. Indiana University Press. Bloomington, Indiana. (2012): 239.
[13] Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entry 6293. (website file: 1C:1890-1894) Lizzie Chapin.; Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entry 6294. (website file: 1C:1890-1894) Maude Ralston.
[14] “Branches In The American Section Theosophical Society.” Supplement to The Theosophist. (May 1890): cxxxvi; “Theosophy in Brooklyn.” The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. (Brooklyn, New York) June 14, 1890.
[15] Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entry 3603. (website file: 1B:1885-1890) Eleanor B. Hooper. (Aryan) 3/28/86; Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entry 3643. (website file: 1B:1885-1890) Henry N. Hooper. (Aryan) 3/28/86.
[16] “The Theosophic Society.” The Times Union. (Brooklyn, New York) August 12, 1892.
[17] Brooklyn Directory, 1888-89. Lain & Co. Brooklyn, New York (1889); “Council Of Working Girls’ Societies.” The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. (Brooklyn, New York) November 3, 1890; “Council Of Working Girls’ Societies.” The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. (Brooklyn, New York) November 3, 1890.]
[18] “Disciples Of Her Own Sex.” The World. (New York, New York) June 19, 1893; “Obituary.” The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. (Brooklyn, New York) April 11, 1896.
[19] Lamb and Rich (American architectural firm, active late 19th century) architectural firm, and Rich, Charles Alonzo (American architect, 1855-1943) architect. Main Building. n.d. Main Building. Pratt Institute Archives, Pratt Institute Library.
[20] Tubby, William Bunker (American architect, 1858-1944) architect. South Hall. n.d. South Hall. Pratt Institute Archives, Pratt Institute Library.
[21] Brooklyn Eagle Postcard collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
[22] Year: 1880; Census Place: Bernardston, Franklin, Massachusetts; Roll: 533; Page: 18C; Enumeration District: 243. Franklin County Probate Files, Ca. 1812-1915 [Franklin County, Massachusetts]; Author: Massachusetts. Probate Court (Franklin County); Probate Place: Franklin, Massachusetts; “Powers Institute.” The Recorder. (Greenfield, Massachusetts) August 24, 1889; “Split On Theosophy’s Rock.” The New York Times. (New York, New York) June 26, 1893. New York, State Census, 1892.
[23] “Growth of Theosophy.” The Wilkes-Barre Times Leader. (Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania) July 3, 1893.
[24] Richmond, John Francis. New York and Its Institutions, 1609-1873: The Bright Side of New York. E.B. Treat. New York, New York. (1873): 494.
[25] “Split On Theosophy’s Rock.” The New York Times. (New York, New York) June 26, 1893.
[26] “Mirror of the Movement.” The Path. Vol. VI, No. 11 (February 1892): 361-368.
[27] “School of Theosophy.” The Morning News. (Savannah, Georgia) October 8, 1893.
[28] Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entry 6196. (website file: 1C:1890-1894) Burcham Harding. (9/29/90); “Theosophy’s Apostle.” The Salt Lake Herald. (Salt Lake City, Utah) January 13, 1897.
[29] “Some Sweetness and Some Light.” The St. Louis Post-Dispatch. (St. Louis, Missouri) December 10, 1896.
[30] Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy, The New York Public Library. “Brooklyn: Gates Avenue – Classon Avenue” New York Public Library Digital Collections.
[31] “Split On Theosophy’s Rock.” The New York Times. (New York, New York) June 26, 1893.
[32] “No Place for Mrs. Chapin.” The New York Times. (New York, New York) June 5, 1893
[33] Patterson, H.T. “American Letter.” The Theosophist. Vol. XIV, No. 4 (January 1893): 251-253; “Here Is Some Theosophy.” The Sun. (New York, New York.) December 20, 1891; “Disciples of Her Own Sex.” The World. (New York, New York) June 19, 1893.
[34] “Disciples of Her Own Sex.” The World. (New York, New York) June 19, 1893.
[35] Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entry 5609. (website file: 1B:1885-1890) Charles Seale. (Aryan.) (12/3//89) “Mirror of the Movement.” The Path. Vol. VI, No. 12 (March, 1892): 410-418.
[36] “Mirror Of The Movement.” The Path. Vol. X, No. 5 (August 1895): 162-168.
[37] Sigmund Stern, of Stern Bros. & Co. (diamond cutters and importers, 68 Nassau Street, New York, New York) was born in Monzingen, Germany, on October 27, 1858. [“Death of Sigmund Stern.” The Jewelers’ Circular. Vol. LXXXVI, No. 9 (April 4, 1923): 83.] Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entry 12160. (website file: 1D:1894-1897) Sigmund Stern. (H.P.B.) (1/4//95)
[38] “Theosophists Meet.” The Boston Post. (Boston, Massachusetts) March 1, 1897; “Boston Home Crusades.” The Theosophical News. Vol. I, No. 44. (April 19, 1897): 3.
[39] “A Reincarnated Family.” The Sun. (New York, New York) May 23, 1893.
[40] “Reincarnation Proofs.” The Pittsburgh Press. (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) May 24, 1893.
[41] Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entry 8315. (website file: 1C:1890-1894) Harriet Fernandez; Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entry 8316. (website file: 1C:1890-1894) Virginia Hortuesia Fernandez.
[42] Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entry 8218. (website file: 1C:1890-1894) Solomon Frank Hecht.
[43] W.Q. Judge. “Mirror Of The Movement.” The Path. Vol. VII, No. 6. (September 1892): 199.
[44] Patterson, H.T. “American Letter.” The Theosophist. Vol. XIV, No. 4 (January 1893): 251-253; “Here Is Some Theosophy.” The Sun. (New York, New York.) December 20, 1891; “Disciples of Her Own Sex.” The World. (New York, New York) June 19, 1893.
[45] “Shorthand Theosophy.” The World (New York, New York) May 1, 1892.
[46] Judge, William Q. “Theosophical Symbols.” The Path. Vol. VII, No. 1. (April 1892): 8-13.
[47] “As To Cosmic Theories.” The World. (New York, New York) May 29, 1892.
[48] Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entry 7275. (website file: 1C:1890-1894) Marguerite Stuart Lloyd. Harlem. (7/17/91)
[49] “The Esoteric She.” The Sun. (New York, New York) September 26, 1892.
[50] Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entry 8218. (website file: 1C:1890-1894) Duncan C. Ralston. (5/5/92)
[51] Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entry 8808. (website file: 1C:1890-1894) Mary C. Ralston. (12/8/92)
[52] “Theosophy in Brooklyn.” The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. (Brooklyn, New York) June 14, 1890; “Coming Events.” The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. (Brooklyn, New York) July 5, 1892; “Split On Theosophy’s Rock.” The New York Times. (New York, New York) June 26, 1893.
[53] Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entry 8249. (website file: 1C:1890-1894) Louise J. Kirkwood.
[54] Kirkwood, Louise J. Illustrated Sewing Primer, with Songs And Music: For Schools and Families. American Book Company. New York, New York. (1886); “It’s A Nest of Theosophy.” The Sun. (New York, New York) June 6, 1893; “Disciples Of Her Own Sex” The World (New York, New York) June 19, 1893; “Split On Theosophy’s Rock.” The New York Times (New York, New York) June 26, 1893.
[55] Kirkwood writes: “Our children come from garret, and cellar, tenement homes in ages ranging from babyhood to girlhood of thirteen years. The day nursery with its sunny influences, and the kindergarten, begin the training. The school room follows, with its steady inculcation of moral and religious principles, and its cheerful hum of mental drill. On the tender years of childhood, which if we could we would gladly surround only with what is bright and joyful, it is hard to lay the lines of labor but a judgment wiser in its end, than that of feeling together with an apprehension of the fact that the necessity of labor is already upon them, has led to an earnest study of the best methods of training up the children in the practice of the domestic arts those which most nearly touch the home. The avenues of labor in these lines are not crowded, they are safe and eminently womanly pathways for our girls to follow. Into them it should be the part of the wise counsellor to direct those who by birth, and surroundings, are peculiarly tempted to lives of vagrancy and crime.” [Kirkwood, Louise J. “Methods Of Industrial Training For Girls.” The Social Welfare Forum: Official Proceedings of the Annual Meeting. Vol. XII. (1885): 219-222.]
[56] Fryatt, F.E. “The Wilson Industrial School And Mission.” Harper’s Magazine. Vol. LXIV. No. 371 (February 1882) 374-381.
[57] Ibid.
[58] Clarke, Isaac Edwards. Art And Industry: (1892) Industrial And Manual Training In The Public Schools. U.S. Government Printing Office. Washington, D.C. (1892): 286.
[59] Fryatt, F.E. “The Wilson Industrial School And Mission.” Harper’s Magazine. Vol. LXIV. No. 371 (February 1882) 374-381.
[60] Patterson, H.T. “American Letter.” The Theosophist. Vol. XIV, No. 8 (May 1893) 511-512.
[61] “Mirror Of The Movement.” The Path. Vol. VIII, No. 1. (April 1893): 27-32.
[62] Shapiro, Michael Steven. Child’s Garden: The Kindergarten Movement from Froebel to Dewey. Pennsylvania State University Press. University Park, Pennsylvania. (1983): 131-150.
[63] “Saluted the Flag.” The Evening World. (New York, New York) October 20, 1893.
[64] Patterson, H.T. “American Letter.” The Theosophist. Vol. XIV, No. 4 (January 1893): 251-253.
[65] W.R.O. “Reviews: Childhood.” The Theosophist. Vol. XIV, No. 8 (May 1893): 506-
[66] Eliot, Charles W. “Wherein Popular Education Has Failed.” The Forum. Vol. XIV, No. 4. (December 1892): 411-428.
[67] Smedley, W.T. “Easter Sunday On Fifth Avenue, New York.” Harper’s Weekly. Vol. XXXVII, No. 1893 (April 1, 1893): 293; Byron Company (New York, N.Y.), Church – St. Thomas’ Church, 5th Ave., N.W. Cor. 53rd St. Ca. 1905. Museum of the City of New York, 93.1.1.18039.
[68] Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entry 9147. (website file: 1C:1890-1894) Edith Armstrong. (2/10/93)
[69] “Broken Up By Theosophy.” The World. (New York, New York) June 6, 1893.
[70] E.G.A. “Why I Joined The Theosophical Society.” The Theosophical Quarterly. Vol. XII No. 3 (January 1915): 262-265.
[71] “Split On Theosophy’s Rock.” The New York Times. (New York, New York) June 26, 1893.
[72] “Mirror Of The Movement.” The Path. Vol. VIII, No. 1. (April 1893): 27-32.
[73] [“God is One” was sung to the tune of “Onward, Christian Soldiers”] “God is one and liveth, Is of life the star; In the Jew or Gentile Naught its gleam can bar. Clear the music ringeth, Prisoned not by chime; Truth the note it soundeth, Undestroyed by time. Love in measured movement toucheth every string; Infinite the fountain whence the streamiest spring. Oh! Be glad ye people.”
[74] [The Angels] “When the children go to sleep, Little stars their kind watch keep, Shining down so calm and clear, Whispering gently, ‘Do not fear!’’ Then the Angels from above Bid them come with words of love Into realms of pure delight. There to bide till morning light. When the stars have gone to sleep, And the sun his watch doth keep. Pouring forth his light and heat, Laden rich with promise sweet. Then the Angels from on high, Gently breathe a soft “Good-bye!” And the children wing their flight Back to earth till starry night. Amen.” [The St. Alban Hymnal. Compiled for the use of The Liberal Catholic Church in the United States of America. St. Albans Press. Los Angeles, California. (1921): 591. The hymn is listed as anonymous in the St. Alban Hymnal, but the first stanza of the hymn is published in “With Miss Chapin’s Class.” The New York Times. (New York, New York) June 12, 1893.]
[75] “Literary Notes.” The Path. Vol. VIII, No. 3. (June 1893): 85-88.
[76] Patterson, H.T. “American Letter.” The Theosophist. Vol. XIV, No. 8 (May 1893) 511-512.
[77] “Were Born Twice” The Wheeling Daily Intelligencer. (Wheeling, West Virginia) May 26, 1893.
[78] “From The East.” The Brooklyn Citizen. (Brooklyn, New York) June 12, 1893.
[79] Ibid.
[80] “Theosophical Sunday School.” The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. (Brooklyn, New York) June 12, 1893; “From The East.” The Brooklyn Citizen. (Brooklyn, New York) June 12, 1893; Peck, Thomas Bellows. The Bellows Genealogy. Sentinel Printing Company. Keene, New Hampshire. (1898): 628; Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entry 7297. (website file: 1C:1890-1894) Mary A. Bellows. (Brooklyn. 9/10/1891)
[81] Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entry 8731. (website file: 1C:1890-1894) Hattie A. Bellows. (11/17/92.)
[82] “The Theosophic Society.” The Times Union. (Brooklyn, New York) August 12, 1892.
[83] “The Wisdom Religion.” The New York Tribune. (New York, New York) April 24, 1893.
[84] “Correspondence: A Child on Reincarnation.” The Path. Vol. VIII, No. 12 (March 1894): 388-389.
[85] Müller, Friedrich Max. The Nineteenth Century. Vol. XXXIII, No. 195. (May 1893): 767-788.
[86] “A Five-Year-Old Theosophist.” The Sun. (New York, New York) May 22, 1893.
[87] “A Reincarnated Family.” The Sun. (New York, New York) May 23, 1893.
[88] “Were Born Twice.” The Wheeling Daily Intelligencer. (Wheeling, West Virginia) May 26, 1893.
[89] “A Reincarnated Family.” The Sun. (New York, New York) May 23, 1893.
[90] Charity Organization Society. Directory of Social and Health Agencies of New York City. Charity Organization Society. New York, New York. (1895): 428.
[91] “No Place for Mrs. Chapin.” The New York Times. (New York, New York) June 5, 1893; “Theosophists Must Go.” The New York Tribune. (New York, New York) June 26, 1893; Jennings, William Henry. A Genealogical History of the Jennings Families in England and America: Vol I. Mann & Adair. Columbus, Ohio. (1899): 435-436.
[92] “Theosophists Must Go.” The New York Tribune. (New York, New York) June 26, 1893; Presbyterian Historical Society; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; U.S., Presbyterian Church Records, 1701-1907; Accession Number: Vault Bx 9211. p49103 T421.
[93] “Theosophists Must Go.” The New York Tribune. (New York, New York) June 26, 1893; “Recent Deaths.” The Boston Evening Transcript. (Boston, Massachusetts) December 17, 1896; “Funeral of Mrs. A.B. Stone.” The New York Tribune. (New York, New York) May 14, 1908; Sons of the American Revolution Membership Applications, 1889-1970. Louisville, Kentucky: National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. Microfilm, 508 rolls. [Vol. 56.]
[94] “More Proscription.” The World. (New York, New York) June 6, 1893.
[95] “No Place for Mrs. Chapin.” The New York Times. (New York, New York) June 5, 1893.
[96] “It’s A Nest of Theosophy.” The Sun. (New York, New York) June 6, 1893.
[97] “No Place for Mrs. Chapin.” The New York Times. (New York, New York) June 5, 1893.
[98] “Broken Up By Theosophy.” The World. (New York, New York) June 6, 1893.
[99] Ibid.
[100] Ibid.
[101] “It’s A Nest of Theosophy.” The Sun. (New York, New York) June 6, 1893.
[102] “Split On Theosophy’s Rock.” The New York Times (New York, New York) June 26, 1893.
[103] “Ready To Be Martyrs.” The Evening World. (New York, New York) June 6, 1893.
[104] Ibid.
[105] “With Miss Chapin’s Class.” The New York Times. (New York, New York) June 12, 1893.
[106] “Lady Governors, Listen.” The World. (New York, New York) June 12, 1893.
[107] “Theosophy Grows Powerful.” The New York Times. (New York, New York) July 24, 1893.
[108] Webb was born at Hudson, New York. He moved to Chicago where he worked as a jeweler, but the fire of 1871 destroyed his possessions. He then published a weekly paper in Unionville, Missouri, putting him in a network with leading dailies in Chicago and St. Louis. In 1885 he was sent by President Grover Cleveland as Consul to Manila, Philippines. It was there where he, his wife Ella, and their children, converted to Islam. He returned to America in February 1893 to establish the journal the Moslem World and make the first attempt to “convert America to Islam.” The Aryan T.S. invited Muhammed Alexander Russell Webb to give a public address on “Theosophy in Islam” on March 7, 1893. It was the first talk was on Islam hosted by the Society in New York, and the fifth of the “world’s great faiths” to have “been represented at the Aryan meetings.” [“To Talk on Islamism and Theosophy.” The New York Tribune. (New York, New York) March 7, 1893; “Mirror of The Movement.” The Path. Vol. VIII, No. 1 (April 1893): 27-31; Patterson, H.T. “American Letter.” The Theosophist. Vol. XIV, No. 8 (May 1893) 511-512; Judge, William Quan. “Regarding Islamism.” The Path. Vol. VIII, No. 4 (July 1893): 112-115; Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entry 2730. (website file: 1A: 1875-1885) Alexander Russell Webb.]
[109] Olcott, Henry Steel. Old Diary Leaves: Volume IV. Theosophical Publishing Society. London, England. (1910): 523.
[110] “Lotus Circle Sunday School.” The Sun. (New York, New York) July 3, 1893.
[111] Seager, Richard Hughes. The World’s Parliament of Religions. Indiana University Press. Bloomington, Indiana. (1905): 101
[112] “Theosophists Must Go.” The New York Tribune. (New York, New York) June 26, 1893.
[113] “Mirror Of The Movement.” The Path. Vol. VIII, No. 4. (July 1893): 123-125; “Split On Theosophy’s Rock.” The New York Times. (New York, New York) June 26, 1893.
[114] “One Lady Manager Objected.” The New York Times. (New York, New York) June 27, 1893.
[115] “Theosophy Grows Powerful.” The New York Times. (New York, New York) July 24, 1893.
[116] “Another Protest Against Theosophy.” The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. (Brooklyn, New York) June 26, 1893.
[117] In 1892 Judge met Heinrich Maschmedt, a young banker from Berlin who went to Australia in 1880 and established a financial enterprise at Sydney. Having made a small fortune engaging in the purchase of gold dust, Maschmedt was en route to his native Germany to live out his days as a wealthy man. After his encounter with Judge, Maschmedt joined the Theosophical Society, and “abandoned materialism.” That spring (1892,) Maschmedt would bring his sisters, Emma, and Bertha Maschmedt, to America. They, too, would join the Theosophical Society. Once established in America, Maschmedt became a perfume manufacturer, further increasing his wealth. In the summer of 1893, a certain business transaction made Maschmedt the owner of a 163-acre farm in the lower Adirondacks near Corinth, New York (nine miles from Saratoga.) MASCHMEDT FAMILY IMMIGRATION: [Arrived in New York City in January 1892] The National Archives and Records Administration; Washington, D.C.; Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at and Departing from Ogdensburg, New York, 5/27/1948 – 11/28/1972; Microfilm Serial or NAID: M237, 1820-1897; Public Record Office Victoria; North Melbourne, Victoria; Inward Overseas Passenger Lists (British Ports) [Microfiche Copy of VPRS 947]; Series: VPRS 7666; The National Archives and Records Administration; Washington, D.C.; Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at and Departing from Ogdensburg, New York, 5/27/1948 – 11/28/1972; Microfilm Serial or NAID: M237, 1820-1897.] MASCHMEDT FAMILY MEMBERSHIP IN THEOSOPHY: [Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entry 8159. (website file: 1C:1890-1894) Christoph Heinrich Gottlieb Maschmedt. (Brooklyn. 3/7/1892); Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entry 9937. (website file: 1D:1894-1897) Emma Maschmedt. (Corinth. 8/15/93); Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entry 9938. (website file: 1D:1894-1897) Bertha Maschmedt. (Corinth. 8/15/93.)] MASCHMEDT FARM: [“School of Theosophy.” The Morning News. (Savannah, Georgia) October 8, 1893; “The Summer School Habit.” The Kansas City Star. (Kansas City, Missouri) July 18, 1893.] Maschmedt purchased the Thomas Carpenter Farm on Heath Road. [Clothier, Rachel A. Corinth. Arcadia Publishing. Charleston, South Carolina. (2009): 121.
[118] “Theosophists in ‘Retreat.’” The Sun. (New York, New York) July 16, 1893.
[119] “School of Theosophy.” The Morning News. (Savannah, Georgia) October 8, 1893.
[120] “Saratoga.” The World. (New York, New York) August 6, 1893; “The Theosophic Colony.” The Brooklyn Citizen. (Brooklyn, New York) August 8, 1893.
[121] Other speakers included: Alexander Fullerton, C.F. Wright, Elizabeth Chapin, Burcham Harding, James Connelly, F.H. Muller (London School Board,) Col. Henry Hopper, and Vittoria Cremers, (Philosophical Publisher, Union Square.) [“The Summer School Habit.” The Kansas City Star. (Kansas City, Missouri) July 18, 1893; “School of Theosophy.” The Morning News. (Savannah, Georgia) October 8, 1893.]
[122] “Maschmedt-Bellows.” The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. (Brooklyn, New York) September 7, 1893; “School of Theosophy.” The Morning News. (Savannah, Georgia) October 8, 1893.
[123] “To Promote the Cause.” The Post-Star. (Glens Falls, New York) October 6, 1893; “American Branches T.S.” The Path. Vol. X, No. 2 (May 1895): 69-72.
[124] “Miss Anna Miller Stabler Returns Home.” The New York Daily Tribune (New York, New York.) January 23, 1894; “Sandy Spring.” The Evening Star. (Washington, D.C.) August 8, 1893; Moore, Eliza N. Annals of Sandy Spring Vol. II. Thomas & Evans. Baltimore, Maryland. (1902): 291.
[125] “Theosophical Activities.” Lucifer. Vol. XIII, No. 76. (November 15, 1893): 252-2533.
[126] “Miss Anna Miller Stabler Returns Home.” The New York Daily Tribune (New York, New York.) January 23, 1894.
[127] “Front Cover.” Home Journal. Vol. LVIII, No. 5. (February 1, 1902): Front Cover.
[128] “The Lotus Circle’s New Year’s.” The Sun. (New York, New York), January 1, 1894.
[129] Wallberg received her early education in her native city of Stockholm, Sweden. Becoming interested in physical culture, she enrolled herself as a pupil of Henrica Ling, the daughter of Pehr Henrik Ling (the inventor of the Swedish gymnastic system.) Since her arrival in America several years earlier, Wallberg devoted herself to lecturing the North America. In New York her talents were highly appreciated in literary circles, and spoke before Sorosis, the Woman’s Press Club, and prominent Swedish Societies of New York and Brooklyn. (In 1898 she would write the lyrics for the opera, “Fridthjof and Ingeborg.”) [“Miss Anna C. Wallberg.” Home Journal. Vol. LVIII, No. 5. (February 1, 1902): 12.]
[130] W.R.O. “Reviews: Childhood.” The Theosophist. Vol. XIV, No. 8 (May 1893): 506-
[131] “Religions of All Nations.” The New York Times. (New York, New York) January 1, 1894.
[132] “Sandy Spring.” The Evening Star (Washington, D.C.) August 8, 1893; “Theosophical Activities.” Lucifer. Vol. XIII, No. 76. (November 15, 1893): 252-2533.
[133] Hargrove, Ernest Temple. “Letters From W.Q. Judge II.” The Theosophical Quarterly. Vol. XXIX, No. 1. (July 1931): 35-44.
[134] “Funeral Of Duncan C. Ralston.’” The New York Tribune. (New York, New York) April 13, 1896.
[135] “Mirror Of The Movement.” Theosophy Vol. XI, No. 7 (October 1896): 219-224; “Theosophical Societies.” New Century. Vol. I., No. 3. (October 14, 1897): 8.
[136] “Mrs. Tingley’s Play.” The New York Journal. (New York, New York) April 12, 1897; “Theosophy In The Drama.” Washington Times. (Washington, D.C.) April 12, 1897; “Lotus Circle Reports.” The Theosophical Forum. Vol. III, No. 1. (May 1897): 14.
[137] “Mrs. Tingley’s ‘Lotus Home.’” The New York Times. (New York, New York,) July 4, 1897; “In The Household” Los Angeles Evening Express (Los Angeles, California) July 31, 1897.
[138] “Mr. Hargrove’s Resignation.” The Daily Tribune. (New York, New York) September 19, 1897; Theosophical Societies.” New Century. Vol. I, No. 3. (October 14, 1897): 8.
[139] “Lotus Circle Entertains.” The Salt Lake Tribune. (Salt Lake City, Utah) April 14, 1897.
[140] “Theosophy Of Two Brands.” The Sun. (New York, New York) May 1, 1899.
[141] “Weddings.” The New York Herald. (New York, New York) November 30, 1902; Social Security Administration. Social Security Death Index, Master File. Social Security Administration.
[142] “Mrs. Whittingham.” The Item Of Milburn And Short Hills. (Milburn, New Jersey.) August 23, 1945.
[143] In the March 1898, issue of The Theosophical Forum, in response to the question: “Is autonomy necessary in T. S. If so; why?” Ralston writes:
The first object of the T. S. is to form a nucleus of universal brotherhood. This would be impossible without autonomy of action, which alone produces individuals. Brother hood is not an accomplished fact on this plane, as regards either consciousness or action, from lack of individuals understanding their especial responsibilities. Any possible connection with the Universal Oversoul comes but from the center, from within. It takes every color truly itself, from the standpoint of this plane to form the One White Light. Homogeneity on this plane means only disorder, chaos, and rebellion.” [“Question And Answers.” The Theosophical Forum Vol. III, No. 6. (March 1898): 1-7.]
[144] “To Help The Children.” The Brooklyn Times-Union. (Brooklyn, New York) September 10, 1902; “In The Social World.” The Standard Union. (Brooklyn, New York) September 10, 1902; “Ask Poor Children To Play.” The Brooklyn Citizen. (Brooklyn, New York) September 11, 1902; “In The Social World.” The Standard Union. (Brooklyn, New York) September 21, 1902; “Entertained Thirty Little Children.” The Brooklyn Times-Union. (Brooklyn, New York) September 22, 1902; “Children’s Entertainments.” The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. (Brooklyn, New York) October 3, 1902; “In The World Of Society.” The Brooklyn Times-Union. (Brooklyn, New York) November 28, 1903.
[145] “Children’s Entertainments.” The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. (Brooklyn, New York) October 3, 1902.
[146] Sasson, Diane. Yearning For the New Age. Indiana University Press. Bloomington, Indiana. (2012): 217.
[147] Holloway, Laura C., Elizabeth P. Chapin, and Maude Ralston. Atma Fairy Stories. Home Publishing Company. New York, New York. (1903.)
[148] G. “Review: Atma Fairy Stories.” The Theosophical Quarterly. Vol. I, No. 2 (January 1904): 88-93.
[149] Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entry 159. (Website file: 1A: 1875-1885) Shyamaji Crishnavarna [Shyamji Krishna Varma.] (7/7/78); Curtis, David A. “The Martin Luther of India.” Frank Leslie’s Sunday Magazine. Vol. IV, No. 6. (December 1878): 657-661.
[150] “Rear row, left to right — Richard Meiser, Mrs. B.C. Herr, P.R. McKenney, I.J. Bardner, Miss Augusta Meiser, Rev. E.R. Shippen, Mrs. Oliver Phelps, H.E. Hunt, Mrs. O.F. Zahn. Second row — Miss Alice Hart, Miss Florence Greenstidel, Miss Alice Hauser, Mrs. Frank Mathauer, Mrs. F.C. Funke, Miss Elizabeth Chapin, Mrs. George P. Goodale, Mrs. E.L. Truba. Third row — Rama Krishna Khosla, Mrs. John Moore, Miss F.A. Ellair, Miss Maud Ralston, Mrs. D.A. Hitchcock, Miss Alma Knapp, Jaswant Rai Ghandi, Premananda Das. Front row — Surendra Nath Bal, Bejay Kumar Bose.” [Ralston, Maude. “The India Society of Detroit.” The Modern Review. Vol. X (September 1911): 234-237.]
[151] Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entry 6042. (website file: 1B:1885-1890) Myron H. Phelps; “Useless to Rebel Now.” The Calgary Herald. (Calgary, Alberta, Canada) July 4, 1908; “Converts Are Not Genuine.” The Detroit Free Press. (Detroit, Michigan) August 16, 1908; Ralston, Maude. “The India Society of Detroit.” The Modern Review. Vol. X (September 1911): 234-237; Ganachari, Arvind Gururao. “Myron H. Phelps (1856-1916): An Early American Advocate of India’s Freedom.” Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. Vol. LII (1991): 650-657; Sasson, Diane. Yearning for the New Age, Laura Holloway-Langford and Late Victorian Spirituality. Indiana University Press. Bloomington, Indiana. (2012): 265-266.
[152] Sasson, Diane. Yearning for the New Age, Laura Holloway-Langford and Late Victorian Spirituality. Indiana University Press. Bloomington, Indiana. (2012):
[153] Sharman, Maude Ralston. “India’s Roll Call.” Unity. Vol. LXXXIX, No. 14 (June 1, 1922): 221.
[154] Ghose, Sri Aurobindo. “To Mr. and Mrs. Sharman (c. January 1926.).” Sri Aurobindo. Autobiographical Notes and Other Writings of Historical Interest. Accessed May 25, 2021
[155] “Detroit Deaths.” The Detroit Free Press. (Detroit, Michigan) April 17, 1951.
[156] Vermont State Archives and Records Administration; Montpelier, Vermont, USA; User Box Number: PR-01776; Roll Number: S-31304; Archive Number: PR-1205-1206.
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