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Sisters Mary Fowler Bagley (1816-1854) & Sarah Osgood Bagley (1820-1905) Daguerreotype Longyear Museum
Sarah Osgood Bagley was one of Mary Baker Glover Eddy‘s first students. She was known as a Magnetic Healer (note her death certificate listed Mental Healer).
In July 1868 Sarah Bagley and Mary Baker Eddy made a house call to Amesbury’s poet John Greenleaf Whittier who had been suffering from various ailments–the main issue he complained of was incipient pulmonary consumption which Whittier noted, “If Jesus Christ was in Amesbury, he would have to have brass-lined lungs to live here.” The Pulpit and Press Volume 54.
Eddy spoke with him for some time, “in the line of Science,” and by the end of their conversation he seemed much improved. As she left, Whittier called to her and said, “I thank you, Mary, for your call; it has done me much good.” Reports received the following day he was spotted in the village and in much better health and spirits. See Mary Baker Eddy and John Greenleaf Whittier
Mary and Sarah Bagley daughters of Lowell Bagley and Sarah/Sally Osgood, daughter of Samuel Osgood and Anna Hoyt d. of Joseph Hoyt and Lydia Jewell. Samuel Osgood son of Samuel Osgood and Anna Barnard. They also had a sister Emeline Bagley (1812-1892) married James Whittier, son of James Whittier and Mary Sargent.
Lowell Bagley was son of Isaac Bagley, (s. of Timothy Bagley and Mary Thompson) and Mehitable Bartlett (d. of Capt. Stephen Bartlett and Ruth Currier). Stephen s. of Deacon Stephen Bartlett (s. of Richard Barlett and Hannah Emery) and Hannah Webster (d. of John Webster and Bridget Huggins). Deacon Stephen’s brother was Governor Josiah Bartlett, first signer of the Deceleration of Independence who studied medicine in Amesbury, Massachusetts with Doctor Ordway. Genealogy and Grave Photos from from Ronald Colby data base Colby Family & Others
In Salisbury Vital Records there is a intention to marry: OSSGOOD (see also Osgood), Sally, and Lowell Bagley [of Amesbury. int.], Nov. 26, 1811. And From Massachusetts Town Records
Mary and Sarah Bagley maintained a dressmaking and millinery business until Mary’s passing in 1864, and Sarah continued the business to support herself and her mother until sometime after 1868. From Longyear Museum Digital Collection
Photos from the Longyear Museum site of the Bagley home 277 Main Street in Amesbury, Massachusetts where Mary Baker Eddy stayed on two different occasions. The house has been maintained by the museum, along with seven other historic houses in their collection that trace Mary Baker Eddy’s footsteps as Discoverer, Founder, and Leader of Christian Science.
April 23rd 1870.
I Sarah O. Bagley do hereby agree to pay Mary M Glover for instruction given me twenty five percent on the monies or income arising from my practicing or teaching that which she has taught me so long as I may practice or teach this her mode of doctoring the sick. I hold myself to this agreement. This has been changed to ten per cent for the past two years. Mrs. G offered to reduce it one half after the year 1872, after that reduced it to ten percent being the percent the others paid. It stands now in 1875 at ten percent. Have paid over two hundred dollars on the within, and she has refused to receive any more percentage on my practice…..Original transcript Agreement between Sarah O. Bagley and Mary Baker Eddy, April 23, 1870
Mrs. Longyear’s daughter Judith with her sons and a friend in the yard at the Amesbury house. From the scrapbook collection of Longyear Museum