A lucky find on eBay

This is an original envelope from 1881, sent to Mrs. Eddy in Lynn, by her son, George W. Glover, Jr., from his home in Lead City, Dakota Territory. The envelope was mailed on April 12, 1881, and was received in Lynn twelve days later.

The Mary Baker Eddy Library for the Betterment of Humanity does not have the letter that was sent on this date in this envelope, but it does have the later letter sent to Mrs. Eddy on April 24, 1881. It was to the later letter that Mrs. Eddy referred in her missive on May 4, 1881, in which she said that she regretted to hear of his new mining failure, and wanted to know what ever happened to the $400 that she sent him.

Both George Glover and his wife Nellie were illiterate, so the nice script of the envelope must have come from a local friend. (Glover had to have others write letters for him. I have been told that the writing on the envelope is similar to the writing on the letter of April 24.)

The envelope was purchased on the online auction website, eBay. The dealer from North Dakota who had it wrote to me that he found this when he was going through a large collection of material he had purchased twenty years earlier, which is approximately the time that George Glover III passed away. One always wonders how some of these things were saved and then later made available. It is possible that somehow this envelope later made its way back to the Glover family (by Mrs. Eddy or from her estate) and was sold off after George Glover III passed away. (I have hypothesized that when two of Mrs. Eddy’s grandsons visited her in 1910 that she gave them this envelope as a souvenir, but that is mere speculation.)

By the way, Lead City (now, Lead, South Dakota) is pronounced “Leed,” and it comes from  a geological term used in mining. Many years later Mrs. Eddy provided her son there a nice home, and here are some photos taken of that home on a family vacation there:

The message on the sign in front of the house (from the mid-1990s)  reads as follows: “The Glover House at 11 Glendale Drive, was built in 1899 as a Christmas gift from Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of the Christian Science Church, to her son George Washington Glover II. At the time of construction, the site was located outside of the city boundaries, but with the rapid growth of the community, the town soon surrounded the house. The garage was originally a carriage house and the stable was  behind the garage. Glover, president of the Glover Gold Mining Company, lived in the house for nineteen years, and his widow remained there until 1947. The Homestake Mining Company eventually purchased the house and used it as a residence for company officials. The home was sold to a private family in 1980.”

This is the gravesite of George Glover II (1844-1915). 

  

Comments

[Calvin A. Frye]

http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/2615/georgegloverjr.jpg

Where is this house?

[Keith]

I don't recall the year exactly, but that is the Glover family and others in the 1880s. As you can see, they had much humbler conditions before Mrs. Eddy gave them the "mansion" as some called it at the end of the 1890s.

[Donna M. Glover]

This is late, but I just found it. The cabin picture appears to be the Glover cabin, north of Lead, South Dakota. Where did you acquire the photo? My husband is a 2nd great grandson of Mrs. Eddy. The forest service tore the cabin down this summer.

[Keith]

Hi Donna, what a pleasure to hear from you. Since George Glover II had five children, do you know which one is your husband's direct ancestor? I would love to know more about your family history. The Daystar Foundation in Oklahoma City has the lengthy tapes that Jewel Smaus made of many hours of interviews with George Glover III in 1970 and 1971. That is filled with fascinating information on the Glover family. Much of the tapes have been transcribed.

The photo appears in the Glover family material at the Longyear Museum outside of Boston.

I hope that helps!

[Donna M. Glover]

Thank you for responding. Due to the age and the scanning (not terribly clear, sorry) I can say it's the little red headed boy next to George, (I think) Ellen is holding baby Andrew, Mary and Eveline would be the young girls in black and white. We have no idea if Greshom is the young man in back or who the other people are. I'm a genealogist and have worked on this family for years so was in touch with Mrs. Smaus and stopped in at Daystar several years ago. Hopefully one day I can compare my work to hers. thanks again.

[Ebayblows]

I really love buying and selling on ebay however their policies in the last few months have put me out of business and now they have this $10k buying limit they are placing on everyone's Paypal account.