|
Biographies for Lee County, Florida
Biography of Cyrus Teed
Founder of The Koreshan Unity
Submitted by Norita Shepherd Moss
mossnb1 at earthlink.net
Cyrus Reed Teed (1839-1908) was
an alchemist from Utica NY, practicing
"eclectic medicine" in the 1860s. His alchemy experiments convinced him
that the universe was all of one substance. Shortly after, in 1869, he
received a spiritual "illumination" from "The Divine Motherhood", who told
him how the universe was really constructed, and told him to bring this knowledge to the world.
This confirmed Teed's
suspicion that the conventional view of the earth within the universe was
wrong—that the earth was actually outside and all the rest was within. She
told him to redeem the human race and carry on the work of Jesus as a "New
Messiah." Part of his task was to unify science and religion.
Flat earth and hollow earth ideas are almost always associated with
religious convictions, and their proponents have always been able to cite
Biblical foundations for their ideas, whichever model they promote. On an
emotional level, many people are uncomfortable with the vast and
unimaginable size of the universe as described by conventional science.
They prefer a smaller cosmos, with everything nearby. What possible use
could the creator have for all that stuff so far away from us? How wasteful
to create all that vastness just for us to admire on a starry night.
This universe was an inside-out version of the commonly
accepted model. It had the entire universe enclosed in a hollow cell in
rock. We live and walk on the inside of this shell, and the entire universe
is inside, but much of that is an illusion formed
from the interaction of gravic, levic and light rays. Light rays travel
with a speed which depends on their distance from the center, and refract
greatly, to produce the illusion of moon, planets, and stars.
Teed called this the "cellular cosmogony", and likened this cell
within rock to the the hands of God cradling his creation. At that time
Teed was a member of a shaker community,
but within a year he formed his own community, taking the name "Koesh", the
Hebrew version of "Cyrus".
His "Koreshan Unity" was based on communal ownership of property, celibacy as
an ideal, and of course, the "cellular cosmogony"
This small community moved to New York City, then to Chicago.
They did not feel welcome in any of these places.
Finally they settled on donated land in Florida, where Teed hoped to build
his "New Jerusalem". His community was now called the "Koreshan Unity".
Teed's death in 1906 was a shock to what remained of the Koreshan
community. It may have resulted from injuries received previously while he
was trying to break up a brawl between residents of Fort Myers and some
Koreshans. Teed had made enigmatic statements which his followers
interpreted as indicating he might arise from the dead, so they did not
bury his body. But after a few days, the county health officer ordered that
they do so. His corpse was placed in a stone vault near the Estero river,
with a boat nearby for his convenience if he should arise from the dead.
Several years later the vault was destroyed by a storm and his remains
were never found.
The Korsehan followers became elderly and died off. Time found that only a
few of them stayed and by that time records and lands were being lost or
sold off. The Koreshan president in 1961 gave to the State of Florida a key
portion to be turned into a State Park There are historical buildings and
the museum which is is preserving the old way of life. In the wilderness
area there are nature trails and canoeing.
Dr. Ulysses Grant Morrow
Ulysses Grant Morrow (1864-1950).
Morrow was born in Kentucky. He taught business and shorthand courses at a school in Corning, Iowa. While there
he published a book on "Phonography", his system of phonetic shorthand. He
edited small newspapers, including "The Plowshare and the Pruning-Hook" and
"The Salvator and the Scientist". He converted from "Eclectic Philosophy"
to Koreshanity in 1895 and edited their newspaper, "The Flaming Sword".
Morrow called himself a "geodesist". He was said to be very well-read, a
good writer and a poet and had a good sense of humor. He also had a
reputation as a clever inventor of useful machines.
In 1897 Teed, wanting concrete experimental evidence of his hollow earth
model, asked Morrow to carry out measurements of the water surface near
Naples, Florida. Morrow invented a "rectilineator", a 12 foot long
structure of mahogany and brass with which one could establish a straight
"physical" line over long distances. It would allow measurement of the
curvature of water with respect to the physical line, over a four mile
strech of shoreline. This experiment, called the "Naples geodetic survey"
was carried out over several months time, and according to the Morrow team's
careful measurements, seemed to show that the earth curved upwards, as Teed
and Morrow expected. The error made in this Naples experiment was a simple
but subtle determinate error which propagated badly.
On July 25, 1896 Morrow made observations on the Old Illinois Drainage
Canal, sighting a target 18 inches above the water surface and 5 miles
away, with a telescope elevated 12 inches above the water. According to
accepted values of earth curvature, the target should have been over 9 feet
below the line of vision, but it was clearly visible in the telescope.
Morrow considered this "the most unmistakable evidence of the water's
non-convexity."
Morrow made similar sightings on August 16, 1896 from the shore of Lake
Michigan at the World's Fair Grounds. Sloop yachts were sighted at 12 miles
from shore, from a pier 10 feet above the water. With low power opera
glasses, the sails and masts were clearly visible, but the hulls were below
the visible water surface. With a 50 power telescope the hulls were clearly
visible. Sightings were also made with the telescope 30 inches above the
water. According to conventionally accepted curvature of water, the hulls
of the boats would have been 60 feet below the surface. Seven other
sightings were made from Roby, Illinois on Aug 23, 1896, with similar
results.
These experiments were easily dismissed by critics as simply due to
atmospheric refraction. Morrow sought a more convincing method for
measuring water surfaces, one that would not use light.
Morrow kept a notebook of data. Each measurement was checked by several
persons and initialed by them. Morrow said he "directed and tested every
Adjustment and Measurement of the entire Survey, and personally checked
same in Record Books." These record books may have survived, and may reside
in the un-catalogued archive materials at the Koreshan Unity Foundation
Museum and Library, but have not been located at the time of this writing.
We do have a very full account of procedures, and a table of data every 1/8
mile, in Part II of Teed's Cellular Cosmogony, written by Morrow. This
includes data from the spirit level, the mercury level, horizon sighting,
the plumb bob, and, of course, the elevation of the rectilinear line above
mean water leve
Morrow wrote the greater part of Teed's 1897 book The Cellular Cosmogony.
In 1905 Morrow left the Koreshan settlement after a serious disagreement
with Teed. He continued to promote and develop the hollow earth idea, being
in contact with groups in Argentena and Germany who also believed it.
Editions of The Cellular Cosmogony after 1905 drop all mention of Morrow,
but continued to use large sections of what he wrote. Morrow worked as a
typesetter at a newspaper in New Orleans till his death in 1950.
Little survives related to Morrow. His own family saved hardly anything of
his writings and correspondence, and seldom talked of him, considering his
conversion to Koreshanity something of a disgrace to the family. In the
Koreshan community, Teed was the "celebrity" and Morrow's substantial
contributions received little recognition. Modern authors and historians
are more interested in the social and historical impact of the Koreshan
community, and treat Teed's cosmogony as a curious side issue (even though
Teed considered it the heart of his philosophy). Morrow hardly rates a
footnote in their accounts.
Birth: 26 OCT 1864 in Barren Co., KY
Death: 11 DEC 1950 in New Orleans, LA
Notes on Ulysses G. Morrow
He was a newspaper man and a Doctor of Philosophy. He was active in the
Cyrus R. Teed movement to Fl in the 1890s to Estero, Lee ( Monroe) County,
FL. He moved with his children and wife to the Koreshan Unity Community in
1895 - 1896. He and his wife Rosa were involved in the workings of the
communal and spritual sides of the self substained group for twelve
years. It had lecture halls, a newspaper, schools, bakery, their own saw
mill and grew their own food. Fishing and other work and past times like
band and theatre shows were put on by the group.
His work and photographs and writings
remain in the Koreshan Unity Foundation Museum in Estero, Lee County, FL .
Father: Alexander Franklin MORROW
b: 7 SEP 1840 in Red Boiling Springs, Macon Co., TN
Mother: Martha Temple Thomas PAYNE
b: 11 DEC 1842 in Monroe Co., KY
Marriage: Rosa Melissa WATTENBARGER b: 1867 in Sullivan Co., MO
Married: 2 JUL 1886 in Sullivan Co., MO
Children
Eva MORROW
Harry Wesley MORROW b: 4 AUG 1889 in IL
Name: Rosa Melissa WATTENBARGER
Birth: 1867 in Sullivan Co., MO
Death: 1946 in New Orleans, LA
Rosa Wattenbarger Morrow also worked for within the Koreshan Unity
Community. She helped her husband with the newspaper the Flaming Star. From
all accounts she was very intelligent and believed deeply in what her
husband did.
Name: Lorraine Norman
Profile: The Koreshan's Granddaughter
Published in News-Press Ft. Myers Lee County, FL
Sunday January 23, 2005
Age: 79
Born: In a little house on Palm Beach Boulevard in East Fort Myers.
Ties to the past:
Grandfather Ulysses Grant Morrow was the Koreshan who invented the
rectilineator, a device sect members used to “prove” that humans inhabit a hollow globe.
Favorite place: Anywhere near the Caloosahatchee River.
Though her grandfather was one of the cornerstones of Estero’s Koreshan
community, most of what Lorraine Norman learned about the utopian group
came from her own research as an adult.
Small with the bright-eyed intensity of a starling, Norman extracts a photo
of a mustachioed, bow-tied man from a sepia-toned stack. “My grandfather,
Ulysses Grant Morrow, was a very busy little man — very educated.
Interesting, too. He typed everything in purple ink. He called himself a
geodetic engineer,” she says. “He also worked as a newspaper writer and
editor, as well as an inventor and poet and he received his Ph.D. from the
College of Higher Science in Chicago, which is where he met up with Cyrus
Teed,” Norman says with a smile and a sigh.
A charismatic visionary determined to build a New Jerusalem on the banks of
the Estero River, Teed called himself Koresh — Hebrew for Cyrus — and
preached that the Earth is a 7,000-mile diameter hollow sphere and that all
living things inhabit its inner surface.
Morrow believed that, too — and he offered Teed the means to “prove” it.
Morrow designed a huge implement he called the rectilineator. The
Koreshans, who had moved from Chicago to Estero in 1894, contracted with
the Pullman company to produce it. Disciples hauled the device to Naples
Beach and set it up along the Gulf in 1897, so they could document the
Earth’s hollow nature.
Morrow lived in Estero for about a decade more; his son, Harry (Norman’s
father) was born in 1889.
“He used to say when the bears roared in the woods at night, that the dogs
just trembled,” Norman says.
Morrow and Teed had a falling-out around 1907, and Morrow packed up his
family and left. He spent the rest of his life teaching, writing and
editing newspapers and died in New Orleans.
His son returned to Florida and worked as a fishing guide. But beyond
occasional recollections, he didn’t talk much about his Koreshan childhood.
“One reason is because Mother disapproved of it. She always just called
them ‘those people down in Estero.’ Plus, she was a neat housekeeper and
she tossed a lot of his things, his father’s papers,” Norman says.
Norman grew up in east Fort Myers, married and had a daughter and three
sons. She spent most of her professional life in banking in trust and
commercial loans but when she retired, she went to work for the Koreshan
library in Estero — the private remnant of the original Koreshan group.
For five years, Norman worked as a writer, tour guide and general
assistant, reading everything she could about the group and filling in the
gaps of her knowledge about her grandfather.
“The Koreshans were immensely advanced in what was at the time, really a
frontier area. They were so well-educated; they had electricity before Fort
Myers did, they put on classical music concerts and plays that people would
come from all over to see. They had a huge printing press, a commercial
laundry, a bakery and a store — it was amazing.”
Norman realizes Koreshan beliefs may sound bizarre today. But in many ways,
they were progressive, offering women and blacks more power and influence
than they could ever have in society at large.
“Plus they were good people — good, moral people who believed in what they
were doing.”
Submitted by Norita Shepherd Moss
mossnb1 at earthlink.net
Portions printed from
excerpts of Myths and Mysteries of Science ©2003 by Donald E.
Simanek.
|
