It is not February, which is Black History Month, but an article in the August 17, 2025 News-Press, ⁽⁽¹⁾⁾ repeated from a February 20, 2016 article about the family of Nelson Tillis, purported to be the first African American to settle in Fort Myers.

The article reminded us that although the information is very sketchy, there were African American members of the Koreshan Unity as well. So, like the News-Press, we want to link you to an article published here in February 2016 as well. It should be known that there was a time when a member of the Jackson family contacted us regarding members of their family, whom they believe were also mem bers of the Koreshan Unity.

No new information here, but worth looking at again. Koreshan Archives-February 2016

1. A subscription to the News-Press may be reqired[↩]

For a long time, I have occasionally looked and searched the Internet to try and find anything related to the Koreshans who survived long after the death of Koresh in 1908. In those “early” days of the Internet, searches were not as good as what we have now.

I’ve mentioned the “second generation” Koreshans — Bertie Boomer, Annie Ray Andrews, Ruth Boomer, Margurite Borden and others. It has always seemed that the basic teachings of Koresh waned as time went by and the idea of “community” always seem to reamain, even though times changed and many members of the community moved to other places and did other things, incuding leaving the Unity and the humble life and becoming successful in busines or marrying into money.

If you analyze some of the photos of that “second generation”, you can, perhaps, glean some things, such as who is sitting by who, which perhaps indicated some friendships or attactions.

Long ago, I often wondered about Ruth Boomer, youngest daughter of Berthadine, who always seemed to be seated next to fellow Koreshan Wilton Hoyt. This isn’t a gossip column or a soap opera, but in trying to understand the life that Koreshans lived after the death of Teed, looking critically as photos gives us some ideas. For example, take this photo of Wilton Hoyt and Ruth Boomer. So many of the photos in the Koreshan collection are of groups of people, or an individual. This photo indicates to me that Mr. Hoyt and Miss Boomer were two friends who wanted a picture taken of them together. That is, of course, speculation.

As time passed, it appears that people began to go their own way. In the case of Wilton Hoyt:

FOLKS WE KNEW WHILE IN THE K.U. by Marie McCready; Wilton Hoyt: “They came from Massachusetts and later returned there. Wilton had a beautiful tenor voice as a boy and could sing “The Holy City” in a way to bring tears to the eyes. He was also a talented musician and played the cello in the orchestra. While I was in Miami shortly before my marriage, he was with the fire department there, but soon afterward joined the family in the north.”

With regard to Ruth Boomer, let’start with a line from the January 1933 “Community Current Events” which stated:

Mrs. Walter H. Thomas and her young son, Benjamin Brooks Thomas, arrived from Philadelphia to spend the winter at Mirasol Grove, the Boomer home. Mrs. Thomas is a daughter of Mrs. B. S. Boomer and sister of Miss Bertha Boomer.

Somewhere along the way, Ruth Boomer met and married Walter Brooks, a Philadelphia architect. Their only child was “Brooks Thomas”, mentioned above. Here is a photo from the original collection, which shows young Brooks. The caption and our interpretation says:

This photo, assumed to have been taken somewhere in Florida, shows a little boy standing next to a “Speeder” wagon. The caption only says “Ruth’s little boy Brooks Thomas. According to the Rahn and McCready membership lists, Ruth Boomer married a Philadelphia architect named Walter Thomas, and had one son. Note the tower behind the boy. This could possibly be the Sanibel Lighthouse (?).

 

So, whaterver happened to Brooks? Here is a Wikipedia article about him. You can view a PDF of his obituary in the New York Times by going here. The photo (left) is of Mr. Thomas as an adult (year unknown) Brooks’ father, and Ruth’s husband, was Walter Horstmann Thomas. Here is his Wikipedia article.

In October 1906, Walter married Natalie Taylor, daughter of Nathan A. Taylor and Florence N. Supplee. They had two daughters, Claire (Ravaçon) (1907-1997) and Florence (Davis) (1909-1999). Natalie died in March 1913. Thomas married Ruth Boomer in December 1919. They had one son, Brooks Thomas (1931-2010). This photo, taken from a 1923 passport application, shows Ruth Boomer and her two step-children.

April 24, 2025
Studying the Koreshans continues. Now that the Koreshan Archives are incorporated into the Archives of Florida Gulf Coast University, the opportunity to search and study them has brought about a new find, Koreshan music!

WGCU, the NPR affiliate in southwest Florida published an article yesterday by WGCU reporter Meredith Galbraith. The FGCU School of Music has been studying the Koreshan archives and found the “text” from various songs. They were able to tie the text to period music and then perform it. Here is the text of the article:

A professor at FGCU who researched Koreshan music is bringing that music back to life.

Dr. Thomas Cimarusti, a professor of musicology at FGCU’s Bower School of Music, specializes in 18th and 19th-century Italian vocal music, world music, and public musicology. In 2018, he went to the FGCU archives and found a Koreshan soundbook with just the text. He and a student were able to track down the songs and link the music and text.

The Koreshans were a religious sect in the 1800s with a compound and central headquarters in Estero at the site of what is now Koreshan State Park.

Cimarusti started the research as part of the Seidler Award granted in 2018. Cimarusti said, “Over the course of a summer, the student and I married the music and the text and actually made a hymn book.” He said there were 17 songs at the time and he found four more. He said he’s very hopeful it will be published.

He said he started his research by looking for original Koreshan music but was able to find only a clarinet part to celebrate the birthday of Cyrus Teed, the founder of the Koreshan sect.

Cimarusti said the Koreshans performed the music of other composers. “They would have been singing pieces by the 18th and 19th century big-name composers. They were very interested in high art music, classical music,” he said. “They took some of that music and put new words to it.”

The Koreshans were very involved in music. There are photos of kids playing clarinets, all-female orchestras, and women playing cellos. “They had a rather extensive sophisticated musical setup,” Cimarusti said. Everyone in the cult took music; it was a part of their curriculum.

Lyn Millner, a journalism professor at FGCU and an author, published a book about the Koreshans in 2015. “I love that Tom Cimarusti has researched their music and actually brought it back to life and recreated it. It’s amazing what he has discovered,” she said.

She said that while researching the Koreshans, she was aware of their music but had never heard any of it. She said they left behind sheet music and descriptions of the songs but she never fully researched the sheet music.

She said, “What Tom has done…the first time I heard a choir sing Koreshan music, I was astounded. The docents from the park were there and they had tears in their eyes. They could not believe they were listening to Koreshan choral music.”

One of Cimarusti’s goals is to educate Florida that this is one of the most well-visited parks in the state. He thinks it’s important to share what Florida history is. He wants to educate the public that we have a very rich history, especially when it comes to music.

About Koreshan State Park

In 1893, the Koreshans, a religious sect founded by Dr. Cyrus R. Teed, moved here and built a settlement based on a commitment to communal living and a belief that the universe existed on the inside of the Earth. Living celibate lives, the enterprising Koreshans established a farm, nursery and botanical gardens. The park, at 3800 Corkscrew Road in Estero, is home to 11 immaculately restored and nationally registered historic buildings erected by the Koreshans between the late 19th and early 20th centuries. ⁽⁽¹⁾⁾

1. https://news.wgcu.org/human-interest/2025-04-23/songs-of-the-koreshan-sect-found-in-soundbook-in-fgcu-archives[↩]

Every year about this time, during Halloween, someone shows up at Koreshan to see, or talk about, or experience(?) the paranormal. Are there ghosts at the Park?

I suppose it is all done in good fun, although some take it quite seriously. Others, hopefully most, not so much. Our purpose on this site is to inform others about the Koreshans, the Koreshan Unity and Dr. Teed. Over the years we’ve debunked a few misconceptions. For example the Koreshans themselves promoted the belief that Dr. Teed ws a surgeon during the civil war. This was false. See our post Civil War Doctor which we published in 2010.

We devoted an entire post entitled Revisionist History and Strange Stories in 2016. One of those stories featured an article claiming that Cyrus Teed had emerged from the sea in the U.K. none the worse from wear about 98 years after his death and 95 years after his tomb was washed into the Gulf of Mexico during the 1921 hurricane. Here is an excerpt from that posting

Cyrus rises from the Sea

Teed was never seen again until: On December 26th, 2006 98 years after his last appearance a man claiming to be Dr Cyrus Reed Teed appeared to walk from the sea and onto the beach at Canvey Island, Essex, UK. Whilst on the island Teed attempted to turn Canvey into his New Estero and set out a series of plans to create a community based upond his updated vision of the Cellular Cosmogony. After only 6 months Teed once again disappeared, leaving only his suit behind in Canvey Heights Country Park.

With all of this in mind, here is an article from Florida Weekly which starts out with some well known Koreshan history, but then it delves off into the paranormal.

Still watching over their legacy
Unearthing the haunted history at Koreshan State Park
EXPLORING THE eerie

October 30, 2024

BY OLIVIA WILD
olivia.wild@floridaweekly.com

Most people don’t think of Estero’s Koreshan State Park as a spooky place, but tales of ghostly encounters have circulated for years—rumors of shadows, whispers and unexplained movements.

Beyond its natural beauty, the park is steeped in a rich history that adds to its mysterious allure. Walking through the park, I couldn’t shake the sense that I was being watched, as if the past lingered in the air around me.

The story of the Koreshan Unity began in 1894 when Cyrus R. Teed—who called himself Koresh—led his followers from Chicago to the swampy lands of Southwest Florida. They made a deal with local landowner Gustave Damkohler for 320 acres, the start of their utopian society called “New Jerusalem.”

Teed believed he was the next prophet and claimed that an angel revealed a “divine illumination” during his alleged electrical experiments on himself and instructed him to “save the race.”

The early 1900s were the glory years for the Koreshans. They cleared the land, erected buildings, cultivated crops and built a self-sustaining community of about 200 people. Their land holdings, not contiguous with the actual settlement, spanned up to 7,500 acres. The developed area had more than 70 buildings and a dozen businesses.

They believed that living a celibate life would lead to immortality, and their focus on gender equality attracted many women, who made up about 80% of the population. Teed also taught that women were in “marital slavery” and encouraged them to leave their husbands and join the commune, promising a life of freedom and higher purpose.

The term “religion-science” was created to encapsulate their alternative beliefs. One of their most notable concepts was “cellular cosmogony” — the theory that we live inside the shell of a hollow Earth, with the sun positioned in the center like a yolk.

Learning this was the scariest part of the tour; I’ve never been so horrified.

Teed’s death on Dec. 22, 1908, marked the beginning of the Unity’s decline. Hoping for his resurrection, followers kept his body in a metal bathtub for five days at his beach house on Estero Island (now Fort Myers Beach). The county health inspector had to intervene and stop the unlawful mourning practice.

Teed was buried in a concrete mausoleum nearby, but his peace was short-lived.

In 1921, a devastating hurricane destroyed the mausoleum, scattering his remains into the sea.

By 1956, only five members remained. The last member, Hedwig Michel, passed away in 1982, closing the chapter on Koreshanity and is buried near the Koreshan Bakery.

On my guided historical tour, I met Ron Westcott, a volunteer, tour guide and retired arborist who’s been involved with the park for 12 years.

Westcott shared his extensive knowledge of the Koreshans’ vision and the challenges they faced.

“It’s a part of history that people don’t understand. We’re stepping back in time to a completely different era where people’s values and aspirations were very, very different from what they are today,” Wescott said.

While he had never personally experienced anything paranormal, Westcott pondered, “Maybe you need to be predisposed to be able to receive that kind of thing?” Then joked, “Apparently, I’m not.”

For many, the draw to Koreshan State Park isn’t a ghost sighting but the chance to connect with history. Ed and Dolores Short, who joined me on the tour, cherished the sense of stepping back in time.

“The fact that these are still here is amazing,” Ed Short said, admiring the preserved buildings that transport visitors back over a century. Dolores Short added, “It gives you a perspective.”

Paranormal investigator Joshua Edilla describes the energy at the park as more “sad” than malevolent. Perhaps it’s the lingering echo of the Koreshans’ losses over time. I sensed an unavoidable feeling of melancholy permeating the walls and felt like there were more people than just the tour walking around.

When Edilla was outside the Founder’s House with his family, he felt a hand grip his shoulder. “I could feel the fingers and the impression that someone was trying to get my attention. My back was towards the building. It would be virtually impossible for someone to touch me that way,” Edilla recounted.

After the tour, I sat inside the Founder’s House and watched a 20-minute documentary, hoping to feel something, but sadly, nothing caught my attention.

Edilla, host of The Animal Paranormal Podcast Show, explores mysteries on land and underwater. His podcast is on platforms like Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, Podbean, Spotify and YouTube. New episodes are released every Saturday at 8 p.m.

“I usually go on investigations at least three times a month. Unless I get an emergency investigation where there is a haunting that is bothering people,” Edilla said.

Edilla recommends using minimal equipment, such as relying on your senses and using a simple voice recorder. This approach could make spirits more receptive and open to interaction, as it involves fewer possessions and distractions. “You want to keep your eyes and ears open,” he advised.

Maybe that’s why I didn’t capture anything paranormal. With my DSLR camera and phone in hand, the spirits might have been put off by the extra equipment. But that just gives me an excuse to return, right?

[The main part of this article is a re-posting from October 2014]

As Florida braces for hurricane named “Milton”, there has been a great deal of talk about the 1921 hurricane known as the “Tampa Bay Hurricane” or the “Tarpon Springs Hurricane”. The direction that this hurricane took is different from the projected track of Milton, except for the fact that Tampa Bay was and is in the crosshairs is what is similar. Accorcing to a Wikipedia article:

After entering the Gulf of Mexico, the hurricane gradually curved northeastward and weakened to a Category 3 before making landfall near Tarpon Springs, Florida, late on October 25. It was the first major hurricane to make landfall in the Tampa Bay area since the hurricane of 1848. ⁽⁽¹⁾⁾

Here is an entry from Koreshan member, Evelyn Bubbett describing her experience in Estero during that hurricane. This was the storm that washed Cyrus Teed’s remains into the Gulf of Mexico. The remainder of this post is from the entry in October 2014.

Cyrus Teed died in 1908. He did not rise from the dead or transmute or anything else. However, the faith of those who followed him was, in many ways, phenomenal. They continued to hope for something that would show that what he had said about his return was true. In the meantime, his body was placed in the Koreshan built mausoleum on Estero Island, also known as Crescent Beach, now Fort Myers Beach. Next to it, they built a small cabin where a constant watch was kept. Almost 13 years after his death something did happen… the 1921 Hurricane.

Track of the 1921 hurricane.

Here is a letter written by Evelyn Bubbett, one of the first followers of Dr. Teed. She was writing to her son, Laurie (Laurence), her daughter, Imogene and her husband, Claude Rahn (again, an early member of the Unity).

Estero, October 26, 1921
9:45am

My dearest Ones – Gene, Claude & Laurie
Have just come from a consultation of the Board to determine the best policy to pursue in view of the conditions we find confronting us at this time. We have had another awful storm, perhaps not so bad as the one we had in 1910, so far as the damage here is concerned, but the awful force of the waves and wind burst the Tomb and demolished it.

Wm. McG saw it struck by an immense wave about 7am Tuesday October 25, as he stood in the door of the cottage, with the water rushing in, in volumes, and him trying to keep the door open so the water woud not strike the house broadside and carry it away. It would come in at the fron door, and go out the back door, till it rose to his armpits, and by that time he was almost exhausted and chilled to the bone. The water first cam in about 6:30am and he battled with it till nearly noon. By that time Carl came with a row boat–his story is too long to tell now. About 2 o’clock yesterday, Geo., Steve and Will Fisher went down in the “Star” because we knew from the direction of the wind what the water would do there at the island. They got there about 4pm, and found that a houseboat from Hickory Island had floated over and landed close to Carl’s woodshed and Carl and Wm. were in it. Wm. helped himself to some dry clothes and later the man (a fisherman) came over and offered to get them something to eat. By that time Geo. and Steve had examined the Tomb, found it empty, and no trace of the receptacle the Master was placed in. Carl had a hard time of it also. He packed his trunk and tried to get it back into the mangroves, but it got away from him, (he was in his row boat), and the current was carrying him out, so he paddled back through the brush to see if Wm. was alive. His power boat was anchored to a little dock around the point where Hirman Mays use to be and the strong wind too dock and boat away. If he had fastened it to a stout piling it would have been all right. Geo thinks they know where to look for it. So they may find it. After looking awhile for the receptacle the Master was in, they came home about 6:30. Had a rough time, as the waves dashed Carl’s row boat around a good deal — they had it in tow, with some things G had picked up, and Wm. had gathered from his place. Carl’s house has gone entirely; the other cottage is quite a wreck.

At our meeting it was decided that we hold ourselves, as the Board of Management, in an entirely passive attitude toward the Master’s positive and directing mind; believing he will manifest himself in his own good time and manner, and no amount of speculation will help matters. Some have already said “I told you so”. That proves nothing. His alchemical laboratory served its purpose till the appointed time. I have always strongly believed that when it was opened it would be done by nature in some tremendous upheaval, and it was. We don’t know what the rest of the Island is like, but suppose all the “Coney Island” businesses has gone overboard. DeLysle has collapsed financially, so it is stated.

The ruins of the tomb and the cabin in the distance.

Brother George, Steve and perhaps Carl have gone down again, this a.m. to look around the premises and see what them can get find. All the fish houses went off their foundations. The fishermen from Mound Key came up here the night before and said the Island was under water. Of course the high ground was all right, where Mrs. Johnson and Wm. Acuff are. Wm. came home before the Birthday.

Well, it is nearly dinner time and I will stop writing till I know whether there is to be any mail today or not. The bell has rung for dinner, so I’ll stop.

1:30pm
Thank heaven the wind has gone down and the storm is over, tho it is still cloudy. Carl has been drying the things he saved and getting his trip straightened out. Saved quite a few dishes and silver, so Emma says. He has used the room in the office that Laurie had, when he came up here. We are not certain what to do about his mail route. We have not had any mail in 2 days, and of course Carl did not dare go on his trip yesterday. We can’t get any news from Myers. The rivers are down; someone said a car came thru yesterday afternoon and the driver said the water was up over the city dock 18 inches. The tide here is the river was 2 feet higher than was ever known, but it went down rapidly as it came time for it to go out. The wind whipped our trees unmercifully but we are so glad no such damage was done as in 1910, that is, to our buildings.

The storm affected me very much; it had been cloudy and rainy for 2 or 3 days and the day before the hardest wind started, I knew it was hurricane weather that was coming. I was so nervous it was hard to keep at anything. James was quite affected also. I have not been able to write the personal letters I intended because I had to attend to getting off the cards and programs Sr. Vi(?) used to send out. David has been such good help; don’t know what I should do without him. Marie is doing all she can to get out the Sword copy in with her Eagle work. Helen left last Saturday. The last form of the CC is about read for the press…

The rest of the letter deals with people and events around the Unity. The letter shows, in my opinion the honest faith that Evelyn and the others continued to hold on to, despite the fact that it had been 13 years since Teed’s death and now this natural disaster which washed away the physical remains of Cyrust Teed.

In this day and age it is easy to look back on the time of the Koreshans and even scoff a little at their unusual beliefs. Some go so far as to call them whackos and nuts. Perhaps some of them were (Edgar Peissart comes to mind), but overall, they were a group of people who gave their lives, their money and their future over to a belief, a faith, which turned out to be bogus. Yet, their faith kept them going. Committing oneself to that is something that is foreign to most people in our consumer oriented society.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1921_Tampa_Bay_hurricane[↩]

It has been nearly five years since I’ve posted, and I never really intended to do so, but I’ve been reading with some sense of what I want to call “amusement”, but this is not an amusing subject. I’m talking about the recent discovery that the Branch Davidians in Waco Texas probably used some of the teachings of Koresh (Cyrus Teed) to bolster the “authority” of David Koresh (Vernon Howell).

I have to admit that the story of Cyrus Teed, because of the story of Waco, seems to have taken on more of a national air. However, the Teed story is the same. Cyrus Teed spouted his beliefs, made up his own words and warped many Christian beliefs to fit his view of the world and himself. At the same time, he isn’t responsible for what the Branch Davidians did. They were just another “cult” who took Scripture and beliefs and molded them into their own liking. They simply used Teed’s writings as a playbook.

The Teed Koreshans, and not so much Teed himself, were responsible for a number of things, the least of which is the fact that they helped to settle Southwest Florida. There were almost as many Koreshans in Estero than there were people in Fort Myers. They were a very learned group of individuals despite their “crazy” ideas, which probably weren’t that crazy in the late 19th and early 20th century.

The impact of the Koreshans on southwest Florida was enough to allow a major Florida University, FGCU, to collect and organize the Koreshan collection, which had been preserved by the Florida Park Service for many years. Long before FGCU existed. I can recall some of the people who volunteered to help gather those things which gave meaning to what it meant to be a Koreshan. Books, publications, photographs etc.

I remember Park Rangers, like Peter Hicks and many others, who took their jobs seriously, despite poor pay and lack of materials to preserve what they could. The author of the book on David Koresh remarked how one was able to view an actual copy of the Flaming Sword in the University Archives, and yet I remember being shown a couple of cardboard boxes filled with these Flaming Swords and smelling of kerosene that had, at some time, had been accidentally spilled on them, their provenance unknown. This work to preserve the Koreshan past also included the rangers who were called “Museum Education Specialists” which later evolved into a full blown “Curator”. People like Kate Anthony.

There was a multitude of volunteers who gave of their time and talent to inform visitors, to put on displays and events, such as the “Ghost Walk”. They created oral histories of people, now long gone.

Then there was Bill Grace, a Koreshan decendent who faithfully sought to promote the history of the Koreshan community, despite his run-ins with the “College of Life” and Jo Bigelow.

In the early 1990’s it was difficult to attempt to organize the collection, especially due to the fact that the Park had very little financial leeway in attempting to get archival materials, acid free boxes and folders, etc. Many items in the collection were digitized, in a very primitive way. The Internet and the “World Wide Web” were only just beginning. Eventually the State began to show some interest and the (what was then called) Museum Building was built. Tallahassee began to take things more seriously. Park managers came and went, some of them with a deep interest in preserving all things Koreshan and others only caring about how many canoes or campsites were rented.

And yet, those canoes and camp sites helped to support the work that the Rangers and the docents were doing and it helped to give them the information they needed to inform people about who the Koreshans were, their importance to the history of this area and to end the “stories” that weren’t true, and there were many of them that embellished the stories of Teed and the Koreshans.

There were people that I never knew, such as Hedwig Michel. What I do know about her isn’t very flattering, in my humble opinion. In a March 2016  posting, I wrote:

March 29, is the 124th anniversary of the birth of Hedwig Michel.

She was born in Frankfurt, Germany in 1892 to Ferdinand Michel and Emma Wertheimer. Many call her the “last” Koreshan, others say she was merely an opportunist. There is no doubt that she helped to sustain the Unity in bad times with her management skills, but one has to wonder why it was that two original Koreshans, Allen Andrews and Laurie Bubbett ended up as enemies after Hedwig entered the scene. Hedwig and Laurie were also accused of spending money on themselves instead of on the remaining Koreshan members. At one point Hedwig and Laurie took a cruise to Europe. Perhaps it was necessary, but it certainly makes one wonder about Hedwig’s commitment to the “community”. Others simply say that she was committed to the Unity and she did everything she could to carry it into the 20th century that saw scientific advancements that disproved many of the Koreshan theories. The Fort Myers News-Press ran an article in their “Tropicalia” section back in 2010 asking many of the same questions. Amy Bennett Williams, the Tropicalia editor, pretty much came to the same conclusions. Namely, that despite her talents, Hedwig could have done nothing to stop the demise of the Koreshans. Her somewhat caustic personality also contributed to some ill will. Author Lyn Millner, in her book, writes that Hedwig was described as an “Interloper”. ⁽⁽¹⁾⁾ Some former park rangers have said that when Hedwig was living in the Planetary Court she used to come out agitated and tell them what they were doing wrong. Perhaps that was nothing more than her apparent difficulty in letting go.

So, thank you to all those who have gone before. Those who helped to promote the importance of the Korseshan Unity and its part in the history of Southwest Florida. Thanks to those who, in the present time are continuing to promote Koreshan history — that is, the good, the bad and the ugly. That would include Prof. Lyn Millner and the professional archivists at FGCU. Also, Amy Bennett Williams the Fort Myers News-Press journalist who never passes up on an opportunity to promote Koreshan history.

1. Quoting Bill Grace in: Millner, Lyn. The Allure of Immortality: An American Cult, a Florida Swamp, and a Renegade Prophet. p.255[↩]

I realized that almost 20 years of work is located in this “blog”, which wasn’t available back in the mid-1990’s when I started working at the Koreshan State Historic Site, now known at the Koreshan State Park. Since that time, the holdings of the Park have been moved to Florida Gulf Coast University, which is a far safer and accessible place for them to be. Realizing that there is still information to offer, I maintained and continue to maintain the “virtual” holdings.

You can, of course, search these former holdings at on this site. However, I also invested a considerable amount of time researching these holdings and posted a ‘monthly’ (and sometimes more often) blog which featured various aspects of Koreshan life.

With that in mind, I decided to re-open the blog. I have no plans to add to it, but with six years of postings, I thought perhaps the information herein my be useful to someone. This includes the postings as well as other pages containing genealogy links, etc.

So, here you go…