Welcome to the new Unofficial Koreshan State Historic Site website . Beginning this month we will be using this “blog” format. This will enable us to post Koreshan “news” more than once a month and also maintain all postings in an “archive”.
— January brings us a number of prominent Koreshans. Perhaps the most prominent, at least from the view of a historian, was Claude C. Rahn. Claude was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1885. His family was one of the first to join the Unity in Estero. Thanks to Claude’s efforts we have a membership list, a short history of Dr. Teed and other information about the Koreshans.
As mentioned in previous months, the Community Current Events column which appeared monthly (for the most part) from 1916 on gives us an insight into the daily lives of the people who lived here. So, this month we feature a complete edition of the “Events” column from February 1927, (covering the month of January) 81 years ago. Claude Rahn, (pictured above), wrote the Current Events column for a time. His brother, Frank, is mentioned in this month’s featured column.
IT GIVES us great pleasure to record in this issue the return of Brothers Elbert W. Lindbeck, of Rock Island, Illinois, and Frank Rahn of Baltimore, Maryland. They are both happy to be back in the Unity again, and we are glad to have them. Brother Elbert is a linotype operator, but understands the technique of job printing as well, and his assistance in this department of the publishing house is very much needed and will be appreciated. Brother Frank Rahn fits in wherever needed; it will be good to see him at his old place in the Koreshan Orchestra, playing the clarinet, or it may be the saxophone, as we understand he brought a saxophone with him.
Both brothers are en rapport with the Master and his work, and have proved it by coming back. The Unity was honored with a few days’ visit from Mr. Chas. Greenfield of Chicago, Illinois. Mr. Greenfield, a tried and true friend of the Master, was also his attorney while the Koreshan Unity was located in Chicago; needless to say the older members here who knew him in Chicago were delighted to see him again. We have as guests at the present writing H. W. Manley of New York City, George M. Bassett of Chicago, Illinois, and Montclaire, New Jersey, and George Main, of Gloversville, New York. Mr. Bassett is an old friend of Dr. Price and Sister Adah, and is delighted to be here with his old friends of many years standing. The people of Estero were given a decided thrill on Friday, January 7, when President S. Davies Warfield of the Seaboard Air Line brought into Estero his wonderful Orange Blossom Special train with its six hundred guests. The special came in four sections, about forty Pulman cars all together, with President Warfield, Governor Martin, etc., in the first section. The special was greeted with rousing cheers by the assembled gathering of Esteroites, and Mr. Warfield, Governor Martin, and others soon made their appearance. These gentlemen spoke enthusiastically of the things that had been so far accomplished, and what the future had in store for thiscome. Each guest was presented with a copy The American Eagle, which had for its special feature a cartoon “Welcome SAL !” which portrayed two railroads, the Seaboard Air Line and the Atlantic Coast Line, with the significant heading ” A Rival Appears on the Scene,” and the Seaboard getting all the attention by the characters portrayed. The cartoon was drawn by Bertha M. Boomer at the suggestion of Brother Allen, and it made a great hit with all. There were about six hundred copies of The Eagle distributed to the guests on the Orange Blossom Special, besides a liberal quantity of Koreshan leaflets. Among the special articles featured in this issue of The Eagle was one entitled “Estero Cult Claims Modern Astronomy False,” by Allen H. Andrews, a reprint from the National Magazine, published by Joe Mitchell Chapple, of Boston, Massachusetts. A number of Estero people were invited to accompany the special to Naples, the terminal of the Seaboard Air Line; among those from the Unity were our guest, Mr. Greenfield, with Brother Allen Andrews, Henry Silverfriend, Lou Staton, John Watson, Elbert Lindbeck, and the writer. The Seaboard has under construction a $50,000 depot at Naples and it is quite wonderful what this company has accomplished thus far in this famous resort. The guests were treated to a magnificent buffet lunch at the Naples Hotel, now owned by the Seaboard company. Two first class bands were in evidence; the Scotch Riltie that plays during the tourist season at St. Petersburg, Florida, and the other, composed of Czecho-Slovakians, brought there.by Mr. Ringling of circus fame, from Sarasota, Florida. President Warfield has brought more advertising to this section of Florida in about a year’s time than it has ever had. The company has a tract of land in Estero of four hundred acres, and it is the Seaboard’s intention to build a town on this site. Incidentally, the Science of Universology was brought to the atten- tion of hundreds of people who had never heard of it before; so, all in all, we in Estero have reason to feel elated at the things accomplished on the seventh of January, 1927. We have had a number of inquiries from friends wanting to know if we intend to hold our Industrial and Art Exhibit this year. We have not fully recovered from the destruction of the September, 1926, hurricane; and inasmuch as we are behind with our repair work it was thought best not to add more to our burdens at this time, so we will not give the Exhibit this year. At the present writing our brothers are covering the dining hall and dormitory with galvanized sheet roofing. Mr. and Mrs. L. M. Boomer of New York City were in Estero lately on a visit to their mother and sister at Mirasol Grove, and while here gave the Unity a pleasant call. Messrs David Logan and Charles Melton, driving in their Dodge car from Colorado to Estero, are visiting at the home of Mr. and Mrs. P. W. Campbell of Estero. Mr. Logan is a brother of Mrs. Campbell. Brothers George and Charles Hunt, and Frank Wilson made a few days’ visit to Collier County to survey a tract of land owned by the Unity, known as “Rattle Snake Hammock.” Timber is being cut and hauled from this tract to Rice Island in said county, to be used for piling preparatory to putting a sea wall around the island.