In addition to the post for July (below), I also wanted to make folks aware of a new book coming in October. The book is entitled “The Allure of Immortality: An American Cult, a Florida Swamp, and a Renegade Prophet”, written by FGCU Journalism professor, Lyn Millner.
This is the most thorough and comprehensive look at Cyrus Teed and the Korehsans in a long long time. There’s so many quack sites and false information about Teed and the Unity. This is an honest and refreshing look. You can read an excerpt from the book by going to the University Press of Florida.
You can view the Press Kit, which has even more information about the book and the author.
Last but not least, you can pre-order from the publisher through the links above, or from Amazon
In this month’s feature we revisit a post from July 2011, with a few updates. I want to explore the Teed family. We usually only hear about Cyrus, but Jesse Sears Teed and Sarah Ann Tuttle had eight children who lived into adulthood.
The fourth child, Charles Jackson Teed was born on July 3, 1843 in Moravia, New York. We don’t know what Charles thought about his brother Cyrus, and his activities as Koresh, however, Charles did leave us some of his own history, thanks mostly to his younger sister, Emma Teed Norton, who went on to follow her brother, Cyrus. Charles was living at home, as you can see in the June 1865 New York Census record above. (Click for a larger view.) This was just before he enlisted in the Union Army on August 15, 1862, serving in the 144th New York Infantry as a Private. You can view part of his enlistment record by clicking on the image below:
He served until 1865. On February 23, 1874 he married Amelia McLaughlin, who was from Tompkins in Delaware County New York.
Their first child was a girl, Ella, who died sometime before 1880. They had two other known children. Sarah, born about 1877 and Marvin, born about 1886.
“Charley” as he was apparently known, died on February 12, 1887. His distraught widow wrote a letter to her sister-in-law, Emma Teed Norton, Charley’s (and Cyrus’) sister on February 24, 1887, just 12 days after his death. You can view the original letter below.
