From the Koreshan Archives: — October 2010
— October brings us the busiest month of the year with regard to the Koreshan story. The premier event is, of course, the birthday of Cyrus Teed, a.k.a. Koresh who was born in Delaware County New York on October 18, 1839. Quoting former Ranger, Peter Hicks, who’s biography of Dr. Teed appears on this web site:
Cyrus Read Teed was born on October 18, 1839 near Trout Creek, Delaware County, New York. He was the second son born into a family of eight children. As early as 1637, Teeds had lived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. By 1757, they had migrated to Tompkins township in Delaware County, New York, settling near Trout Creek in an area that was known as Teedsville, fifteen miles from Walton. His father, Jesse Sears Teed, was born there on June 24, 1814 and died at the
Koreshan Unity home in Chicago, Illinois on March 9, 1899. On his mother’s side, he was directly descended from John Read who came to America in 1630, settling in Rehoboth, Massachusetts. His great grandmother Lydia married the Reverend Oliver Tuttle of Bristol, Connecticut. His mother, Sarah Ann Tuttle was born on October 27, 1815 in Bristol, Connecticut and died at Moravia, New York, October 25, 1885. Shortly after Cyrus was born, the family moved to New Hartford, New York on the land of grandfather Oliver Tuttle. At the age of eleven, Cyrus quit school and went to work on the tow path of the Eire Canal. His family wanted him to become a Baptist minister like his grandfather Tuttle, but Cyrus chose to follow another relative and began studying medicine with his uncle, Dr. Samuel F. Teed ( a twenty-five year old allopathic physician) in Utica, New York. At this same time on April 13, 1859, he married his second cousin, Fidelia M. Rowe of Merideth, New York. Delia was the daughter of William and Polly Maria Tuttle Rowe.
This month also marks the birthday of one of the most prominent Koreshans.
“Professor” Ulysses Grant Morrow, the man who “proved” the Cellular Cosmogony. The KSHS Archives has numerous references to Prof. Morrow. He was born in Kentucky and later moved to Missouri. It is unclear when or where he joined the Koreshans, however, the Rahn Membership List shows the following:
Ulysses G. Morrow; Born: 26 Oct 1864 in Barren Co., Kentucky; as a boy moved with his parents to Unionville, Missouri, in 1885. He had a Ph.D. from “College of Higher Science,” Chicago; withdrew from the K.U. at Estero, January 31, 1909, about a month after the death of Dr. Teed, in December 1908. This resignation must have actually taken place earlier than that, however, since the Flaming Sword of December 15, 1908 mentions tht changes will be taking place in the publication due to “the resgination of Professor Morrow… While he belonged to the Unity he authored part of the book The Cellular Cosmogony as well as editing the Flaming Sword and the Salvator and the Scientist. However, when he eventually came to a disagreement with Dr. Teed and he left the Koreshan Unity, his writings remained in the book, only without credit. Writing to a Koreshan in 1938, Morrow said: “When I withdrew from the Koreshan work, I made this declaration… ‘I will follow no man…” He also said “I have nothing to say against him. (Teed) …I became conscious of the fact that he was losing that high conception (of righteousness) and was failing in various ways, as his last few years fully attest. …If I passed him in progress, it was his fault” He also said that when he left he took bound copies of all his writings, but later discarded them because of his desire to begin anew. He worked as a linotype operator in order to make a living. Morrow died in New Orleans on September 11, 1950.