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.
