Anyone with any knowledge of the Koreshan would know the surname “Andrews”. The first of these was a man name A.W.K. (Abie) Andrews. He was, perhaps, the first follower of Cyrus Teed (Koresh). According the Claude Rahn’s “A Brief Outline of Dr. Cyrus R. Teed…”:

“…From Utica Dr. Teed moved to Binghamton N.Y. with his family about 1871, and there became acquainted with Dr. A.W.K. Andrews and his wife Mrs. Virginia H. Andrews.

Dr. Andrews was a man of distinguished appearance, standing well over six feet tall, and endowed with superior intellectual discerment and medical knowledge. He was born in Warren, Knox County, Maine May 12, 1833 and studied medicine at the University of Ann Arbor, Michigan. During the civial war he was attached to the Union Army as physician and surgeon at Alexandria Virginia. Here he met Miss Virginia Harmon whom he later married. He died in the Koreshan home in Chicago, Ill., February 18, 1891.

This friendship between Dr. Teed and Dr. Andrews proved to be lasting and valuable to the former in his subsequent effort to spread his doctrined and establish his communistic home. Dr. Andrews provided much needed financial assistance in those early years, and was helpful in aiding Dr. Teed to establish his hedical practive there and elsewhere as predjudice and persecution forced him to abandon on locality for another, once his strange theories became known in the communities where he had located.

In her book, “The Allure of Immortality“, Lyn Millner makes a number of references to A.W.K. Andrews, known as “Abie”. Most of these references are located in the State Archives in Tallahassee, however, at the Koreshan State Historic Site there is one document, albeit secondary that contains a number of transcripts of letters between members of the Andrews Family.

The document was donated to the Park in 2002 by a lady in Pennsylvania. She had been doing genealogy and found a relation to the Harmon family (Viginia Andrews maiden name). She did the transcription which is 22 typed pages. You can view them by going to the Archives. Click on the PDF links at the bottom.

This month we want to return to Chicago and the “WHERE” of the Koreshans. Chicago is important in that this is where the Unity made its real start — where it all began, even if it faltered at times.

Lyn Millner, Journalism Professor at Florida Gulf Coast University is publishing a new and comprehensive book about the Koreshans, called The Allure of Immortality, An American Cult, a Florida Swamp, and a Renegade Prophet. She was kind enough to supply us with an interactive map showing many of the locations (some are no longer there) where the Koreshans lived and worked.

Simply click on the photo of Cyrus, (below) and it will load the maps. Enjoy!

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

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.

 — June reminds us the the ‘season’ is definitely over. Hurricane season has officially begun and the hot days, and humid nights drag on for then next six months or so. This month’s posting is a “repeat” from June of 2011. Next month we hope to be back with a new post.

This month marks the birthday of Jesse Sears Teed, father of Cyrus, but instead of featuring those ‘known’ Koreshans, we thought we would, once again highlight some of the lesser know members of the Unity. We, once again, feature a somewhat obscure Koreshan who, although his time with the Unity was somewhat short, had a major impact, at least on the infrastructure of the Unity. His name was Richard Jentsch ⁽⁽¹⁾⁾ , born in Germany on the 8th of June, 1883. He came to Estero in 1906. It is unclear how long before that time he had been a member of the Unity.

He was a member of the Unity Orchestra, and this grainy photo is all that we have of him. His claim to fame came in 1906, shortly after his arrival when he took part in the “fight” in Fort Myers when Dr. Teed was struck by Sheriff Sanchez and arrested. Jentsch was a part of it. According to historian Elliot Mackle, writing in the “Florida Historical Quarterly”:

“A crowd quickly gathered around the four men. The train had by that time arrived, and the Baltimore party, escorted by the mayor of Estero and by a young Koreshan named Richard Jentsch, had begun walking toward a hotel in the center of town. Upon meeting the crowd they recognized Dr. Teed. Jentsch sprang forward to defend his messiah, and was followed almost immediately by the three Koreshan boys in his charge-Claude Rahn ⁽⁽²⁾⁾, Roland Sander ⁽⁽³⁾⁾, and George Danner. ⁽⁽⁴⁾⁾

Jentsch struck Sellers and was then himself struck down by blows from the crowd. Claude Rahn, trying to separate Sellers and Dr. Teed, was hit in the mouth by a stranger. George Danner, seeing this, ran forward, kicked Rahn’s attacker, and then retreated. The man yelled, “Grab the kid.” Someone did, and Danner was knocked into the crowd.”

Jentsch is better known in the Historic Site as a member of the Koreshan Orchestra and an active member of the theatre troupe. He eventually left the Koreshan Unity and got married to a fellow Koreshan, Cecile Read Woodruff, who, according to the records we have, was almost forty years his senior. Jentsch died on April 14, 1915, just four months prior to his wife, who died in August of 1915.

1. Richard Jentsch geneaology[↩]
2. Claude Rahn geneaology[↩]
3. Roland Sander geneaology>[↩]
4. George Danner genealogy[↩]

 —  April is the month of the Lunar Festival as well as many other important dates in the Koreshan calendar. April 4th marks the birthday of Virginia Harmon Andrews, the wife of Dr. A.W.K. Andrews. She and her husband were one of the first followers of Dr. Teed. A visitor to this website sent us transcripts a few years ago, of letters that Dr. Andrews wrote to his wife Virginia’s mother, Margaret Harmon explaining why he and his wife had come to believe in Dr. Teed’s mission. [see AM-0153]

We also celebrate the marriage of Cyrus Teed and his wife, Fidelia M. Rowe, on April 13, 1859. Teed eventually left his wife, although he apparently never divorced her. There is some discussion about what exactly happened, but it is widely believed that Teed got caught up in his own beliefs and chose to become celibate. His wife is found in the 1860 census living with her parents and Arthur Teed, their only child, although it is said that Teed moved his family to New York City in 1862.

Teed’s parents, Jesse Sears Teed and Sarah Ann Tuttle also celebrate their wedding anniversary this month.

Finally, we celebrate the birthday of Annie Grace Glosson Ordway, known to the world as “Victoria Gratia“, the “Pre-Eminent” of the Koreshan Unity. Victoria was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1844. She married a man named David Ordway, although most literature says her husband’s name was George. According to the 1870 and 1880 census, David and Annie were still married and living in Chicago. How long her marriage lasted is not known. She does appear to be living in Chicago as early as 1870. It was probably there that she first met Dr. Teed. After Teed’s death in 1908 she was drummed out of the Unity and she founded her own colony, eventually settling in St. Petersburg Florida. She married Dr. Charles Graves, the Koreshan Dentist, in 1909. She died in 1923. There were numerous attempts by some Koreshans to bring her back as head of the Unity, but they, of course, failed.