Go back to reading about A.A.’s ascent into the leadership of the Church.
Loyal as he was, despite his close relationship with Mother Eddy (he once sent her boxes of the best Riverside oranges), factional strife within the Church was growing. Eddy was always fearful of others – inside and out of the organization –accused of using mind control called “malicious animal magnetism” to subvert her message, and there were in fact many attempts to manipulate her to take one side or another in factional disputes. Together, Sulcer and Emma Davis began to find themselves on the wrong side of these internal wars.
In the spring of 1902 A.A. was shocked to find his name missing from the published list of lecturers in the Christian Science Sentinel. It seems to have been caused by a mixture of some perceived “impropriety” on his part, and politics within the inner circles of the church. In his anguish he made an emotional appeal directly to Mary Baker Eddy.
It seems that I have been drinking the dregs of the cups, but O what a purifier it has been. And only the dross, not the gold can be destroyed, that which impedes our progress. Truthward.
A.A. Sulcer, letter to M.B. Eddy
I would not knowingly withhold one single fault of mine from you.
And that was why I desired to go to you, that I might narrate all, in minutest detail. Later, I went to Mr. Kimball; and after acknowledging my mistakes, whether they be a departure from the rules of propriety, or righteous and legitimate practice. I also repudiate, with all moral indignation, the false charges; and gossip – and doubtless incorporated in what was sent to Boston – as not only malignant and cruel, but astonishingly untruthful.
Eddy directed him to be reinstated. Still, over the course of the next year, his health declined – possibly suffering from bouts of depression – that A.A. partly blamed on the effects of infighting within the Church. By the following summer he was permanently removed from the Board with the Dear Mother’s consent.
I can only imagine the disappointment of losing his new vocation as well as the old, perhaps feeling more alone than ever. He had his faith to buoy him up, remained an active member of the church, and thankfully, was able to eventually regain contact with Mary Jane and Henry. His surviving child, now an adult, periodically returned from the University of Chicago to visit Riverside; somehow A.A. was even able to reconcile with Mary Jane, at least long enough for them to have one brief chapter together. In 1910, when he was 71 years old, she returned to him in Riverside. They were quietly remarried in January of that year.
One night in March, the two of them were thrown to the ground after their buggy collided with a surrey at a railroad crossing. It took them a long time to recover. It seemed to be a bad omen. That summer, Mary Jane travelled back to Chicago again to be with Henry and his new bride Charlotte – they were just starting their family, babies Henry Thearle (Hap) and Eleanor Jane (Teen) following soon after. Mary Jane never returned to Riverside.
Life went on. Four years later, A. A. was again a victim of a road accident, this one more serious. He was a passenger in a new-fangled automobile driven by the daughter of a 74-year old fellow Christian Scientist named Amanda Aldrich, on a day-trip to Perris, perhaps to his old ranch. On the return trip, coasting down the long grade from Box Springs in the twilight, another automobile appeared coming up the grade, and young Florence sent the car into a skid while attempting to brake. It flipped over pinning the occupants inside.
The other driver got help and was able to extricate them. Most of the concern was about Miss Aldrich who had lost consciousness, but she soon revived. Everyone was sent home except 75-year old Dr. Sulcer, who was taken to City Hospital for observation owing to his age. By the next morning he seemed to be recovering well in spite of his bruises. Internal injuries are not always obvious, though, and he began declining the next night. Would “material medicine” have been able to save him? Were any of his “Scientist” practitioner friends consulted to try to heal him? We don’t know.
He died the following day, Locals were shocked to hear it, since he had been believed to be recovering. A few days later, Amanda also died from her injuries. His friends telegraphed Henry, and the funeral was delayed until he was able to arrive by train from Chicago. Finally A.A. was laid to rest next to young Cullen.
There I have to end the story of a man who endured many setbacks in life, and who was at the center of some of the most important American events and trends of his century. His tale is intertwined with settlement of the Midwest; some of the worst battles in the worst ever war within America’s borders; the rush to California; and the rise of an enduring “modern” mainstream religion. He may well have been lonely in his last days. Perhaps we can conclude, as A.A. liked to do for his own lectures, with a quote from “The Plains of Peace”, a popular spiritual song of the day. His great fondness for these words leave me with the hope that, after so many tragedies and disappointments, he did find some measure of consolation and was able to lay down his burdens.
Is thy path so rough, O pilgrim,
The Plains of Peace
Passing on thy way through life;
Deep the sorrows that beset thee,
Great the burden, wild the strife?
…From the toiling, from the striving
There at last shall come release;
One shall bring thee past the hillcrest,
Home unto his Plains of Peace.
The story of A.A. Sulcer is all done. Thanks for sticking with him this far! If you are hungry for more, check out the appendices including a lot of A.A. Sulcer’s original material.
Or, go back to the family history home page. You never know when I might add new content there!
Sources
- Letter from Mary Baker Eddy to A.A. Sulcer, 31 March 1899, Correspondence File, Mary Baker Eddy Library, Boston, MA. Reviewed 19 June 2015
- WestEgg.com. The offer of $2,000 in 1899 would translate to about $60,000 annually today, a very healthy salary for a minister in a young church. According to WestEgg.com, available at http://www.westegg.com/inflation on 14 July 2015
- Riverside Daily Press, July 1890. I haven’t found record of the divorce, but presume it occurred because they applied for a license to marry in 1910, so presumably they were no longer married prior to 1910. It is an assumption that they divorced around this time since Mary Jane appears in Indiana the following year.
- “At San Bernardino, Ca.” Christian Science Sentinel 22 June 1899:1:43, available at http://scantech.co/aequus/lpext.dll/Infobase8/3192?fn=document-frame.htm&f=templates&2.0 on 30 August 2012
- “At Riverside, Ca.” Christian Science Sentinel 31 January 1901:3:38, available at http://scantech.co/aequus/lpext.dll/Infobase8/adc2?fn=document-frame.htm&f=templates&2.0 on 30 August 2012
- “The Lectures – At Spokane, Wash.” Christian Science Sentinel 23 May 1901:3:38, available at http://scantech.co/aequus/lpext.dll/Infobase8/c581?fn=document-frame.htm&f=templates&2.0 on 30 August 2012
- “Annual Lecture – Christian Scientists Arrange for It – Dr. A.A. Sulcer Will Be the Lecturer”, Morning Oregonian, 16 April 1901:7, available at http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn83025138/1901-04-16/ed-1/seq-7 on 30 August 2012
- Sulcer, A.A. “True Therapeutics”, Christian Science Journal, December 1895:431
- “Loring Opera House and Theatre Program Collection 1890 – 1923”, available at http://www.riversideca.gov/library/history_aids_loring.asp on 13 January 2015
- “No Drugs Used – Christian Science Explained in a Lecture by Dr. Sulcer Last Night”, Fresno Republican Weekly, 5 May 1899 p.1 Sulcer Fresno Op. Cit.
- Sulcer, A.A., “The Morphine Habit, Christian Science Journal, 14 November 1896, available at http://journal.christianscience.com/issues/1896/11/14-8/the-morphine-habit on 27 June 2015
- “Communicated”, Riverside Press and Horticulturalist, 5 August 1902 Sulcer, A.A., Letter to Alfred Farlow, Mary Baker Eddy Library, 7 August 1901
- Sulcer, A.A., Letter to Calvin Frye, Mary Baker Eddy Library, 21 September 1901
- Sulcer, A.A. Letter to Mary Baker Eddy, Mary Baker Eddy Library, 15 July 1902
- Eddy, M.B. Letter to Board of Directors, Mary Baker Eddy Library, 22 July 1902
- Eddy, M.B. Letter to A.A. Sulcer, Mary Baker Eddy Library, 7 May 1903
- Sulcer, A.A. Letter to Mary Baker Eddy, Mary Baker Eddy Library, May 1903
- Memo from Director to Mary Baker Eddy, Mary Baker Eddy Library, 1 July 1903
- “Marriage Licenses”, Los Angeles Herald, 13 January 1910:37:104:14
- “Dr. Slucer is Injured”, [sic] Riverside Daily Press, 17 March 1910
- “Women are Injured”, Riverside Enterprise, 13 March 1914, p. 5
- “Auto Accident on Box Springs Grade”, Riverside Daily Press, 13 March 1914, p. 4
- “Death of Aged Man is Accident Result”, Riverside Enterprise, 14 March 1914, p. 1
- “Dr. A.A. Sulcer Dies as a Result of Injuries”, Riverside Daily Press, 14 March 1914, p. 1
- “Second Victim of Automobile Accident”, Riverside Daily Press, 18 March 1914, p. 5, available at https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=RDP19140318.2.69&e=——-en–20–1–txt-txIN——–1 on 26 January 2020.
- “Personal Mention”, Riverside Independent Enterprise, 17 March 1914
- Sulcer 1899 op. cit.
- Bingham, Clifton, and Barnard, D’Auvergne, “The Plains of Peace – song with accompaniment for harmonium or organ”, Boston: The B.F. Wood Music Co, 1892, available on http://www.worldcat.org/title/plains-of-peace-song-with-accompaniment-for-harmonium-or-organ-ad-lib/oclc/123239952 on 9 September 2012
