Episode LXXX: My Great Great Great Grandfather

I have an interest in my family history, which I have previously written about, and which I sporadically delve into. Recently I have been learning about a great-great-great-grandfather of mine, on my mom’s side of the family, and whose place in my family tree you can see below.

His name is Jacob Stoner Flory, and he turns out to be one of the more interesting characters I have yet to discover in my family ancestry. Born in 1836 in Dayton, Virginia, Mr. Flory spent most of his life as a preacher for the Brethren Church (a very interesting group of Christians, by the way.) True to his pacifist Brethren beliefs, he argued against the secession of his home state of Virginia and used his influence to prevent his younger brethren from joining the Civil War. He had to flee North shortly after the war began, and upon returning found his buildings and property destroyed.

Good ol' JS Flory. Check out the beard!

Mr. Flory then moved to Colorado, which at the time was very much a frontier-land, full of bison and Indians. Here he established, among other things, a retreat of sorts that was intended to be a place of healing springs. His legacy lives on in that the town is called Hygiene, Colorado to this day. What’s more, he helped organize the construction of a church building, which still stands over 100 years later.

Finally he moved further west to California where he assisted in the creation of a town called Las Covinas (now known as Covina) and helped to establish a university known as Lordsburg College (now known as University of LaVerne, where my sister received her Baccalaureate degree.)

Now the recent item of interest is the fact that Mr. Flory wrote two books while in California, and a few weeks ago I got my hands on one of those books, entitled “Mind Mysteries.”

I obtained this book via Inter-Library Loan, and one stipulation was that I could not remove the book from the KU library. So on one sunny afternoon, I got a mug full of tea, went to a quiet, deserted corner of the library basement, hunkered down and read it.

In fact the corner of the library was so deserted and quiet that I could really make myself at home.

The book makes it clear that Mr. Flory was interested in both faith and science, and he attempts to use science to debunk fraudulent claims of wonder-workers and miracle-magicians of the time. This introductory page gives you a good idea of his topics:

Did you know that the Christian Science religion was over a hundred years old? I had assumed it was a more modern creation, but in fact my own great-great-great-grandfather, way back in 1899, was denouncing their practices in one of his chapters. Here, another passage gives you a good glimpse into his opinions, and a good idea of his prose.

Truth be told, I would not recommend this book to anyone for their casual reading. It was very much a product of its time, and I have no doubt that it was useful then, but I’d have to say it would be more of a curiosity these days. Well that's all for now.

Great-great-great grandson of JS Flory,

Adam Norris