In 1821, Mark Baker and Abigail Baker were characteristic New Englanders of the better class who lived on their five hundred acre farm along the Merrimac River a few miles south of Concord, New Hampshire. Living with them were his mother and their five children: two girls and three boys.
On July 16, 1821, there was born to Mr. and Mrs. Baker a baby (their last), whom Grandmother Baker was allowed to name Mary. The life which began with this birth lasted approximately ninety years, and is divisible into two or more periods according to particular surveys. The most evident division of it is into two periods of almost equal length. During her first forty-five years, this child and woman appeared to accomplish little in comparison with the following years; but during her next forty-five years she rendered to all mankind an inestimable service. As the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, she brought to the service of all mankind a mental and spiritual discernment and practice which has proved to be of boundless value for good uses—a renewal of Christian advantages and benefits to be attained in the present. Hence, Mary Baker Eddy, in face of all opposition, has won a distinguished place among the foremost women in all history. Thus, in 1932, when the National Council of Women, through the Ladies' Home Journal, invited American women to name the twelve greatest women leaders in the United States during the past one hundred years, the balloting gave first place to Mrs. Eddy.
Until Mary Baker was fifteen years old, she lived with her parents on their farm five miles from Concord. In 1836, they moved to another farm twenty-two miles northward and only a mile from the town then called Sanbornton Bridge, but later renamed Tilton. For seven years, she lived with her parents on this farm. In 1844, having become a wife and a widow, and about to become a mother, Mary Baker Glover resumed living with her parents there; and in 1848, she and her child moved with them into Sanbornton Bridge. The population of Concord was 3,727 in 1830; 4,897 in 1840; and 8,576 in 1850. In these years, the population of Sanbornton Bridge was 2,866; 2,745; and 2,695. Franklin, an adjacent town, was about half as large. After five years in Sanbornton Bridge, Mrs. Glover became Mrs. Patterson and went to live in Franklin. This occurred in 1853, when her age was thirty-two.
