In 1853, when Mary Baker Glover married Dr. Daniel Patterson, a dentist who had also studied homeopathy, she was thirty-two years old and an invalid. She never had been robust, and since the birth of her child in 1844 she had not been well. Dr. Patterson knew about her health; he had learned about it from her and from her father. Her condition of health, better or worse at different times, was for long periods a disadvantage to both of them, but it was not the only deterrent factor in their situation. He was capable as a dentist, and popular socially, but as the future proved he was deficient in other qualities essential to financial and marital success. Her lack of health contributed indirectly to her discovery of Christian Science; it was among the circumstances which impelled her to seek and find the one remedy for every ill and all evil.
For two years, Dr. and Mrs. Patterson lived at Franklin, New Hampshire, where and whence he had practiced dentistry before they were married. He did much of his work in Franklin, but made professional visits to other places occasionally or regularly. He put off the bringing of her child to live with them. His practice was not so prosperous as it had seemed; and instead of increasing, it decreased ominously. So, in March of 1855, they moved to North Groton, New Hampshire, a town of between nine hundred and one thousand inhabitants in the edge of the White Mountains, near where her son had lived with his former nurse for several years. Here Dr. and Mrs. Patterson made a new start. Using borrowed money, he bought a dwelling, a hundred acres of land, and a sawmill. Continuing occasionally to practice his profession, he also operated the sawmill.
This venture at North Groton lasted five years, but it ended in utter failure. His creditors took all of Dr. Patterson's property. They also took property belonging to Mrs. Patterson (books, furniture, and a gold watch) which she had pledged as security for his debts. At first, at North Groton, she was allowed to see her child, but rarely. In April of 1856, he was taken to Minnesota by the former nurse and her husband, with whom he lived. After this, Mrs. Patterson did not see her son again until after he had grown up. Then, she found that he had become very different from what she had hoped he would be.
