During the early 1880s, Bostonians were becoming aware of a new healing method called Christian Science. At first, the "Boston Craze," as the newspapers put it, was quite modest in size and fairly local in scope. "The Church of Christ (Scientist)" met in rented rooms on Sunday afternoons, with its Founder, Mary Baker Eddy, generally in the pulpit. There were also weekly meetings at the Massachusetts Metaphysical College on Columbus Avenue, where Mrs. Eddy lived and taught Christian healing. And Mrs. Eddy's book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, was available in a few local bookstores.
It was inevitable, however, that the good news of Christian Science could not be contained within the Boston city limits, in spite of considerable criticism in local pulpits and in the press. A Mr. Tarbell and his daughter, residents of Littleton, New Hampshire, heard about Christian Science healing and came to Boston. They received treatment from Julia S. Bartlett, a pupil of Mrs. Eddy's and found freedom from many years of illness.
Back in Littleton, friends and neighbors were grateful—and naturally very curious to know more. So the Tarbells wrote to Miss Bartlett and invited her to come to Littleton. Bartlett, who had a busy healing practice in Boston, didn't feel she could accept. But as she later remembered, "They would not take 'No' for an answer."
