He was a man who spent his life caught between two worlds. On one side, he was the son of one of the most powerful women in 19th-century America—Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science. On the other, George Washington Glover II was a rugged, mostly uneducated frontiersman who lived a life of manual labor, mining, and legal battles.
Most people don't even know he existed.
History usually zooms in on his mother’s religious empire, treating George as a footnote or, worse, a piece of leverage used by her critics. But if you actually look at the records, his story is much more human. It’s a messy, often heartbreaking account of a mother and son who were fundamentally incompatible. They didn't speak the same language. Not literally, of course, but emotionally and culturally. George was a man of the dirt and the gold mines; Mary was a woman of the mind and the spirit.
Why the World Forgot George Washington Glover II
He was born into tragedy. In 1844, his father—also George Washington Glover—died of yellow fever in Wilmington, North Carolina, just months before the baby was born. Mary Baker Eddy (then Mary Baker Glover) was left widowed, penniless, and in chronically poor health.
This is where the narrative usually splits.
Some biographers paint Mary as a cold woman who abandoned her child. Others, like Robert Peel, suggest she was physically and financially unable to care for him. Regardless of the "why," the "what" remains the same: at age four, George was sent away. He ended up with the Cheney family, former neighbors and employees of the Bakers.
He grew up in the mountains of New Hampshire and later moved to the frontier of Minnesota. For years, he thought his mother was dead. Can you imagine that? Growing up thinking you’re an orphan, only to find out your mother is becoming a world-famous religious leader in Boston. It's the kind of stuff you'd see in a Victorian novel, but it was his actual life.
The Reconnection That Failed
When George finally reunited with his mother in 1879, he wasn't a little boy anymore. He was 35 years old. He was a veteran of the Civil War. He had a wife and children. He was a man who worked with his hands.
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It didn't go well.
Mary tried to "civilize" him. She wanted him to be an extension of her legacy, but George had no interest in Christian Science. He didn't understand the metaphysics. He didn't care for the polite society of Lynn or Boston. Honestly, he felt like a fish out of water. Mary even tried to have him tutored, but the gap was too wide. George eventually headed back West, settling in Lead, South Dakota.
He became a miner. He lived in a modest house. He lived the life of a typical pioneer, which was exactly the opposite of the refined, spiritual existence his mother was curating for herself. This cultural chasm is something scholars like Gillian Gill have noted in Mary Baker Eddy; the two were bound by blood but separated by everything else.
The "Next Friends" Suit: A Family Feud Becomes National News
If you’ve heard of George Washington Glover II at all, it’s probably because of the 1907 lawsuit.
This was a massive scandal. Encouraged by Mary’s enemies—specifically Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World—George and several other relatives filed what was known as a "Next Friends" suit. They essentially argued that Mary Baker Eddy was mentally incompetent due to her age and that her advisors were "managing" her fortune.
It was a mess.
George wasn't necessarily a villain here, but he was definitely a pawn. He wanted his inheritance. He felt he had been neglected for decades, and the New York World was happy to fund the legal fees to get a sensational story. The court eventually dismissed the suit after a group of masters interviewed Mary and found her to be perfectly sharp and in control of her affairs.
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The fallout was permanent. The relationship was toasted.
Life in Lead, South Dakota
Despite the drama, George wasn't just a "litigious son." In Lead, he was a known figure. He lived at 130 South Main Street in a house that Mary actually ended up building for him—one of her many attempts to provide for him from a distance while keeping him away from her inner circle.
He had a large family. We're talking several children who grew up in the shadow of a grandmother they barely knew.
- Mary Baker Glover (the daughter): Named after her grandmother, she was one of the few who maintained a semi-regular correspondence with the "Leader" of Christian Science.
- George Washington Glover III: Carrying on the name, he stayed in the Black Hills area.
George II spent his time prospecting. He was obsessed with finding a big hit in the mines, a classic Western dream that never quite materialized the way he hoped. He died in 1915, five years after his mother. He's buried in South Dakota, far away from the grand Mother Church in Boston.
What We Get Wrong About the Mother-Son Dynamic
People love to take sides.
If you're a critic of Christian Science, you look at George as a victim of a mother who chose her "mission" over her flesh and blood. If you're a devotee, you might see George as an ungrateful, worldly man who tried to exploit his mother’s wealth.
The truth is probably in the middle.
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Mary Baker Eddy clearly struggled with the guilt of her early years. She sent him money. She built him a house. She tried to bring him into her world. But she also couldn't handle his "roughness." George, meanwhile, likely carried deep-seated resentment from his childhood in the Cheney household. You don't just "get over" being sent away at four years old.
It wasn't a battle of good vs. evil. It was a battle of two different centuries clashing in one family. George was the 19th-century frontier; Mary was the 20th-century dawn of organized, corporate religion.
Historical Facts vs. Myths
There are a few things that get twisted in the retellings of George's life.
First, he wasn't "illiterate" in the way some people claim. He could read and write, though his letters were full of phonetic spelling and lacked formal grammar. He was a man of his time and station.
Second, the "Next Friends" suit wasn't solely his idea. Without the intervention of the New York World and their desire to take down the "Eddy cult," it's unlikely George would have ever had the resources or the motivation to sue. He was a miner, not a legal strategist.
Third, he didn't die a pauper. While he wasn't wealthy by Boston standards, the house in Lead and the allowances he received from his mother kept him in what would be considered a comfortable middle-class existence for South Dakota at the turn of the century.
Actionable Insights for History Buffs and Researchers
If you're looking to dig deeper into the life of George Washington Glover II, don't just stick to the official biographies. They are often biased one way or the other.
- Visit the Longyear Museum: They have a significant collection of documents related to the Baker family. It's one of the best places to see the actual correspondence between George and Mary.
- Check the South Dakota Archives: Lead, SD has preserved many records from the mining era. You can find property records and local newspaper mentions of George that give a better sense of his "everyday" life.
- Read "Mary Baker Eddy" by Robert Peel: Even though he was a Christian Scientist, Peel was a meticulous researcher. His footnotes on George’s childhood are some of the most detailed available.
- Look at the "Next Friends" Transcripts: If you can find the 1907 court transcripts (often available in legal libraries), you’ll see George’s own testimony. It’s the closest thing we have to hearing his "voice" unfiltered.
George Washington Glover II represents the human cost of greatness. While Mary Baker Eddy was changing the religious landscape of the world, her son was just trying to find his way in the dirt of the Black Hills. He’s a reminder that behind every historical icon is a family story that is usually a lot more complicated than the history books suggest.
The next step for anyone interested in this period is to look at the letters. Seeing the handwriting, the misspellings, and the desperate attempts at connection between these two polar opposites tells you more than any H2 heading ever could. Focus on the primary sources in the Longyear collection to see the raw, unedited version of this family's struggle.