Pearl St., Belfast, Me. 272 9-29-05-1

Pearl St., Belfast, Me. 272 9-29-05-1

"Pearl St., Belfast, Me. 272 9-29-05-1" Street Scene, Buildings, Man, Sign [Court Street], Fence View looking west along Pearl Street toward the intersection of Pearl & Court Streets. On the left is the home of Phineas Parkhurst Quimby: Phineas Parkhurst Quimby (February 16, 1802 - January 16, 1866), was an American spiritual teacher. Quimby was a philosopher, magnetizer, mesmerist, healer, and inventor, who resided in Belfast, Maine, and had an office in Portland, Maine. Quimby's work is widely recognized as leading to the New Thought movement Born in the small town of Lebanon, New Hampshire, Quimby was one of seven children and the son of a blacksmith. As was customary for his social and monetary status at that time, Quimby received little formal education. He suffered greatly from 'consumption' in his youth and was prescribed calomel by his doctor. Instead of curing his sickness, the calomel began to rot his teeth, and Quimby began experimenting with his own ideas for a cure. He found that intense excitement (such as galloping on his horse) alleviated his pain for brief periods of time, and became interested in the mind's ability to affect the body. It is unclear how he found his ultimate cure, but it was through his own devices, and not from the doctor's medicine. When Charles Poyen, a French mesmerist following in the tradition of Puységuer, came to Belfast, Maine, on a lecture circuit about mesmerism around 1836, Quimby was intensely curious. Quimby attended one of Poyen's lectures in 1838, and immediately began plying the mesmerist with questions about the nature of animal magnetism and its powers. Poyen admitted that with proper training, anyone could become adept at administering hypnotism. Quimby left his job as watchmaker and followed Poyen's tour of New England for the subsequent two years (1838-1840), until he became proficient at applying mesmeric hypnotism himself.[4] Around this time Quimby encountered Lucius Burkmar, an uneducated youth who was particularly susceptible to hypnosis. Quimby and Lucius began a tour of their own, practicing mesmeric demonstrations in front of large crowds. Quimby was a watch and clockmaker by trade and held several patents for mechanical devices. Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, has sometimes been cited as having used Quimby as inspiration for theology. Eddy was a patient of Quimby's and shared his view that disease is rooted in a mental cause. Because of its theism, Christian Science differs from the teachings of Quimby. The large elm on the left was planted by James Patterson White at the rear of his property. His lot occupied Pearl Street from Church Street to Court Street His home on this lot, (prior to construction of the house at the "Foot of the Square" in 1840) faced Church Street. The house on the right was owned by Samuel Walton, according to the 1855 map of Belfast. He was one of the builders and owners of the "Old Babel" built in 1806. It was the first building of three stories in Belfast, a lofty, ill-proportioned wooden block, containing three stores, and known as the Babel," was erected by James Nesmith, Samuel Walton, and Nathaniel Stanley, on the northern side of Main Street at the corner of High Street. Walton died April 12, 1853, aged 77. The Walton house later became the home of Paul R. Hazeltine, amongst whose numerous charitable bequests was, at the death of his wife, Harriet H. Hazeltine, bequeathed to Belfast, $20,000 for a Public Library, the use of which to be forever free to the inhabitants of Belfast, the bequest directed that a handsome, substantial, fireproof building be erected on some suitable spot in said city, sufficiently large for the library. Paul Hazeltine died March 18, 1878. His widow survived him until 1884. Two years later, the amount of his bequest was received by the city, which purchased for one thousand dollars a quarter of an acre of land at the westerly corner of High and Miller streets, as a site for the Library building.