Minnie S. Davis

Did You Know?

• Her mother died in 1848 when Davis was only 13, leaving her the eldest of several children, including an infant sister.
• One of her books, Rosalie, was dictated to an amanuensis because Davis was too feeble to hold a pen.
• She was healed in just four months in 1885 through Mental Healing, after which she studied with the best teachers and became a successful healer and lecturer.

Early life and education

Her father was an early Universalist minister there. Around age six, Davis was thrown from a carriage, and a wheel passed across her back; this accident was later thought to cause frequent illness and delicate health. The resulting close companionship with her mother influenced her future. When she was about seven, the family moved to Massachusetts, where her father served parishes in Hingham, Quincy, and Sterling.

During a community revival, Davis noticed that other denominations taught different doctrines than her father's. In girlhood, she became skilled at storytelling, a favorite pastime for her younger sisters. One story, Rosalie, published in 1859, was dictated to an amanuensis when she was too weak to write. Her school days were often interrupted by illness and weak eyes, but she kept up with studies. Her mother, her constant teacher, instilled in her an abhorrence of slavery and intemperance.

The mother died in 1848, when Davis was thirteen and the youngest sibling an infant. At seventeen, Davis entered the Green Mountain Institute in Woodstock, Vermont, where she excelled as a scholar and writer, often composing short poems.

Career

Davis's favorite topic was the world of child-life. She nearly completed a work later published as Clinton Forest; or, The Harvest of Love, which treats child-life, home influence, school scenes, the power of kindness, and the wanderings and trials of a child. She hesitated to publish it or show it to friends. She then completed another manuscript, Marion Lester; or, The Mother's Mistake, whose plot was entirely her own, with some characters from real life and some imagined.

She sent it to press in May 1856, and it succeeded, read with intense interest by thousands. Three years later, Clinton Forest was published and also sold widely. In 1865, she published Rosalie. She contributed frequently to the Trumpet, Christian Freeman, and local papers, and was a regular contributor to the Ladies' Repository, serving as its associate editor for five years with Mrs. Sawyer and Mrs. Soulé.

She experienced several years of illness, including limited mobility and a winter confined to a darkened room due to light sensitivity; during convalescence, she wished to compose a long-form poem. In 1863, she moved with her father's family to Hartford, Connecticut. A few months later, she fell down stairs, beginning long years of helplessness, suffering, and partial blindness. Known remedies brought only partial success.

In 1885, when Mental Healing swept the U.S., Davis embraced its philosophy. A friend treated her by the new method, and within four months her pain and darkened room ended. She then studied with the best teachers and went out to pass on the work, achieving unusual success. Teaching was her forte; her lectures were clear, strong, and logical. She was interested in advanced movements, including temperance and equal rights.

Reviews

Ideal Motherhood, published by T. Y. Crowell & Co., was reviewed by The Arena, which stated that reading it uplifts the soul and gives a keener appreciation of woman's highest privilege. The review noted the author presents an ideal without exceeding the practical, and believes in combining masculine and feminine elements, developed intellect and intuition, in shaping young life. The School Journal added that Davis makes practical suggestions about motherhood, its responsibility, and the need for careful preparation for parental duties.

Living Counterparts; a Study of Vibration, published in 1903 by Alliance Publishing Company, was reviewed in Common Sense, which found a touch of theosophical thought and a thread of profitable study. The chapter on Methods of Nature was said to contain more beauty than logic, but the book's purpose carries a spirit of conviction and pure sentiment that lifts the reader intellectually.