The Mountain Cove Community

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The Mountain Cove Community

A Spiritualist community founded in Mountain Cove, Fayette County, Virginia, in the autumn of 1851 under the leadership of the Rev. James Scott and Rev. Thomas Lake Harris. Both were mediums who had settled in Auburn the previous year and had obtained a considerable following. While Harris was absent in New York the command to form a community at Mountain Cove was given through the mediumship of Scott, and about a hundred persons accompanied him to Virginia.

Again at the command of the spirits, the members were obliged to deliver up all their possessions. Dissensions soon arose as pecuniary difficulties were experienced, and only Harris's return in the summer of 1852 saved the community from immediate dissolution. However, the dissensions and difficulties remained, and early in 1853 the community finally broke up.

(See also Apostolic Circle )

Sources:

Noyes, John Humphrey. Strange Cults and Utopias of 19thcentury America. New York: Dover Publications, 1966.

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The Mountain Cove Community

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