Master of Millions Cyrus Teed – Fred Dayton, 12/26/1891

Here’s a Man Who Can Give Jay Gould Pointers Shrewdness of an “Apostle”

How Dr. Cyrus Teed, Chief of the Koreshans, Got Control of the Vast Fortune Accumulated by the
Economites—Gigantic Plans TEED, Cyrus Teed! That is the name of a man who has accomplished
more at one coup than any Rothschild, Gould, or Vanderbilt has achieved in a lifetime of shrewd
financial scheming. He has got his hands on $150,000,000 of accumulated wealth, and he proposes
to put it into circulation. He plans to establish cooperative stores, to build a six-track railway across
the United States, and in various ways to cheapen communication and to lessen the cost of life’s
necessities. Who is Dr. Cyrus Teed? Well, he is a remarkable man—a man who has founded a
celibate society known as the “Koreshans”; a man who claims to be immortal and who arrogates
to himself powers usually associated with divinity alone. He has had a varied career since he was
born in a New York village fifty-two years ago—a career that, according to common report, has
been open to criticism. After separating from his wife, who had just given birth to a boy, Teed branched
out (the date being 1870) on a Western experience that is without parallel in the history of creeds
or credulity. Buddha never claimed greater purity, Confucius never spoke more authoritatively,
Mohammed never laid down spiritual law with greater earnestness, and Brigham Young never had
such “revelations” as this man Teed. His Chicago “College of Life” became the center from which the
Koreshan doctrine spread. Branches were established at various points in the United States, the San
Francisco colony being the most notable because of the earthly scandals that have of late attracted
public attention. DR. CYRUS TEED Teed’s initial revelation disclosed the fact that the world is hollow,
that mankind lives on the inside, and that the sun is the center of the globe.

As to his personal experiences, they are thus recounted by an enthusiastic disciple: “When he was
baptized the Holy Spirit descended on him as a dove, and he heard a voice calling to him. Nobody
heard the voice or saw the dove but himself. Subsequently he was caught up into heaven and lived
for a time among the angels. Wonderful revelations were made to him. He learned that God became
incarnate once in each era of the world’s history. God, or divinity, became incarnate first in Adam, and
subsequently in Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Elijah, Jesus, and others. Each meridian covered a
period of 2,000 years. Christ came in under the sign of Aries, the Ram or Lamb. After the era of the
Lamb came the era of the Fishes. The Christian era has been under the constellation of Aquarius.
Christ understood this when he chose fishermen for his disciples. Each dispensation overlaps the other.
The beginning of the last lap was when Christ was born; the middle or meridian line was the day He was
crucified; the end of the lap was the date of the destruction of Jerusalem. A similar overlapping of the
constellations is now going on. The beginning of the lap was in 1870, when Dr. Teed was caught up
into heaven; the meridian line will be in 1891, when Teed will be translated and disseminated; the end
of the lap will be the date when the new order of things is perfected—when the golden age is fairly
inaugurated under the rule of the sexless sons of God—or about 2010.” Celibacy, by the way, is to
result in the production of 144,000 sexless immortals who are to rule the earth for 75,000 years. As
for Cyrus, although he has to hurry if he intends to be “translated” during the year 1891, he has of
late been attending to secular affairs with a vigor already spoken of as phenomenal.

Nearly everyone knows something of the record of the colony which owed its origin to the mystic
teachings of George Rapp. He came to America in 1805 with a band of 600 German adherents.
They founded the town of Harmony in Pennsylvania, and a decade later removed to Posey County,
Indiana, where they established another community of the same name. Malaria drove them from
their second home, and in 1825 the remnant of the band returned to Pennsylvania, where they
formed what is still known as the village of Economy. Soon after reaching America, the doctrine of
celibacy had been promulgated and accepted by Rapp’s followers, and it is in force today. One by
one the immigrants died off, but a few of their places were filled with converts. In a material way the
society prospered more than any other association of a religious nature the world has ever seen.
Whatever the Economites undertook brought them financial profit. A veritable shower of gold seemed
to rain on the little hamlet where wants were few and fleshly desires were curbed.

Now a score or so of aged men and women are, by survival, the rightful owners of real estate, oil and
gas wells, coal mines, securities, bank stocks, and ready cash thought to aggregate in value at least
$150,000,000. John Henrici, the chief trustee, is eighty-eight years old and bedridden. Associated with
him, however, as manager of this immense estate, is John Duss, a Cincinnati man who has had a
checkered career and who was admitted to membership in 1889. Duss has only recently passed life’s
thirtieth milestone, yet despite that and brief acquaintance he has the confidence of his ancient brothers
and sisters. All checks are signed and all business is done by Henrici & Duss, in which firm is legally
vested the entire possessions of the Economites. A GLIMPSE OF ECONOMY So far the tale is a plain
one. Now comes the complication. It seems that long since Cyrus Teed became cognizant of the methods
and beliefs of the Pennsylvania community and started his Koreshan scheme along the same lines of
celibacy and revelation. He adhered to Rapp’s plan with such fidelity and secured such a following that
when he visited Economy the other day, aired his pretensions, and declared his mission, he was hailed
as the immortal who was to continue and complete the task of establishing a sexless race on earth. He
has arranged to merge the rich Harmonists with the poor Koreshans and to inaugurate a vast commercial
and industrial enterprise, of which he is to be the chief. “Henrici & Duss” will disappear as a financial
potency, and in their place Dr. Cyrus Teed will blossom out as the controller and manipulator of millions.
Just how this tremendous earthly undertaking will harmonize with the imminent translation of the doctor
to a celestial sphere has not yet developed.

Perhaps, in view of his good luck, the chief of the Koreshans may be induced to postpone for a while his
contemplated departure to the realms of beatitude. He indicates such a course himself in a recent statement,
from which this extract is made: “I will in the near future establish a store in Pittsburg on my system of
equitable commerce. I will establish a big central house in Chicago and expect my cooperative system to
come into general vogue in ten years. Eleven years ago I prophesied that I would come to Economy in
The Economite institution has been placed here for my especial use. They will do for me whatever
I wish. Their resources are at my disposal. Of course I shall go slowly and cannot tell very much that is
definite. However, I did not come here for their money. I want their moral support and credit. Through their
influence I expect to bring closer to me the other five celibate societies in this country. There are about
10,000 celibates in the country outside of the Roman Catholic Church. The new order of things is approaching
rapidly and will come in time. I am not going to die.” Perhaps the people who regard Dr. Teed and his plans
with the most disfavor are the tramps. They say that he is “out for the stuff,” and that when he gets the
reins in hand his first move will be to abolish the Economy “palace.” This palace is a big structure near
the village hotel, where all wanderers are welcomed, fed, bathed, and lodged. Three thousand vagrants
partook of the society’s hospitality last year. If Dr. Teed does away with this charity, he is liable to secure
the enmity of a rather useless but extremely dangerous class of men. Indeed, they may put his claim of
immortality to a decidedly disagreeable test.