Rev. Pearl Tygart

Through the efforts of the General Assembly of Spiritualists, the property of 372 Flint Street, the original location of Church of Divine Inspiration founded by Rev. Whillemena Harrs, was purchased by the General Assembly and dedicated as the Spiritualist Church of True Brotherhood. Rev. Pearl was elected to lead the congregation as Pastor.

Rev. Pearl was born in and lived much of her young life in Gaines, Orleans County. She studied for Spiritualist Ministry New York City under the General Assembly of Spiritualist Churches, and eventually moved to Rochester after she married Carl S. Tygart, who worked for the New York State Rail Road.

On March 12 1944 Rev. Pearl stepped down from her position as Pastor of True Brotherhood to devote her time to charity and missionary work. In a farewell ceremony she installed Rev. Rosalind Glasser as Pastor, formerly of Golden Rod Spiritualist Church in Buffalo, NY, as the Pastor of the Church of True Brotherhood.

 In 1946 she organized and founded the Anderson Park Spiritualist Mission. The Mission was described as "a little red brick building" on N. Union Street, and was eventually torn down make way for construction of the Innerloop. The Mission then moved to South Ave, near Gregory Street.

Rev. Pearl was known for her acts of kindness and devotion to the people of Rochester. Under her leadership at the Mission she collected clothes, food, and money for families in the area.

She volunteered several weekends to taking orphans at Hillside Children's Center on picnics, and was a frequent visitor to patients in the Veterans Hospital in Batavia, who she took fruit, candy, tobacco, and other gifts.Rev. Pearl was also a member of the Rebekahs, and the Lily Dale Spiritualist Assembly.

In 1963 Rev. Pearl Tygart passed away due to injuries from a car accident. After her passing Anderson Park Spiritualist Mission and Church closed after some 30 years of serving the people of Rochester.

Rev. Leota Maxwell

Open Door Spiritualist Church was founded by Rev. Leota Maxwell, a former school teacher of 20 some years. Rev. Leota was a long time member of the General Assembly of Spiritualist Churches, she founded the Church as President in 1931, and became ordained through the General Assembly and elected as Pastor in 1932. Rev. Leota was assisted by her daughter Dorthy, who acted as an Assistant Pastor and Medium.

In founding this Church Rev. Leota had a very clear mission: that everyone was welcome. At the time many Spiritualist Churches were beginning to accept segregationist policies, which Rev. Leota (and the General Assembly of Spiritualists) were extremely opposed to.

In an article in the Democrat and Chronicle detailing the opening of her Church reffered to Open Door Spiritualist Church as a "colored" Spiritualist Church, due to Rev. Leota's outspoken stance on the importance of integration and equality.

Rev. Leota emphasized that Spiritualism was a religion of Healing; in an interview with the Democrat and Chronicle Rev. Leota explained that she often ministered to those who were dealing with mental health issues, particularly depression. She claimed that the principles and teachings of Spiritualism were especially helpful those struggling with their mental wellness, and that many individuals came to her church seeking healing.

Open Door Spiritualist Church met in the home of Rev. Leota, in a 1938 article in the democrat and chronicle a reporter describes the meeting as "vases of flowers are set about the platform, Biblical pictures and quotations cover the faded brown wallpaper, and visitors sit down happily in folding chairs." For larger services and lectures, the congregation would meet in Seneca Hotel.

Rev. Leota was a teacher at heart, and offered a six month course on Mediumship, as well as an introductory course on the religion of Spiritualism, which she called "the A.B.C's of Spiritualism." In her sermons she would often use passages and wisdom from the Bible to teach the principles of Spiritualism.

Rev. Leota would eventually step down as Pastor from Open Door Spiritualist Church to continue her ministry both in Lily Dale, New York and continuing to serve on the General Assembly of Spiritualists. Open Door Spiritualist Church would remain a thriving Spiritualist Church for several decades, closing shortly after the passing of Rev. Leota in 1953. She passed quietly in her home in Lily Dale, New York where she had lived since 1945. 

Death and Rebirth of a Church

Throughout the 1940's and into the early 1950's membership at Plymouth Spiritualist Church had dwindled to a congregation much smaller than the original 1200 capacity church needed.

With hardly enough active members to afford to keep the great building going, the state was able to acquire the property and planned to demolish the church to make space for the construction of the Inner Loop and County Jail.

In an interview with the Democrat and Chronicle from 1953 Lewis M. Caves, then President of Plymouth Spiritualist Church, lamented that the dwindling membership was due to a series of Pastors "who didn't set too well" with the congregation.

With Rev. Helen Graham as Pastor, the small congregation left Rochester's grand historic International Shrine of Spiritualism to find a new home.

After a year of temporarily meeting in hotels and houses, in 1955 the Plymouth congregation found a new home for a new era. The property was not far from the original location, and was located on Flint St; it had previously belonged to the First Church of the Nazarene.

Although the membership of the great “International Shrine of Spiritualism” had fallen, and the Plymouth congregation had become much more modest in size, the Spiritualist Community as a whole in Rochester actually remained quite strong.

It seems that with the development of Spiritualism over the years in Rochester, a single Spiritualist community centered around Plymouth was becoming more and more difficult to manage. The Rochester Spiritualist community slowly began to shift towards having smaller Spiritualist churches where members could find more varied and personal expressions of Spiritualism. It was actually in this era that Rochester began to see a rebirth of activity among Spiritualists, and the formation of a strong and diverse community.

Emily French: Rochester's Greatest Medium

Mrs. Emily French is perhaps one of the greatest Mediums in the history of the Spiritualist Movement.She was most active as a Medium in her later years and passed away peacefully at 80 years old in her home at 227 Tremont Street in here in Rochester. Her body was laid to rest in Mt. Hope Cemetery.

 Mrs. Emily French was a Direct Voice medium, a form of Physical Mediumship where rather than channeling Spirits to speak with her own voice, or her hearing them as an inner voice and repeating what they say, the spirits would actually use her body's energy and magnetism to create their own voice, independent of French's body, that every person in attendance could hear.

The records of French's seances were recorded by her friend, Edward C. Randall, a prominent lawyer from Buffalo who became convinced of the truth of Spiritualism and realized the importance of French's amazing gifts.

Randall investigated and interviewed numerous spirits through French's mediumship night after night for years during Seances, his work has been published in several books including: The Future of Man, The Dead Have Never Died, Life's Progression, and Frontiers of the Afterlife.

The Spirits, through Mrs. French's mediumship, spoke of every topic imaginable relating to the philosophy and teachings of Spiritualism covering topics ranging from the nature of God, the afterlife, ethics, prayer, and metaphysics.

These teachings extolled the virtues of charity, prayer, and good works. A major theme of these seances was what Randall would refer to as "mission work" in his writings. Mrs. French would bring through spirits of the dead who felt lost or confused about their state of existence in the afterlife, and the sitters in the seance would guide the confused spirits towards the light, with the assistance of their Guides in Spirit, with uplifting prayers and words of encouragement teaching the principles of Spiritualism.

 The works of Emily French and Edward C. Randall can be read in the wonderful book The French Revelation by N. Riley Heagerty, an exhaustive compendium of all of the above mentioned works with the extensive research of Heagerty.