Charles S. Fillmore
(August 22, 1854 – July 5, 1948)
About New Thought Author Charles S. Fillmore
Charles Sherlock Fillmore was an influential new thought writer and American mystic. Charles, along with his wife, Myrtle Fillmore, were the founders of Unity, a church within the New Thought movement, in 1889.
He also became well known for his contributions to spiritualist interpretations of biblical Scripture.
Charles Fillmore was born on an Indian reservation near St. Cloud, Minnesota. His father worked there as a Chippewa trader.
As a result of an ice skating accident when he was ten years old, Charles broke his hip and was left with lifelong disabilities. Despite having little formal education in his early years, Charles studied the life and works of greats such as Shakespeare, Emerson, Tennyson, and Lowell, as well as popular work on spiritualism, Eastern Religions, and metaphysics.
In the mid 1870's, while working as a railroad freight clerk in Denison, Texas, Charles met his soon-to-be wife, Mary Caroline Page, known as Myrtle, who was working as a school teacher. After losing his job, Charles later moved to Gunnison, Colorodo where he worked for awhile at mining and in real estate.
In 1881, Charles Fillmore married Myrtle in Clinton, Missouri on March 29, and the newlyweds moved to Pueblo, Colorado, where Charles established a real estate business with the borther-in-law of Nona Lovell Brooks--who would later become the founder of the Church of Divine Science.
After the births of the Fillmore's first two sons, Lowell Page Fillmore and Waldo Rickert Fillmore, the family moved to Kansas City, Missouri
in 1884. They invested what little money they had in more real estate, but their venture was unsuccessful. The Fillmore's then both decided that spiritual work would be their future.
Myrtle Fillmore had also been a long time sufferer of recurring tuberculosis. Charles and Myrtle spent much time seeking a cure of the illness.
Two years later, in 1886, Charles and Myrtle attended a few New Thought classes that were being held by Dr. E.B. Weeks.
Myrtle subsequently was healed from her chronic tuberculosis and attributed her recovery to the use of prayer and other methods learned in the weekly New Thought classes. Charles also began received remarkable healing from his long-time childhood accident and hip injury. Charles also attributed this to having followed the healing philosophy taught in the classes.
Charles Fillmore soon became a devoted student of philosphy and religion.
In 1889, Charles left his real estate business for good to focus his attention entirely on holding a prayer group that would later be called "Silent Unity". It was named as such because of a legal conflict with Mary Baker Eddy over the use of the title "Christian Science". That same year, he began publication of a new periodical entitled 'Modern Thought'. It became the first publication known to have accepted the wirtings of the then 27-year New Thought pioneer William Walker Atkinson. In 1889, the Fillmores also launched the Modern Thought Publishing Company and by 1891 had established 'Unity magazine'.
Dr. H. Emilie Cady published her 'Lessons in Truth' in the new Unity magazine;the material was later compiled and published in a book of the same name which served as a seminal work of the Unity Church.
In 1906, Charles and Myrtle Fillmore became one of the first ordained ministers for Unity. The Fillmore's operated the Unity orgination from a campus near downtown Kansas City. It was around this time that Unity began its own publishing plant. Silent Unity was beginning to be broadcast on radio stations, and the magazines Wee Wisdom for kiddies and Daily Word was also published around this time.
Although Charles had no intention of making Unity into a religious denominations, his students began requesting a more organized group structure.
In 1914, Charles and Myrtle Fillmore also founded the Unity School of Christianity.
In 1929, The Fillmore's relocated the Unity center to Lee's Summit, Missouri. It was named Unity Village in the 1950's, and the name still remains today.
After his wife's death in 1931 at the age of 86, Charles remarried in 1933 to Cora G. Dedrick who also became a collaborator for his later writings. In 1934, Charles Fillmore founded the Unity Ministers Association. It was later renamed to the Association of Unity Churches.
In is later years, it was said that Charles Fillmore felt so young that he thought that he might be physically immortal. He also believed that he might be the reincarnation of Paul of Tarsus. Charles was also a vegetarian and refused to wear leather or fur for the same ethical reasons.
Charles Fillmore remained active with Unity until his passing in 1948 at the age of 93. The ashes of both Charles and Myrtle Fillmore were reportedly scattered from the 'Bridge of Faith' located in Unity Village, into the waters below. The Unity School and Association of Unity Churches has continued growing into a worldwide movement.
Resources:
Unity.org
Quotes by Charles Fillmore
he Sons of Charles and Myrtle Fillmore
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