by Marlene Cook, IWPA Historian
So We All Can Be Heard
by Marlene Cook, IWPA Historian
Ursula Newell Gestefeld, a founder of the Illinois Woman's Press Association, also established the Science of Being, a New Thought religious system that gained her national prominence.
Born April 22, 1845 in Augusta, Maine, to an invalid mother, Gestefeld was
a sickly child. By 1878, she and her husband, Theodore Gestefeld, moved to Chicago
where he served as a reporter for The Chicago Tribune and as city editor
of The Statts-Zeitung, a leading German newspaper. When Ursula was given
a Christian Science tract proclaiming the power of spirit over matter, she decided
to heal her own illness and within three months had attained the good health
that had previously eluded her. Her success led her to become not only a believer,
but also a leader in the movement. She took classes from Mary Baker Eddy, Christian
Science founder, and established herself as a metaphysician. She practiced,
wrote and taught mental healing in Chicago.
In 1888, Gestefeld published "Ursula N. Gestefeld's Statement of Christian
Science," which was denounced by Eddy. Ursula fought back with a second
article, "Jusiutism in Christian Science." She was expelled from the
association and turned her experiences into an independent New Thought career.
She trained women to become certified leaders, teachers, traveling proselytizers
or pastors. In 1895, she contributed to The Woman's Bible, which summarized
the Science of Being principals. She published two novels, several tracts and
started the Exodus, a monthly magazine for the New Thought movement,
serving as writer, editor and publisher. She even formed an Exodus Club, charging
dues of $25 per year. By 1902, she had at least 300 members, while more than
800 attended her weekly sermons.
Gestefeld is probably best known for her novel, The Woman Who Dares,
a protest against the hypocrisy of marriage. The work portrayed a male-dominated
society that used all means-legal, political, economic and religious-to enforce
women's sexual subservience to men.
By the turn of the century, Gestefeld had expanded her mental health theories
to include material wealth. At the age of 69, she traveled to London for the
inauguration of the International New Thought Alliance and continued to write
and lecture throughout the 1910s. She died of toxemia in 1921 and is buried
at Graceland Cemetery, Chicago. Some of her books can be found in the Chicago
Historical Library.