Bennett, John Cook (03 August 1804–05 August 1867), physician, religious leader, and entrepreneur, was born in Fair Haven, Bristol County, Massachusetts, the son of John Bennett, a shipowner, and Abigail Cook. At his father’s death in 1817, he moved with his mother to Ohio to stay with relatives. In 1825, after a three-year apprenticeship with a physician and an oral examination by an Ohio medical society, Bennett received his M.D. and a license to practice. That year he married Mary Barker; they had three children. There is no evidence supporting his claim to have attended Ohio University or McGill College in Montreal; he did, however, become a Freemason in 1826....
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Bennett, John Cook (1804-1867), physician, religious leader, and entrepreneur
Michael Quinn
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Goldsmith, Joel Sol (1892-1964), writer and lecturer on spirituality
Robert S. Ellwood
Goldsmith, Joel Sol (10 March 1892–17 June 1964), writer and lecturer on spirituality, was born in New York City, the son of Sol Joel Goldsmith, a prosperous lace importer, and his wife (name not available). Both parents were nonpracticing Jews. As a young man, Goldsmith became interested in Christian Science through his acquaintance with a woman whose father was a Christian Science practitioner. After himself being healed, he believed, of a serious illness through Christian Science, Goldsmith became a practitioner in 1928. About 1930 he married Rose Robb. Increasingly successful in Christian Science, in 1933 he set up an office in Boston across the street from the Mother Church. In 1943 he moved briefly to Florida. His wife died the same year....
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Smith, Joseph Fielding (1876-1972), historian and tenth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
J. Craig Peery
Smith, Joseph Fielding (19 July 1876–02 July 1972), historian and tenth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, the son of Joseph F. Smith, the church’s sixth president, and Julina Lambson. He attended the LDS University (what might be thought of today as a junior college). Although he received no formal university degree, Smith assembled an extensive library during his lifetime and was an avid reader. In 1898 Smith married Louie E. Shurtliff; they had two daughters. After little more than a year of marriage, he was called to serve for two years at his own expense as a missionary in Great Britain; his wife remained in Salt Lake City. Upon completing his missionary service he took a job in the Mormon church historian’s office. In 1906 he was appointed as assistant church historian. The following year his first wife died, and in November 1908 Smith married Ethel G. Reynolds; they had nine children. After the death of his second wife, in 1938 Smith married Jessie Ella Evans; they had no children....
