Mary's City of David: Israelite House of David, page 1

When I was a young man, I had the opportunity to live in Benton Harbor, Michigan, for a short duration. During my time there, I learned of a group, so powerful in the community, that the knowledge of it still crosses my mind today.

Originally, I remember my grandfather, taking me to an amusement park. I recall miniature steam trains that would take riders on a short trip around the park. I recall the pinball halls. I was young and it was just a park to me.

As I became a teenager, I recall, many other revelations of this group. My buddie's and I, would sneak off in the woods and have a couple of beers, when the parents were un-aware. I heard stories of the House of David. Eventually we would end up in the general area of this so called religeon. I remember sneaking thru the woods, and we would come to this three story mansion, in complete overgrowth, as the building had long been abandon. We would venture thru it, and I recall reading brochures found in the basement. They meant nothing to me at the time.

On other occasions, we would drive up to the main house, which was a huge mansion. It was white, and was recessed into the property. We would sneak around and rummage thru the junk in the sheds, located in the rear of the property. A few years ago, I heard this building burned down, at least partially.

We would fantasize of finding the buried treasure that King Ben had been buried with. We would tell jokes about the fact that King Ben would ceremoniously consumate any marriages within the sect, and sect members.

As I have long since moved away, I occasionally do a little reading on the subject. Here is some other information, to give an idea of the size of this organization, and it's belief's and practices.

Mary's City of David: Israelite House of David

In 1620 in England, Joanna Southcott announced that she was the 1st of Seven Messengers to be sent by God to save the world. When the Seventh Messenger arrived, all who believed in him would be granted everlasting life (cf, Revelation 10:7). In 20 years, she collected 100,000 followers. She attempted to create the Second Messenger by immaculate conception, went into a trance, but instead of giving birth, she died. Subsequent messengers were Richard Brothers, George Turner, William Shaw, John Wroe, and James Zerell.

By the mid-1800s, under John Wroe, the church had adopted mosaic law; outlawed shaving and haircutting (according to Scripture, "man is the head of the woman") Also added a "cleansing of the blood" ritual: Messengers were responsible for deflowering all the virgins in their flock before they married. Zerell, the Sixth Messenger, collected the sermons of the previous Messengers into a book called the Flying Roll; henceforth, members of the group became known as Flying Rollers.

The group was chased out of Britain in the late 1800s when news of the blood cleansing rite was leaked to the press. The group split in three and moved to Australia, Canada and U.S.A. By 1890, the largest group was in Detroit Michigan under Michael Mills, a.k.a. Prince Mike, the Seventh (and last) Angelic Messenger. Prince Mike's followers tithed 100 percent of their wages to him, but after he announced in 1894 that the wives in the group would become common property and rotated among the men of the group, his wife, prompted by a man named Benjamin Purnell, sued him for divorce. In the course of the proceedings, she named all of Mike's mistresses; a lynch mob was formed and morals charges were levelled based on the blood cleansing rite. Mike was sentenced to prison for five years and Ben Purnell happily took over.

Now, obviously Ben Purnell couldn't be the Eighth Messenger, so he said that Prince Mike was an imposter messenger and that he, Ben Purnell, was the real Seventh Messenger. A schism erupted and Ben left the group with may defectors. Ben moved to the town of Fostoria, Ohio, and renamed the group Israelite House of David. He started taking on the persona of Christ -- he cut his hair and beard like Christ and, more tellingly, said he was Christ's younger brother. In 1903, however, he was hustled out of Fostoria after his daughter died and he haughtily refused to bring her back to life. The group migrated to Benton Harbor, Michigan, where he hooked up with 200 Flying Rollers living there.

During the next 23 years, Ben amassed a 10 million dollar fortune (according to Hidden Treasure: Where To Find It, How to Get It there may still be $1 million to $12 million hidden somewhere in Benton Harbor), owned farms, factories, buildings (each with a biblical name), a town of 900 people, a baseball team and an amusement park. He crowned himself King Benjamin, and his sermons took on an adventist fire and brimstone quality. He quartered his followers in simple buildings. They were not allowed to own anything, no tobacco or alcohol, no meat-eating, wear cheap clothes and long flowing robes, no kissing for PDA, and women and men were married off in mass weddings after Ben performed the blood cleansing rite.

His amusement park was an enormous success. He was selling 200,000 tickets a summer, operated entirely by his grim, bearded followers in their flowing robes. His baseball team was also enormously successful, part-athletic, part-vaudville. They started out on the local circuit, then went semi-pro, then went out on nationwide tours, barnstorming around, taking on anyone. The team, however, was exposed in their practise of hiring professionals and dressing them in wigs and fake beards.

Morals charges were filed against him in 1910, 1914, 1919, and 1922. The Detroit Free Press ran a series of expos�s on the cult in 1923 and called for the state attorney general to act. They raided his colony frequently but couldn't find him -- he was assumed to have fled to Canada. On November 16th, 1926, Bessie Daniels walked into a police station and said Purnell was living in a secret underground chamber in his mansion. They raided it and found him in bed with his harem of soon-to-be-ex-virgins. Trials and lawsuits followed, and he died November 16th, 1927. As of 1992, the group, still based in Benton Harbor, MI, reported 60 members.

The Israelite House of David was reorganized by Mary Purnell after Ben Purnell died in 1927. The House of David was wracked with lawsuits from former members who claimed fraud and abuse. The church was also split when Ben's wife, Mary Purnell suddenly claimed to be the Seventh Messenger (the third one so far) instead of her husband (she apparently amended her claim later: she was, in fact, Co-Seventh Messenger with her husband.) The courts awarded her half the church's property and about half the church followed her. The teaching is identical with that of the House of David.

A website exists with a brief history and info.
www.israelitehouseofdavid.org...

As well as the later group re-established.
www.maryscityofdavid.org...

Some interesting facts about the group...

It allowed women to vote and hold office, 17 years before the 19th Amendment that gave all adult women in the United States that right.

It's credited with inventing bowling's automatic pin-setters and sugar-waffle ice cream cones.

Its traveling men's baseball team competed in the first night game ever played on a permanently lit field.

The religious sect was once a powerful economic force in Berrien County, says R. James Taylor, spokesman for the City of David that split from the House of David in 1930.

How powerful? Taylor said that when several sect males had their job requests rejected by the company that operated Benton Harbor's street cars, the colony bought a majority share of the firm and immediately put the men to work.

Taylor said the firm apparently had been put off by the appearance of the men, who grew beards and wore their hair long to conform with their religious beliefs.

Another sect belief, celibacy, even for married couples, is largely the reason the House of David and City of David have so few members today. Taylor said the City of David has just seven residents on the Britain Avenue property bordering the House of David site.

The House of David, he said, has just four.

One of that handful is Lloyd Dalenger, who's believed to be the last surviving member of the colony's once famous baseball teams. Players for the House of David were the first to stage "pepper games'' and the first to play a night game, on Apr. 17, 1930, in Independence, Kan.

A House of David team also defeated the major league St. Louis Cardinals in 1933, the year before the Cardinals won the World Series. The starting pitcher for the House of David in that game was Jackie Mitchell, professional baseball's first female performer.

Taylor said the baseball teams' purpose wasn't so much to win games as it was to advertise the colony and attract new members.

Taylor said it was because of Mary Purnell, the wife of sect founder Benjamin Purnell, that the colony settled in Benton Harbor in 1903. Taylor said Mary received the name "Benton Harbor'' in a divine inspiration, and Benjamin decided to put down roots in the city after finding the town on a map.

"God was bent on harboring His people'' here, Benjamin reportedly exclaimed.

A traveling preacher and former broom maker, Benjamin claimed to be the last of seven prophets the Lord would use to gather the 144,000 people from the 12 lost tribes of Israel.

Although the sect's membership never approached that number, Benjamin's charisma and remarkable business sense was largely responsible for swelling its population to a respectable 1,000 in just 13 years. Its traveling baseball teams served as a drawing card, as did its talented bands, its Eden Springs Amusement Park and its pure spring water marketed in Chicago .

When Benjamin died of diabetes and tuberculosis 11 days after the civil suit's conclusion, the colony split. Taylor said roughly half sided with H. T. Dewhirst, who kept the sect's books, and 216 others followed Mary Purnell to an undeveloped property up the road that would become generally known as Mary's City of David.

When Mary died in 1953, Taylor said the second generation of leadership "closed the door to things'' and resulted in the City of David becoming an unknown entity in the community. Only in the last few years, after Taylor opened a museum and established seasonal tours, has there been renewed public attention and efforts to distribute religious materials.

It's a major step to join the colony, Taylor said, because members are required to contribute all their possessions. He said the latest new member is Carl Payne, who joined the City of David six or seven years ago.

Some interesting reading of their baseball teams.
www.baseballlibrary.com... .stm

If your in the neighborhood, there are accomidations available still.
travel.michigan.org...