Shiloh’s Messenger of Wisdom.
Devoted to the Ingathering of Israel.
1905—1945?
Benton Harbor, MI. Editor: Benjamin (Benjamin Franklin Purnell, 1861-1927).
1/1, 1905-1945(?) Fifty cents a year. 8 pp. Noted in S.C. Gould, "Arcane Societies in the United States. III," Notes and Queries 26/9 (October 1908), under “The Israel House of David.”

This was the American extension of the group centered around the teachings of James J. Jezreel. See the note under The Flying Roll. The members of the House of David, while awaiting the Ingathering of Israel for the chosen 144,000, refused to cut their hair and beards and, uniquely among religious cultists, made their living by playing exhibition baseball games, quite successfully and flamboyantly, against both local and national teams and even teams in the Negro Leagues. Curiously, the often jailed Editha Diss Debar, one of the most notorious and flamboyant spirit-painting mediums and later claimant to H.P. Blavatsky’s mantle, was for a time about 1909 the head of the group under the name of Elinor I. Mason. NYPL; Hamilton College; Clarke Historical Library; University of Michigan; University of Minnesota; Library of Michigan; Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

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