69:. Sandford encouraged his followers to donate all their property to the church and live communally at Shiloh. As a missionary for the Society, Higgins had made about 15 converts in the town of Levant, including some prosperous farmers who had been induced to give up their property to the church. Known locally as 'Higginsites', the sect was blamed by townspeople for the suicide of an elderly blind woman who was one of its members, and for administering a beating to a child whom Higgins had claimed was possessed by a demon.
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of Maine recounted that when he challenged the
Ambassador of China over the bad treatment received by some American missionaries in that country, in 1899, Ambassador Wu brought up the "Levantine Affair" (Higgin's tarring and feathering) as a counter-example of domestic religious intolerance, leaving
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Two of Levant's selectmen asked
Higgins to leave town, which he refused to do. A mob of about 150, some of whom were masked, dragged Higgins from the house of disciple Ruel Clement one night in 1899, stripped him naked, covered him with hot tar, and applied a coat of chicken feathers. He was then
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In 1901 Ruel
Clement contracted typhoid and died without taking medicine or seeing a doctor, believing his faith would cure him. Higgins returned to Levant to conduct the funeral.
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ridden to the edge of town on a wooden rail, and left there with the warning not to return. He did return to
Clement's house, however, and Clement's complaint to the Sheriff of
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in 1899, and resulted in the trial of 29 members of a mob numbering about 150 persons.
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117:"Dies Under Prayer Cure", New York Times, Mar. 7, 1901, p. 1
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to be subjected to the traditional mob-led humiliations of
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of 29 people, many of them 'solid citizens' of Levant.
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108:Lewiston Evening Journal, June 9, 1899, p. 1
172:Tarring and feathering in the United States
53:. The Holy Ghost and Us Society was a
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26:. He was probably the last person in
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22:was an American minister of the
77:led to the arrest and trial in
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38:. The incident occurred in
57:religious sect founded by
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128:Press and Horticulturalist
147:People from Calais, Maine
24:Holy Ghost and Us Society
167:Penobscot County, Maine
61:, and headquartered at
157:American faith healers
32:tarring and feathering
130:Dec. 18, 1900, p. 4
49:Higgins was from
92:Hale speechless.
20:George W. Higgins
16:American minister
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79:Bangor
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