A virtual tour of Father Divine’s Ulster County ‘Heavens’

Posted 2/13/19

In the 1930’s, Father Divine’s “heavens” were not quite paradise perhaps, but they certainly offered a better life on earth for members of his International Peace Mission …

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A virtual tour of Father Divine’s Ulster County ‘Heavens’

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In the 1930’s, Father Divine’s “heavens” were not quite paradise perhaps, but they certainly offered a better life on earth for members of his International Peace Mission Movement, who followed him to communes in the Promised Land of Ulster County. Richard (Rik) Rydant told the story of Father Divine – an African American religious and civil rights leader –at the recent February program of the Town of Lloyd Historical Preservation Society in Highland (TOLHPS).

It was during the Great Depression, and many of the followers were from the deep South, where the combination of segregation and hard times encouraged them to follow the charismatic religious leader north. They ended up in Harlem, but even there life was difficult. So when Father Divine promised them a better life in the “heavens” of rural Ulster County, they packed their few belongings and headed further north, lured by the opportunity to prosper through their own hard work and the expectation of everlasting life.

They were a racially integrated group, who brought with them a willingness to work hard, bolstered by a religious fervor that prohibited drinking, smoking, cursing, and sex, even between husbands and wives. With separate buildings for men and women, they were segregated by gender but not by color.


Father Divine: The Man
Rydant began his presentation with some background on the early life of the man who would become Father Divine. His real name, Rydant revealed, was George Baker, although many of his followers, who revere him as the embodiment of God on earth, debate that. He was born in Rockville, MD in the late 1870’s and died in 1965 in Gladyne, PA, outside Philadelphia.

“We don’t really know much about him,” Rydant admitted. “He kept no records, no membership lists. He had no money of his own. The IRS kept after him, trying to find out where he got his money, but all the Peace Mission’s money was pooled into cooperatives for his followers.”

But even without money of his own, Father Divine always dressed impeccably, thanks to the seamstress skills of his followers who altered the second-hand suits he always wore. There were critics who thought his cars looked a little too impressive also, but the cars were always old – and very well maintained.

At around age 20, he was working in the Baltimore area. He tried to join a labor union there, but Blacks were excluded. Soon he joined the followers of a self-proclaimed minister promoting “new thought” philosophy, much like Norman Vincent Peale’s power of positive thinking. Soon, he established his own ministry. He once gave a lecture attended by songwriter Johnny Mercer, leading to Mercer composing his song, “Accentuate the Positive.”

Around 1915, Father Divine married his first wife, known as “Sweet Penny.” Most of his followers adopted new names, Rydant said. Working with author Carleton Mabee, Rydant compiled a list of about 50 such names of followers.

Father and Mother Divine moved north, first to Harlem, then Brooklyn. What propelled him from a near-nobody into the leadership of a large movement? In Brooklyn, he opened an employment agency for Black domestics. His first handful of clients pooled their money and formed a cooperative. Then an advertisement appeared for property for sale in Sayville, Long Island. The seller specified he would sell to colored people. The co-op snapped it up in 1919, and the International Peace Mission still owns it today. People from all across the country came to visit the movement’s new headquarters in Sayville, and many neighbors hired Father Divine’s followers as domestics and outdoor workers, and were very satisfied.

But there were other residents of the area who were less happy with their new neighbors and began to complain about noise. The group self-imposed a 7 pm deadline for singing and foot-stomping. Father Divine sold his noisy Hudson and bought a much quieter Cadillac. But that didn’t satisfy the neighbors, who really wanted the entire group gone. He and his followers were arrested in 1931 and tried in 1932 for disturbing the peace. With a judge who acted like a prosecuting attorney, the jury found them guilty but asked for leniency. Instead, they were fined $500 and sentenced to two years in jail. The charges were eventually dropped, but the judge died suddenly six days after sentencing. Asked what he thought about the judge’s dying, Father Divine exclaimed, “I certainly hated to do it!”

“Now,” said Rydant, “Everyone thought he had super-human powers and his followers grew.” In 1935 Time Magazine estimated his world-wide following at two million. Rydant thought that number was probably exaggerated. He estimated more like 50 thousand who really supported Father Divine and 10 thousand who did so actively.

With Sayville still less than hospitable, Father Divine opened his Number 1 Heaven back in Manhattan at 123rdrd Street and Lexington Avenue.

On to the Promised Land
Then, “like Moses led his flock out of Egypt, Father Divine led his people to the Promised Land from Harlem,” Rydant said. Not that Ulster County was perfect. It was known as red neck country and the KKK was very active there, Rydant revealed. But Father Divine figured that if he could succeed there, he could set an example for the rest of the state and the whole world and break down discrimination. On the plus side, access was easy with steamboats on the Hudson, two train lines, and only about 100 miles to travel by motor car from New York City. Also, since this was mid-depression, there were plenty of properties for sale.

The first property he bought was in 1935 in New Paltz, not far from the current Wallkill View Farm and the State Fair Grounds. The group was not warmly welcomed at first, but as they spent a lot of money in local stores, they were viewed more favorably.

The second purchase was on Cherry Hill Road, just outside High Falls. Rydant showed a number of slides of properties there, purchased and converted by Father Divine into various small businesses: grocery stores, a bakery, a dress shop, and department store, an economy store, gas station, and several others. Rydant, himself a High Falls resident, said the town was Father Divine’s favorite Ulster County spot. He had about 1000 people in the area.
On roads leading outward from High Falls toward places like Samsonville, Olivebridge, Rosendale, Krumville, Kerhonkson, and Stone Ridge, Father Divine’s followers worked farms, raising cattle, chickens, and ducks for their own use, for sale, and for providing for other “heavens.” In all, Father Divine’s movement owned about 80 properties in the county.

Troubles in Paradise
Not that there were no problems in the Promised Land. In Highland, for example, a Heaven near where Lowe’s Store burned to the ground. But other issues were even more fundamental, threatening to undercut the movement. The death of the first Mother Divine undermined the conviction among followers that they would live forever. Father Divine married again, to a young white woman from British Columbia, proclaiming her a reincarnation of his first wife. Mother Divine 2 outlived her husband by many years and managed to keep the movement going for some time.

Rydant also showed a slide of a woman called Faithful Mary. She was the number two person in the International Peace Movement. But [Un]faithful Mary, as Rydant renamed her, wrote a book called God He’s Only a Man, that accused Father Divine of things like having sex with young women in the heavens. Among some critics, her accusations survive today.

Then there was the case of a husband and wife who had contributed thousands of dollars to the movement. But they broke away and sued to get their money back. Shortly after that, Father Divine and many followers moved to the Philadelphia area, where he lived the rest of his life. From there he did periodically visit the remaining Ulster County heavens. The movement still exists in Philadelphia where it built a Father Divine Library. “You can visit it on Sundays in summer,” Rydant advised.

Rydant summed up his own impressions of Father Divine by saying, “I have a lot of respect for him. He put into practice what many of us only say we believe in.”