The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1911-10-30
Cruise Of the Yacht coronet From the
Holy Land to America Cost
Lives of Eight
Members.
THE HOLY GHOST CULT
Leader sandford Had Complete Con-
troll Over the Followers Of
His Peculiar
Religion.

Leader" Frank W. Sandford under
arrest, held for investigation follow
ing the narrowing cruise on his yacht
Coronet during which eight of his
followers, members of the Holy
Ghost and Us" sect, died, John Adam
son, twenty years of age, member
of the Coronet crew, today lies
critically Ill, because Of Sandford's
fanatical religious beliefs. Seven OF
Sandford's followers died aboard the
Coronet and John Bolster, the eighth.
blacksmith, died in a hospital at
Portland. OF the other seven. four
able bodied men died of starvation.
one child of convusions as the result
of an enforced fast, one old man died
of dropsy and another Of fever.
Adamson's condition, physicians
say, is entirely due to lack Of proper
food. or no food at all, he, with the
others participating in the many
fasts enforced by sandford during
! the wierd cruise. Sandford, however,
always had two fat meals for himself
each day.
With Sanford under arrest and
/ the whole state of Maine aroused by
the horrible conditions discovered
aboard the Coronet when she put in
to Portland harbor week ago, a rig
Id investigation is certain.
The cruise from the holy land Is
the climax of Sandford's many pill
grimages.
The amazing cSxtroI Sanford had
4 over his followers is shown now,
! They seem even the more faithful
though Shiloh is wavering and they
themselves are poverty stricken ana
half starved. 1t is, however that
with the prosecution OF Sandforo the
Holy Ghost and Us movement VIII
! pass out of existence. or collapse,
! like Zion City did when Dowie died.
r A man of peculiar religious beliefs
s even when he attended Bates college,
q at Lewiston, Maine, Sanford enter
e ed the Baptist ministry only to be-
I come a sort Of wandering exhorter,
e and finally returning to his native
, hearth. he declared himself the re-
incarnation of the Prophet Elijah and
King David He proclaimed he had
received divine command to build a
u temple on a sandy hilltop near Dur.
ham.
His assertion that he was the
Prophet Elijah seemed to convince
the simple country folk who flocked
to him in religious stampede. Ihe
:. temple known as THE Gates oi
u Praise" was completed at cost var
, iously estimated at from $4,000 tc
$3.50 900 all the funds being provided
: by Sandfords flock, which grew te
number three hundred. Sandforo
taught his followers that he had beer
: appointed to purify the world pre-
paratory to the second coming OF tnt
Savior. and that Shiloh community
was the nucleus of a reformed hu
;, manity
u The devotion of Sandford's follow
= ers was absolute Their money, thei
= lands and their labors We're at MI
command Funds were provided AM
e missionaries were scattered to th
{ four winds The cruise OF the Coronet
IT started a year ago, was for the hol
land.
But with his many fanatical beilef
Sandford made many enemies, sever
: al of his followers died under circum
l. stances indicating they had been in
e properly nourished and without med
e cal attention Threats of crimina
g prosecutions and suits to recove
e lands kept thr lender lcbnstarltI
N lodging worldly officials.
Belief that Sanford could war
off all evil in his daily talks wit
Cod" has wavered with continue
lg hardships and within the past fe
N years the Shiloh community ha
NJ ceased to grow, The more faithf'
IS were taken on the cruise to the hol
Id land
n. Since his arrest sandford's vii
u and five children have disappeared
"a -------------