The Amazing Story of Matthias the Prophet. Notebook 2025-1

Robert Matthews (The Prophet Matthias)

Murder, sex, beatings, wife swapping, moral, religious hypocrisy…and it all happened here, in what’s now Briarcliff Manor.  The year was 1834 (remember that Briarcliff Manor was not incorporated as a village until 1902). The events described below took place where a high-end condominium called “Beechwood” now stands in the Village of Briarcliff Manor, on the southwest intersection of Route 9 and Scarborough Station Road.

Where it all happened. Beechwood as it looks today.


FOR A SENSATIONAL TAKE ON THE STORY.

“About a hundred years ago, some really terrible things did happen here.  Didn’t Alfred tell you about the murders?”

We both looked up at Alfred Mills, who had been standing there the whole time as if ready to deal with some emergency.  His hand was resting on a sideboard next to a flashlight and a box of candles as though he expected the lights to go out at any moment, but they flickered only slightly as the storm raged outside.  He shook his head.  “I don’t like to stir things up by talking about them.  I think they hear us, and it’s best to leave things be”.

“Oh, you really must tell me.  I’m not afraid of these things, really…Please.” I sat back in my chair.

Alfred proceeded.  “I forgot all about the mad bishop, really.  You kind of get used to him after a while.  It’s rare, but every now and then I do still hear him skulking about in the hall at night.  He wouldn’t hurt anyone – he’s quite dead you know”.

“We have a kind of gentlemen’s agreement: I don’t bother him and he doesn’t bother me.  I forgot all the details about what really happened here, but they’re on file at the White Plains Village Hall – I mean about the murder and all.”

Mr. Vanderlip leaned forward and took a deep breath.  “I’m afraid it’s all true.  I was about eight years old when they discovered one of the bodies walled up in the old Dutch oven in the basement.  I saw them remove the bones one by one, along with a large gold crucifix.  It was very unsettling.”

“As I understand it, there was this self-proclaimed prophet, a religious fanatic.  ‘The Mad Mathias’ they called him. He wore a heavy gold cross around his neck.  I’m told he was something of a flamboyant character.  He had a footman who drove him around town in a gold chariot with six white horses – not exactly your normal thing for this conservative community”

“Anyway, the story is that he poisoned, stabbed, and strangled five beautiful young virgins here in the house and buried them in the floor in the basement.  There was enough evidence to convict him of the crimes, but during the well-publicized murder trial Mathias disappeared and everyone just assumed that Mathias had somehow escaped and fled the country.  In fact, the footman, who had been in love with one of the murdered girls, killed Mathias with an ax.”

“The murder went undiscovered for some time, until we moved into the house and one of the servants noticed that there were more chimneys than there were fireplaces,” he stated very calmly.

“The Dutch oven was in fact hidden from view by a large wooden armoire,” he continued.  “It wasn’t until it was moved that they noticed there was something odd about the way the hearth had been walled up with bricks.  I remember the servants had, from time to time, claimed to hear and see things that were unusual, but no one had paid them any mind.  I personally have had no such experience of the kind, but Alfred here…” He looked up at our watchful host, who respectfully nodded.

Alfred responded: “Yes, indeed, you can hear footsteps and a kind of wheezing of labored breathing.  You see, Mathias was attacked so brutally, he tried to struggle up the stairs to get away, but he ended up being buried alive in the oven” he concluded, shaking his head at the horror of it all.

“Good God!” I said.  “That is the worst story I’ve ever heard!”

The above is taken from a Chapter on Beechwood in a book called “Phantoms of the Hudson Valley.  The glorious Estates of a Lost Era”, by Monica Randall. The conversation involves the Author, Monica Randall; The owner, Frank Vanderlip, Jr; and the caretaker, Alfred Mills.  The book was published in 1995 at which point Frank Vanderlip, Jr. was in his eighties.

I’ve read quite a lot about what happened and I’ve never come across anything that suggested that the events described above might be true..

WHAT REALLY HAPPENED

For many years the US had largely followed Calvinist influenced Puritan beliefs.  One of these beliefs was the Calvinist principle of predestination. The term “predestination” means that believers are preordained or chosen to be among the elect of God before they were born. In other words, Puritans believed that an individual’s fate was decided before he had the ability to choose. Predestination also implied that there was nothing an individual could do to be saved. They could participate in the sacraments and follow God’s law, but only God could choose who went to heaven or who deserved eternal damnation. The Puritan world was a man’s world. Women did not participate in town meetings and were excluded from decision making in the church. Puritan ministers furthered male supremacy in their writings and sermons. They preached that the soul had two parts, the immortal masculine half, and the mortal feminine half.

However, change was coming.  In in the early 1800s “The Second Great Awakening”, a Protestant religious revival spread religion through emotional preaching. This led to the creation of many reform movements. “The Second Great Awakening”, started around 1800, reached its peak by 1820, and was in decline by 1840.  The movement believed every person’s soul could be saved by the public acceptance of Jesus Christ as his or her personal savior.  Wandering preachers, such as Charles Granison Finney, went from location to location speaking at “camp meetings” about personal salvation. The meetings were also designed to encourage participants to take action to eliminate sin from society. Many women were active in the movement.

THE MAIN PLAYERS

ELIJAH PEARSON (Elijah the Tishbite)

Elijah Pierson was born in Morristown, New Jersey. He was a descendant of Puritans, who was was raised as a Presbyterian. In his youth, he apprenticed to be a clerk in Manhattan and by age 34 had his own retail business on Manhattan’s Pearl Street. Around the same time, he became an evangelical and a male elder of “The Female Missionary Society for the Poor of New York and Its Vicinity.”

He met and married Sarah Stanford, whose father was a Baptist minister and subsequently left the Presbyterian Church to join Sarah’s Baptist congregation. Francis Folger taught “retrenchment” (an ultra-evangelical movement prohibiting luxury in diet, clothing, and home furnishings). Sarah started attending his prayer meetings and Elijah followed her. The Retrenchment Society met at the home of Francis Folger’s brother and sister-in-law: Benjamin and Ann Folger. Both Elijah and Sarah became heavily involved, began living on bread and water and fasting for long periods. Elijah’s business continued to do well, but their home was almost completely devoid of furnishings.

Elijah applied for a license to become a Baptist minister. However, this was not granted, and he left the Baptist church to form his own independent church on Manhattan’s Bowery Hill.  With Sarah, he started a mission for the prostitutes of the notorious Five Points neighborhood.  Elijah. Constantly prayed for God’s help.  He also claimed that God spoke to him. In 1830 Sarah became ill and shortly afterwards passed away. Elijah attempted to bring her back to life repeating the words, “The Lord shall raise him up.” This went on for several hours to no avail and over the next few months Elijah’s congregation lost faith in him and with few exceptions (e.g. the Folgers) they left his ministry.

 

ROBERT MATTHEWS (The Prophet Matthias)

Robert Mathew’s parents died when he was only seven years old. He was raised by the elders of the “Anti-Burgher,” sect of the Presbyterian Church. Apart from a short period as a successful store owner with a wife and young family he devoted himself to a misguided quest for religious truth. He preached on street corners in Manhattan and briefly attended an African Methodist church. Newspaper editor Mordecai Manuel Noah (who planned to set up a homeland for American Jews) became an influence. Mathews proclaimed that he was not Christian at all, and that his ancestors had been Hebrews. He later moved to Albany where he tried to join an evangelical Christian church.  He was turned down for his unconventional religious views.

On June 20, 1830, Mathews was arrested for disrupting a church service in Argyle, New York. After his arrest, Robert Mathews moved back to Manhattan and changed his name to the Prophet Matthias.  The name may possibly refer to the apostle Matthias who replaced Judas, or maybe to Jan Matthys, a 16th century Dutch reformer. He preached on street corners, proclaiming a coming male-dominated, Kingdom of God, with himself as its leader.

 

ISABELLA VAN WAGENEN (a servant)

A housekeeper for Elijah Pierson. In 1833, she was hired by Robert Matthews.  She went to work for him as a housekeeper in the communal settlement, and became a member of the group

 

BENJAMIN AND ANN FOLGER

Benjamin Folger was a wealthy, well-respected businessman in New York City. He was deeply involved in the evangelical religious movement, which aimed to reform Christianity to focus less on obeying the male head of household and more on personal salvation and motherly love. Benjamin held frequent prayer meetings at his home and through these meetings, he became acquainted with Elijah Pierson and Pierson’s odd friend Matthias. Benjamin joined their cause and handed over financial control of his estate to Matthias. The group all moved to Benjamin’s upstate home and began their cult, “The Kingdom of Matthias,” which Benjamin funded with ongoing business deals.

His wife Ann plays a major role in what happens next.

 

THE STORY CONTINUES

 

Devastated by his wife’s death Elijah Pierson abandoned his business and let his hair and beard grow. In May 1832 he received a visit from Matthews/Matthias who told him that he was wrong to pray for the Son’s Kingdom as it was it was the Father’s Kingdom that was imminent. Elijah claimed that it was that same day that Jesus first spoke to him. Elijah believed that he was Matthias’s “John the Baptist” and became Matthias’s disciple.  He never preached again. All that summer Matthias preached loudly against the 1800 years of Christian misrule, women, and devils.

Many of those enticed by his sermons, including Elijah Pierson and Benjamin Folger, were wealthy men and they furnished Matthias with the luxuries that they had denied themselves. When he appeared in public Matthias wore: “a black cap of japanned leather shaped like an inverted cone; a military frock coat of the best green cloth, lined with pink or white silk and decorated with gold braid, frogs, and fancy buttons; ruffles at his wrists and a black cravat; a fine silk vest and a crimson sash that he also wore around the house; green or black pantaloons; and (depending on the weather) sandals or Wellington boots, highly polished and worn outside the pants. He wore the fine two-edged sword that came from Him who was first and last, and he carried the iron rod with which he would rule the world.”

Meanwhile, Benjamin and Ann Folger had moved, 30 miles north of New York City to a mansion and 29 acres of land bordering the Village of Sing Sing. They named it Heart Place. Matthias visited and concluded that was the ideal place to start his Kingdom.  He named it “Mount Zion” and brought some of his followers there. Each one was given a household job based on what he saw in their Spirit. Things started to go wrong when he began to assign sexual partners to himself and his followers. Matthias insisted that his followers call him “Father”.  He then decided that Ann Folger was to become the “Mother” of a “spiritual generation” and that he would father her first spiritual child. He then pronounced that her Christian marriage to Benjamin Folger was invalid and that Ann was his “match spirit;” and that he would find another wife for him. Ann was apparently agreeable to all of this.

Benjamin Folger was sent to Albany to fetch the Prophet’s children by a former marriage. On his return, he announced that he had slept with Matthias’s married daughter, Isabella Laisdel. The Prophet’s response was to severely beat his daughter. He then he pronounced that Benjamin and Isabella were actually “match spirits” and should be married, something they were both apparently agreeable to. However, Isabella was already married to a man named Charles Laisdell. Mr. Laisdell contacted to authorities and the Kingdom was forced to submit to secular law.  This led to a number of legal actions against the Kingdom. To make matters worse, Elijah Pierson was slowly deteriorating. He had begun having nervous fits before leaving New York and at Mount Zion they became more frequent and severe. Matthias would not agree to seeking medical care, claiming that Pierson was inhabited by “fitty devils” that had to be fought with prayer only.

In July 28, 1834, after eating two plates of blackberries at dinner, Elijah became violently ill. Matthias would not allow any doctors or medical aid. Elijah agreed, saying only prayer would save him. He was left alone, lying in his own vomit and excrement and on the morning of August 6, 1834 Elijah Pierson was found dead. An autopsy took place and the two doctors who performed it declared Pierson had been poisoned. After Elijah’s death there was some dispute over who now owned the mansion and its land. Benjamin Folger claimed that Pierson had deeded it to him and Matthias also claimed it. Westchester County seized the property pending resolution of all the issues. Folger reported to the police that Matthias had stolen the property and money that was rightfully his. This led to Matthias’s arrest for the murder of Elijah Pierson, swindling Elijah Pierson and Benjamin Folger out of their property and for beating his daughter, Isabella Laisdale.  He was sent to the prison ward at Bellevue Hospital to await trial.

A trial began in November, 1935 in White Plains, NY.  Both Matthias and Van Wagenen were tried on the charges of the murder of Elijah Pierson and of swindling Benjamin Folger out of his property. Neither the prosecution nor the defense made any mention of the ownership of the farm or of the sexual practices at Mount Zion. The trial lasted for only four days. On the first day, Matthias was held in contempt of court for ranting against grand juries. Justice Charles Ruggles then began a hearing on the defendant’s mental competence to stand trial. There was conflicting evidence, but the judge sided with the testimony of Matthias’s brother-in-law, that Matthias was insane about religious matters but sane about everything else. To be unfit for trial, the judge said, Matthias would need to be “insane on all subjects.”

The trial continued with medical testimony. Under cross-examination the testimony of the two autopsy doctors did not hold up. The doctor who had chemically analyzed Elijah’s stomach testified that there was no poison. Matthias’s attorneys asked the judge for dismissal. Judge Ruggles agreed that there was not enough evidence to convict Matthias of murder and the charges were dropped. The prosecution then called for the immediate trial of Matthias for assault on his daughter, Isabella Laisdell. The defense introduced a letter from Isabella forgiving her father and, on the stand, she admitted to signing it. However, her husband, Charles Laisdell testified that he had not forgiven Matthias. In his instructions to the jury Judge Ruggles stated that, though a father may have the right to whip a child, he lost that right once she was married. Matthias was found guilty of assault and sentenced to three months in county jail with an additional thirty days for contempt.

Matthias left New York State after serving his sentence. In 1835 he went to Kirkland, Ohio and using the name Joshua the Jewish Minister, he met with Joseph Smith, founder of the Church of Latter-Day Saints. They dined together and Smith allowed the visitor to preach to his congregation. However, the two parted on unfriendly terms with each publicly saying that the other was possessed by the devil. Matthias’ brief stay in the Ossining area and the scandal he created has been all but forgotten.

However, Isabella van Wagenen’s story is far from forgotten. In the last couple of paragraphs in their excellent book: “The Kingdom of Matthias.  A Story of Sex and salvation in 19th Century Americas”, Paul E. Johnson and Sean Wilentz write:

Benjamin Folger attempted paint himself and Ann as helpless victims who were corrupted by Isabella Van Wagenen. Isabella was appalled by Benjamin’s accusations, and she (amazingly) successfully sued Benjamin for slander. Isabella became convinced that all of her labors in New York had been a failure.  Her life, she thought had been wrapped up in a great drama, which was itself but one great system of robbery and wrong, whereby the rich robbed the poor and the poor robbed each other.  She must leave New York, she decided; she must find a way to give up all desire for money and power and truly live out the Golden Rule (i.e. Treat others as you would like others to treat you).  For years Isabella pondered these things until finally, in June 1843, the Spirit called her eastward, which is where she headed – first to the city of Brooklyn, then out into Long Island (where she lectured and prayed) and eventually up into New England.  She made contact with a variety of sectarians and reformers, from Millerites to Shakers; in time she would join the abolitionists, who would help her project an expertly crafted image as an indomitable, prayerful freed women who had labored hard in the service of white men all her life. She had escaped the sexual contamination that had surrounded her (and stricken her fellow servant, Catherine Galloway), mainly, by her own account because she was “near forty, not handsome, and colored”.  But the Kingdom had marked her all the same.

A dozen years earlier, God had come to Robrt Matthews and told her that he was the Prophet Matthias.  After that Matthias called himself a traveler, the Spirit of Truth.  Isabella van Wagenen, who had taken the surname of the man who had bought her freedom, and who had learned how to crush her enemies with truth also became a traveler and God renamed her too. About an hour before she left Manhattan, she told her mistress, Mrs. Whiting that the Spirit had spoken to her and that she was not Isabella any longer. And so, the world would come to know her as the ex-slave Sojourner Truth.

Isabella Van Wagenen otherwise known as Sojourner Truth

Karen Smith