Finding a Home of Truth in Utah’s Unforgiving Land

The story of Marie M. Ogden and her metaphysical world

DRAFT

Joel J. Campbell

Associate Professor

Brigham Young University

Edited Dec. 18, 2014

Introduction

When Wallace Stegner, the noted writer and historian

of the American West, penned the book Mormon Country (1942),

he presented vignettes of life of Mormons and their

neighbors in the some of the most forbidding territory of

the American West. Tucked between chapters chronicling life

in tight-knit Mormon communities, mining camps, boom towns

and among immigrants, Stegner tells a story of his journey

to the sagebrush home of a metaphysical spiritualist.

Stegner takes readers down Highway 160 (now U.S. 191)

about 40 miles from Moab, Utah and 15 miles from Monticello,

Utah to a dusty trail that leads to from Outermost Point,

another mile to the Middle Portal, and still another mile to

the Inner Portal, where one might find the real “Home of

Truth” where Marie M. Ogden founded her colony of

metaphysical believers in 1933.

Stegner narrates his meeting with Home of Truth

believer Daisy Naden, “You are, it appears, on the very axis

of the earth – or would be if you went two miles on to the

Inner Portal where Marie lives. It is a good place to be,

because in the great and terrible last days, which are

coming upon us now according to prophecy and revelation,

only those on the axis will not be shaken down. Marie, you

discover, is Mrs. Marie Ogden, the founder of the utopian

colony. She controls and directs the community with the aid

of messages from the spirit world and Jesus Christ. The

messages come to her upon a hill near her house, and she

takes them down on her typewriter.”(Stegner, 1942, p. 333).

Like Stegner’s account, journalistic accounts from the

1930s and 1940s and more recent popular press retellings

have left the history of Marie Ogden and her Home of Truth

in the realm of the misunderstood and sensational. Even at

her death in 1975, followers were worried that her memory

would be tarnished by those who would belittle her. To spare

Ogden and her ideas further humiliation, the last surviving

follower destroyed many of her books and writings (Smith).

While Home of Truth believers may have once feared the

ridicule of outsiders, researchers have called for further

research one of the most obscure and under examined groups

of its type and period. They found that Ogden’s teachings

provide vital understanding to what at least one research

calls the “early new age of American religion.”

Understanding Ogden helps better define the emergence of

metaphysical religion and Western esotericism (Thayne 2009).

Along with its unique hybrid New Age belief system, the

movement also has a unique example for media and religion

scholars because Ogden owned a local newspaper from 1934-

1949 to both distribute and defend her teachings. It,

however, was no match for sensationalized media coverage

that journalists heaped on Ogden and the Home of Truth,

particularly between 1935 and 1937. At the climax of the

negative press, it is likely that Ogden’s assertion that she

could resurrect a body led most to leave her group.

Associated negative media coverage also likely disenchanted

one enthusiastic outside donors and supporters.

The Founder

It was 1883 when Marie Ogden was christened Mary

Margaret Matilda Schneider in May 1883 in St. James Catholic

Church in Newark, New Jersey. Her father, who worked as a

news dealer and stationer, was born in an area occupied by a

large German population that is now Lodz, Poland and her

mother was from Markirch in the Alsace region on disputed

border of France and Germany. There is evidence that German

was used in her home. (CITATION NEEDED) As for formal

education, Marie completed only the eighth grade (1920 U.S.

Federal Census). Available information shows she grew up in

the Episcopal Church and then married into a Presbyterian

family (Whitsel, 27-28).

Marie married successful insurance executive Isaac

Harry Ogden. Four years his junior, she was his second wife.

Harry’s first wife, Josephine, died in 1901 after one year

of marriage. By 1904, Harry and Marie were raising

daughter, Roberta and the 1910 Census indicates the Ogden

household was wealthy enough to employ a servant (U.S.

Federal Census, 1910).

It was 1929 when Harry’s untimely cancer death left

Marie, a wealthy widow and “clubwoman” in Newark, searching

for spiritual meaning. Ogden searched for comfort in

metaphysics and particularly to Spiritualism’s promise of

communication between this world and the next. She wanted to

understand the reasons for her husband’s death and seek the

answers to the mysteries of life (See Whitsel, 26, and

Thayne, 18-19).

For a time, she followed the work of William Dudley

Pelley and became active in his organization (Thayne 21).

Pelley described his out-of-body experience in The American

Magazine article, “Seven Minutes in Eternity, ” and launched

his his life direction as a spiritual leader. Pelley

believed he had been chosen to quicken the spiritual pace of

the human race after his other-worldly experience and his

receipt of communications from disembodied spirits. Having

read some of his work and after meeting Pelley, Ogden

supported his work financially and expected to rise in the

leadership in Pelley’s League of Liberators. She assisted

in setting up a Newark study center in 1931. By 1932,

however, Ogden had taken charge of the Newark center after

Pelley apparently had reneged on repaying a loan.

Furthermore, Ogden may have became disenchanted with his

shifting political leanings as well. She later distanced

herself from Pelley when he and his fascist and anti-Semitic

group come under government scrutiny (See Thayne, 22-23, and

Whitsel, 28).

Researchers Bradley C. Whitsel and Stanley J. Thayne

have made separate detailed analyses of the belief system of

Marie M. Ogden and her evolution from New Jersey club woman

to a leader of a isolated group of metaphysical believers in

the barren red rock Utah wilderness. Whitsel describes

Ogden’s belief system this way:

Combining aspects of Christian pre-millennialism,

Spiritualism, and the occult with disaster-focused

beliefs, the Home of Truth adhered to a syncretically

developed worldview. Although Ogden was a borrower

rather the originator of heterodox ideas, the

community was founded in the high desert region of

southeastern Utah in 1933 was nonetheless based on her

inspired convictions, where were informed by the

spirit world. (Whitsel 2009).

While Thayne situates Ogden’s beliefs under the broad

categories of metaphysical religion and Western esotericism,

he does so with reservations:

Ogden does not fit neatly into any of these categories,

though she exhibits resonance with and seems to have been

influenced by nearly all of them, at least indirectly if

not directly, through her reading and personal contacts.

There was a great melding of influences during the period

Ogden represents—a melding of ideas from sources that

just a few years earlier could be identified as separate

entities—at least organizationally if not ideologically.

This melding and its resultant complexity makes the Home

of Truth, like many other movements of the period,

difficult to categorize and thus difficult to talk about.

For this reason I argue her movement – The Home of Truth

– points to a significant and underdeveloped gap in the

historiography of American religion -- what I choose to

call the “early new age.” (Thayne 2009).

In a newspaper column labeled “Metaphysical Truths,”

Ogden wrote the following. “I am asked by many, ‘What is your

religion or belief?’ It is difficult to explain to the average

person that we cannot label it..” Thayne said she chose rather

to describe the spiritual basis of the community‘s praxis by

pitting it against the materialism of modern society. Ogden

wrote, “It is based on the most simple laws of living and

still the MOST DIFFICULT TO LIVE because there are so few in

the world today who are willing to ‘let go‘ of the material

things of life and return to such simplicity of living as will

allow them to think of the spiritual aspects of life” (See

Thayne, 6, and San Juan Record, 1934).

Perhaps Ogden’s most descriptive definitions of her

ideas came as she defended her work in the San Juan Record

against outside naysayers and critics. For example as the

group received negative publicity about an unburied corpse,

Marie M. Ogden wrote this:

“We regret the wide publicity being given to the case,

and the unkind words of comment expressed through the press

and by individuals concerning our methods of living and in

regard to our work and beliefs. We do accept and follow

Divine Guidance and in this sense may be ‘labeled” a

Religious organization, although to us the word ‘religion’

implies REVERENCE FOR THE DIVINE BEING CALLED GOD and a

desire to conduct ourselves and our affairs in such a manner

as will glorify His Name (capitalization retained from the

original)” (San Juan Record, Jun. 1935).

Among key points of belief extracted from Ogden’s

writings and other sources include the following:

Ogden had interest in astrology, numerology, and

pyramidism (Thayne, 8)

She taught of a coming New Age – the Aquarian Age –

and new order of living. Thayne places Marie Ogden

in what historian Philip Jenkins calls a “period of

emergence” from 1910 to 1935 where there was an

“esoteric boom” that he refers to as the “First New

Age,” predating New Age movements generally

associated with a 1960s counterculture catalyst that

grew into popularity in the 1970s and ‘80s. (Thayne,

13).

Ogden taught from the Aquarian Gospel.

She believed in reincarnation.

She believed she had the ability to bring back the

dead to material and spiritual life under her belief

in “Rebirth of the Soul.”

Her group practiced isolationism and communalism.

The Home of Truth was to serve a community of Elect

that would survive the forthcoming death of the

wicked and the end of materialistic way of human

existence.

She wrote that “man must begin all over again.” In

practice, for example, that required the use of

rough materials to build homes and buildings.

Spiritualism with the receipt of “messages” from

disembodied spirits or contact with the Higher

Realms as a spiritual medium.

She held a geo-centric belief that The Home of Truth

in San Juan County, Utah, was at the axis of the

Earth and had been shown to Ogden in a dream and

clarified through the vision of another “friend” in

Chicago.

Within the community itself, there were three

distinct geographic divisions created symbolic

organization. Human movement between each “portal”

represented progression to a more divine and

purified level. Those levels were described as an

“outer portal” group of buildings, a “middle portal”

cluster of buildings and an inner “portal” where

Ogden and the women of the community lived.

(Whitsel, 35)

Nearby Church Rock was also designated as the site

where Jesus Christ would return to Earth. The rock

itself sits almost at a straight line from the inner

portal at the north side of what locals call

“Photograph Gap.”

Marie Ogden was a “messenger from God,” but was one

of many serving in various places and ways.

A believe in a cataclysmic End Times before the

return of Jesus Christ. Ogden taught of a “three-

fold form of catastrophe” that would take place

before Christ’s coming, namely global darkness,

economic disruption and natural disturbances. The

greatest of these disturbances was to be a

tremendous earthquake resulting in the

reconfiguration of continents and the demise of most

human life on the planet (Whitsel, 29-30).

The group practiced elements of asceticism. Dietary

restrictions included a prohibition on the use of

tobacco and liquor. Colonists were semi-vegetarian,

but turned to local meat sources when they had

difficulty raising crops or gardens in Dry Valley.

(Whitsel, 34)

The arid desert also provided a fitting backdrop to

a life of asceticism.

Those familiar with the group said that most of its

members, who were nearly all single, abstained from

sex. (Whitsel, 35)

The Gathering Place

Ogden’s eventual move to so-called Photograph Gap in

southeastern Utah’s red rock landscape took some time. She

said she first received a “description and a mental picture

of the place and knew it was on virgin soil, far removed

from city life,” and in the “intermountain country.” It

wasn’t until a “friend,” the name Ogden gave believers, sent

her a letter saying she had had a dream of colony’s location

with the supertitle “Utah.” She eventually found the

location that she said matched her vision.

By 1933, followers gathered in remote Dry Valley in San

Juan County, with substantial numbers moving from Boise,

Idaho, and Chicago. Ogden bought the county newspaper, The

San Juan Record, and expanded the spread of her metaphysical

beliefs and her settlement. The initial settlement contained

1,280 acres (Thayne, 33), but later accounts put the land

size at 640 acres (Terrell).

At least at one point, Ogden had envisioned the return

of Jesus Christ to Church Rock, a large solitary column of

sandstone with a gumdrop shape near her community. It would

be the nearby Home of Truth that would provide a safe haven

during the cataclysmic last days of Earth. (McPherson, 308-

309)

The dry, yet majestic landscape took on spiritual

significance. Along with her colony’s organization along the

axis of one-mile spokes from the Home of Truth center,

because the desert was a place where “spiritual strength and

courage and renewed faith in the ultimate survival of that

which is good and right could be obtained.” She also saw her

settlement in vision when water would create a paradise.

(Quoted in McPherson, 308-309)

The colony started with 21 followers and increased to

around 100 people during its height in 1934-35. Life at the

Home of Truth was not easy. Ogden demanded all to donate all

income to benefit the community, switch to a semi-vegetarian

diet, abstain from alcohol and even abandon gardening at one

point and instead seek wages as day laborers to purchase

food (Stegner, 334).

A Trial of Faith

The largest trial of believers’ allegiance to Ogden

came during a two-year controversy over the unburied body of

believer Edith Peshak. She and her family had joined with

others who had met Ogden on a visit to the Boise area.

Peshak had believed that Ogden offered hope for her cancer.

They family sold a productive farm outside Boise and moved

to the barren Utah outpost. On Feb. 11, 1935 Edith Peshak

died despite Ogden’s care. Ogden told colonists that Peshak

was not dead, but only in a state of purification. Under

Ogden’s guidance, workers washed Peshak’s body with a salt

solution and gave the corpse milk enemas which eventually

mummified Peshak’s remains. At the same time, Ogden said she

received messages from Peshak from another realm and said

they both had been reincarnated from contemporary followers

of Christ. (Whitsel, 42).

Rumors swirled in the small towns near the colony and

eventually the San Juan County sheriff ordered an

investigation. While refused once, he gained admittance to

view the corpse. Under Utah law at the time, attorneys could

find no reason to force burial. The corpse was deemed

sanitary and violated not laws. But even then, some 30 of

the group left. About a dozen members remained. (Whitsel,

41)

Even with the dissensions, Ogden again drew attention

to the colony by declaring that Peshak would soon return to

life in 1937. At that point, authorities demanded a death

certificate. Home of Truth followers insisted Peshak was not

dead. Officers could not find the body, but ordered Ogden to

sign a death certificate. Accompanied by an Associated

Press reporter and photographer, Ogden signed the

certificate and the photo of a resolute Ogden with a pen in

hand appeared in newspapers across the nation. (Typical of

the coverage was an item appearing the Fitchburg (Mass.) Sentinel).

“Edith’s earthly body is beyond recovery,” Mrs. Ogden

told state officials as she filled out the document. “It is

too dilapidated for Edith’s spirit to ever inhabit it

again.” (Fitchburg Sentinel).

While Ogden never revealed the whereabouts of the

body, one former member, Thomas Robertson (who once had

played Santa at a colony Christmas party), told a newsman

that he had been ordered to cremate the body in a makeshift

fuel-soaked pyre. He claimed to have kept a souvenir, some

bone from the corpse’s neck, but then said a sheep dog had

found it and lost it (Salt Lake Telegram report quoted in

Smith).

The ensuing press coverage aligned people across the

nation against the Home of Truth. Ogden promised a response

and columns about the colony’s history and beliefs began

appearing in the San Juan Record. She promised a book, The Age of

Faith versus The Promise of Life, and even began taking advance

orders. There is no evidence the book was ever published

although there appears to be a few columns in the San Juan

Record written by follower David DeBruine that could be

consider the first chapter.

By 1940, the U.S. Census of The Home of Truth shows

only nine residents at the compound including Marie and

daughter Roberta (1940 U.S. Federal Census).

The Power of the Word

It is interesting to note how both Ogden used her

ownership of a newspaper to build her movement, but, in the

end, she also became a victim of journalists and sensational

reporting.

With the purchase of the San Juan Record in 1934, Ogden used

the paper as a way to spread her beliefs alongside the typical

offerings of a community newspaper. She also used the

newspaper’s press to print pamphlets to distribute her

beliefs. (Whitsel, 35-36).

She also inserted a column explaining her beliefs and

“messages” in a column called “Our Corner.” The “Dry Valley

News” also told of the activities at her compound. The news

often painted word pictures of the seemingly ordinary life and

progress at the Home of Truth. Typical was one news item

about the dedication of an inner room at “Our Place of Abode”

was followed by a description of a two-turkey dinner for the

19 group members. A Christmas program with a Santa Claus, a

Christmas tree and performance of Christmas songs punctuated

the day (San Juan Record. 3 Jan. 1935).

The paper also, on occasion, printed articles that

bordered on creating mythology for Ogden. In one such front-

page article with the headline, “Publisher of Record Has

Narrow Escape,” tells of a “perilous” experience when a

flashflood carried Ogden’s car down a wash. She walked away

from the accident, but was rescued by a local man who then

helped build a bridge for her to return home. The man fell

down while building the makeshift bridge. “Neither show any

ill effects from their experiences; and they both gave thanks

from the Divine protection surrounding them their perilous

experiences.” (San Juan Record, Aug. 1936) Another such front-page

article told of the Home of Truth residents celebration of

their leader’s return from a three-week “West coast mission”

and also Ogden’s birthday. (San Juan Record, 1939)

Much of the external public perception about the Home of

Truth was fostered in the press of the day. To be sure, Utah’s

statewide newspapers, particularly the more sensational

coverage of the Salt Lake Telegram and the Salt Lake bureaus of

the Associated Press and United Press International, helped

shape negative national public opinion about the Ogden

community.

For her part, Ogden’s rhetorical style in her column and

other responses in the San Juan Record are often vague and

obtuse. In responding to crises, she would respond that her

other-worldly work required time and patience. She responded

with requests to wait for detailed explanations. When those

explanations did come, they were often filled with lengthy

histories, references to beliefs that were far beyond the

understanding of the audience and indirect criticism of the

media. It appears early on during the Edith Peshak affair that

Ogden appeared at first welcoming to probing journalists.

Reading her responses show she was not prepared for the

sensational reporting and the public attention. Whether it was

naiveté or unfamiliarity with the press, Ogden appears to have

believed that sharing her beliefs would further her work and

honest believers would accept, even believe her explanations.

She probably wasn’t prepared for the press framing and value-

laden labels that would accompany much of the reporting about

her work.

Ogden’s passive and often vague retorts and responses in

the San Juan Record likely did little to change public opinion,

except maybe to reinforce belief and a defensive mechanism

among her most loyal supporters.

On November 22, 1935, The Salt Lake Telegram sent a reporter

to the Home of Truth to investigate the Peshak case nine

months after her death. The article started this way:

“Unburied nine month after death, the body of a woman

lies in state near this southeastern Utah town while a woman

cultist converses in soul language with the dead one pending

her return to life. In the high, arid, rugged slopes of San

Juan county, a few miles from here, Mrs. Marie M. Ogden

received a representative of the Telegram to tell of the

progress being made by the spirit of Mrs. Edith Pashals

(sic.), who died February 11 at the age of 50. Mrs. Ogden was

cordial, apparently glad to welcome a visitor to the sparse

community, and offered the resources of her comfortable home.

First, however, it was necessary that she play soft music on

her piano” (Salt Lake Telegram).

Almost a year later on Oct. 27 1936, The Salt Lake Telegram

printed an article on with a large headline and photo as Ogden

visited Salt Lake and the Mormon church semi-annual coference.

Under the headline “Cult Head Visits S.L.; Woman Sees Doom of

Civilization.” Reporter Jack Thomas wrote:

“ Looking more like a business woman or a club leader

than the ‘dictator’ of the Home, where a woman’s body has lain

some two years in the colonists’ belief it will be

resurrected, Mrs. Ogden come on mundane affairs of commerce.”

Quoting Ogden, she told of “days of tribulation that are

near.” “Civilization as we know it will be destroyed, but from

the wreckage will come a realization of the all-importance of

spiritual peace in life. It is for that day that the Home of

Truth is preparing” (Thomas).

Throughout the height of the colony’s existence, the

press readily attributed not-so-charitable monikers to Ogden

and her beliefs. Headlines about the group often used the term

“cult,” “mysterious cult,” “strange cult of the living dead,”

and “Garden of Eden band.” Ogden was called a”prophetess,”

“dictator,” “cultist,” and “seeress” who predicted “doom” and

“wreckage.” While some of the terms were accurate others

simply raised fear about the group.

The press also reported beliefs that may have been

embellished, mischaracterized and never verified with those

closest to Ogden. Those included assertions that Ogden claimed

she was a reincarnatied Virgin Mary or Joan of Arc, that some

of the group members were reincarnations of Brigham Young and

that her typewriter was the medium through which she received

“messages.” None of these assertions have ever been verified

by credible sources from within the group, but certainly

provided good newspaper copy add to sensational retelling.

The Long End

Not nearly as cataclysmic as Ogden had once envisioned,

the end to Marie Ogden’s world came slowly over another

three decades. Ogden often left her secluded retreat to

visit Monticello, where she worked on the newspaper and

taught piano lessons. A core group stayed near her

including Elmer Peshak. Elmer had never believed that his

wife, Edith, had died. Observers said that seats for Edith

and Jesus Christ were included at holiday dinners. He died

in 1949 and was buried in Boise, Idaho. Interesting the

obituary in a Boise newspapers contained no mention of his

involvement with Ogden. (SOURCE NEEDED). He had been the

assistant manager and printer of the San Juan Record. That

same year she sold The San Juan Record.

A small, unkempt graveyard, trampled by grazing cattle,

is the site for five group members who died between 1950 and

1962. Among those interred there – daughter Roberta and

Mary Ellen Cameron who died of heart failure after living 18

years at the Home of Truth. Daisy Naden, the housewife who

once greeted Stegner (1942), died from breast cancer after

22 years in Utah, according to state death records (Find a

Grave, Home of Truth Cemetery). In 1977, an auctioneer sold

most of the Home of Truth’s contents. Marie Ogden died in

March 1975 at age 91 in a Blanding, Utah nursing home

(Whitsel, 49). A simple marker notes her birth date and

death date. She lies down the road from what’s left of the

Home of Truth in the Monticello Cemetery. (Find a Grave.

Monticello Cemetery). The last known living believer, A.D.

Miller, died at age 86 in 1978. (Smith)

WORKS CITED

1910 U.S. Federal Census. Provo, Utah, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Retrieved through Ancestry.com.

1920 U.S. Federal Census. Newark, Ward 16, Essex, New Jersey. Roll: T625_10; Enumeration District: 282; Image: 323. Provo, Utah, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Retrieved through Ancestry.com.

1940 U. S. Federal Census. Monticello District, San Jan County, Roll: 7627_4217; Page 1B; Enumeration District: 19-3. Provo, Utah, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Retrieved through Ancestry.com.

Find A Grave. Home of Truth Cemetery records, San Juan County, Utah. The reference also includes copies of two death certificates. Retrieved at http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gsr&GScid=109298

Find a Grave. Monticello Cemetery. Record of Marie Ogden. Retrieved at http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Ogden&GSfn=Marie&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GSst=47&GScnty=2792&GScntry=4&GSob=n&GRid=89621645&df=all&

Fitchburg (Mass.) Sentinel. “Death’s Holiday Ends.” 7 May 1937. 16. Retrieved through Ancestry.com.

McPherson, Robert S. A history of San Juan County : in the palm of time.Salt Lake City, Utah: Utah State Historical Society San JuanCounty, Utah: San Juan County Commission, 1995.

Pelley, William Dudley. “Seven Minutes in Eternity; the Amazing Experience That Made Me Over.”The American Magazine, March 1929, pages 7-9. 139-144. Retrieved from http://www.scribd.com/doc/86612631/Seven-Minutes-in-Eternity-1929

Reese, W. Paul. “Marie Ogden Led Spiritual Group in San JuanCounty” Utah History Blazer, April 1995. Retrieved form http://historytogo.utah.gov/utah_chapters/from_war_to_war/marieogdenledspiritualgroupinsanjuancounty.html

Rogers, Kristen. “Marie Ogden and the Cult of the Living Dead,” Salt Lake Tribune, 16 May 1999. J1. Retreived from ProQuestdatabase at http://search.proquest.com/docview/288938896/14219EFC09321866EDE/1?accountid=4488

Salt Lake Telegram. “Utah Cultist Converses With Shade of Dead Woman While Awaiting Her Return to Life in Dead Body.” 22 Nov. 1935. 1.

San Juan Record. “Metaphysical Beliefs.” 24 May 1934. 4.

Ibid. “Dry Valley News.” 3 Jan. 1935. 4.

Ibid. “Mrs. Ogden Expresses Appreciation to Friends.” 20 June 1935. 1.

Ibid. “Publisher of Record Has Narrow Escape.” 6 Aug. 1936. 1.

Ibid. “The Home of Truth Celebrates Return of Leader.” 8 Jun. 1939.

Smith, Christopher. “Rebirth of Compound Reopens Utah Cult’sBizarre Story.” Salt Lake Tribune 13 Jun. 1993. A1. Retrieved from ProQuest database at

http://search.proquest.com/docview/288558165/14219EB675844FFE3C2/1?accountid=4488

Stegner, Wallace. Mormon Country. New York: Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1942.

Terrell, John U. Salt Lake Telegram. “Strange Cult of ‘Living Dead’ Spirits Corpse to New Shrine.” 6 July 1936. 1.

Thayne, Stanley James. “The Home of Truth: The Metaphysical Word of Marie Ogden.” Master’s Thesis Brigham Young University, 2009. Retrieved from http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/ETD/id/2049

Thomas, Jack. “Cult Head Visits S.L.; Woman Sees Doom of Civilization.” Salt Lake Telegram. 27 Oct. 1936. 15.

Whitsel, Bradley C. “Marie Ogden and the Home of Truth: A Millennial Prophet and the Life and Decline of her Community.” Communal Societies (29.2) 25-61.