Archives and Special Collection

The Faithist movement was founded by a New York dentist and doctor named John B. Newbrough, who claimed to have written a new Bible, called Oahspe, while under spirit control. Contained in this Bible was "The Book of Shalam, " which set forth a plan for gathering the outcast and orphaned children of the world and raising them, according to strict religious principles, to be the spiritual leaders of a new age.

Newbrough and some twenty Faithists, as his followers were called, decided to create such a place as described in "The Book of Shalam."

In 1884, Shalam Colony was finally established on the banks of the Rio Grande, one mile from the village of Dona Ana. Financed by a wealthy wool merchant from Boston, Andrew Howland, the colony was developed into one of the finest agricultural areas of the Southwest. Nearly a million dollars was spent to build and furnish fine buildings and maintain a herd of prize dairy cattle, build a chicken farm with heated runs, and develop a reservoir and irrigation system which was far ahead of its time.

Disaster befell the colony in 1891 when John Newbrough died of influenza. The work of the Faithists did not end when Shalam was closed in 1901. A colony was established around Denver in the early 1900s, and some people from Shalam went to California.

It was in Los Angeles that Wing Anderson met the Faithists. He bought the plates and the copyright for Oahspe in 1933 and published Oahspe until his death in 1970. Under Wing's direction, a community was established in North Salt Lake, Utah, in the 1930s. The people called themselves the Essenes of Kosmon.

In the early 1940s, the group moved to Montrose, Colorado. That colony closed in the 1950s. Another colony effort was Otis Acres, established in Arizona in the 1950s.

There have been several publications which have provided news and support over the years. The earliest was the Kosmon Pioneer Bulletin, put out from Utah, and later Colorado. The Faithist Journal was published in Kingman, Arizona; and the Kosmon Voice, which was originally put out in Salt Lake City, but has moved to Nebraska.

Sources: http://archives.nmsu.edu/exhibits/shalam/shalam1.html http://archives.nmsu.edu/exhibits/shalam2/shalam5.html

From the guide to the Faithist and Oahspe collection, 1882-1998, 1882-1998, (Archives and Special Collections. New Mexico State University Library.)