{"id":3884,"date":"2026-05-15T20:00:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T00:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/?p=3884"},"modified":"2026-05-15T13:57:58","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T17:57:58","slug":"they-claimed-they-spoke-for-god-appalachias-19th-century-new-eden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/?p=3884","title":{"rendered":"They Claimed They Spoke For God: Appalachia&#8217;s 19th Century New Eden"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/s_zO0uV2Qfw?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>This week we tell the strange and little-known story of the Mountain Cove Community, a spiritualist commune founded in the mountains of what\u2019s now West Virginia in the early 1850s.<\/p>\n<p>Led by Reverends Thomas Lake Harris and James L. Scott, the group believed they could communicate with spirits, build a new Eden in Appalachia, and create a perfect society apart from the corruption of the outside world. But as power, prophecy, and control grew inside the community, Mountain Cove began to unravel.<\/p>\n<p>If you enjoy Appalachian history and folklore, be sure to subscribe to the Stories podcast.<\/p>\n<p>Thanks for listening!<\/p>\n<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_1417\"><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-3884-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/dts.podtrac.com\/redirect.mp3\/api.spreaker.com\/v2\/episodes\/72023488\/download.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/dts.podtrac.com\/redirect.mp3\/api.spreaker.com\/v2\/episodes\/72023488\/download.mp3\">https:\/\/dts.podtrac.com\/redirect.mp3\/api.spreaker.com\/v2\/episodes\/72023488\/download.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\" style=\"margin-bottom: 1px !important;\">Podcast: <a href=\"https:\/\/dts.podtrac.com\/redirect.mp3\/api.spreaker.com\/v2\/episodes\/72023488\/download.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/?powerpress_pinw=3884-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/dts.podtrac.com\/redirect.mp3\/api.spreaker.com\/v2\/episodes\/72023488\/download.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"download.mp3\">Download<\/a><\/p><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_subscribe_links\">Subscribe: <a href=\"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/?feed=podcast\" class=\"powerpress_link_subscribe powerpress_link_subscribe_rss\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Subscribe via RSS\" rel=\"nofollow\">RSS<\/a><\/p><!--powerpress_player-->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This week we tell the strange and little-known story of the Mountain Cove Community, a spiritualist commune founded in the mountains of what\u2019s now West Virginia in the early 1850s. Led by Reverends Thomas Lake Harris and James L. Scott, the group believed they could communicate with spirits, build a new Eden in Appalachia, and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[63,54,7,49,1640],"tags":[1706,899,91,479,104,1709,1702,1703,1700,1707,1699,1696,1705,1701,1697,1708,1067,1704,1698,778],"class_list":["post-3884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith","category-hoax","category-oddities","category-religion","category-the-1850s","tag-1850s-america","tag-american-history","tag-appalachia","tag-appalachian-folklore","tag-appalachian-history","tag-commune","tag-cult-history","tag-emanuel-swedenborg","tag-fayette-county","tag-forgotten-history","tag-james-l-scott","tag-mountain-cove","tag-paranormal-appalachia","tag-religious-commune","tag-spiritualism","tag-spiritualist-movement","tag-stories-of-appalachia","tag-supernatural-history","tag-thomas-lake-harris","tag-west-virginia-history"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6TX4A-10E","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3884"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3887,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3884\/revisions\/3887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}