Webster Edgerly (1852 – 1926) was a 19th- and 20th-century American social reform activist. He believed in euthanasia

Euthanasia

Euthanasia refers to the practice of intentionally ending a life in order to relieve pain and suffering....

 programs, a healthy diet

Healthy diet

A healthy diet is one that helps maintain or improve general health. It is important for lowering many chronic health risks, such as obesity, heart disease, diabetes, hypertension and cancer. A healthy diet involves consuming appropriate amounts of all essential nutrients and an adequate amount of...

, and the power of personal magnetism

Charisma

The term charisma has two senses: 1) compelling attractiveness or charm that can inspire devotion in others, 2) a divinely conferred power or talent. For some theological usages the term is rendered charism, with a meaning the same as sense 2...

, and began the Ralstonism

Ralstonism

Ralstonism was a minor social movement in 19th century USA. It claimed about 800,000 followers. Ralstonism was the brainchild of Webster Edgerly . In Edgerly's words, "Ralstonism is the grandest movement that man is capable of establishing"....

 movement as a way to live out this lifestyle.

Born in Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

 to Rhoda Lucinda Stone and John Foss Edgerly, he graduated from the Boston University School of Law

Boston University School of Law

Boston University School of Law is the law school affiliated with Boston University, and is ranked #22 among American law schools by US News and World Report magazine. It is the second-oldest law school in Massachusetts and one of the first law schools in the country to admit students regardless...

 in 1876. That same year he founded the Ralston Health Club. He married Edna Reed Boyts on July 5, 1892 in McConnellsville, Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

. He practiced law in Boston, Kansas, and Washington D.C. In 1896 he began living eight months of the year at Ralston Heights, New Jersey, now known as Hopewell.

Under the pseudonym

Pseudonym

A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...

 Edmund Shaftesbury, Edgerly was a prolific author of self-help

Self-help

Self-help, or self-improvement, is a self-guided improvement—economically, intellectually, or emotionally—often with a substantial psychological basis. There are many different self-help movements and each has its own focus, techniques, associated beliefs, proponents and in some cases, leaders...

 and utopia

Utopia

Utopia is an ideal community or society possessing a perfect socio-politico-legal system. The word was imported from Greek by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. The term has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempt...

n religious texts, producing over 100 books, most of them "official" books to buy as a member of the Ralston Health Club; they were "chock-full of racist rants, naive pseudoscience

Pseudoscience

Pseudoscience is a claim, belief, or practice which is presented as scientific, but which does not adhere to a valid scientific method, lacks supporting evidence or plausibility, cannot be reliably tested, or otherwise lacks scientific status...

, and curmudgeonly attacks on modern society." He also dabbled unsuccessfully in real-estate speculation

Speculation

In finance, speculation is a financial action that does not promise safety of the initial investment along with the return on the principal sum...

 and the theater, and invented a language called Adam-Man Tongue that was "nothing more than a bizarre-looking version of English."

One of his books, Life Building Method of the Ralston Health Club, endorsed the consumption of whole grain cereal. When William Danforth of animal feeds maker Purina Mills

Purina Mills

Purina Mills, LLC, is the animal feeds unit of Land O’ Lakes. It was previously part of Ralston Purina, but the animal feeds portion was sold in 1986.- History :...

 began making a breakfast cereal

Breakfast cereal

A breakfast cereal is a food made from processed grains that is often, but not always, eaten with the first meal of the day. It is often eaten cold, usually mixed with milk , water, or yogurt, and sometimes fruit but sometimes eaten dry. Some cereals, such as oatmeal, may be served hot as porridge...

 similar to the kind described in the book in 1898, he sought and received the endorsement of Edgerly to market Ralston breakfast cereal. Ralston cereal became so successful that in 1902 Purina Mills was renamed Ralston-Purina. The breakfast cereal operations evolved into Ralcorp

Ralcorp

Ralcorp Holdings is a manufacturer of various food products, including breakfast cereal, cookies, crackers, chocolate, snack foods, mayonnaise, pasta and peanut butter. The company is based in St. Louis, Missouri. The majority of the items Ralcorp makes are private label, store brand products. It...

.

He died November 5, 1926 in Trenton, New Jersey

Trenton, New Jersey

Trenton is the capital of the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat of Mercer County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Trenton had a population of 84,913...

, and his wife sold the property the following year.

Works

• A study of the unseen powers that control human life, 1908
• Advanced Magnetism, 1906
• Book of the mind and thought society, 1911
• Book of the psychic society: A study of the fourteen unseen powers that…, 1907
• Brain tests, 1924
• Child life, 1897
• Complete membership in the Ralston health club, 1892
• Cultivation of the chest, 1895
• Cultivation of Personal Magnetism in Seven Progressive Steps: The Exercise…
• Edgerly natural reader, 1912
• Future seeing and destiny, 1912
• General membership of the Ralston health club, 1894
• GREAT PSYCHIC: The Master Power of the Universe
• Higher magnetism
• How to Get Rid of Sickness: Ralston Classic No. One
• How to make personality pay; an introduction to the study of personal…
• Immortality, 1898
• Instantaneous personal magnetism
• Lessons in artistic deep breathing for strengthening the voice, 1888
• Lessons in emphasis, 1893
• Lessons in grace, 1889
• Lessons in the art of extemporaneous speaking, 1889
• Lessons in the art of facial expression, 1889
• Lessons in the art of ventriloquism, 1891
• Lessons in the mechanics of personal magnetism, 1888
• Lessons in voice culture, 1891
• Lessons on acting, 1889
• Life building method of the Ralston health club
• Life Electricity
• Life's secrets revealed
• Mental Magnetism: a Study of the Seven Realms of Mind and Mastery in the Conflicts of Life, 1924
• One hundred lessons in punctuation, 1893
• One hundred points of character, 1892
• Operations of the Other Mind: Making Known the Unseen Powers of the…
• Personal magnetism
• Private Lessons in the Cultivation of Magnetism of the Sexes
• Ralston gardens, 1900
• Ralston's simplified physiology, 1892
• Real life, when things are right, 1903
• Right, 1923
• Sex magnetism, 1910
• Shaftesbury's secrets
• Solution of life, 1916
• The Adam-man tongue, 1903
• The authority dictionary, 1891
• The book of books, 1897
• The Book of Shaftesbury's Secrets: Disclosing Priceless Methods for…
• The combination book of the Ralston health club, 1898
• The goal of creation, a constructive course in human progress within the temple of great achievements, 1920
• The greatest things in human life, 1915
• The natural reader, 1891
• The new education, 1900
• The origin of man, 1925
• The Other Mind: Including The Science Of All Phenomena And The Practice Of all forms of human control of others, 1909
• The Ralston brain regime, 1891
• The Ralston health club, 1893
• The Shaftesbury recitations, 1889
• The Shaftesbury school of philosophy, 1890
• The two hundred year club, 1893
• The two sexes, 1898
• Thought Transference; or, The Radio-Activity of the Human Mind
• Transference of thought, 1896
• Universal magnetism; a private training course in the magnetic control of others, by the most powerful of all known methods, 1924
• Yourself behind closed doors

Sources

• Six, Janet. "Hidden History of Ralston Heights: The Story of New Jersey's Failed 'Garden of Eden.'" Archaeology (Vol 57, No 3), p. 30-35.

External links

• Instantaneous Personal Magnetism by Webster Edgerly at archive.org