The Kingdom of Matthias: A Story of Sex and Salvation in 19th Century America

Isabella Van Wagenen and another member of the Kingdom, the widow Catherine Galloway, discussed the wedding ceremony between Benjamin Folger and Matthews’s daughter Isabella Laisdell. During this conversation, Catherine stated that, in a vision confirmed by Matthias, Folger and Catherine were "match spirits." According to Matthews the Prophet Matthias, match spirits were akin to soul mates, and they were destined by God to be together. Folger and Isabella’s marriage saddened and confused Catherine, who had previously engaged in sexual relations with Folger. As While Catherine felt disappointment at Matthews’s decisions about the marriage between Folger and Isabella, Isabella Wagenen’s resentment towards Ann Folger continued to grow; when Ann became Church Mother, she abandoned all household duties, leaving more household work for Van Wagenen.

Isabella Laisdell’s husband, Charles, heard of his wife's wedding, and he traveled to Mount Zion to investigate. Pierson, who had returned to Mount Zion, paid him off to go back to Albany. Charles took the money and left, spreading word of the Kingdom’s society to the outside world. He returned to Mount Zion with a writ of habeas corpus from an Albany judge. Later, at a court hearing, the judge voided Isabella’s marriage to Folger and ordered her to return to Charles, though Isabella claimed she wanted to remain at Mount Zion.