Campus Obscura - Part 2: Fernihurst’s Mary Connally and the Cult of Brother XII

Fear, Distrust, and Black Magic

By Kristin D’Agostino

This is the second of three installments about one of our campus’ most fascinating buildings and the intriguing, if misguided, woman who lived there. To read the first part of the story, visit Campus Obscura - Fernihurst Socialite Mary Connally and the Cult of Brother XII. Stay tuned for the last installment on Fernihurst ghost stories in the next issue of Tech Talk in August.

Despite the scandal of being taken to court, Brother XII recovered quickly. After Connally testified in his favor, the charismatic Occult leader continued to publish books and his ideas resonated with rich and powerful men and women across North America. Wilson’s ideas were conspiracy-centered, and held that forces of darkness were at work in the world; society had become morally and spiritually bereft and Armageddon was coming. By joining the Aquarian Society and training with Wilson, a visionary prophet, disciples could attain spiritual enlightenment.

In 1927, Wilson had built his headquarters at Cedar-By-the-Sea on Vancouver Island, but he wanted to expand. His vision was a commune where Aquarian members could live and work away from the corruptions of society. They would share crops and farm work and train at a school where he would train them in the Occult and spirituality.

To build this settlement, Wilson solicited his biggest donor. He invited Mary Connally on a private boat ride through the islands off the coast of Vancouver and pointed out the area’s virtues including DeCourcy Island whose soil was perfect for farming. By the end of the boat ride, Connally had decided to support his plans by purchasing the two largest islands, Valdes and DeCourcy, 669 acres of land in all.

Construction began and soon Aquarian members began to move into cabins built on the islands. To join the settlement, they had to be deemed spiritually worthy and agree to give up all their personal belongings. They would then be assigned tasks of initiation to build spiritual fitness such as farming, cutting trails, or tending animals.

By 1929, the settlement was finished- complete with school, a working farm, and an estate where Brother XII lived with his new mistress: a woman in her 30s named Mabel Scottowe, who went by the name Madame Z. Also trained in the Occult, Scottowe had left her rich husband, an Aquarian member, and settled into the role of Wilson’s lover and Foundation co-leader. With flaming red hair, Madame Z was known for her temper and sharp voice.

Around 1929, Connally began spending time on the farm and soon decided to leave Fernihurst and move there full-time. After arriving, she turned over her silk dresses and was given the task of cultivating a three-acre field for seven hours a day. According to Oliphant’s book, she lost 28 pounds within several weeks and her body grew weak, her hands rough and callused. Reflecting back on this time later, Connally said she believed at the time she was preparing her soul for the next life. She pushed herself harder because “I had been raised in great luxury and wasn’t supposed to lift a glass for myself.”

It soon became clear that Brother XII and Scottowe were mentally unfit leaders. Madame Z reportedly whipped unsatisfactory workers with a riding crop. Disciples were told that if they completed their tasks, they would enter the “Gateway of Truth”; if not they’d lose their souls to the devil. One member later said “We dared not leave the island. He would shoot us in the back. Besides, he had the boats—we were marooned on the island. He made us distrust each other. The entire colony seethed with fear, distrust, and black magic.”

Though there are many accounts of abuse, it seems that Connally experienced the most severe treatment. There were rumors that she was yoked to a plow; and socially ostracized by other members for giving off “terrible vibrations”. Connally later reflected that the harsh workload was an attempt to take her life or force her resignation. By this time the Depression was in full swing. “They knew that the States were in a bad way and that I didn’t have any more money,” she said. “They had finished with me absolutely! I was abused, threatened, made to scrub floors… Brother XII turned from a saint into a devil.”

Meanwhile, as the colony grew, Brother XII grew paranoid about his growing fortune. One of his many prophecies was the decline of the banking system. He forced members to pay fees in gold coins – American Eagle gold coins in $10 and $20 denominations were still in circulation at that time. And, to prevent theft, Brother XII and Madame Z began packing the coins into mason jars and sealing them with melted paraffin wax. By cover of night, they would transfer the jars in large wooden boxes onto a boat; transport them to different locations around the islands, and bury them.

Over time, as Madame Z became more tyrannical, Foundation members grew resentful and scared. Finally, Brother XII became so paranoid he turned Valdes Island into a fortress and forced armed Foundation members to defend it. This was a turning point that led to them fleeing the islands and filing a lawsuit against him. Connally was among the plaintiffs. On September 24, 1932, she filed a claim in the Supreme Court of British Columbia for $42,100 plus $10,000 in personal damages, asserting that Wilson had “deceived, ensnared and deluded her of her money, property, and labor.”

The courtroom where Wilson was tried was fraught with drama. During one hearing, the attorney suing Brother XII collapsed along with an entire row of people and some claimed the master of the Occult was drawing on “Egyptian magic”.

In 1933, a judge ruled against Brother XII and granted Connally and other plaintiffs their full request. However, by this time it was too late. Brother XII and Madame Z had fled the colony, and gone to Neuchatel, Switzerland. The following year, Wilson, age 56, was reported to have died. However, the doctor who wrote the death certificate was a Foundation member, and some who knew him believe he staged his death. In the following years, there were several purported postmortem sightings.

Surprisingly, after other Foundation members left, Connally chose to remain on DeCourcy Island with her secretary. Perhaps it was the beauty of the area with its majestic mountains and sandstone cliffs. Or perhaps the months of hard physical labor changed “Lady Mary” who no longer felt at home in Fernihurst’s majestic rooms.

According to Oliphant, the widow never fully came to terms with Brother XII’s betrayal. She told a friend, “For the Old Brother, I’d give that much money again if I had it to give.”

It's not clear when Connally returned to Asheville, but according to her obituary, she died on October 20, 1947, at 76 at the Blue Gables Nursing Home in her native city and is buried at the Riverside Cemetery.

As for Wilson’s treasure, it has never been accounted for. By the time he died, Brother XII had accumulated 43 boxes of gold coins, a total of $400,000 or about $9 million today. Having spread so much loot over the islands, surely he left some coins behind? Treasure hunters have searched the waters where Wilson once sailed, combed beaches, and dug down into the former colony’s deepest wells. The closest anyone has come to finding it was when Connally’s caretaker on DeCourcy Island discovered a strange trap door in a chicken house that had been kept by the colony. According to Oliphant’s book, the man ripped open the floorboards only to find a rolled-up bundle of paper. Unfurling it, he read scrawled in chalk one final sentiment from Brother XII: “For fools and traitors—nothing!”

Facts from this article were drawn from the Atlas Obscura article “What Happened to This Cult Leader’s Lost Treasure” by Spenser Davis and from John Oliphant’s book “Brother XII The Incredible Story of Canada’s False Prophet and His Doomed Cult of Gold, Sex and Black Magic”, available in A-B Tech’s library.