From New Hampshire to the Boston pulpit
Wiggin was born at Tuftonboro, New Hampshire, on 11 July 1858, the son of William Harrison Wiggin and Ann Swett. He graduated from Madison University, later renamed Colgate, in 1881. Trained for the Baptist ministry, he subsequently developed a religious career outside its denominational boundaries.
The contemporary Who’s Who in Massachusetts records his service at Unity Church in Boston from 1897 until his resignation in 1935, describing the pastorate as nonsectarian. Spiritualist publications also identify him as a leading minister and medium. His public work included lectures on religious and metaphysical subjects, books, pamphlets and articles.
Cubes and Spheres in Human Life appeared in 1899. His later book The Living Jesus (1921) presented teachings that he attributed to Jesus through mediumship. Wiggin died on 26 July 1940.
Mediumship and public controversy
Wiggin’s mediumship drew public challenges. In the 1926 congressional hearings on fortune telling, Houdini’s secretary Julia Sawyer testified that he glanced beneath cloth-covered spectacles at her written questions. She said he gave a message supposedly from her mother, who was alive. Evelyn Greeley Kane intervened to defend his character and ministry.
Wiggin brought defamation suits against Houdini and others, and against the Boston theatre where Houdini had appeared. An Associated Press report published in August 1926 also stated that an indictment accusing Wiggin of obtaining money by trickery had been discontinued for lack of jurisdiction. It did not report a criminal conviction or a final outcome for his defamation claims.
