The Life and Legacy of Myrtle Fillmore
Myrtle as she would have looked to her students, some of whom would later reconnect with her through Unity.
Myrtle’s Early Years
Mary Caroline Page was born on August 6, 1845, in Pagetown, Ohio, to Marcus Page and Lucy Wheeler Page. Her father nicknamed her "Myrtle" as a young child and it stuck for the rest of her life. She was the eighth of nine children born into a conservative Methodist family, and she sometimes chafed at religious rigidity. From an early age Myrtle was eager to read and learn what others knew. After high school she wrote for a newspaper in Columbus, Ohio, then at 21 she enrolled in The Literary Course for Ladies at Oberlin College, the first co-educational college in the U.S. She received a teaching certificate and accepted a teaching position in Clinton, Missouri.
