Harry Plate, journalist and writer, served as Associate Editor of California Today, the Sunday magazine section of the San Jose Mercury News. He subsequently moved to Arizona. These files were compiled in 1970 to support what Plate intended to be a series of three feature articles on the life of William Riker (1873-1969), and the evolution of Holy City, California, home of the disciples of Riker’s Perfect Christian Divine Way.

“Father” William “Ed” Riker (1873 Oakdale, Ca – 1969, Agnews State Hospital, Santa Clara Co., CA) and his wife, “Mother” Lucille Schutrum Jensen Riker (1874 Nebraska – 1950 Holy City, CA), lead a utopian communal cult, The Perfect Christian Divine Way (PCDW). Incorporated in Los Angeles in 1918 by Ed Riker, Irvin Fisher and Anna Schramm, the PCDW established Holy City in 1919 in the hills above Los Gatos.

2 ms boxes, 1 flat box

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