CHAPTER X.

SPIRITUALISM IN NORTH AMERICA.

W

Οὐ γάρ τι νῦν γε κἆχθες, ἀλλ ̓ αἰεί ποτε

Ζῇ τοῦτο, κοὐδεὶς οἶδεν ἐξ ὅπου φθάνῃ.— Sophocles.

For this is not a matter of to-day

Or yesterday, but hath been from all time,

And none hath told us whence it comes, or how.

HEN Spiritualism had, for nearly a hundred years, been exhibiting itself in Germany under a variety of phases, and had enlisted in its cause some of its most distinguished philosophers and savans, as I have narrated in my second chapter, it made a new and still more general appearance in the Western hemisphere. It originated in the ordinary visit of what the Germans had denominated a Polter-Geist, or knocking-ghost; but either the temperament of the North-American public was more favourable to its rapid developement, or the time had come in the general scheme of Providence for a more full and decided prevalence of spiritual action; for it spread with almost lightning rapidity, assumed new and startling forms, and speedily established itself a great and significant fact in the convictions of more than three millions of people of all classes, professions, and persuasions. My sketch of the history of this developement in the United States must, necessarily, be slight; its details fill several large volumes, and may be sought for in Capron's history of these events, in Footfalls on the Boundary of Another World,' by the Hon. Robert

OUTBREAK OF SPIRITUALISM IN AMERICA.

169

Dale Owen; in the works of Professor Hare, Judge Edmonds, Governor Talmadge, the Rev. Adin Ballou ; of J. P. Davis, the recent report on American Spiritualism by Mr. Benjamin Coleman, the English Spiritual Magazine,' and many other sources.

6

The spot in which the eventful origin of the American movement took place is thus described by Mr. Dale Owen, who had visited it: There stands, not far from the town of Newark, in the county of Mayne, and state of New York, a wooden dwelling-one of a cluster of small houses like itself, scarcely meriting the title of a village, but known under the name of Hydesville; being so called after Dr. Hyde, an old settler, whose son is the proprietor of the house in question. It is a storey and a half high, fronting south; the lower floor consisting, in 1848, of two moderate-sized rooms opening into each other; east of these a bed-room and a buttery, opening into the same room: together with a staircase between the bed-room and buttery, leading from the sittingroom up to the half-storey above, and from the buttery down to the cellar.'

Such was the humble abode where the great American spiritual movement commenced. A Mr. Michael Weekman, it appears, had occupied the house about the year 1847, and had been troubled by certain knockings, for which he could find no explanation. On the 11th of December of that year, Mr. John D. Fox, of Rochester, a respectable farmer, moved into this house, whilst another in the country was building. His family consisted of himself, his wife, and six children; but only the two youngest were staying with them at that time-Margaret, twelve years old, and Kate, nine years. It appears that the family of Mrs. Fox had long previously evinced medium power. She was of French descent, and her husband of German, the original name being Anglicised from Voss to Fox. Mrs. Fox's grandmother had been possessed of second-sight, and saw frequently funerals, whilst living in Long Island, before they really took place. Her sister, Mrs. Elizabeth Higgins, had similar power. When

the two sisters were residing in New York, and were about to make a trip by water, Elizabeth Higgins said one morning that they should not go by water, but by land, for she had seen the whole journey in a dream, in which they had not been able to obtain lodging in a certain tavern in the woods, the landlady lying dead in the house. Mrs. Fox replied that this could scarcely be so, for Mr. Mott, the landlord, lost his wife the year before. But all fell out as she had dreamed. The landlord had married again, and his second wife lay then dead, preventing their entertainment. circumstances of the journey were exactly as dreamed.

All the

The

Thus open to spiritual impressions the Foxes entered the house at Hydesville, and from the very commencement they were disturbed by noises, but at first attributed them to rats and mice. In the month of January 1848, however, the noises assumed the character of distinct knockings at night in the bedrooms, sounding sometimes as from the cellar below, and resembling the hammering of a shoemaker. These knocks produced a tremulous motion, since familiar enough to spiritualists, in the furniture, and even in the floor. noises increased nightly, and occasionally they heard footsteps in the rooms. The children felt something heavy, as of a dog, lie on their feet when in bed, and Kate felt, as it were, a cold hand passed over her face. Sometimes the bedclothes were pulled off. Throughout February, and to the middle of March, the disturbances increased. Chairs and the dining-table were moved from their places. Mr. and Mrs. Fox, night after night, lit a candle and explored the whole house in vain. Raps were made on doors as they stood close to them, but on suddenly opening them no one was visible. It was afterwards found that Mr. and Mrs. Weekman, during eighteen months that they occupied the house, had just the same experience as to the knockings, the sound of footsteps, and the impossibility to catch anyone at a door, which was suddenly opened by them in the very instant of the knockings upon it. The Foxes were far from superstitious; and still hoped for some natural explanation, espe

cially as the annoyances always took place at night. But on March 13, 1848, matters assumed a new aspect. That day, which was cold, stormy, and snowy, they were visited by their son David from his farm, about three miles distant. His mother related to him their annoyances, on which he smiled, and said, 'Say not a word to any of the neighbours about it. When you find it out, it will be one of the simplest things in the world.' And in this belief he returned

home.

But the knockings were unusually loud. The bed of the children had been moved into the room of the parents to give them confidence, and they were told to lie still, even if they heard noises. But scarcely had Mrs. Fox lain down, when the noises became violent, and the children shouted out,' Here they are again!' They sat up in bed, and Mrs. Fox arose and called her husband. He tried the sashes to see if they were shaken by the wind, and as he did so the little lively Kate observed that the knockings in the room exactly answered the rattle made by her father with the sash. Hereupon she snapped her fingers and exclaimed, Here, old Splitfoot, do as I do!'

6

The child had evidently heard it suggested that it was the devil who made the noises, and if so, he was an obliging devil, for he immediately responded to the challenge.

This

at once attracted attention. Kate Fox made the mere motion with the thumb and finger, and the raps regularly followed the pantomime, just as much as when she made the sound. She found that, whatever the thing was, it could see as well as hear. Only look, mother!' she said, bringing together her thumb and finger as before. The rap followed.

'This at once,' says Mr. Owen, 'arrested the mother's attention. "Count ten," she said, addressing the noise. Ten strokes were distinctly given. "How old is my daughter Margaret?" Twelve strokes! "And Kate?" Nine! "And what can all this mean?" was Mrs. Fox's thought. But the next question which she put seemed to refute that idea "How many children have I?" she asked

aloud. Seven strokes. "Ah!" she thought, "it can blunder sometimes." And then aloud," Try again!" Still the number of raps was seven. Of a sudden, a thought crossed Mrs. Fox's mind. "Are they all alive?" she asked. No answer. “How many are living?" Six strokes. "How many are dead?" A single stroke; she had lost one child.

'She then asked if it was a man? No answer. Was it a spirit? It rapped. She next asked if the neighbours might hear it, and a Mrs. Redfield was called in, who only laughed at the idea of a ghost; but was soon made, serious by its correcting her, too, about the number of her children, insisting on her having one more than she herself counted. She, too, had lost one; and when she recollected this, she burst into tears. The spirits always reckon all the children, whether so-called dead or alive, as still living. They admit of no such thing as death.'

Mr. Owen, in relating these facts, whilst he gives just credit to Kate Fox for observing the intelligence of the rapping cause, does not forget that such a fact has frequently been observed before, but had never been followed out. It is to Mrs. Fox, rather than to her daughter, that we are indebted for following it out. Mr. Owen refers to the answers by knocks elicited by Mr. Mompesson in 1661, and by Glanvil and the Wesley family. But there had been such evidence of spiritual intelligence much earlier than that. At Rushton-hall, near Kettering, in Northamptonshire (as noticed in Notes and Queries,' vol. viii. p. 512), this occurred to Sir Thomas Tresham, as appears by one of his letters. Whilst his servant Fulcis was reading to him in the Christian Resolution' after supper in the year 1584, on beginning to read the treatise of Proof that there is a God,' there were three loud knocks as if it had been with an iron hammer, to the great amazement of Sir Thomas and of his two servants present. In the famous case of Mr. Mompesson's haunted house at Tedworth in 1661, as fully detailed by Glanvil, it was soon observed that, on beating or calling for any tune, it would be exactly answered by drumming.

6