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HYDESVILLE.
[Illustration: ADVENT OF SPIRITUALISM 1848.
JOHN D. FOX.
HIS WIFE AND DAUGHTERS.
HYDESVILLE
NEW YORK U.S.A.]
HYDESVILLE:
The Story of the Rochester Knockings,
Which Proclaimed
the Advent of Modern Spiritualism,
by
THOMAS OLMAN TODD,
Past President of the British Spiritualists' Lyceum Union.
[Illustration]
Published at
The Keystone Press,
Sunderland.
DEDICATED TO DAISY.
[Illustration]
A creature not too bright or good
For human nature's daily food,
For transient sorrows, simple wiles,
Praise, blame, love, kisses, tears and smiles.
--Wordsworth.
[Illustration]
"Some secret truths from learned pride concealed,
To maids alone and children are revealed:
What though no credit doubting wits may give,
The fair and innocent shall still believe."
--POPE.
[Illustration]
"Rightly viewed, no meanest object is insignificant; all objects are as
windows, through which the philosophic eye looks into infinitude
itself."--CARLYLE.
[Illustration]
"Rivers from bubbling springs
Have rise at first, and great from abject things."
--MIDDLETON.
[Illustration]
PREFACE.
The interesting events narrated in this book which occurred at
Hydesville, in the house of the Fox Family, are those by which Modern
Spiritualism made its advent into this world as a new revelation in
spiritual matters.
History is not without its reliable records of similar phenomena, but,
just as many scientific men have experimented and stopped short of the
gateway of the actual discovery of Nature's secrets, so, many who came
in contact with phenomena similar to those of Hydesville whilst being
mystified as to the meaning of the operating power, stopped short of the
actual discovery that "It can see as well as hear." Notably in the case
of the disturbances at Mr. Mompesson's house at Tedworth (1661--1663)
and Mr. Wesley's parsonage at Epworth (1716--1717).
The early literature of the Spiritualist Movement is replete with most
interesting records of phenomena of bewildering variety, but during the
past twenty years the demand for literature on this absorbing subject
has taken a more philosophic turn. The phenomena are admittedly real.
The philosophy is the subject of debate, hence these early records are
fast going out of print and becoming difficult to obtain.
Some few years ago, when the writer paid what proved to be his last
visit to Mrs. Emma Hardinge Britten, he was deeply impressed with her
desire that the early history of the Spiritualist Movement, for which
she spent the greater part of her industrious life, and with which she
had been so intimately connected, should not be allowed to pass into
oblivion, and that at least the story of HYDESVILLE should be published
in a handy form and at a reasonable price. For this purpose she
presented him with what appeared to be her only remaining copy of her
invaluable historical work "Modern American Spiritualism," and requested
him to undertake that duty.
The incidents recorded in the following pages are based chiefly on the
information given in the work mentioned above, and considerable use is
made of the actual words and sentences penned by Mrs. Britten; these are
given without quotation marks. Some portions however have been
re-written to adapt them to the requirements of the present book, whilst
a few other facts have been gathered from various sources, chiefly
Robert Dale Owen's "Footfalls on the Boundary of Another World." Both
Mrs. Britten and Mr. Owen were personally acquainted with the Fox family
and many of the persons incidentally mentioned in connection with the
phenomena at HYDESVILLE--a fact which gives superior weight to their
records.
T. O. T.
Sunderland, 1905.
Manchester,
December 5th, 1897.
Mr. T. O. Todd.
Dear Sir,
Having been a sad invalid since June of this year, and still suffering,
I do not quite remember whether I have or not written to you on the
subject to which I desire to devote this poor scrawl. If I have not done
so hitherto--permit me to say,--altho' I have been obliged from severe
illness to suspend my platform work and writings, I am as much
interested in the earnest desire to help the progress of Spiritualism as
I have been in my long years of past devotion to that cause.
In consequence of my sad illness I have been obliged to refuse my kind
American Friends' urgent invitation to attend their Grand Celebration at
Rochester, N.Y., next June.
* * * * *
I am most anxious to do something for our noble cause, [enquirers] will
necessarily want to have some special accounts of the first opening of
the Spiritual Movement and the history of the poor Fox Family and their
immediate connection with the famous "Rochester Knockings." All this I,
who knew the Fox Family and all the circumstances of the case
personally and intimately, have written and published in full detail in
my widely circulated work "Modern American Spiritualism."--But this work
consists of 560 pages, and tho' bought by thousands of American
Spiritualists, I should not know in England where to turn to find a copy
except in my own bookcase.
Now what I propose is this: In the first hundred pages is the full and
entire history of the movement; the life and labours of A. J.
Davis,--the life, sufferings, and bitter persecutions of the poor Foxes,
and all their early trials; friends, foes, and all connected with them.
Why cannot you . . . take those hundred pages, condense them, and make a
splendid pamphlet of them?
* * * * *
Sincerely yours,
EMMA HARDINGE BRITTEN.
SPIRIT RAPPINGS.
[Illustration: Decoration]
(This poem will be found set to music in the "Spiritual Songster.")
[Illustration: Decoration]
Rap, rap, rap! Rap, rap, rap! Rap, rap, rap!
Who is it rapping to-night?
Only invisible friends,
Come from those chambers whose light
Radiantly earth-ward descends,
Those whose dear forms you have covered from sight,
And mark'd by a marble shaft solemn and white,
Have come from the land where their life bloom'd anew,
And lo! by those raps they are talking to you.
Rap, rap, rap! Rap, rap, rap! Rap, rap, rap!
Daintiest fingers of air
Wake the most delicate sound
Rapping on table or chair,
Lov'd ones of earth gather round
Making us know that our lov'd ones have come,
Come back to our hearts, and their dear earthly home,
Forget they will never, thro' glory bath'd years,
How lonely they left us in sadness and tears.
Rap, rap, rap! Rap, rap, rap! Rap, rap, rap!
Guests we would honour are here!
Hear the light rappings, and know
Visiting Angels are near,
Greeting their earth friends below!
Oh, bid them welcome, in garments of white,
To hearts which are pure and illumin'd with light;
They wander at will o'er two wonderful lands,
Oh, list to their counsels, and give them your hands.
Rap, rap, rap! Rap, rap, rap! Rap, rap, rap!
Lov'd ones are rapping to-night;
Heaven seems not far away;
Death's sweeping river is bright,
Soft is the sheen of its spray.
Magical changes those rappings have wrought,
Sweet hope to the hopeless their patter has brought,
And death is bridg'd over with amaranth flow'rs:
Blest Spirits come back from their bright homes to ours.
--Emma R. Tuttle.
[Illustration: Kate Fox]
HYDESVILLE.
THE STORY OF THE ROCHESTER KNOCKINGS.
CHAPTER I.
The birth-places of the greatest of the world's social, political, and
religious reformations have generally been of insignificant and lowly
aspect, and apparently under the most inauspicious circumstances for
producing any great effect upon mankind. The Babe of the lowly manger
becomes the Spiritual King of millions of human hearts and souls, and
the "Wood Hut" becomes the gateway through which Holy Ministers of
Light, from their world of Truth and Beauty, send the evidence of man's
immortality, through the instrumentality of a child, to the weary worn
pilgrims of earth, who, praying for the "touch of a vanish'd hand, and
the sound of a voice that is still," welcome with joyful hearts the
Spirit message "WE STILL LIVE."
The scene of the manifestations dealt with in the following pages, was a
small wooden homestead, one of a cluster of houses like itself, in the
little village of Hydesville, near to the town of Newark, Wayne County,
New York (being so called after Dr. Hyde, an old settler, whose son was
the proprietor of the house in question). The place not being directly
accessible from a railroad, was lonely and unmarked by those tokens of
progress that the locomotive generally leaves in its track, hence it was
the last spot where a scene of fraud and deception could find a
possibility of a successful execution. The house was a humble frame
dwelling fronting south, consisting of two fair-size parlours opening
into each other, east of these a bedroom and a buttery or pantry,
opening into one of the sitting rooms; and a stairway between the
buttery and the bedroom leading from the sitting room up to the half
storey above and from the buttery down to the cellar.
This humble dwelling had been selected as a temporary residence during
the erection of another house in the country, by Mr. John D. Fox, who,
with his family, soon afterwards became so prominently identified with
the phenomena which have since become world famous. Their little
dwelling, though so small and simply furnished as to leave no shadow of
opportunity for concealment or trick, was the residence of honest piety
and rural simplicity. All who ever knew them bore witness to the
unimpeachable character of the good mother, while the integrity of the
simple-minded farmers who were father and brother to the sisters who
have since become so celebrated as the "Rochester Knockers" stands
proved beyond all question.
The ancestors of Mr. Fox were Germans, the name being originally "Voss";
but both he and Mrs. Fox were native born. In Mrs. Fox's family, French
by origin and Rutan by name, several individuals had evinced the power
of second sight,--her maternal grandmother (Margaret Ackerman) who
resided at Long Island, had frequent perceptions of coming events; so
vivid were these presentiments that she frequently followed phantom
funerals to the grave as if they were real.
Mrs. Fox's sister also, Mrs. Elizabeth Higgins, had similar power. On
one occasion, in the year 1823, the two sisters, then residing in New
York, proposed to go to Sodus by canal. But one morning Elizabeth said,
"We shall not make this trip by water." "Why so?" her sister asked.
"Because I dreamed last night that we travelled by land, and there was a
strange person with us. In my dream, too, I thought we came to Mott's
tavern on the Beech Woods, and that they could not admit us because
Mrs. Mott lay dying in the house. I know it will all come true." "Very
likely indeed!" her sister replied, "for last year, when we passed
there, Mr. Mott's wife lay dead in the house." "You will see. He must
have married again and he will lose his second wife." Every particular
came to pass as Mrs. Higgins had predicted. Mrs. Johnson, a stranger,
whom at the time of the dream they had not seen, did go with them, they
made the journey by land and were refused admittance into Mott's tavern
for the very cause assigned in the dream.
The family of Mr. and Mrs. Fox consisted of six children, but at the
time of the manifestations the house was occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Fox
and their two youngest children only, Margaretta, aged twelve, and Kate,
aged nine years. These details, insignificant as they may now appear,
are due alike to the family and posterity. When the future of this
wonderful movement shall have become matter of history and antiquity, if
not reverence for spiritual truth, and shall induce mankind to follow
the example of their ancestors and label the records "sacred," the names
now sunk in obscurity and masked by slander may perchance be engraved in
monuments of bronze and marble, and the incidents now deemed too slight
for notice become reverenced as "Holy Writ." These changes of chance
and time have happened before; if history repeats itself they will occur
again. It was reserved to this family to be the instruments of
communicating to the world this most singular affair. They were the ones
who first, as if by accident, found out that there was an INTELLIGENCE
MANIFESTED EVEN IN THE RAPPING, which at first appeared nothing more
than an annoying and unaccountable noise.
In a publication of the early investigations connected with this house,
entitled: "A Report of the Mysterious Noises heard in the house of Mr.
John D. Fox, in Hydesville, Arcadia, Wayne County, authenticated by the
certificates and confirmed by the statements of the citizens of that
place and vicinity," we find that some disturbances had affected the
house before the Fox family came to live there. In the year 1843-4, the
farm was occupied by a Mr. and Mrs. Bell, who, during the last three
months of their stay were joined by a young girl--Lucretia Pulver, who
sometimes worked for them, and at other times boarded with them and went
to school, she being about fifteen years old.
According to the statement of Lucretia, called forth by subsequent
investigations, a pedlar called at the house one afternoon whom Mrs.
Bell seemed to recognise as an acquaintance. He was a man about thirty
years of age, dressed in a black frock coat, light trousers and vest,
and carried with him a pack of goods containing dress material and other
draperies.
Shortly after the arrival of the pedlar, Mrs. Bell called the girl to
say that she could not afford to keep her any longer, and that as she
was going to the next village the same afternoon, she might pack her
clothes and they would go together. Before going, Lucretia chose from
the pedlar's pack a piece of delaine, asking him to leave it at her
father's house; this he promised to do the next day. Mrs. Bell and
Lucretia then left the house, the pedlar and Mr. Bell remained behind,
the former apparently having decided to stay there for the day. The
pedlar did not call at Lucretia's father's house next day in fulfilment
of his promise to do so, nor, in fact, was he ever seen again, a
circumstance which should be borne in mind when the sequel to this story
is under consideration.
About three days afterwards, much to the girl's surprise, Mrs. Bell sent
for Lucretia to return to her again. She did so, and from that time she
began to hear noises and knockings in her bedroom, the same room which
was afterwards occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Fox. On one occasion, when Mr.
and Mrs. Bell were away from home at Lock Berlin, and Lucretia had to
remain in the house, she sent for her young brother and a girl friend
named Aurelia Losey to stay in the house with her. During the night they
all heard noises which they declared sounded like the footsteps of a man
passing from the bedroom to the buttery, then down the cellar stairs,
traversing the cellar for a short time and then suddenly stopping. They
were all very much frightened and got up to fasten the doors and
windows, but were scarcely able to sleep the remainder of the night.
About a week after the visit of the pedlar to the house, Lucretia having
occasion to go down into the cellar, stumbled and fell into a hole
filled with soft soil, this somewhat frightened her and caused her to
scream for assistance. Mrs. Bell coming to her rescue, Lucretia asked
what Mr. Bell had been doing in the cellar that it was all "dug up."
Mrs. Bell replied that "the holes were only rat holes," and a few nights
afterwards Lucretia observed that Mr. Bell was busy for some time in the
cellar filling up the "rat holes" with earth which he carried there
himself.
During the remainder of the period in which the house was occupied by
the Bell family, the sounds continued to be heard, not only by Lucretia
but by Mrs. Bell. Lucretia's mother, Mrs. Pulver, was a frequent
visitor at the house, and on one occasion in particular, after the
foregoing events, when she called upon Mrs. Bell, she found the latter
quite ill from want of rest, and on enquiring the cause, Mrs. Bell
declared she was "sick of her life," and that she frequently "heard the
footsteps of a man traversing the house all night."