A VISIT TO SPLIT ROCK, KENTUCKY--CHRISTMAS GREETINGS FROM IDA TO HER
PARENTS--ANNIE WINTERBURN TO HER BROTHER JOHN WINTERBURN, AND HIS
TESTIMONY AND HER FAREWELL TO THE MEDIUM, MRS. GREEN.
Mrs. Green's home proper, is at Aurora, Dearborn county, Indiana. Aurora
is a beautiful and enterprising little city of five or six thousand
inhabitants, and is located on the western bank of the Ohio river,
twenty-five miles or thereabouts below Cincinnati, Ohio. It can be reached
from Cincinnati in less than an hour's ride over the Ohio and Mississippi
railroad, which passes through it. While her husband pursues the legal
profession at Aurora, Mrs. G., in obedience to the wishes of her spirit
guides and attendants, devotes her time and medial gifts at Cincinnati
from Monday until Saturday of each week, returning to her companion and
daughter each Saturday, and remaining with them over the Sabbath. This
statement is deemed proper in view of and as prefatory to what I am about
to relate as occurring recently, and which can not fail to be estimated as
a truly remarkable spirit manifestation.
By the invitation of Mr. Green, Mr. Edwin Stebbins, of Cincinnati, and
myself accompanied Mrs. Green to her home at Aurora on Saturday, August
the 5th, for the purpose of joining a small party of excursionists on the
day following to the celebrated Split Rock, some three miles down the
river from Aurora, on the Kentucky side of the Ohio. Our host had
chartered a small propeller steamboat known as the Wave, which we boarded
early Sunday morning (the 6th), and it required less than a half hour to
land us at our destination. Our party consisted of our host and hostess
and their daughter, Cora B. Green; Mr. B. F. Vandegrift, his wife, three
daughters and son; James W. Shirley, wife, and two small children.
During the afternoon we were threatened with a rain-storm, and our party
divided, some going into the caves for shelter, others repaired to a
farm-house near by. The rain passed around us, after which a party of five
in number, namely, Mr. and Mrs. Green, Mr. and Mrs. Vandegrift, and
myself, reassembled on the summit of the elevation overlooking the Split
Rock. It was suggested by me that we have a spirit seance, but we had no
stand, slate or pencil. The novelty of a spirit seance on that noted spot
was sufficiently suggestive and interesting to induce us to improvise a
seat for the medium, which consisted of a couple of stakes driven into the
ground and a fence rail placed on them. I took out my annotation book and
with lead pencil placed it on Mrs. G.'s lap, and she threw over them a
rubber circular, making the necessary condition of darkness. We formed a
semi-circle in front of the medium thus seated, and sang the "Sweet Bye
and Bye," and "Nearer My God to Thee." In a few moments the covering over
the writing material was raised up and down three times, indicating
thereby that the writing had been accomplished. In this way we received in
rapid succession three communications, which I hereby transcribe and
number them in the order of their production.
_Number One._
"Good afternoon. Nice picnic. Many spirits with you, including Madam
Ehrenborg and Swedenborg. Nettie, Emil, and Ida send much love to Mr.
Helleberg and Mr. Stebbins."
_Number Two._
"Mr. and Mrs. Vandegrift's friends send their greetings from summer land.
Also, Mr. Green's friends and relatives. All happy to be with you."
_Number Three._
"God bless you all, and hope we may all meet on this spot again. Good bye.
"NETTIE AND CURRY."
We were not only delighted but enthusiastic over the success of our
enterprise. Here on this spot, both romantic and famous in history, with
illy-provided conditions, we had communed with the loved ones from the
land of immortal souls.
As the spirit daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Stebbins, of Cincinnati, Ohio, is
mentioned as belonging to the party of tourists that visited the planet
Mars, and as communicating with others at Split Rock, Kentucky, and for
other good reasons, I have deemed it not inappropriate to incorporate
herein a letter of Mr. Stebbins to the _Spiritual Offering_, a paper
recently established at Ottumwa, Iowa, and which is ably conducted and
devoted to the advancement of spiritualism.
[For the "Spiritual Offering."]
INDEPENDENT SLATE WRITING,
BY
EDWIN STEBBINS.
On Christmas evening myself and wife secured an independent slate-writing
sitting with Mrs. Lizzie S. Green, at 309 Longworth street, Cincinnati,
Ohio, and we received the following communication from our dear spirit
daughter, viz:
"Merry, merry Christmas to you all! I do not know of a better Christmas
gift than to give you a spirit communication on this memorable day. I am
so happy and excited I can not write good. Oh, I have a beautiful home and
am advancing in music all the time. I have a beautiful library of books. I
am a teacher, and have a nice little class. We do not have as many
scholars here in the spirit world as you do. We can not teach every one
like we did here. We have to be attracted to each other magnetically.
Therefore our work is not in vain, for by this method spiritual growth
must ensue. We work in harmony together, and nothing occurs to retard our
progress in learning. You would be surprised, and I rather think you are
now, even at my style of composition. If you could see me as I am here,
and hear me talk, you would see how fast I have progressed. Oh, how happy
I am in my spirit home, but my heaven is not there. It is with my dear pa
and ma, but duty calls and I must obey. I have been made extremely happy
by your obedience to my will and all will be well. Henney says this is
quite new to him, but when he saw you and me at his funeral his happiness
was beyond expression. When you laid away my form of clay you did not
think to see me here to talk and write to my loved ones dear.
"When you're sad and sometimes cry,
Remember your Ida, dear, is nigh,
To bless and comfort you while here,
And guide you to a brighter sphere.
"And when the time comes for you to go we will meet you with our golden
boat, and row you safely over the beautiful river to our home that I have
helped prepare for you. Now, thanking Mrs. Green for her kindness to you
and Ida, I bid you good night. All the relatives are here, and send you
their Christmas greetings.
"Good night, good night, to all that's here,
I leave and go to a brighter sphere.
Wishing you all success in the new year, dear pa and ma, ever hold sacred
the Christmas gift I present you to-day. Good night, Mr. Green, wife and
daughter. Good night, my dear pa and ma. This indeed is the happiest
Christmas I have spent since I left my earthly home. I must leave, but it
is hard. Your loving daughter,
"IDA."
"My daughter passed away on the 18th day of December, 1875, at the age of
seventeen, and she was an only child. The above message from her possesses
peculiar value to me, for therein are a number of valuable tests and
evidences of her identity. My belief in the return of the spirits of the
departed is of brief duration in point of time antecedent, and was mainly
brought about, through the mediumship of Mrs. Green. I can not express the
real happiness I enjoy since I have been the recipient of this new light
divine and I can only say, 'God speed the good work.'
"Cincinnati, Ohio."
ANNIE WINTERBURN.
"_Dear Brother_: Oh, how happy I am to-day to be able to write you on the
inner surface of a double slate with your own precious hands holding it
with the medium. You did not need this as a test, for your mind is clear
and your heart is in the cause, but we give it to you because others have
been thus favored, and we have resolved that you shall not be neglected
when the good things pertaining to spirit intercourse are being given to
others. Oh, John, you do give us so much real happiness by your noble and
upright conduct, and by the opportunities you give us to hold sweet
communion with you. Thus our lives become interblended, and the happiness
of all increased. Spirits do derive great benefit from mortals, and to
that extent are dependent on them. When a child dies in the tender years
of infancy unschooled in the multifarious concernments of mortal life, it
is brought back into contact with human affairs that it may learn those
experiences of earth which were denied it by its early and untimely
departure from the form. In all the pursuits of your life each individual
is constantly attended by spirits interested in the same, and in these and
many other ways are spirits aided in their progress and happiness.
Whenever and by whomsoever you are told differently heed it not, but rely
on what I have stated. We are interested in your proper instruction, and
we will not lead you astray or into error. All those near and dear to you
are here, and bid me to send you their love greetings. They pray without
ceasing that you may be kept steady and firm in your high resolves and
noble purposes until the end, when you shall rejoice in the anthem of
victory. Hold up your head, dear and precious brother; be brave and
resolute in the hour of temptation. Do no harm, but all the good you can
in the world. And when the blessed angel called Death shall beckon you
away from the labors and vicissitudes of mortal life to the sunlit
evergreen shores of the summer land, be assured that among the hosts of
others who will meet and welcome you with happy and rejoicing hearts you
will see and be enfolded lovingly in the arms of your loving sister,
"ANNIE."
"I, John Winterburn, resident of Cincinnati, Ohio, do hereby certify that
the above and foregoing communication from my spirit sister came in the
manner, to wit: I examined a double slate, and found it clean and without
any writing whatever upon it. A small piece of slate pencil not larger
than a grain of wheat was placed upon it and the slate closed. I then held
on to one side of the slate, holding it tight together as folded, and the
medium, Mrs. Green, held on to the other side. Soon we heard writing, and
in the course of fifteen minutes the signal was given indicating that the
writing was completed, whereupon the slate was opened, and on both sides
of the inner surfaces was found, neatly written, the above communication.
The t's were crossed, and the i's were dotted. I know, as well as I am
capable of knowing any fact requiring the exercise of my senses in their
normal state, that the communication was written by invisible power, and
I firmly believe it comes from the source it purports to come, namely: my
dear sister, now in spirit life. The seance was in broad daylight, and
under circumstances that precluded fraud or deception on the part of the
medium or any one else in the body.
"JOHN WINTERBURN, 185 Longworth street."
"This same Mr. Winterburn has had regularly one sitting a week with Mrs.
Green for seven or eight months, and among other spirit relatives and
friends who were active in communicating with him was his spirit sister
Annie. She seems to possess considerable poetic ability, and occasionally
wrote poetry to her brother. Recently Mr. Winterburn visited his mother
country, England, and the last sitting with Mrs. G. before his departure,
his sister Annie addressed the medium in the following feeling stanzas,
which Mr. Winterburn copied as they came on the slate, viz:
"Dear medium friend, both good and true,
'Tis hard that we must part from you,
And though we cross the surging main,
We will return to you again.
"Returning with our spirits' love and power
From British isle or sunlit bower,
Our fond hearts' loving blessings to impart
To comfort and cheer your noble heart.
"Dear brother's heart you have made glad,
Dispersing sorrow and conditions sad;
And where'er we roam, on land or sea,
Our hearts shall turn in love to thee.
"Farewell, dear medium friend, farewell,
To thee our gratitude we ne'er can tell,
We can only say heart's full of love,
We'll meet you on the shores above.
"And there, in that bright land of joy,
Where mingles naught of earth's alloy,
We'll lead thy steps with blessings rare
To our homes above our joys to share.
"Angels of light, refulgent bright,
Be with you when you take you flight
From scenes of strife and sorrows here
To a just reward in a higher sphere.
"Farewell, farewell, alas! farewell,
The parting is like a funereal knell;
But when you climb the golden stair,
Your true friend, Annie, will meet you there."