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Spiritualism SPIRITUALISM “...Borrowed Brigham the wheel wright’s boat at the Corner Bridge– He was quite ready to lend it –and took pains to shave down the handle of a paddle for me, conversing the while on the subject of spiritual knocking –which he asked if I had looked into –which made him the slower– An obliging man who understands that I am abroad viewing the works of Nature & not loafing –though he makes the pursuit a semi-religious one –as are all more serious ones to most men. All that is not sporting in the field –as hunting & fishing– is of a religious or else love-cracked character.....” — Henry Thoreau, JOURNAL, July 1, 1852 HDT WHAT? INDEX SPIRITUALISM SPIRITUALISM 1840 During this decade Henry C. Wright would be making a transition from nonresistance to spiritualism, that is to say, to communicating with souls who had passed “beyond the veil.” He would hail Andrew Jackson Davis of Poughkeepsie, one of the more notorious of the seers or spirit-communicators, as “a Jesus of this day.” He would shill for the Canadian Fox Sisters and their toe-joint-popping antics. SPIRITUALISM (In all fairness to the Reverend Wright, I must add that the Reverend Adin Ballou and Friend John Greenleaf Whittier were being similarly gullible.) 2 Copyright Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX SPIRITUALISM SPIRITUALISM 1847 December: The Fox family from Canada relocated to a decrepit house, reputedly haunted, near Hydesville, New York. SPIRITUALISM FOX SISTERS 1848 March: The Fox family of Canadians had lived during that winter in an old house, reputedly haunted and certainly decrepit, near Hydesville, New York. Pretty soon, young Maggie Fox and Kate Fox were faking rappings on the floor of their bedroom as a trick on their parents John and Margaret Fox. Kate Maggie The younger Fox girls, of an age to be bored and mischievous, had learned how to make their joints, in particular their knee joints, make a popping noise, and quickly became adept at delivering toe-taps without any noticeable movement. (Initially, they were professing to have raps with a “Mr. Splitfoot.” Luckily for everyone concerned, this was Hydesville, New York rather than Salem, Massachusetts –and the 19th Century rather than the 17th –so the adolescent trickiness would veer this time in the direction of spiritualism rather than again in the direction of demonism, and there would be seances instead of witch trials.) An oldest sister, Ann Leah Fox Fish, had been living in Rochester and supporting herself by giving piano lessons, so after the younger sisters moved in with her, the craze would become known alliteratively as “Rochester Rappings.” The sisters would go on tour and find they could bring in perhaps $100.00 a night among them, although Leah as the oldest and as their manager was able to siphon off most of this. SPIRITUALISM “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 3 HDT WHAT? INDEX SPIRITUALISM SPIRITUALISM March 31, Friday: Waldo Emerson visited Oxford. Past and present members of legislative bodies of all German states met in Frankfurt to organize an all-German parliament. The young Canadian girls Kate Fox and Maggie Fox again faked rappings, fooling their parents John and Margaret Fox into supposing that they were in communion with spirits. A number of their new neighbors in upstate New York were called over to witness the phenomenon, and a lifetime of lying and publicity seeking began. Kate Maggie SPIRITUALISM April 4, Tuesday: Frederick Douglass sailed from Liverpool, again aboard the Cunard steamship Cambria, again consigned to the steerage compartment in its stern, expected by the crew and by the other passengers to take all his meals in solitude — but this time he was bound for a triumphal return to his family in Lynn as the conqueror of the British Isles. The Rochester Daily American challenged its readers to solve the Fox Sisters mystery of the Hydesville, New York rappings. SPIRITUALISM May: Ann Leah Fox Fish, piano-teaching older sister of Maggie Fox and Kate Fox, learning of the rapping goings- on in Hydesville from a reading of the Rochester, New York Daily American, took the Erie Canal packet boat from Rochester to Newark and went directly to her brother David’s Hydesville home, where she talked to her sisters — and got them to confess their secret, as well as how they were producing the rappings. SPIRITUALISM 4 Copyright Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX SPIRITUALISM SPIRITUALISM To make some money and become famous, the sisters of course became co-conspirators. Anything’s better than having to work for a living, right? “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 5 HDT WHAT? INDEX SPIRITUALISM SPIRITUALISM June: A Congregational minister, the Reverend Lemuel Clark of Worcester, New York attended a Fox Sisters seance at Mrs. Ann Leah Fox Fish’s home in Rochester. Among the spirits contacted were that of a murdered Hydesville pedlar (they said the apparition referred to himself as “Charles B. Rosna”) and that of Harriet Granger, dead daughter of the hosts Mr. and Mrs. Lyman Granger. SPIRITUALISM November 14, Tuesday: A public display of Spiritualism was organized in Rochester, New York, and prominent clergy, doctors, and scientists, were asked to be in attendance. Unable to detect trickery on this first night, they called for a subsequent performance as and for several private demonstrations in the presence of doctors. Still the source of the rappings would elude them and so yet a third public forum would be scheduled. The crowd would strip Maggie Fox, inspecting both her clothing and her body. When the 15-year-old would burst into tears and cry out for help, Friend Amy Post would come to her assistance. Many members of the Rochester community would nevertheless demand yet a fourth public examination — the stakes were high, as either they were being duped, or these strange noises were Satanic in origin. Several members of the Rochester community announced that if Maggie did not reveal the source of the rapping, they intended to lynch her and anyone else connected with the rappings. The local clergy registered no protests in the face of this threat, but 6 Copyright Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX SPIRITUALISM SPIRITUALISM before the final demonstration began, Friend George Willets announced that anyone who attempted to lynch the girl would do so over his dead body. As the demonstration ended, boys began lighting fireworks and several men came on stage to remove Maggie’s dress and check it for hidden weights. The police had to disperse the crowd and escort the girl home. Eliab Capron of Auburn, New York attending one or more of the seances, would claim to have been convinced of the authenticity of the rappings. SPIRITUALISM November 14, 1848: Jeremiah Mason, a Boston attorney, had died on October 14, 1848. At a meeting of the Bar of the County of Suffolk, Massachusetts on October 17, 1848, Mr. Choate had proposed appropriate sentiments and all had agree that these should be presented to the Supreme Judicial Court at its next term in Boston. On this day, at the opening of that court after the offering of prayer, Daniel Webster therefore rose:1 May it please your Honors,—JEREMIAH MASON, one of the counsellors of this court, departed this life on the 14th of October, at his residence in this city. The death of one of its members, so highly respected, so much admired and venerated, could not fail to produce a striking impression upon the members of this bar; and a meeting was immediately called, at which a member of this court, just on the eve of leaving the practice of his profession for a seat on the bench,2 presided; and resolutions expressive of the sense entertained by the bar of the high character of the deceased, and of sincere condolence with those whom his loss touched more nearly, were moved by one of his distinguished brethren, and adopted with entire unanimity. My brethren have appointed me to the honorable duty of presenting these resolutions to this court; and it is in discharge of that duty that I rise to address you, and pray that the resolutions which I hold in my hand may be read by the clerk. The clerk of the court then read the sentiments of the Bar Association: Resolved, That the members of this bar have heard with profound emotion of the decease of the Honorable Jeremiah Mason, one of the most eminent and distinguished of the great men who have ever adorned this profession; and, as well in discharge of a public duty, as in obedience to the dictates of our private feelings, we think it proper to mark this occasion by some attempt to record our estimate of his pre-eminent abilities and high character. Resolved, That the public character and services of Mr. Mason demand prominent commemoration; that, throughout his long life, whether as a private person or in public place, he maintained a wide and various intercourse with public men, and cherished a constant and deep interest in public affairs, and by his vast practical wisdom and sagacity, the fruit of extraordinary intellectual endowments, matured thought, and profound observation, and by the soundness of his opinions and the comprehensiveness and elevated tone of his politics, he exerted at all times a great and most salutary influence upon the sentiments and policy of the community and the country; and that, as a Senator in the Congress of the United States during a period of many years, and in a crisis of affairs which demanded the wisdom of the wisest and the civil virtues of the best, he was distinguished among the most eminent men of his country for 1.
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