Talking to the Dead (32 page)

EPIGRAPH

Eileen Garrett's statement comes from “Notes on New Insight in Psychic Research,” a manuscript housed at the Parapsychology Foundation in New York City, quoted by Lawrence LeShan,
The Medium, the Mystic, and the Physicist: Toward a General Theory of the Paranormal
(New York: Viking, 1966), 73. Born in Ireland in 1893, Garrett became known as a medium for channeling spirits and also as clairvoyant, having predicted the crash of a British dirigible in 1930. Her powers were investigated at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and Roosevelt Hospital in New York. She became an American citizen in 1947 and founded the Parapsychology Foundation in 1951. The foundation's Web site, as of September 29, 2003, is http://www.parapsychology.org.

INTRODUCTION

1.
Mary Redfield's reaction to news of the sounds and quotations from Margaret Fox, Mary Redfield, and one of the sisters are found in E. E. Lewis,
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
(Canandaigua, NY: E. E. Lewis, 1848), 29–31.

2.
I've retained the original spelling in most letters and other documents, but I generally have regularized punctuation and capitalization.

3.
Lewis,
Mysterious Noises,
4.

CHAPTER 1: “A LARGE, INTELLIGENT AND CANDID COMMUNITY”

1.
The title of part 1, “Earth and the World of Spirits,” comes from the subtitle of the book by the Spiritualist historian Emma Hardinge,
Modern American Spiritualism: A Twenty Years' Record of the Communion Between Earth and the World of Spirits
(1869; repr., New Hyde Park, NY: University Books, 1970). The title of chapter 1, “A Large, Intelligent and Candid Community,” comes from E. E. Lewis,
A Report of the Mysterious Noises Heard in the House of Mr. John D. Fox
(Canandaigua, NY: E. E. Lewis, 1848), 4.

2.
Western Argus
(Lyons, NY), December 22, 1847, and January 5, 1848.

3.
The children's ages at the time of the move to Hydesville are a point of controversy. Different authors cite different ages to suit their agendas. I have chosen to work with the dates inscribed on the two sisters' joint gravestone in Cypress Hills Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York, and to try to deal with the disagreement as the story unfolds.

4.
Robert L. Hoeltzel,
Hometown History: Village of Newark, Town of Arcadia
(Newark, NY: Gene McClellan for Arcadia Historical Society, 2000), 72. I'm indebted to Robert Hoeltzel, Arcadia town historian, for sharing his knowledge about the community of Arcadia and his thoughts on the rise of Modern Spiritualism. His series of five articles on the origins of Modern Spiritualism, “Arcadia Earns a Place on the Map,” was first published in the
Courier Gazette
(Newark, NY) in 1998, to coincide with Spiritualism's one hundred fiftieth anniversary. He later compiled many of his articles on Spiritualism and other subjects into his fascinating book,
Hometown History,
which can be ordered through the Arcadia Historical Society, PO Box 289, Newark, NY 14513.
Two other sources from the Wayne County Historical Society furnished valuable information on Wayne County's local history: George W. Cowles, ed.,
Landmarks of Wayne County, New York, Illustrated
(Syracuse, NY: D. Mason, 1895), and a booklet by Irma Gallup Stroup,
Around the Town in By-Gone Days
(Newark, NY: Newark Courier Gazette, 1957).

5.
This description is drawn from a letter by Joseph Post to Amy and Isaac Post, August 15, 1852, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, University of Rochester Library, Rochester, New York.

6.
Figures are based on those in Robert V. Wells,
Facing the “King of Terrors”: Death and Society in an American Community, 1750–1990
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 39, 291. Wells's figures refer specifically to Schenectady, a community in western New York, for the years 1883 to 1886. The author notes that reliable evidence wasn't available before then but that life expectancy in the early 1880s was “not appreciably better, and possibly worse, than what was probably the case a century before.”

7.
Herbert Jackson Jr.,
The Spirit Rappers
(New York: Doubleday, 1972), 20. In this excellent biography, Jackson, who was a journalist and longtime resident of Wayne County, paints
a vivid portrait of the Fox sisters and has assembled a lively collection of articles about them, particularly from the mainstream press. He leans in the direction of what has been called “the tricky little boys or girls” theory on the origins of Spiritualism, a point of view often associated with Frank Podmore, a historian of Spiritualism whose two-volume work,
Modern Spiritualism: A History and a Criticism
(New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1902), reissued under the title
Mediums of the Nineteenth Century
(New Hyde Park, NY: University Books, 1963), helped shape later attitudes toward Spiritualism.

8.
Western Argus,
November 17, 1847.

9.
Western Argus,
March 8, 1848.

10.
The comments of Margaret Fox quoted throughout this chapter are taken from the “Certificate of Mrs. Margaret Fox,” in Lewis,
Mysterious Noises,
5–9. Other comments made by specific individuals can be found, unless otherwise noted, in the following sections of Lewis's pamphlet: “Statement of David S. Fox,” 27–29; “Statement of Wm. Duesler,” 10–16; “Statement of Mrs. Elizabeth Fox,” 22–24; “Statement of Mrs. Mary Redfield,” 29–31; “Statement of John D. Fox,” 9–10; “Statement of Mrs. Jane C. Lape,” 35; “Statement of Miss Lucretia Pulver,” 35–36.

11.
As Jackson points out in
Spirit Rappers,
whether for the sake of tact or for fear of a lawsuit, Lewis left a blank for Bell's name in the body of the pamphlet and mentioned it only at the end, in the context of a petition signed by Bell's friends and supporters.

12.
Andrew Soverhill is quoted by Hoeltzel,
Hometown History,
80–81.

13.
The doctor is quoted by Jackson,
Spirit Rappers,
20.

14.
Newark Herald,
May 4, 1848, quoted by Jackson,
Spirit Rappers,
17.

15.
Several secondary sources were particularly helpful on the topic of what the historian Jon Butler calls “The Antebellum Spiritual Hothouse,” and specifically on the historical context in which Spiritualism evolved. These sources, which have informed many of the chapters in this book, include Butler's own
Awash in a Sea of Faith
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1990); Sydney E. Ahlstrom,
A Religious History of the American People
(New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1972); Ann Braude,
Radical Spirits: Spiritualism and Women's Rights in Nineteenth-Century America
(Boston: Beacon Press, 1989); Bret E. Carroll,
Spiritualism in Antebellum America
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1997); Whitney R. Cross,
The Burned-over District: The Social and Intellectual History of Enthusiastic Religion in Western New York, 1800–1850
(Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1950); Ernest Isaacs, “The Fox Sisters and American Spiritualism,” in
The Occult in America: New Historical Perspectives,
edited by Howard Kerr and Charles L. Crow (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1983); R. Laurence Moore,
In Search of White Crows: Spiritualism, Parapsychology, and American Culture
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1977); Leo P. Ribuffo, “The Complexity of American Religious Prejudice,”
Right Center Left: Essays in American History
(New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1992); and Ann Taves,
Fits, Trances, and Visions: Experiencing Religion and Explaining Experience from Wesley to James
(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999).

16.
Harold Thompson,
New York State Folktales, Legends, and Ballads
(New York: Dover, 1939), 432.

17.
Dr. Charles J. Pecor,
The Magician on the American Stage, 1752–1874
(n.p., 1977), copy number 368, p. 85.

18.
Ventriloquism Explained: And Juggler's Tricks, or Legerdemain Exposed
(Amherst, MA: J. S. and C. Adams, 1834), 30.

CHAPTER 2: “SOME FAMILY ANTECEDENTS”

1.
John's date of birth is cited as 1787 by Mariam Buckner Pond,
Time Is Kind: The Story of the Unfortunate Fox Family
(New York: Centennial, 1947), 6. Pond was married to one of Kate and Maggie's grandnephews. Other family sources today cite 1789 as John's birth date and his place of birth as New York City. John's younger brothers, however, were born in Ramapo, Rockland County, New York, suggesting that John was raised there as well.

2.
Wills A:30,
Rockland County Surrogate Court Records,
Rockland County Courthouse, New City, NY.

3.
For Margaret's nickname, see John C. Smith's will, Wills B:120,
Rockland County Surrogate Court Records,
Rockland County Courthouse, New City, NY. The date of Margaret's birth is from “Kakiat or West New Hempstead Records,” trans. Nicholas Gentzlinger Blauvelt (1933), Genealogical Collection of the Association of Blauvelt Descendants, Spring Valley, New York, ABD.05 Marriages, p. 79, hereafter cited as “Kakiat Records.” Although some descendants of the family today cite Margaret's birth date as 1797 and the place of birth as Canada, she seems much more likely to be the “Peggy” named in John C. Smith's will. The date of her marriage to John David Fox is from “Kakiat Records,” 17. Ralph and Frances Blauvelt of the Association of Blauvelt Descendants were an invaluable resource for wills, deeds, church records, and family trees from Rockland County. The Association's Website is www.blauvelt.org (accessed November 20, 2003). Celeste Oliver, a Fox family descendant, generously provided an alternative family tree, a wealth of anecdotes about the past, and helpful information about the present, all passed down through the family of Kate and Maggie's brother, David.

4.
Leah, the oldest child of John and Margaret Fox, discusses her family's ancestry in A. Leah Underhill,
The Missing Link in Modern Spiritualism
(New York: Thomas R. Knox, 1885), 74–76 from which the title of chapter 2 is drawn. Although Leah says that John C. Smith was of English ancestry, he too, according to information furnished by the Blauvelt Family Association, was of Dutch heritage. The Blauvelts cite as their source the “Genealogy of the Smidt, or Smith Family,” by George H. Budke (1912), Genealogical Collection of Association of Blauvelt Descendants, Rockland County, New York, ABD.34, no. 60.

5.
For information on the Ruttans and on the Loyalist settlement of Upper Canada, see
Pioneer Life on the Bay of Quinte, Including Genealogies of Old Families and Biographical Sketches of Representative Citizens
(Toronto: Ralph and Clark, 190-?). See also James J. Keegan,
A Rutan Family Index
(Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, 1996).

6.
Leah discusses her family's clairvoyance in
Missing Link,
74–84.

7.
Leah's baptismal date is from “Kakiat Records,” 78. David's birth date is on his gravestone in the Newark Main Street Cemetery, Arcadia.

8.
Underhill,
Missing Link,
74. Leah preferred to call her book a work about Spiritualism rather than an autobiography, but she includes a great deal of information in it about herself and her family. She has been criticized for her tendency to embellish material, particularly seance phenomena where there is no corroborating testimony, and her dates for events are often inaccurate and confused. That said, she offers a wealth of anecdotes and a selection of letters that at times seem to evidence either surprising candor or emotional insight. Unless there is material that directly contradicts her stories or calls them into question, I have used her information to provide clues to actual events and the feelings that may have accompanied the circumstances.

9.
The legend of Hydesville and the Erie Canal is told by Robert Hoeltzel,
Hometown History: Village of Newark, Town of Arcadia
(Newark, NY: Gene McClellan for Arcadia Town Historical Society, 2000), 24.

10.
Statement made by Titus Merritt to James Hyslop, February 7, 1908, Archives of the American Society for Psychical Research, New York, New York.

11.
John C. Smith's will (see n. 3).

12.
Underhill,
Missing Link,
85.

13.
On age at marriage, see Thomas Hine,
The Rise and Fall of the American Teenager
(New York: Bard, 1999), 93.

14.
Underhill,
Missing Link,
30–31. As for Lizzie, Maggie would later claim that her niece was as much as seven years older than she. But other descriptions imply that they were closer in age.