History - Newark

Hamlet of Hydesville in 1848

By Bob Hoeltzel, Arcadia Town Historian

What would cause a 36-year-old physician to leave the settled town of Putney, Vermont, to move to the forests of Western New York state in 1810? We know that Dr. Henry Hyde made such a move, but his reason, the details of his journey and of the hardship he encountered in the first few years, can only be surmised.

Did Dr. Hyde intend to practice medicine in what is now the town of Arcadia? If he did, he must have been badly disappointed. The territory was too sparsely settled and the "neighbors" uniformly too short of cash money for him to make a living in his profession. To meet his need for income, Dr. Hyde built and operated a tavern near the present corner of the Hydesville and Parker Roads. This tavern answered the convivial needs of his fellow pioneers as well as being a stopping-off place for others going further west.

I suspect he also did some doctoring of his neighbors when called upon. He was a charter member of the Wayne County Medical Society when it was organized in 1823. With what money he was able to accumulate he bought and cleared land in the area which now bears his name.

Politically, Hydesville (or Hydeville) as it soon came to be called, was in the Town of Sodus, Ontario County in 1810. In 1811 the southern part of the township was set off as the Town of Lyons; in 1823 Wayne County was established; and in 1825 the Town of Arcadia was created from the western part of the Town of Lyons.

Other settlements sprang up in the Town of Arcadia. West Arcadia, two miles west of Hydesville, had passed out of existence by 1848; Jessups Corners (now Whitings Corners) enjoyed only a brief existence. Mud Mills and Marbletown (originally Taunton) grew and prospered as did Newark, Arcadia (Lockville/East Newark) and Ninham which merged under the name Newark when incorporated in 1853. Fairville had its period of greatest growth in the 1850s, although the first settlers arrived much earlier.

Legend has it that the original survey line for the Erie Canal (1817 in this area) had the canal pass but a few feet south of the main road through Hydesville. Some of the Hydesville residents learned what was proposed. With an unfortunate lack of foresight, they envisioned a stagnant body of water from which miasma and ague would threaten the very lives of the community. To show their displeasure, the surveyors' stakes were pulled up, only to be replaced and, again pulled up, by parties unknown.

"We won't have a frog pond running through our neighborhood," was the determined cry. Alarmed by this reaction, the state surveyors' line was run a mile farther south. Records in the State Archives confirm that such a change was made, but give no reason.

A worse decision could not have been made by those interested in the growth of Hydesville. The settlements of Newark and Arcadia/Lockville became boom towns because of the canal, while the growth of the other hamlets in this township came to a standstill.

One writer claimed that, at one time, Hydesville consisted of "a grist mill, saw mill, church, school, tavern, shop, blacksmith, hat manufacturer and 500 inhabitants." Although those were the days of large families, I feel sure the claim for "500 inhabitants" was greatly inflated, unless the imaginary perimeter of this unincorporated settlement were drawn several miles out from Dr. Hyde's tavern.

The nearest documented proof of what Hydesville must have been like in 1848 - one hundred and fifty years ago - when "spirit rappings" brought fame/notoriety to the settlement - is the Wayne County map of 1853. The map shows a grist mill on the west side of the Parker Road, some 300 yards north of the corner, with a saw mill just north of it. Although the mill pond is now gone, a swampy area near the DeCann Road intersection marks the site of both mills.

On the east side of Parker Road, a schoolhouse is shown on or near the site now occupied by the abandoned brick school building erected in the 1870s. Just south of the school, the word "Methodist" on the map denotes the site of a Methodist Protestant church. Although the Hydesville school continued in operation until the 1940s, the church was of shorter duration by more than a half century.

Dr. Hyde's tavern was gone by 1853. No blacksmith shop is shown. The hat-manufacturer was likely a cottage industry carried on in the artisan's residence and therefore not designated on the map.

Until recent years, a road ran northeast from Stebbins Corner (Tellier Rd. at Stebbins Rd.) to the Hydesville Road, several hundred yards west of the Parker Road corner. At the Hydesville/Stebbins corner was a cooper (barrel-maker) shop in 1853. The map lists the names of property-owners but not renters.

Property owners in 1853 in the Hydesville area included such names as Powers, Bridger, Beach, VanHoosen, Irish, Jewell, Tinney, Losey, Peirson and Hickey. Two were "common laborers" according to the census of 1850, one was a blacksmith, the others farmers. All were American-born; all but two were born in New York State.

Dr. Henry Hyde died in 1828 at the age of 54. His widow Roseanna later married Archur Galloway, prominent tannery owner in the town of Palmyra. Eventually, the doctor's honored place in area history was ably filled by his son, Artemus W. Hyde (1816-92). Artemus continued his father's practice of purchasing area farm land, becoming a wealthy man by the standards of his day, and a large land-owner.

In the census of 1850, Artemus Hyde owned real estate valued at $15,000 - the most valuable farm-holdings in Arcadia. He owned and operated the mill at Mud Mills at one time and was Arcadia's Supervisor in 1864-65. Among his rental properties was the little house on the corner occupied by the John D. Fox family at the time of that fateful evening of March 31, 1848.

Not only was Hydesville an unlikely place of origin for what was to become a religion known around the world, the Fox family, credited as the founders of Modern Spiritualism, were unlikely folk to lead a movement which was to claim followers among the cultural and intellectual elite of their time. The more we learn of this family, the greater the enigma becomes.

John David Fox, husband and father, was descended from immigrants who came from the Palatine section of Germany to New York in 1709-10. The name was originally Voss, but anglicized to Fox.

John was born in New York City in 1787. John Dalett, Jr., as a young man-about-town (Newark) in 1848, checked out the Fox family as well as the "rappings." He described John Fox as a "little, dried-up old fellow, who wore great round-eyed spectacles." Possessing sufficient wiriness to make up for his lack of brawn, John Fox made a living as a blacksmith. About 1812, John was married to Margaret Smith, a native of either Canada or Rockland County, NY. (the references differ). The couple made their early home in Rockland County, where children, Ann Leah, Maria, Elizabeth and David, were born. One other child died in infancy. Although, like his wife, an ardent Methodist, John had a weakness for strong drink. The couple separated for several years. After a time, John swore off his bad habit and was reunited with his family.

By this time, Margaret and the children had moved to Canada. John's reformation lasted the remainder of his life and the family life was apparently harmonious for several years. While living near Bath, Ontario, two more children were born to John and Margaret - Margaretta and Catherine.

After a time, the family moved to Rochester to live with the oldest daughter. Early in 1848, as soon as the weather permitted, John resumed work on a home for his family two miles north of Hydesville on the farm then owned by the son David. Eventually completed, the house is no longer standing.

So he could be with Margaret and the two youngest children while working on his house, John rented, for his family and himself, a small house of Artemus Hyde in Hydesville. It is doubtful that John ever did much blacksmithing in Arcadia, for when Margaret, Margaretta and Catherine moved to New York City and fame and prosperity came to them, John joined his family. Well along in middle age by then, John remained in the background for the remainder of his life.

Although said to have been skeptical of the spiritualist movement, there is no doubt that when the rappings first began at the little house in Hydesville, John was genuinely mystified. Whatever his doubts may have become, John Fox remained loyal to his family until his death January 10, 1865. His remains were returned to Arcadia to be interred in Newark Cemetery.

It is said that "opposites attract," and such must have been the case in the union of John Fox and Margaret Smith. Of Dutch, English and French descent, Margaret may have inherited an affinity for the occult through her grandmother, Margaret Rutan Ackerman. Grandma Ackerman is said to have evinced the power of foretelling events. While in a somnambulic state, she would "witness" the funerals of persons who were still alive at the time. Upon awakening, she gave details, which soon after proved true. A sister of Margaret Fox also claimed occult powers.

John Daggett remembered Margaret Fox being much John Fox's "superior in weight and good looks" and added, quaintly, she was "the best horse in the team by odds." Apparently a paragon of motherhood, Margaret seems always to have had the best interests of her children at heart and did for them what seemed best at the time. Living only a few months after the death of her husband, Margaret died August 3, 1865 and is buried in Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn. Like her husband, she was about 78 years of age at death.

Ann Leah Fox - usually called Leah - was born in 1814. The oldest of the Fox children, she was the one with the most strength of character - for good or ill - of any of the family.

At the age of 14 years and five months, Leah married Bowman Fish of Newark. The Fish family lived on or near what is now the site of the V.F.W. building. As this would have been about 10 years before the Fox family's move to Hydesville, we are left to wonder how this union came about. At any rate, a child, Elizabeth - "Lizzie" to the family - was born soon after. It is said that Mr. Fish, on realizing the real age of his bride, took off for the "west" where he married a wealthy widow, though apparently still married to Leah.

Backing up a bit - after being deserted by Bowman Fish, Leah made, apparently, a fairly comfortable living for Lizzie and herself by giving music lessons from a home she established in Rochester. She was said to have been an accomplished pianist. Considering her background, one might wonder how she attained such proficiency. Her coterie of Rochester friends included many moderately successful and highly respectable folk, several of whom were of the Quaker faith.

Throughout her life, Leah seemed able to attract friends of this ilk who remained intensely loyal to her through thick and thin.

Was Leah the almost-saintlike, protective older sister her friends thought her, or a demanding, manipulative person willing to sacrifice the happiness and welfare of her younger sisters for the fame and prosperity the Spiritualist movement brought to the family?

September 10, 1851, Leah married Calvin Brown, a young man whom the Fox family unofficially adopted when living in Rochester. In poor health all his life, Calvin was on his deathbed when the couple were married, and died soon after. Of her marriage to Calvin, Leah's reason was because he "merely desired to bequeath me his name."

In November, 1858, Leah married Daniel Underhill, a wealthy New York insurance executive. The marriage seems to have been a mutually happy one, though it may be questioned whether Daniel really believed in Spiritualism, or simply tolerated Leah's strong promotion of the movement that so dominated the lives of the Fox family.

Of Leah, an early follower said, "If ever this (spiritualism) proves a real and permanent blessing to mankind, the name of Ann Leah Brown should stand conspicious as one of the heroines of history, who fought the battle against a world of opposition, while her younger sisters were the only media, and after, she became so herself."

Ann Leah Fox Fish Brown Underhill died November 1, 1890 at the age of 76 and is buried in Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn. She was soon followed in death by her faithful and indulgent husband on August 15, 1891.

The next two Fox sisters, Maria and Elizabeth, did not play a big part in the saga of the Fox family. Maria Adalea Fox married a cousin, Stephen B. Smith (1817-1897) an Arcadia farmer and died in this township on November 3, 1902 at the age of 85. She had lived in Arcadia for 65 years. Maria and Stephen are buried in the Newark Cemetery.

Elizabeth Fox married a man by the name of Ousterhout while the Fox family was living in Canada. She did not move to Rochester with the family. She lived, died, and was buried in Canada.

Another of the less colorful of the Fox siblings was the only brother, David. David Fox, born in 1820, early learned blacksmithing from his father and practiced that trade for a time in Rochester. About 1843, David gave up blacksmithing to move to a farm two-miles north of Hydesville. For the remainder of his life, David Fox was a respectable, hard-working Arcadia farmer.

David Fox was married to Elizabeth Culver in April 1843. She was the granddaughter of the well-known pioneer, Moses Culver, and sister to Stephen Culver, whose busy and useful life as one of Newark's best-known citizens deserves its own article.

By 1848, David was 28 years old, married with children and living in the house built by uncle John Smith several years earlier. The farm house, referred to in later years by the family as "the old homestead," is still standing at 2537 Parker Road, the home of Dan and Sue Tierson.

Although neither David nor Elizabeth embraced Spiritualism, their home was open to John, Margaret and the girls - sometimes five or six in number - for many, many extended vacations during the decades Leah and the younger sisters found need for rest from their hectic, physically-taxing lives in New York City.

David Fox died in Arcadia, April 21, 1902 at 81 years. Elizabeth died at 71 on February 14, 1896. Both are buried in Newark Cemetery. A grandson, Dr. James R. Sanford (1886-1928), was a prominent Newark physician.

We now come to the girls, Margaretta and Catherine - Maggie and Katie as they were called as adults. Born in 1833 (Maggie) and 1836 (Katie), the girls were but 14 and 11 years of age when the attention of the world sought them out from their modest home in Hydesville. Scarcely being old enough to have developed personalities of their own at that age, they have been described as high-spirited, not above playing pranks on their parents perhaps, but not malicious.

Margaret, Maggie and Katie joined John at the little house in Hydesville, moving in on December 11, 1847. It wasn't long after that, mysterious incidents occurred which were to culminate on the eve of April Fools Day, 1848.

That awe-filled night

The transition from life in Rochester to the temporary home in Hydesville was, apparently, an easy and happy one for the Fox family.

They were in almost daily contact with David, his wife and children. John continued his work on the new house when the weather was not too severe. Although school attendance in those days was voluntary, Maggie and Katie likely enrolled in the school only a few hundred feet up the (Parker) road from their home. The church next door to the school, belonging to a small branch of Methodism, provided Wesleyan preaching and familiar hymns so much enjoyed by the entire family.

Margaret set about to make the home, although temporary, a comfortable one. Margaret and the girls soon made friends with their new neighbors.

Such a pleasant and tranquil life was not to last.

Beginning sometime around the middle of March, some twelve weeks after the move from Rochester, the family began hearing strange sounds - at first, light tapping noises - which occurred each night almost as soon as the family was in bed and the candle extinguished. As the days passed, the nightly noises became louder and more annoying. As the sounds increased in volume the beds and chairs began to tremble - or so the agitated family thought. When there seemed to be rapping on the front door, John could find no one there nor anywhere near the house. It was also determined that the noises did not result from the wind rattling the shutters, which, at that time, were on the outside of each window.

The plan of the story-and-a-half house was quite simple. The front door opened directly into a sitting room, some 10' by 12'.

Directly back of this room was the kitchen, somewhat smaller, where all meals were eaten. The kitchen had an outside door, and like the other rooms, two windows, one on each outside wall. A cookstove in the kitchen and a parlor stove in the sitting room provided the only heat.

In the southeast corner was the bedroom occupied by John and Margaret. To the east off the kitchen was a somewhat smaller bedroom used by the girls. This room was also referred to in some accounts as the pantry or buttery, suggesting a dual use for the room. Between the two bedrooms was an enclosed stairway leading from the sitting room to a garret - one big room which could be used as a guest sleeping room when needed. (When John Drummond built his replica of the house several years ago, he made the roof higher than the original to give more head-room for this area.)

Another stairway led from the girls' room to the cellar. The walls of the cellar were of field stone and the floor, like even the most imposing homes of that day, was of dirt. As the house was built low to the ground, there were no cellar windows.

When Margaret told David about the noises, David, ever the practical, level-headed member of the family, replied, "O, mother, when you find out the cause it will be one of the simplest things in the world." He also urged the others to say nothing to the neighbors, lest they think the family believed in ghosts.

Perhaps with David's soothing words in mind, on the evening of March 31, the family decided to retire early and perhaps be asleep when the rappings began.

Less than two weeks later (April 11), E. E. Lewis, Esq. of Canandaigua came to Hydesville and took signed testimony concerning the phenomenon. Becoming a true believer, Lewis published the statements in booklet form. Here is how Margaret's statement reads, in part:

"On the night of the first disturbance we all got up, lighted a candle and searched the entire house, the noises continuing. Although not very loud, it produced a jar of the bedsteads and chairs that could be felt when we were in bed. We could feel the jar when standing on the floor. It continued on this night until we slept. I did not sleep until about twelve o'clock. On March 30th we were disturbed all night. The noises were heard in all parts of the house. My husband stationed himself outside of the door while I stood inside, and the knocks came on the door between us. We heard footsteps in the pantry, and walking down-stairs; we could not rest, and I then concluded that the house must be haunted by some unhappy, restless spirit.

"On Friday night, March 31, 1848, we concluded to go to bed early and not permit ourselves to be disturbed by the noises, but try to get a night's rest. ... It was very early when we went to bed on this night, hardly dark. I had been so broken of my rest I was almost sick. My husband had not gone to bed when we first heard the noise on this evening. I had just lain down. It commenced as usual. I knew it from all other noises I had ever before heard. The children, who slept in the other bed in the room (the girls had, some days before, moved from their room to that of their parents, being afraid to be by themselves) heard the rappings, and tried to make similar sounds by snapping their fingers.

At Margaret's request, the ages of each of her children were correctly given.

"I then asked: 'Is this a human being that answers my questions so correctly?' There was no rap. I asked: 'Is it a spirit?' If it is, make two raps; which were instantly made, causing the house to tremble. I asked, 'Were you injured in this house?' Answered by raps in the same manner. I ascertained by the same method that it was a man, aged thirty-one years; that he had been murdered in this house, and his remains were buried in the cellar; that his family consisted of a wife, and five children, two sons and three daughters, all living at the time of his death, but that his wife had since died. I asked, 'Will you continue to rap if I call in my neighbors that they may hear it too?' The raps were loud in the affirmative. My husband went and called in Mrs. Redfield (our nearest neighbor). She is a very candid woman. ... Mrs. Redfield came immediately (this was about half past seven), thinking she would have a laugh at the children; but when she saw them pale with fright and nearly speechless she was amazed. She then called her husband, and the same questions were asked and answered. Then Mr. Redfield called in Mr. Duesler and wife, and several others. Mr. Duesler then called in Mr. and Mrs. Hyde, also Mr. and Mrs. Jewel. ... I then named all the neighbors I could think of, and asked if any of them had injured him, and received no answer. Mr. Duesler then asked questions and received answers. He asked, 'Were you murdered?' Raps affirmative.

The testimony of John Fox was taken by Atty. Lewis. This attested to the truth of Margaret's testimony, adding, "It has caused a great deal of trouble and anxiety."

William Duesler's testimony was much the same as Margaret's, adding that there were about fourteen people in the house that evening and "all in the room said they heard the sounds distinctly." He also learned that Mrs. ---- was the only other person who knew of the murder.

Earlier in the evening Katie (Cathie to her mother) had said, perhaps hoping to put an end to the commotion which was causing her parents so much concern, "O mother, I know what it is; tomorrow is April-fool day, and it's somebody trying to fool us."

If, as was later alleged, it was the girls, themselves, who were the pranksters, by the time that night was over, the prank - if such it was - had gone too far to be laughed off as a childish joke, as subsequent events were to prove.

Arcadia earns a place on the map

It didn't take long for news of the mysterious happenings in Hydesville to reach Newark - and miles beyond.

According to a letter written by Theodore Bristol to a Newark newspaper in 1905, it was the very next morning that he heard the news. Theo. Bristol (b. 1832) was of a well-known Newark family whose home is now 212 South Main Street. At the time, Bristol was a clerk in the store owned by Abel T. Blackmar, on Van Buren Street. Here's his account:

"With other clerks, I was obliged to be up early in the morning and get the store in order for business. On the morning of Saturday, April 1st, 1848, Mr. Blackmar appeared earlier than usual on the scene and then he and I heard first of spiritualism. While Mr. B. was reading by the stove, Bill Duesler, resident of Hydesville and a well-known athlete of the town, stamped into the store and saluted Mr. Blackmar with the remark, 'Well, Abe, we had the d----dest time at Hydesville last night you ever heard of. The Fox girls while in bed heard rappings which they thought must be spirits and insisted that Mr. Art. Hyde should be sent for. When he appeared, the story of the peddler was told, also of his burial in the cellar.' This was the first heard of spiritualism in Wayne Co. and hundreds went over to Hydesville that day and Sunday following."

Oddly, it was David, the brother who never fully accepted the premise of Spiritualism, who suggested that, instead of asking the spirit questions which could be answered only by a "yes" or "no" reply, that the alphabet be used which would allow for more detailed answers. By repeating the alphabet until the right letter was reached, it was learned that the spirit was that of a peddler by the name of Charles B. Rosna and that the perpetrator of the murder was John Bell, who, with his wife, had occupied the house several years earlier.

Among the testimonials collected by E. E. Lewis of Canandaigua, were several which confirmed the beliefs of some and puzzled the skeptics. An attorney, Mr. Lewis refrained from mentioning Mr. Bell by name so as not to be sued for slander. The testimony of Lucretia Pulver speaks for itself:

"I lived in this house all one winter, in the family of Mr. ----. I worked for them a part of the time, and a part of the time I boarded and went to school. I lived there about three months. During the latter part of the time I was there I heard these knockings frequently, in the bedroom, under the foot of the bed. I heard it a number of nights, as I slept in the bedroom nearly all the time I stayed there. One night I thought I heard a man walking in the buttery. Miss Amelia Losey stayed with me that night. She also heard the noise, and we were both much frightened, and got up and fastened down the windows, and fastened the door. It sounded as if a person walked through the buttery, down cellar, and part way across the cellar bottom, and then the noise ceased. There was no one else in the house at the time. Mr and Mrs. ---- had gone to Lock Berlin, to be gone till the next day. One morning about a week after this Mrs. ---- sent me down cellar to shut the outside door (which fastens on the inside). In going across the cellar I sank knee deep in the center of the cellar. It appeared to be uneven and very loose. After I got up-stairs Mrs. ---- asked me what I screamed for. When I told her, she ... said it was only where the rats had been at work in the ground. A day or two after this, Mr. ---- carried a lot of dirt into the cellar, just at night, and was at work there some time. Mrs. ---- told me that he was filling up the rat holes. ^Other occupants testified they never knew of rats in that house._

"A few days before I heard the noises ... a foot-peddler called there about two o'clock in the afternoon. Mrs. ---- then told me that Mr. ---- thought they would not want me any longer, and that I might go home, ... I wanted to buy some things of the peddler, but had no money with me, and he said he would call at our house the next morning and sell them to me. I never saw him after that. Three days after this they sent for me to come and board with them and go to school. I accordingly came, and went to school about one week, when she wanted I should stay out of school and do house-work, as she had a couple of coats to make over for her husband. She said they were too large for her husband, and out of fashion, and she must alter them. They were ripped to pieces when I first saw them. I should think the peddler was about thirty years old. Mrs ---- told me that he, the peddler, was an old aquaintance of theirs. I did not, nor do I now, know what to think of the noises I heard. Mr. and Mrs. ---- appeared to be very good folks, only they were rather quick-tempered. The peddler carried a trunk and basket, I think, with vials of essence in it. He wore a black coat and light colored pants."

Mr. and Mrs. Michael Weekman lived in the house after the Bells moved away. Mr. Lewis' booklet stated that the Weekmans, "were frequently startled by the rappings, walkings, etc. On several occasions they sought diligently to discover the cause." Mrs. Weekman's testimony was that:

"We heard great noises during the night; sometimes a sound as if a person was walking in the cellar. One night one of our little girls, who slept in the room where the noises were heard, awoke us all up by her screaming very loudly. My husband and myself and our hired girl, all went to the room to see what was the matter with her. The child sat up in bed, crying and screaming, and it was some time before we could quiet her enough to get answers to our questions. She said something had been moving around her and over her head and face; that it was cold, and that she felt it all over her. ...We took her into bed with us, and it was a long time before we could get her to sleep in that bed again."

Mrs. Jane C. Lape lived for a time with the Weekmans. She testified:

"There was but one door in the bedroom. When I was doing my work, I saw a man in the bedroom joining the kitchen. I saw the man distinctly. I was frightened. I had been in the kitchen a long time, and knew that nobody could have gone into that room. The man stood facing me when I saw him. He did not speak, nor did I hear any noise at that time. He had on light pants, black frock-coat and cloth cap. He was of medium size. I knew of no person in that vicinity who would answer that discription. Mrs. Weekman was in another part of the house at that time. I left the room, and when I returned with Mrs. Weekman there was no person there. We were never able to ascertain who or what it was. I have always thought and still do that it was supernatural. I had never been a believer in such things until I saw this."

When John Bell, by then residdng in Moravia, N.Y., learned that his name was connected with a murder, he immediately rushed to Newark demanding a retraction under threat of a law suit. Apparently there was no retraction and Mr. Bell gave up the idea of legal action. No attempt was made to charge Bell with murder with a "spook" as the only witness. There is no record of any attempt to locate any children of a Charles B. Rosna.

In his quiet way, there was no one more interested in getting to the truth than David Fox. Finding - or not finding - the remains of a human buried under the cellar floor should go a long way toward solving the mystery. David's signed testimony read, in part:

"The next morning they sent for me to come again. ...I went in the evening; heard the rapping distinctly. ...A large collection of people had assembled, more than could get into the house; committees were formed and placed in different parts of the house, that no deception might be practiced by any one. These committees were composed of neighbors and friends whom we knew to be strictly honest. I remained in the house until about one o'clock in the morning. The noises ceased a little before twelve. After some of the crowd had left, we commenced digging in the cellar. ...We dug about three feet, when the water came in so fast we had to stop. I was there again on Monday, April 3rd, and we commenced digging again in the cellar, and bailing out the water; but found it impossible to make any headway."

A third attempt was tried with the same result. The testamony was dated April 11.

From the first, crowds by the dozens found their way to Hydesville each evening. On Sundays (no day-off on Saturdays for working people in those days) crowds numbering in the hundreds came - those who were anxious to believe the spirit theory, the mildly-skeptical, the openly hostile, and large numbers of purely curious folk who sought an hour or two of entertainment.

Andrew D. Soverhill (1831-1923), Newark attorney and merchant, and son of Hiram Soverhill, Justice of the Peace, whose farm is now the Dittmar Nursery, claimed to have attended the first formal seance to be held in the Hydesville house. A portion of his interview for the SYRACUSE HERALD in 1921 reads as follows:

"My father's farm was next except one to that of the Fox family and I was a playmate of the Fox girls. ... Old gentleman Fox came over to my father's house and said very seriously, 'Squire Soverhill, there's something very mysterious going on at our house. There are queer knockings all over the house' he told father, and said that he wanted him to ...have a prayer meeting there. He said that he thought that it might help. Father refused to ask any of the church folk, but said he might possibly go over later himself. Boylike, I wanted to find out what was going on and urged father to take me along. After much pleading, he consented.

"We arrived there later than most of the folk, and we found the small house pretty well filled. There were 15 or 20 in the rooms. The only light was in the living room, but there were chairs in the corner bedroom and a few of the people were sitting in there. The chairs were between the side of the bed and the wall and also at the head of the bed. ...Father and I went into the living room. After we had been there a while Mrs. Fox went into the bedroom and occupied a chair near the head of the bed. I followed her in, with boyish inquisitiveness, to see everything that could possibly happen, and sat down beside her. ...The girls, Margaret and Catherine, sat on the bed. They invited me to climb on with them and I did. There was no light in the room at all, but a gleam from a tallow dip in the living room illuminated it enough so that it was possible to distinguish one person from another. Mrs. Fox announced that the spirits wouldn't rap unless it was dark, and asked to have the door closed. ...Then Mrs. Fox asked a question of the spirits in a very sombre voice. ...To some questions there were answering raps, to others none at all. I couldn't tell where the raps came from.

"The only occasion where the girls were caught, and I guess I'm the only living man who was there at the time, was one night when Demosthenes Smith (see photo) - Lycurgus Demosthenes Smith, his name was - sitting in the middle of the row of seats near the girls, cried out, 'I have the ghost! I have the ghost!' Someone threw open the door and in his hand he held one of the girl's hands, pinching her own big toe. I honestly believe that that was the nearest anyone ever came to actually locate the sound. But there were no more rappings that night." *

It was early in May before Leah, in Rochester, heard of the excitement in Hydesville and of her family's association with it. Immediately, she recruited two lady friends; and, with daughter Lizzy, took the first night packet boat to Newark. (It was six years before the first railroad was opened through Newark.) Arriving in Newark, they hired a horse, carriage, and driver to take them to Hydesville. Finding the house empty, they continued two more miles to David's home where John, Margaret and the two girls had been living for some time. The reason for the move, they said, was in the hope of leaving the rappings behind in Hydesville and to avoid some of the crowds which had begun to make life intolerable. In both hopes, they were disappointed. The rappings had followed them as did many uninvited "guests." Moreover, the crowds, while smaller, seemed to have changed from the largely-curious to openly hostile.

After a two-week stay, the Rochester party left for home, taking Katie with them. Separating the two girls did not bring an end to the rappings. Rappings continued at David's while rappings were heard by the packet boat passengers on the trip to Rochester.

When strange occurances began, along with rappings, in Leah's Rochester home, Margaret and Maggie joined the household. John stayed behind, moving into his new house as soon as possible.

It seems correct to say that, of the hundreds who showed varying degrees of interest in the occurances in Hydesville, Spiritualism gained few converts in Wayne County. The Gospel observation, "A prophet is not without honour save in his own country." (Matt. 13:57), seemed to prove true in this case as a new and quite different life lay ahead for the Fox family.

* Author's note: This story was of special interest to me, as 'Mon' Smith (1820-1886), son of the Arcadia pioneer and Revolutionary War veteran Ebenezer Smith, married my grandmother's aunt, Mary "Polly" Lewis.

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