Rochester Rappings

An Encyclopaedia of Occultism (1920)

The outbreak of rappings which occurred in Hydesville, near Rochester, N.Y., in 1848, and which is popularly known as the Rochester Rappings, is of peculiar importance, not because of its intrinsic superiority to any other poltergeistic disturbance, but because it inaugurates the movement of Modern Spiritualism . Hydesville is a small village in Arcadia, Wayne County, N.Y., and there, in 1848, there lived one John D. Fox, with his wife and two young daughters, Margaretta, aged fifteen, and Kate, aged twelve. Their house was a small wooden structure previously tenanted by one Michael Weekman, who afterwards avowed that he had frequently been disturbed by knockings and other strange sounds in the Hydesville house. Towards the end of March, 1848, the Fox family were much disturbed by mysterious rappings, and on the evening of the 31st they went to bed early, hoping to get some undisturbed sleep. But the rappings broke out even more vigorously than they had done on the previous occasions, and Mrs. Fox, much alarmed and excited when the raps manifested signs of intelligence, decided to call in her neighbours to witness the phenomenon. The neighbours heard the raps as distinctly as did the Foxes Rome themselves. When the sounds had indicated that they were directed by some sort of intelligence it was no difficult matter to get into communication with the unseen. Questions were asked by the " sitters" of this informal" séance" and if the answer were in the affirmative, raps were heard, if in the negative, the silence remained unbroken. By this means the knocker indicated that he was a spirit, the spirit of a pedlar who had been murdered for his money by a former resident in the house. It also answered correctly other questions put to it, relating to the ages of those present and other particulars concerning persons who lived in the neighbourhood. In the few days immediately following hundreds of people made their way to Hydesville to witness the marvel. Fox's married son, David, who lived about two miles from his father's house, has left a statement to the effect that the Fox family, following the directions of the raps, which indicated that the pedlar was buried in the cellar, had begun to dig therein early in April, but were stopped by water. Later, however, hair, bones, and teeth were found in the cellar. Vague rumours were afloat that a pedlar had visited the village one winter, had been seen in the kitchen of the house afterwards tenanted by the Foxes, and had mysteriously disappeared, without fulfilling his promise to the villagers to return next day. But of real evidence there was not a scrap, whether for the murder or for the existence of the pedlar, particulars of whose life were furnished by the raps. Soon after these happenings Kate Fox went to Auburn, and Margaretta to Rochester, N.Y., where lived her married sister, Mrs. Fish (formerly Mrs. Underhill), and at both places outbreaks of rappings occurred. New mediums sprang up, circles were formed, and soon Spiritualism was fairly started on its career.