The Fox sisters were three sisters from Rochester, New York who played an important role in the creation of Spiritualism: Leah (April 8, 1813 – November 1, 1890), Margaretta (also called Maggie; October 7, 1833 – March 8, 1893) and Catherine Fox (also called Kate; March 27, 1837 – July 2, 1892). The two younger sisters reported "rappings" to convince their older sister and others that they were communicating with spirits as if by a coded signal. Their older sister then took charge of them and managed their careers for some time. They all enjoyed success as mediums for many years.
In 1888, Margaretta recanted her story, saying the rappings had been a hoax and publicly demonstrated their method, although she later retracted this confession. Despite their loss of credibility, the Spiritualism movement continued to grow in popularity.
Early years
The childhood environment of Kate and Maggie Fox was marked by significant domestic instability that contributed to the conditions in which their claims of spirit communication emerged. In 1848, the two younger sisters—Catherine and Margaretta—lived with their parents John and Margaret, who were Methodists, in Hydesville, New York, a former hamlet that was part of the township of Arcadia in Wayne County, New York, just outside of Newark.Weisberg, Barbara. (2004). Talking to the Dead: Kate and Maggie Fox and the Rise of Spiritualism. HarperOne. pp. 12–13. The girls had been born and raised "in or near Consecon," a tiny village in Prince Edward County, Ontario where their father owned a farm. The family moved to Hydesville, New York, in 1847.
The house was reputed to be haunted, yet is reported to have been a prank. (The sisters claimed in 1888 that they made the sounds by cracking their knuckles and other joints as well as other means. By that time, 40 years later, the sisters were famous mediums.) Margaretta Fox, in her later years, noted that neighbors were sure that the house was haunted, reputedly after a man who had been murdered in the house by a (falsely accused) man named Bell.
Kate and Margaretta were sent to nearby Rochester during the excitement—Kate to the house of her sister Leah (now the married Leah Fox Fish), and Margaretta to the home of her brother David—and the rappings followed them. Amy and Isaac Post, a radical Quaker couple and long-standing friends of the Fox family, invited the girls into their Rochester home. Immediately convinced of the genuineness of the phenomena, they helped to spread the word among their radical Quaker friends, who became the early core of Spiritualists. In this way, the association between Spiritualism and radical political causes developed, such as abolition, temperance, and equal rights for women.Braude, Ann. (2001). Radical Spirits: Spiritualism and Women's Rights in Nineteenth-Century America. Indiana University Press.
Emergence as mediums On 14 November 1849, the Fox sisters demonstrated their spiritualist rapping at the Corinthian Hall in Rochester. This was the first demonstration of spiritualism held before a paying public and inaugurated a long history of public events featured by spiritualist mediums and leaders in the United States and in other countries.
Kate and Margaretta became famous mediums and they held séances for hundreds of people. Many of these early séances were entirely frivolous, where sitters sought insight into "the state of railway stocks or the issue of love affairs."Reynolds, David S. Walt Whitman's America: A Cultural Biography. New York: Vintage Books, 1995. . p. 263
Horace Greeley, the prominent publisher and politician, became a kind of mentor for them, enabling their movement in higher social circles. Their public séances in New York in 1850 attracted notable people, including William Cullen Bryant, George Bancroft, James Fenimore Cooper, Nathaniel Parker Willis, Sojourner Truth and William Lloyd Garrison. Although Greeley watched over the sisters, the lack of parental supervision was pernicious, as both of the young women began to drink wine.
Evaluation
Beginning in 1850, some critics concluded that the girls made the rappings themselves, including physician E. P. Longworthy, John W. Hurn, Reverend John M. Austin, and Reverend D. Potts. In 1851, the Reverend C. Chauncey Burr wrote in the New York Tribune that by cracking toe joints the sounds were so loud, they could be heard throughout a large hall. In the same year, investigators from the University at Buffalo concluded that the raps were made by cracking joints of their body and that the raps would not occur if they had cushions under their feet.
In 1851, Mrs. Norman Culver, a relative of the Fox family, admitted in a signed statement that she had assisted them during their séances by touching them to indicate when the raps should be made. She also claimed that Kate and Margaretta revealed to her the method of producing the raps by cracking their toes and using their knees and ankles.Kurtz, Paul. (1985). Spiritualists, Mediums and Psychics: Some Evidence of Fraud. In Paul Kurtz (ed.). A Skeptic's Handbook of Parapsychology. Prometheus Books. pp. 177–223. Carpenter, William Benjamin. (2011, originally published in 1877). Mrs. Culver's Statement. In Mesmerism, Spiritualism, etc.: Historically and Scientifically Considered. Cambridge University Press. pp. 150–152.
Charles Grafton Page, a patent examiner and patent advocate, had developed a keen eye for detecting fraudulent claims about science. In his book Psychomancy (1853), Page observed that the rapping sounds came from underneath the girls' long dresses. In 1857, the Boston Courier offered a prize of $500 to any medium who could demonstrate a paranormal ability. The Fox sisters made an attempt and were investigated by a committee, which included the magician John Wyman. The committee concluded the raps were produced by bone and feet movements and thus the Fox sisters failed the challenge. A report by the Seybert Commission in 1887 stated that after investigating various mediums, including Margaretta, the phenomena could have easily been produced by fraudulent methods. The report also noted that the raps were heard close to Margaretta and a séance sitter, Professor Furness, had felt pulsations in her foot.
Kate was examined by William Crookes, the prominent physicist, between 1871 and 1874, who concluded the raps were genuine. However, Crookes was described as gullible and the mediums he investigated were caught using trickery.Neher, Andrew. (2011). Paranormal and Transcendental Experience: A Psychological Examination. Dover Publications. p. 214. "William Crookes, the noted English physicist, had endorsed Catherine Fox as genuine... Crookes also endorsed several other mediums who were later exposed, including Anna Eva Fay (who was exposed more than once and who eventually explained how she duped Crookes), Florence Cook (who was the subject of more than one expose), and D.D. Home."Zusne, Leonard; Jones, Warren H. (2014). Anomalistic Psychology: A Study of Magical Thinking. Psychology Press. p. 216. "The fact is that William Crookes, although very good at physics experiments, was rather weak on drawing inferences and on theorizing. Besides, he was gullible. He endorsed several mediums in spite of their demonstrated trickery. Having witnessed a single seance with Kate Fox, he became convinced that the Fox sisters' rappings were genuine."
Harry Houdini, the magician who devoted a large part of his life to debunking Spiritualist claims, provided this insight:
Retraction and subsequent denial In 1888, the two sisters traveled to New York City, where a reporter offered $1,500 if they would expose their methods and give him an exclusive on the story. Margaretta appeared publicly at the New York Academy of Music on October 21, 1888, with Kate present. Before an audience of 2,000, Margaret demonstrated how she could produce—at will—raps audible throughout the theater. Doctors from the audience came on stage to verify that the cracking of her toe joints was the source of the sound.Davenport, Reuben Briggs. (1888). The Death-Blow to Spiritualism: Being the true story of the Fox sisters, as revealed by authority of Margaret Fox Kane and Catherine Fox Jencken. New York: G.W. Dillingham."How the Spirits Knocked: After Forty Years the Rochester Rappings confessed. to be Fraud", The (Washington) Evening Star, (Monday, 22 October 1888), p.3.
Margaretta told this version of the origins of the mysterious rappings in a signed confession given to the press and published in New York World, October 21, 1888. In it, she explained the Hydesville events. According to Arthur Conan Doyle, however, the persistence of the knocks throughout the night of March 31, even in the girls' absence, proves their authenticity, as attested by the testimony of a neighbor named Mr. Duesler:
A year later, in an interview for the New York Press in November 20th of 1889, Margaret Fox completely retracted her previous confession. She stated that her 1888 public admission had been coerced from her in exchange for money—as she was facing severe financial distress—and under intense pressure from individuals who sought to destroy the Spiritualism movement.
Furthermore, journalist Reuben Briggs Davenport and the New York World, who had promised Margaret thousands of dollars to confess to the hoax, defaulted on the agreement, failing to pay the full pattuited sum once the public spectacle and media sensation subsided. For skeptics and scientists, this constant reversal of testimony merely proved that the sisters were manipulators willing to say anything for monetary gain.
Later career and fall into poverty Kate Fox, who had maintained a lower profile the previous year despite initially supporting her sister, joined in the retraction. However, the reputational damage was irreversible. Deprived of the promised financial relief and completely ostracized by the Spiritualist community, who viewed them as traitors, the sisters sank into even deeper poverty.
To survive and secure a livelihood, Margaret and Kate felt compelled to resume paid séances, claiming that their spiritual powers had returned. They had attempted to return to Spiritualist performances, but never again attracted the attention or paying clientele of the sisters' earlier careers.
This exhausting and continuous shifting of versions took a severe toll on their physical and mental health. Both sisters died in extreme destitution—Kate in 1892 and Margaret in 1893—leaving the true nature of the raps unresolved and forever shrouded in doubt.
Bones in childhood house In 1904, remains were found in the cellar when a false wall fell down. The Boston Journal published a story about the discovery, claiming that it was the body of a supposed peddler, on November 22, 1904. However, the police at the time didn't open an investigation, as a physician who examined the remains found that it consisted of random bits of bones, including chicken bones, and concluded they had been placed there as a practical joke.
A few years later, a "peddler tin box" was claimed to have been found in the cellar along with the remains, although there is no mention of the box in earlier accounts of the finding. The remains and the tin box are now in the Lily Dale Museum. Skeptical researcher Joe Nickell concluded after researching the box that at least part of the bones were those of animals, a continuation of the hoax. There has been no confirmation that the peddler existed. The alleged false wall appears to be due to an expansion of the foundation, not the concealment of a secret grave.
Personal lives