The beginning of the religion Spiritualism can be traced back to 1848 when two sisters Catherine and Margaretta Fox began to communicate with a spirit in their family home in Hydesville, New York just south of Rochester.

 

One night as the family sat around there was a sound of tapping noises, Mr. Fox could find no apparent cause for these noises and having confided in neighbors was told that previous owners of his house had reported strange noises too.

 

Soon the girls began to communicate with the spirit; Kate (Catherine) was the first one to find out that she could communicate with Mr. Splitfoot, a common name for the devil at that time, by making a code of a serious of rapping and knockings.

 

Through this code the sisters were able to determine that their house was being haunted by the spirit of a peddler that was murdered in their house, all though no record of a missing peddler was found and no human remains were found in the basement, still may believed that one of the former owners was responsible for the murder, but no charges were ever filed.

 

This caused quite a sensation in the area, finally proof of life after death and a way to communicate with spirits. Soon crowds of people were descending on the village and the Foxes house to hear these sounds for themselves, distraught by the onslaught the parents sent the two sisters to live with a brother and a sister, the sounds stopped at the house in Hydesville but soon started up where the sisters were living in their brother and sisters house.

 

 Kate began to hold sittings or gatherings so that people could witness the sounds themselves while her sister Margaret (Margaretta) held spirit circles, which became known as séances.

 

Soon Margaret received a spirit message that she must hold a large public demonstration of the tapings so she rented an auditorium where people paid one dollar a peace to see and hear the spirits. During this time another Fox sister, Leah became aware that she too could communicate with these spirits.

 

No one could detect any fraud on the sister’s part, soon with Leah as their manager the two Fox sisters began to tour the United States. Soon many people were converted to this new belief called “Spiritualism”.

 

During their life time the sisters held séances for many famous people, one of these famous people was Mary Todd Lincoln who wanted Kate to contact her late husband, President Abraham Lincoln, unfortunately there is no proof that the contact was ever made. Some of Margaret’s famous clients were, James Fenimore Cooper and Harriet Beecher Stowe.

 

All though a few Christian believed that the Foxes demonstrations validated their Christian beliefs of a resurrection and life eternal, many though looked on these sisters works as that of the devil.

 

All though there are reports that both sisters were fraudulent in reporting that they could indeed converse with spirits, spiritualist refused to believe that they were duped.

 

All thought both sisters eventually confessed to trying to scare their mother and then being afraid of being punished for doing that concocted a way of making those sounds seem like they were from spirits, then later they both recanted their confession and returned to the séance table.

 

The three Fox sisters never enjoyed the great success that they had before their confession, Leah Fox died in 1890, Kate Fox died in 1892 and Margaret Fox died in poverty in 1893.

 

The Fox’s home was moved from Hydesville to a spiritualist retreat of Lily Dale, NY. In 1915, unfortunately the home was destroyed in a fire in 1950. The camp is still there today and a very popular place, for spiritualist and people interested in the paranormal and spirit communication.