Emily Cooper Kate Fox Popular Books

Emily Cooper Kate Fox Biography & Facts

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 used "rappings" to convince their older sister and others that they were communicating with spirits. 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 confessed that their rappings had been a hoax and publicly demonstrated their method. Despite their confession, the Spiritualism movement continued to grow in popularity. Early years 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 Newark. 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.: 89–111  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 appeared the association between Spiritualism and radical political causes, such as abolition, temperance, and equal rights for women. 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.": 89–111  Horace Greeley, the prominent publisher and politician, became a kind of protector for them, enabling their movement in higher social circles.: 89–111  Their public séances in New York in 1850 attracted notable people, including William Cullen Bryant, George Bancroft, James Fenimore Cooper, Nathaniel Parker Willis, Horace Greeley, 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.: 89–111  Criticism 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 in 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 snapping their toes and using their knees and ankles. 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 set up a prize of $500 to any medium who could demonstrate a paranormal ability to their committee. 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 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. Harry Houdini, the magician who devoted a large part of his life to debunking Spiritualist claims, provided this insight: As to the delusion of sound. Sound waves are deflected just as light waves are reflected by the intervention of a proper medium and under certain conditions it is a difficult thing to locate their source. Confession Eager to harm Leah as much as possible, 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.: 89–111  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. Margaretta told her story 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. Later career and recantation Margaretta expanded on her career as a medium after leaving the homestead to begin her Spiritualist travels with her older sister, Mrs. Underhill. Margaretta used new methods of creating raps by using the muscles of her lower leg. Pressured by the Spiritualist movement and her own dire financial circumstances, Margaretta recanted her confession in writing in.... Discover the Emily Cooper Kate Fox popular books. 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