Children sometimes play tricks on others, usually ending with a giggle, scolding or both. The Fox sisters played a game back in the mid 1840s and accidentally founded a religion that operates to this day. At its peak, Spiritualism had over 8 million members in the late 1800s, and it's all because of two sisters playing an April Fools joke on their mother.
The Prank
In 1848, Kate and Maggie, Fox lived with their mother Margret in a small home just outside of modern day Newark. A rumor had long circulated around the small town of Hydesville that a peddler had been murdered in the Fox's home. That rumor gave the precocious sisters an idea, one they executed too well.
They told their mother that at night they would hear mysterious rappings on the door or floor, and whatever being was making those rappings was using them to communicate with them.
Obviously doubtful the mother demanded a demonstration. Sitting at the dining room table the sisters asked the being to identify itself, which it did with a loud knock on the floor.
The mother was naturally startled, but then the sisters asked the spirit how old they were. Maggie asked first, and got 14 knocks, then Kate got 11. To Margaret's ears a creature from another plane had correctly named her daughter's age. She rushed out and grabbed her nearest neighbor, inviting her in to experience the otherworldly messages.
In several unsourced accounts of what would come to be known as "The Hydesville Event" the sisters began to get nervous with the arrival of the neighbor. It was March 31, the day before April Fools, and they never intended the joke to go beyond some light teasing of their mother.
Perhaps afraid of getting in trouble, the sisters again demonstrated their "talent" for speaking with the other side to the neighbor. Shortly after Margaret sold the "haunted" home and sent the sisters to go live with their older sister Leah near Rochester.
The Story Spreads
Presumably the younger Fox sisters told their older sister about their prank gone wrong, but they didn't count on Leah being such a savvy con artist. She leaked news of the event, and even began testing her own abilities as a medium. Isaac and Amy Post were upstanding members of the Rochester community and asked for a demonstration from the Fox sisters.
"I suppose I went with as much unbelief as Thomas felt when he was introduced to Jesus after he had ascended," Isaac wrote. Saying later he was convinced by "distinct thumps under the floor, answering different questions." The posts, convinced the Fox sisters had put them in touch with their late daughter, rented out the town hall, inviting over 400 people to watch the sisters in action. After yet another successful demonstration the 3 girls were searched for signs of a hoax, and none were found.
Around this same time people began turning to religions other than the established Christian denominations that dominated the country. Philosophers and preachers such as Franz Anton Mesmer and Emanuel Swedenborg had spread across the nation spouting ideas of spiritual connectivity, and claimed to also talk to the spirits of those passed. These came years before the Fox sisters pulled their prank, but laid the groundwork for a new faith.
The idea with connecting with lost ones is appealing, and death was a frequent companion for people living in the 1800s. Spiritualism caught on like wildfire. Andrew Jackson Davis claimed the spirt of Swedenborg came to him and predicted the rise of Spiritualism. Around the time that the Fox sisters were performing in Rochester, Davis wrote in his diary:
"A warm breathing passed over my face and I heard a voice, tender and strong saying 'Brother, the good work has begun - behold a living demonstration is born."
When Davis heard of the Fox sisters abilities he became a True Believer, inviting them to his New York City home to perform for crowds. The Fox sisters became household names in New York.
The bizarre story begins to unravel on the next page!
Professional Tour
Both Kate and Maggie began touring the country, performing for huge crowds in Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus, St. Louis, and many others. Leah stayed behind in New York City and continued to perform.
Elisha Kent Kane was an American explorer who saw Maggie perform her paranormal feats. A natural born cynic he was determined to expose her as a fraud, but instead fell in love with her. For a month he tried to figure out how the Fox sisters were able to so convincingly question spirits, but he eventually gave up.
"They are a great mystery," he wrote in his journal. He courted Maggie and the two eventually married in 1857. Shortly thereafter Kane died, leaving Maggie heartbroken. She swore off Spiritualism in honor of her late husband and converted to Catholicism.
Meanwhile Kate continued to tour by herself. People being what they are, soon began to tire of slow and tedious knocking ceremonies, but Kate found ways to keep them interested.
She began to channel multiple spirits at once. Writing messages with her teeth, using blank cards that would spontaneously display messages and writing in reverse script. She married a devout spiritualist, but eventually even these extreme acts began to bore the crowds. They wanted to see a ghost in the flesh, or they weren't interested. Kate began to drink.
Maggie Comes Clean
Few relationships are as complicated as ones between sisters, and that's never been more true that concerning the relationship between the 3 Fox sisters. Leah Fox, by now a famed medium in her own right, claimed that her younger sister Kate was no longer able to take care of her 2 young children.
Frustrated by the attack on her dear sister, Maggie published a tell all interview with New York World in 1888, exposing Spiritualism and her part in its creation.
"My sister Katie and myself were very young with this horrible deception began," Maggie told the paper. "At night we would use an apple tied to a string and move the string up and down, causing the apple to bump on the floor, or we would drop the apple, making a strange noise."
She told the world that eventually both Fox sisters began experimenting with other ways to create noises, including popping their joints to make thumbs. She even demonstrated for a crowd how to "throw" knocks by thumbing a stool with only her big toe.
She relayed a story of tapping a rich socialite's chair during a seance:
"I feel the spirit tapping me on the shoulder!" the woman purportedly cried.
"Of course that was pure imagination," Maggie explained.
The confession was a death knell for Spiritualists, and interest quickly began to fade.
Recanting The Confession
One year after her explosive testimony Maggie recanted the confession. Saying that the spirits in her life begged her to re-embrace Spiritualism. The Spiritualist community never accepted Maggie after her interview, and she never reconciled with her older sister Leah.
In 1890 Leah passed away, two years later Kate was also killed. Early in 1893 Maggie also passed, meaning the exact truth of the mysterious Fox sisters may never be known.