The 31st of March is a very special date story of Spiritism. While spirit entities of the invisible world have interacted and even communicated with their incarnate brothers and sisters since the beginning of human history, this story of the Fox sisters in Hydesville, NY, is often cited as one of the most famous events to mark the birth of modern spiritualism. On the 31st March 1848 the first dialogue between the Fox Sisters and the spirit who had been murdered five years earlier and buried in the cellar of the house they were living. Working as physical mediums, these sisters played a role in the surge of physical phenomena that took place in the late 19th century, as a sort-of wake-up call to mankind, alerting people to the existence of the spiritual realm.
Source: Náufel, José – Do ABC ao Infinito; Feesp – Curso Básico de Espiritismo.
The family Fox rented the house one year later, on the 11th December 11 1847. Mr. John Fox, along with his wife Margaret and their two daughters, Kate and Margareth, moved into the house in question. Kate was 9 and Margareth was 12 years old. They had other children who didn’t live with them.
The house had a reputation of being "haunted"; there were several instances recorded of raps, taps, and other noises. In fact, the prior tenant, Michael Weakman, moved out of the house because of the inexplicable disturbances.
Beginning at around the middle of March, 1848, the Fox family began to be disturbed by the strange sounds and activities. The children were so alarmed at what was happening that they refused to sleep apart and were taken into the bedroom of their parents. The sounds were so loud, that the beds themselves often shook. Every possible opportunity was made to ascertain the source of the sounds, but to no avail.
On the 31st March Kate Fox, the youngest child, had an idea: she decided to challenge the mysterious unseen power to repeat the snaps of her fingers. Kate said: 'Mr. Split foot, do as I do,' clapping her hands. The sound instantly followed her with the same number of raps. When she stopped, the sound ceased for a short time.
Then Margareth said, in sport, 'Now, do just as I do. Count one, two, three, four,' striking one hand against the other at the same time; and the raps came as before. She was afraid to repeat them. Then Kate said in her childish simplicity to her mother, 'Oh, mother, I know what it is. Tomorrow is April-fool day, and it's somebody trying to fool us.'
Mrs. Fox decided to put a test that no one in the place could answer. She asked the noise to rap her different children's ages, successively. Instantly, each one of her children's ages was given correctly, pausing between them sufficiently long to individualize them until the seventh, at which a longer pause was made, and then three more emphatic raps were given, corresponding to the age of the little one that died, which was her youngest child.
She then asked: 'Is this a human being that answers my questions so correctly?' There was no rap. She then asked: 'Is it a spirit? If it is, please make two raps.' Two sounds were given as soon as the request was made. She then said: 'If it was an injured spirit, make two raps,' which were instantly made, causing the house to tremble. She asked: 'Were you injured in this house?' The answer was given as before. They were then able to communicate with the Hydesville spirit by dialogue was using a different number of raps for each letter of the alphabet. The girls used this simple code to ask questions of the spirit.
Upon further inquiry, it was ascertained that the spirit's name was Charles B. Rosna and that he had been a peddler who stayed at the house five years prior to these incidents. At that point, however, he had simply disappeared, and no one could remember seeing him anymore. It wasn't until the young Fox sister's fearlessness in attempting spiritual communication that people finally were able to get some answers to their questions about Rosna's disappearance. The ghost's knocks revealed not only his identity, but also that he had been murdered by a previous tenant and buried in the cottage's cellar. His spirit could not rest, and Rosna wanted his body discovered and buried properly.
An excavation of the cellar later proved that there were indeed the remains of a body buried there. The facts which emerged concerning the murder of the peddler Charles B. Rosna, who maintained that his body was buried within the house, were not finally confirmed until 1904, when the skeleton was found, and this proved that the communication had been accurate, and that many doubts cast upon the sincerity of the Fox sisters and family were unjust.
The neighbours soon started an investigation commission. They wanted to take part on the dialogs, but got quite scared. The spirit was able to answer detailed information about their private lives. One of the neighbours established a way to indentify the answers by placing letters of the alphabet on the house. The spirit would then make scratches at the letters to form a word/sentence.
On the following year the Fox family started to travel throughout the country, showing their ability to communicate with spirits in different cities. Other spiritual entities began to communicate and said that Kate and Margareth were mediums who came with a mission to cooperate with an important movement of ideas that would catch the attention of the entire world in a short period of time.
The repercussion of the phenomena was so big it began to attract thousands of the ability to communicate with spirits.
In 1850 the Fox family moved to New York. They continued to host public sessions at the Hotel Barnum. Other commissions investigated them to see if there were any frauds. The girls were persecuted as well, giving séances for hundreds of "investigators," as persons interested in these phenomena liked to call themselves.
The press criticised them, as well as the Methodist Church which threatened to expel them from it. The family preferred to be expelled from the Church than to deny the phenomena.
The phenomena of table-turnings started to happen in Europe from this moment onwards. It awakened the consciousness of many individuals, preparing us all for the advent of Spiritism.
Translation: Carolina von Scharten, London, Sir William Crookes Spiritist Society linked to BUSS - The British Union of Spiritist Societies.