The Birthplace of Spiritualism

History - Newark

The Birthplace of Spiritualism

fox sisters home The Birthplace of Spiritualism was a home at the northwest corner of Parker and Hydesville Roads in the Town of Arcadia. Here, in Hydesville, stood a cottage where a peddlar was murdered, and where the Fox family came to live in 1847.

On March 31, 1848, the two daughters of John D. Fox claimed they could communicate with the dead through a series of 'intelligible rappings.' Margaret Fox (1834-1893) and Kate Fox (1836-1892) soon took to holding seances in nearby Rochester, where their older sister lived.

The rappings were thought to have been produced through a variety of tricks, including a snapping sound from their toe joints.

The cottage, pictured here in an early 1900's postcard, no longer stands. The postcard is from the collection of Bernard O'Connell.

top of page
return to history index