The Last Digging in the Cellar—Mob Antagonism—Noble Friends—Experiences and Theories—Antecedents of the House—Franklin.

It was late in July, 1848. The old house at Hydesville was not occupied by any one, save the “murdered man.” Many went there alone, or in small parties; and often the rappings were heard.

We, too, visited the old house, went down into the cellar, and called on the spirits to answer our questions and direct us aright.

Notwithstanding all the bitter conflicts we had passed through in Rochester, we had come to the conclusion that good spirits (as well as bad ones) could manifest themselves to us. We were greatly favored in our early associations with a class of progressive philanthropic people among our neighbors, whose highest aim was to benefit the world, and who urged us to go forth and do our duty. We learned from them to take a more liberal view, as they had taught us many valuable lessons of forbearance and perseverance. When I saw my dear good brother bow with the others, and ask questions of the Spirits, my soul and all within me was lifted beyond the scoffs and ridicule which I knew we must submit to if we performed the heavy duties incumbent upon us. There had been great excitement for a time, but little now was said in that vicinity about it, as there had been so much ridicule attached to the occurrences of the past, that the leaders shrank from further publicity. But, during this time, we were having our experiences in Rochester, where I resided.

It was now directed by the Spirits that the digging should be resumed. (It was the dry season of the year, and the water in the Ganargua[1] was low.) My brother declared that he could not again enter upon so hazardous an undertaking. He believed himself capable of acting on his own judgment in the matter. But for once he found, to his utter discomfiture, that the mighty powers that seemed to rule our destiny were not to be defeated. The Spirits directed that he should invite certain gentlemen to assist in the digging. They spelled out the names of many Rochester friends, viz., Henry Bush, Lyman Granger, Mr. Post, Dr. Faulkner, and Rev. A.H. Jervis. The above-named were old and tried friends, and we felt no hesitation in calling upon them; but when David was requested to invite gentlemen living in the vicinity of Hydesville, with whom he had little or no acquaintance, he positively refused to do their bidding. The friends in Rochester received this announcement with apparent satisfaction. All came at the appointed time. Mr. and Mrs. Granger and daughter, Mr. and Mrs. Bush, Mrs. Jervis, Dr. Faulkner and his little son, etc. I doubt if either of these gentlemen had ever used the pickaxe and spade before; but they came willing to perform their duty. Brother David still declared that he could not, and would not, make himself so ridiculous as to invite men who would laugh at him for entertaining such an idea; but still the Spirits commanded him to obey instructions, and nightly they would go through the performance of representing the murder scene. (This occurrence was in my brother’s house.) Gurgling, strangling, sawing, planing, and boring; representing the enactment of the horrid crime said to have been committed in the Hydesville house.

Our friends urged David to act in accordance with the request of the “Spirits,” but he could not make up his mind to do so. He walked from room to room, and in secret prayed that this terrible injunction might be removed. He cried, with uplifted hands, to God, to have compassion on our family; and then, in despair, would say: “Better to die together, than to live so disgraced.” The sight of his grief and despair was heart-rending; but the Spirits were inexorable. The day appointed for the digging arrived. During the previous, night all was in an uproar. The sounds as of broken crockery were heard, and as if heavy weights were dragged across the floor. Sawing, planing, digging, boring, groaning, and whispering close to our ears. This continued until the bright, beautiful dawn of the morning warned us that it was time to prepare for the labors of the day. We were commanded by the Spirits thus—“Go forth and do your duty, and good will come of it.” Chauncy Culver, my brother’s wife’s brother, called in, and David said: “Chauncy, you are politely invited to join us in the digging to-day.” He answered, “I am willing to do so, Dave.” Others who had been named, but not invited, dropped in by chance, and all united with us; but the great burden fell upon David’s shoulders. Chickens were cooked, puddings, pies, cakes, and sweet-meats were prepared by my brother’s wife, Elizabeth, and my sister Maria. Our living was sumptuous, and we had very little opposition during the first day’s work. The earth was hard and dry, and the digging tiresome; but the party worked diligently until near noon, when they came to a quantity of charcoal and traces of lime (this was between four and five feet below the cellar bottom), some hair of a reddish or sandy hue, and some teeth, which showed, beyond all question, that the earth had at some time, and for some purpose, been disturbed. The party worked on until it began to grow dark, and the first day’s work was ended. We returned to David’s home, about two miles from the Hydesville house, well satisfied with our day’s work, and the friends felt that they had done all in their power to get at the truth of the Spirits’ declaration.

We made two large beds on opposite sides of the parlor; the women and children rested upon one of them, and the men on the other; Dr. Faulkner and his little son being in the parlor bedroom. All heard the manifestations that night; and they were most wonderful in character. This arrangement of the beds was directed by the Spirits, that they might gratify all by making manifestations during the night.

The next day we resumed our labor. The ladies accompanied their husbands and friends. We had started as early as possible. Mr. S.B. Smith, my sisters husband, my brother David, and some of the neighbors turned out five or six wagons to convey us to our destination, forming quite a procession of our own; but as we came to the turn of the hill, from whence we could see in all directions, there were vehicles of every description wending their way to the “haunted house.” Shouts of ribaldry and roars of laughter fell upon our ears like the death-knell of some poor soul—who might almost begin to feel himself guilty of crimes he had never committed.

We entered the cellar. On came the noisy rabble. Our noble, pale-faced, honorable men stood firm in their duty. Mark the contrast, dear readers: many of those noble souls now stand in the higher ranks in glory. They have passed through the fiery furnace, entered the “golden gate” of the new Jerusalem; and to them offer your praises and admiration. Such men and women as those dared to stand before the world and battle for the right. It was such as they who fought and won the great battle against slavery and contributed to its overthrow. May they continue to live in the memories of the children of earth.

Through the second day the digging was frequently interrupted by the rude entrance of some of the outside crowd. We (the women) formed a guard around the place where the work was in progress, to protect the men thus engaged. We had candles in our hands, with which to light the laborers, when suddenly one of the workers cried out, “Great God! here are the pieces of a broken bowl!” (The Spirit always said that the bowl which caught his blood was buried; and he represented nightly the sound of pouring blood into a vessel or bowl, dropping slower and slower, until at last it ceased entirely; and then the sound would come as if the bowl were thrown and broken in pieces.) Several bones were found which doctors pronounced human bones, stating to what parts of the body they belonged. One, I remember, was said to be from the ankle, two from the hands, and some from the skull, etc. (Some persons, who never saw these bones, argued that they were not human bones, hair, and teeth which were there found. But I ask, in the name of common sense, how did they happen to be there, nearly six feet beneath the cellar bottom?)

In the afternoon the crowd outside grew more bold, and among them were sympathizers with the man who was accused by the general public opinion. We pitied him, and regretted that he had been named; but we never knew that such a man had lived, until the neighbors had brought out the fact by putting questions which were answered by the rappings.

These spectators were becoming more and more excited, and crowded into the cellar. Some called us crazy. They reached over the heads of the women and spat upon and dropped sticks and stones on those who were digging. We still stood firm in the defence of our friends, the laboring party; and they worked on until they struck what seemed to be a board. This sounded hollow, and its location was beneath the sand and gravel. They procured an augur and bored through the obstruction, when the augur dropped to the handle. They then obtained bits, and attached them to long sticks, and with them bored several inches, when the bit would drop to the depth of a foot or more. In this way they lost two of the bits, which dropped through and were not recovered. By this time the excitement was overwhelming. The cellar was filled with people. Some cried, “Drag out the women! drag them out!” Others said, “Don’t hurt the women, drag out the men!” The floor over our heads creaked with the weight of the multitude. It grew dark. Our friends could work no longer, and reluctantly retired. How we all reached the outside, amid the shouts and the roar of the excited crowd, I cannot explain; but at length we stood together in the door-yard, awaiting our conveyances, and no word of disrespect was spoken to any of us. The Spirits said: “Dear faithful friends, your work here is done. God will reward you.”

“Yes,” said that noble-looking man, Henry Bush, with the acquiescence of all, “our work is done.”

We all returned to David’s (the old homestead). That night and the following day our friends returned to Rochester. We remained a few days with our family.

I must pass over many interesting circumstances, or it will be wholly impossible to put our story in one volume: but I deem it due to my family that some facts should be stated in this history.

After the public parts we had been forced to perform at Hydesville, the news spread far and wide. The crowd of people came in wagons from every direction before the harvest had been gathered. Some drove through the gate, but others took down the fences, and drove through the grain fields, and peppermint beds, regardless of the destruction they were perpetrating. Against all this destruction of his property, David was defenceless. He saw and felt how utterly useless it was for him to attempt to remonstrate with such an element.

It was late in the afternoon when a tired horseman came galloping up the carriage road, to inform my brother that a party consisting of several wagon-loads were on their way to mob us. At this announcement we were much frightened, and knew not what to do. Intimations of such a design had reached us previously, and powder and shot had been provided for our defence. The boys and hired men had gathered piles of stones behind the house, and at first it was considered to be our wisest way to defend ourselves as best we could.

The sun was low and we dreaded the night coming on. What could we do? Mother called us all into the parlor bedroom, and there we knelt, with fear, and prayed to God for protection. The Spirits spelled out to us, “You will not be harmed. God will protect you.” We stood for a moment and counselled together. The package of powder flew from the top of the bureau and hit Cathie on the forehead, and that of the shot came and struck me on the shoulder. My brother took the guns and fired them off, and threw the powder and shot into the peppermint patch, saying, “I will not raise a hand against them. If God has sent this upon us, for the good of mankind, he is able to protect us. I will trust him.”

The windows were fastened down as best we could. The dog began to bark fearfully. We heard the distant shouts and snatches of songs, and knew they would soon be upon us. They drove up the road, into the yard, and one woman jumped through the window of the kitchen, hoops and all. She was in the kitchen before any of us knew they had entered the door-yard. David left us alone in the parlor, walked into the kitchen, and said to the woman, “If you had knocked I would have opened the door for you; it was not locked.” He then opened all the doors, walked out to the crowd, and said, “Ladies and gentlemen, walk in. You are welcome to search the house from garret to cellar, if you will do so respectfully.” One man, the leader of the crowd, exclaimed, in a manner of the utmost surprise: “My God! Dave Fox, is it you they have said so much about? No, we won’t come in now. We’ll go home and dress ourselves and come another time.”

Thus ended this mob against the Spiritualists, as all others subsequently have ended. The Spirits, therefore, fulfilled their promise and protected us from all harm.

I might fill many a page with the experiences of the family in that house at Hydesville, during the period of about three months and three weeks preceding that March 31, 1848, on which the neighbors were first called in. From the very first night of their taking possession of it, they were disturbed and puzzled with the strange knockings and other noises. They had gone into it only as a temporary home, while my father was building the new house on the homestead farm, and the carpenter had estimated a couple of months as sufficient time for his work. All sorts of natural theories were imagined as to the cause of the sounds, nor did they, for some time, think of Spirits or of anything supernatural, or even important. Father insisted, at one time, that they proceeded from a cobbler in the neighborhood, hammering leather, and working late in the night. Then it was “some boards that must be loose and shaken by the wind.” Then it appeared that “there must be dancing going on at Mr. Duesler’s, or some other house within hearing;” then “the house must be full of rats”—though mother declared she had never seen a rat in it. Again, when the knocks would break out suddenly, close to some of the family, or at the table, one of the girls would charge the other with having caused them, saying, “Now you did that,” etc., etc. Father had always been a regular Methodist, in good standing, and was invariable in his practice of morning prayers; and when he would be kneeling upon his chair, it would sometimes amuse the children to see him open wide his eyes, as knocks would sound and vibrate on his chair itself. He expressed it graphically to mother: “When I am done praying, that jigging stops.” My daughter Lizzie used to declare that when she was writing, there would sometimes come a strong ticking on the paper. One night loud screams were heard from the children, Maggie and Cathie, in bed. “O mother, come quick. Somebody has lain down across the bed.” They were often so frightened that mother would have to take them to lie on both sides of her in her bed, and sometimes they would go, one to father’s bed and the other to mother’s. But these frights were attributed to bad dreams. Indeed, it now seems strange that so little serious impression was made on their minds for so long a time by these strange things, so persistent, so varied, and so inexplicable, which they instinctively abstained from talking about to the neighbors.

It was not till March 31st that they seemed to have culminated to the point which exhausted their patience, and which at last drove them to do so. On the preceding night they had been kept awake nearly all night by the knocking and heavy poundings about the house; and up to three o’clock in the morning they were occupied pursuing the sounds about from place to place, puzzling over them, and baffled in every attempt to discover a cause. The door would be pounded upon from the outside, and father would take hold of the handle, and on the return of the knocking would suddenly fling the door open, only to discover nothing. He and mother stood on the opposite sides of it, and each would hear the knocking on the side opposite to themselves, as though made by powerful muffled knuckles. Yet on neither side could be found traces of any person or thing to have produced them, while both would feel the strong vibrations of the wooden door.

It was afterward learned that, for several years back, strange noises had been heard by successive occupants of that house, none of whom had remained long as its tenants. Prior to its occupation by a certain family there had been no such disturbances; subsequently to then, they had been experienced by all their successors. It would be easy for me to name families of the highest respectability, and who are still my good friends, who would attest this.[2]