A. Leah Underhill

Statement by E.W. Capron—Wife of General Waddy Thompson, of South Carolina—Wife of Mr. Davis of Providence, R.I.

I might fill many pages with my reminiscences under this head, but I now confine myself to three instances, the first in order being also the first in my experience. I take it partly for that reason, and partly because it contains the features of the temporary transfer to myself of the affection removed from the sufferer, and also of the cure having been performed at a distance.

I.

STATEMENT BY E.W. CAPRON.

“On the occasion of my first visit at the house of the Fox sisters, then living in Prospect Street, Rochester, I mentioned casually that my wife was afflicted with a very severe and troublesome cough. Nothing more was said about it at the time, but as we sat quietly conversing with and about the ‘Spirits,’ Leah seemed suddenly entranced and said, ‘I’m going to cure Rebecca’s cough.’ It was no sooner said than done. She visited her mentally and described her accurately, and pronounced her cured. I returned to my home (Auburn) and found her entirely well. I expressed surprise, and asked her how she became so suddenly cured? She said she did not herself understand it, as her cough had left her since ‘night before last.’ Her cough was cured and never returned.

“E.W. Capron.”

Note.—I will add that the cough was transferred to myself with equal violence to that which had tormented Mrs. Capron. My family at times feared that I might rupture a blood-vessel. (Why did the Spirits not relieve me too?) It lasted for about a week, when my mother sent for Professor E.C. Rogers, a powerful mesmerizer who happened to be lecturing in Rochester at the time, who by his magnetic power and manipulations gave me prompt and complete relief. He was not a “Spiritualist,” nor am I able to say exactly what his philosophy was. He afterward published an 8vo volume of about 330 pages, entitled, “Philosophy of Mysterious Agents, Human and Mundane; or, Dynamic Laws and Relations of Man,” etc.
A.L.U.

II.

WIFE OF GENERAL WADDY THOMPSON, OF SOUTH CAROLINA.

General Waddy Thompson was a widower when I first knew him (he had met my mother and sisters in Washington, in 1852). Subsequently he attended my sÉances frequently. On the occasion I now speak of (in the fall of 1857), he called to make an engagement with me to see him and his young, second wife, who was an invalid. As they were going to start for home the next morning, he wished to come that afternoon. It was cold, and the snow and frozen rain came down heavily, but at the appointed time a carriage drove to the door, and Mrs. Thompson was carried into the house by two men. She was beautiful alike in person and in character. Her lameness and great suffering, which she had endured for over four years, had had their origin in milk fever, which had settled in her leg, and had baffled the skill of the most renowned physicians of Europe and America.

The manifestations of Spirit presence came freely, and very soon Mrs. Thompson cried out, “Oh! something is taking hold of my limbs with hands!” The General begged her to sit still, saying, “Do not stir, my dear; it is your Spirit guardian who loves you.” She wept and called on her mother’s Spirit to come, saying, “Dear mother, I want you to go with me where I go, and watch over us all.”

Mrs. Thompson was cured, and walked back without difficulty from Ludlow Place to the St. Nicholas Hotel.

Two years later, in 1859, she and her lovely sister, Miss Jones, accompanied the General to New York, and on learning that it was our reception night, came to enjoy the evening with us, and related the circumstances before a very large party.

III.

WIFE OF MR. DAVIS, OF PROVIDENCE, R.I.

The third I save myself the trouble of writing by copying it from Robert Dale Owen’s “Debatable Land,” page 513. But in doing so I correct an error of date which was natural enough on the part of Mrs. Davis in a narration made in 1862 of an occurrence which had taken place some five years before. In point of fact it occurred in 1857, while I resided in my house, No. 1 Ludlow Place. She erroneously makes it February, 1858, instead of 1857. My marriage with Mr. Underhill was on the 2d of November, 1858. Of course I was not “Mrs. Underhill,” but Mrs. Brown, at the time of this extraordinary cure; though it was natural that Mrs. Davis in 1862 should speak of me by the name which had then been mine for about four years; and also that this should have misled Mr. Owen, and caused him to understand the case as having occurred after I had become Mrs. U. The reader will therefore, in perusing this narrative, simply change the word “Underhill” to Brown. With that unimportant correction, the whole of it is strictly true. See letter from Mrs. Davis to me, written on her return home from this visit, dated August 8, 1857, page 391.

Paralysis of the Motor Nerve.

“In the month of February, 1858, a lady, the wife of Mr. Davis, of Providence, R.I., was residing at her home in the immediate vicinity of that city.

“It happened, one morning, when a large and powerful horse was standing harnessed in front of the house, that a servant, passing carelessly close to the animal with a child’s carriage in which was an infant daughter of Mrs. Davis, accidentally dropped the tongue of the carriage close to the horse’s heels. Mrs. Davis, seeing the danger of her child, rushed to the horse’s head, and seizing him suddenly by the bridle with her right hand, the animal reared violently so as almost to lift her from her feet. She succeeded, however, in leading him off from her child, which thus escaped unhurt.

“At the moment she experienced no pain; afterward she went about her usual occupations, but felt faint and languid throughout the day. About ten o’clock P.M., sitting down to supper, she first noticed a pain in her elbow, and then, when she attempted to use her right hand, was unable to do so; she found it impossible to close three of the fingers of that hand, the index-finger alone obeying the impulse of her will. After a time the pain increased and extended above the elbow.

“In the course of the night the right leg also became affected, the pain extending to the hip.

“In the morning she discovered that she could not, by any effort of the will, move either the right arm or the right leg.

“The physicians declared it to be a case of paralysis of the motor nerves, caused chiefly by sudden excitement. For a long time it resisted all remedies. During seven weeks the paralysis continued unabated.

“In all that time she never used hand or arm: when she walked she had to drag the right leg after her. The leg, too, became cold even to the hip, and all efforts to warm it were ineffectual.

“In the month of April she experienced slight relief by the frequent use of electricity; but only so far that, by a special effort of the will, she could partially move her hand and arm. Habitually she rested the elbow on her hip, or, when sitting in an arm-chair, raised it with the other hand so as to rest it on the chair-arm. Nor did she ever, until the incident about to be related, regain the power of straightening either leg or arm. Nor was the warmth of the leg at all restored; and when she walked she still had to drag it after her along the ground.

“This continued, without alteration or improvement, until the month of July, 1858; and by this time she had become comparatively disheartened. Life seemed to her no longer worth having: a cripple for life, a burden to her friends, useless to her family. She gave way to tears and despondency.

“In the early part of July a friend, Mrs. J., wife of a gentleman well known in New York literary circles[17] and who had been staying with Mrs. Davis, proposed to close her visit and return to that city. Suddenly Mrs. Davis experienced an impulse for which she could not at all account. It was an urgent desire to go to New York and visit Mrs. Underhill (Leah Fox), with whom she was not acquainted, having merely heard of her through Mrs. J. She said to that lady (Mrs. J.) that if she would remain with her a day longer, she (Mrs. Davis) would accompany her to New York and visit Mrs. Underhill in hope of relief. Mrs. J. consenting, they left Providence on the evening of July 3d, notwithstanding the doubts expressed by Mr. Davis whether his wife would be able to endure the journey, reached New York next morning, and proceeded at once to Mrs. Underhill’s.

“Mrs. Davis was so much exhausted on her arrival, that she retired to a private room until the afternoon, when she, Mrs. J., and Mrs. Underhill met in the parlor.

“Loud raps being heard, it was proposed to sit down at the centre-table. It being but three o’clock in the afternoon, there was bright day-light.

“Soon after the ladies sat down, all their hands being on the table, Mrs. Davis felt the ankle of her right leg seized as by the firm grasp of a human hand, the foot raised, and the heel placed in what seemed another hand.[18] The touch of the fingers and thumb was unmistakably distinct, and indicated that it was a right hand which grasped the ankle, while a left hand received the heel. After a time the hand which had seized the ankle released its grasp, and Mrs. Davis felt it make passes down the leg. These passes were continued about ten minutes. Mrs. Davis felt a sensation as of the circulation pervading the paralyzed limb; and the natural warmth, of which it had been for months deprived, gradually returned. At the expiration of about ten minutes, there was spelled out by raps: ‘Rise and walk.’

“Mrs. Davis arose and found, with an amazement which she said no words could describe, that she could walk as well as she had ever done in her life. She paced up and down the room to assure herself that it was a reality: the pain, the paralysis were gone; she could use the hitherto disabled leg as freely as the other. After more than four months of suffering and of decrepitude, she found the natural warmth and vigor of the limb suddenly and (as it would be commonly phrased) miraculously restored.

“This terminated the sitting for the time; the arm still remaining paralyzed as before. But late in the evening, after the departure of several visitors, the ladies sat down again. This time, by rapping, a request was made to darken the room. After a brief delay the arm was manipulated as the leg had been, but with more force, as if rubbed downward from the shoulder by a smooth and somewhat elastic piece of metal, like the steel busk sometimes used in ladies’ stays. After this had been continued for some time, what seemed to the touch a steel busk was laid in Mrs. Davis’s right hand, and, by raps, a request was spelled out to close the fingers upon it. This she found herself able to do with a firm grasp. Then the busk was drawn forcibly from her hand.

“From that time forth she recovered the use of her arm as completely as she had that of her leg. Nor has she had pain or any return of the paralysis, or weakness, or loss of temperature, in either limb, from that day to the present time;[19] that is, during four years.

“In communicating the above to me, as Mrs. Davis did, in presence of the same friend who accompanied her to Mrs. Underhill’s, Mrs. Davis kindly gave me permission to use her name.”[20]