Seven miles north from Rutland in the state of  Vermont, in a wooded valley shut in by the slopes of  the beautiful Green Mountains and lying high above the tide water, is the tiny hamlet of  Chittenden.  On a quiet back road, not far from this little community, facing away from the road, sits a large remodelled 19th century farmhouse.  It is a well maintained two storey structure, with a covered porch built on and, typical of  this New England region and many rural areas of  the United States, it has five shuttered windows up top and bottom.  If  one is directly facing the front of  the building, known for many years now as the High Life Ski Lodge, it can be seen that to the main structure another addition had been built, extending the overall length of  the building into the rear of  the property.  Many many decades ago, when the original farmhouse had been purchased, the main structure originally faced eastward, towards the road, and was then actually turned to face south, away from the road.  The main structure then ran parallel to the extension.

To the casual observer, there is nothing remarkable about this particular dwelling, it is simply an old farmhouse that has been done over and is now the lodge that it is. But to some of  the elderly residents of  this remote farming district, certain historians and town clerks, and the last speck of  the surviving relatives of  the old generation Spiritualists who are buried out in the distant hills, they know of something else, something altogether different about the big white house on the back road.  They know that connected to this particular acreage in the 1870s, heaven itself  opened its doors and the spirits came, producing one of  the greatest psychic events of  the 19th century.  To the Spiritualists, and to those who know and believe, then and now, there is truly only one area of  notoriety that will forever be connected to the hamlet of  Chittenden, and that is that it was the nearest post-town to this very house, the homestead farm of  the Eddy family of  spiritual mediums.

The story of  the Eddy family, as complete and wondrous a story ever to be put on record in the entire history of  American Spiritualism, is due chiefly to the indefatigable efforts of  one man, Colonel Henry Steel Olcott, who first visited the Eddy farm in the latter part of  August, 1874, in the interest of  the New York Sun newspaper and stayed only five days.  He then returned unexpectedly, hired as a special correspondent for the Daily Graphic, also out of  New York, who sent him up to investigate the phenomena and this time, most historically and importantly, he stayed right in residence at the Eddy house itself  for an entire two and a half months.  For a city person like Olcott, this was an incredible feat of  endurance in itself , for these were plain fare, hard working dirt farmers and mostly illiterate.  The result of  Olcott's investigations was fifteen articles which appeared consecutively in the Daily Graphic in October and November of  1874 and which caused an absolute sensation throughout most of  the country and even parts of  Europe.

In 1875, his book, People From The Other World, was published and it established the Eddys, for all time, in the hierarchy of  physical mediumship and Spiritualism.  A second work appeared in 1877 by Mary Dana Shindler, A Southerner Among the Spirits, and in this fine work was dedicated five chapters to her stay at the Eddy farm of  twenty-three days.  In her work, and also a third notable work by Epes Sargent in 1901, Proof Palpable of  Immortality, there are many valuable quotes by others who also witnessed the phenomena when there at the house.  An interesting element of  Sargent's work are the letters written to him by Henry Olcott prior to the publication of  People From The Other World.  For those who have no access to rare books, there are basic reference works available which, for the most part, do justice to the Eddy phenomena and the story of  their lives - all of  them are based on Colonel Olcott's work and will be listed at the end of  this present article for The Ark Review.

This work which I have put together, will be based solely on the eye-witness accounts mentioned above:  they were there.  Additionally, I have obtained reports from the Chittenden Historical Society, the Town Clerk, Mr Don Meyer, and local newspapers and magazine articles.  I have visited Chittenden and the former Eddy property twice, in 1989 and then again in 1992, both journeys, due to the enormous distance from where I lived, requiring overnight stay.  While researching at the Chittenden local library, when I was discussing the Eddy family and their phenomena with the librarian, I was approached by a gentleman who walked out of the side aisle.  He said that he could not help but take notice in what I was saying. He was Steven Eddy, a direct descendant of  the family tree.  In this short span of time we call earth-life, no-one will ever tell me that spirits do not directly influence all that we do.  It is not a matter whether it is a fact or not, but whether who realises it or not while sailing through this plane of experience and progression.

In this work, the first sections will deal with the information on their early lives obtained by Olcott; the beginnings of  the manifestations and their subsequent trials and tribulations.  The second part will deal exclusively with the eye-witness accounts of  the seances of  the Eddys at the farm.  But first, let us consider the author of  the masterly work, People From the Other World.

Henry Steel Olcott was a highly intelligent and learned gentleman;  he was a barrister and, it turns out, was quite fluent in almost half  a dozen languages, both modern and classical.  At a young age he became a prominent authority on agriculture and established an American school dedicated to the subject based on Swiss methods.  After turning down the prestigious position offered to him by the United States Government of  Chief Commissioner of  Agriculture, he maintained his post as agricultural editor of the New York Tribune, working under Horace Greeley (a noted, open-minded investigator of  the early manifestations of  the Fox sisters). He joined the Union forces in the Civil War and saw and participated in much action, achieving the rank of  Colonel.  He received an honorable discharge for meritorious service.  During the last part of  the war, he was assigned as Special Commissioner for the United States War Department.  It is interesting to note, and considered startling in its nature to some, that after leaving the Eddy farm when completing his investigations, he shortly after formed with Madame Helena P. Blavatsky - who had also visited the farm and met Olcott there for the first time - the Theosophical Society.  Quite a leap from full-form materialisation phenomena and dark circle physical manifestations, to neo-Buddhism in India along with Annie Besant, eventually A.P. Sinnett and, of  course H.P.B., but that is precisely what he did.

Identified with no psychic movement whatsoever before his journey to the Eddy farm, Olcott, clear-brained and scientifically minded, left absolutely no stone or board unturned in his attempt to fathom the mystery of  the manifestations while there, thoroughly examining the floors, the ceilings and the walls to make sure there were no hidden trap doors to make possible the entrance and departure of  spirit visitors.  The only way to proceed in his investigations he reasoned, was to eliminate first, every other possible explanation until one was left with what William James, the first American president of  the Society for Psychical Research, called  'white crows'.  'If you wish to upset the law that all crows are black', James wrote,  'you must not seek to show that no crows are;  it is enough to prove one single crow to be white'.  During the course of  his stay at the Eddys, Olcott enlisted the services of an architect, a carpenter, two illustrators - Alfred Kappes, and T.W. Williams - to draw everything that he observed and witnessed, a mason, and eventually he ordered from Rutland, so that he could actually weigh the materialised spirits, a full size, Howe's Standard platform scale, set to perfect order, with a certificate signed by the company for its accuracy and quality, and lastly, a spring-balance, ordered and delivered by the same company  (L.G. Kingsley),  to test the power of  the spirits materialised hands, with a weighing capacity of  fifty pounds.  In one of  the most incredible instances ever recorded - which I will lay out in complete detail later in the story - Olcott had two different spirits on two different occasions, pull this device with their one arm extending from the makeshift cabinet; the spring-balance was fastened to a point outside the cabinet, and the spirit pulled the ring at the other end, with utmost strength and power I might add.  There doesn't seem to have been any level of  precaution, in the strictest and most thorough sense of  the word, that Olcott omitted in his investigations, and this sets it far above many in the field.

First Impressions of  Chittenden and The Eddys:

Henry Olcott's first visit lasted only five short days.  Knowing nothing about the residents of  the hamlet itself and most importantly, unaware completely of  the torturous past of  the Eddy mediums, he had this to say:

'The people of  the vicinage are, apparently with few exceptions, plain, dull and uninteresting, seeming to know nothing and to care less about the marvellous things that are happening under their very eyes, or even the history of  their section. Inhabiting a rugged country which exacts much hard labor for small pecuniary returns, they go the round of  their daily duty, and trouble themselves about nothing except to get the usual modicum of  food and sleep.  Their rare occasions of enjoyment are the days of  the country fair, the elections, raisings, huskings, and like country assemblages.  Their religion is intolerant, their sect Methodist; within the pale of  which body all persons are good, without which all are bad.  The liberalising influences that in more thickly settled localities have, for the past ten or twenty years, seems to be unfelt in this region.  Towards the heterodox these people have no yearning bowels of  compassion.  Their weapons are both spiritual and carnal;  and I judge from the sad story of  the Eddy children that these zealots, if suddenly driven out of  their beloved church, would feel more at home under the wing of  Mahomet than elsewhere, for when prayer has failed of  conversion they have resorted to fire and the lash to bring the lamb within the fold'.

About the Eddys themselves, he stated:  'There is nothing about the Eddys or their surroundings to inspire confidence on first acquaintance.  The brothers Horatio and William, who are the present mediums, are sensitive, distant and curt to strangers, look more like hard-working rough farmers than prophets or priests of  a new dispensation, have dark complexions, black hair and eyes, stiff joints, a clumsy carriage, shrink from advances, and make newcomers feel ill at ease and unwelcome.  They are at feud with some of  their neighbours, and as a rule are not liked in Rutland or Chittenden.  They are in fact under the ban of  public opinion that is not prepared or desirous to study the phenomena as either scientific marvels or revelations from another world'.

The length of  Colonel Olcott's second stay at the farm enabled the true story of  the Eddy's lives to unfold itself  in a more complete and rational manner.  He slowly started to understand that the effects he recognised on his first tiny visit of  five days; clumsiness, hostility and suspiciousness, etc.,  were only the inevitable results of  lives rent with suffering and misfortune.  The Eddys were not going to immediately trust anyone;  it took time to know them so that they would feel comfortable in revealing things of  a personal nature.

Olcott stated:  'When I say that my first reception by the family was most inhospitable;  that during my visit of  five days I never felt sure that at any moment I might not be requested to leave;  that I was made to feel like an intruder whose room was preferable to his company;  that I was struggling against all the prejudices one naturally would feel against persons who claimed to be able to summon an army of  spirits from the other world;  that I sat silent when members of  the family made ungracious and threatening speeches against persons who might misrepresent them, clearly meaning me;  that for fear my mission might be cut short and my ability to do my duty to my employers destroyed, I breathed not a word of  my purpose to write for the newspaper, and left the place without having had a single opportunity to draw out their side of  the story from the Eddys, the public has reason to admit that in saying what I did in their favour, I was at least actuated by no feelings of partiality'.

In another material source that I found and one that I was certainly not surprised to find out, Delia, one of  the sister mediums of  the family, confided to a friend that they certainly did know who Olcott was and who he represented;  these were, after all, some of  the most powerful mediums in the country, of  course the spirits informed them of  who he was.  Delia went on to say that she went up to Olcott on his first visit, and very pleasantly but almost facetiously enquired of  him whether he could do an article on her for the newspaper.  He was rendered speechless.

As the story of  their lives unfolded itself, Olcott could easily see that the Eddys had never done anything to deserve such blatant reprobation from their neighbours and townsfolk, and he also discovered in due course that many of  the negative reports reflecting upon their character were also discovered to be untrue and were born solely out of  hatred, ignorance and prejudice.  One of  the more suspicious stories about the Eddys stems from an accusation that they, many years before, had given an actual exhibition of  certain of  the commoner tricks of  mediums, and charged money to do so.  This, of  course, was interpreted by the simple-minded townspeople, prejudiced against anything that smacked of  diabolism, as the very reason why the family was so forbidding towards strangers, they might be discovered in their trickery which was furnishing them with a means of  support.
To this I add the following interesting report made by Epes Sargent:
'Some ten years ago I satisfied myself  by personal investigation of  the genuineness of  the Eddys mediumship, and my convictions were not impaired by subsequent reports that two of  them  (he meant William and Horatio)  had turned against Spiritualism, and were professing to make antagonistic exposures.  It appears that in some Western town, finding themselves utterly destitute of  money and of  the means of  raising it, friendless and longing for home, they were tempted by some unscrupulous adviser to give exhibitions for the  'exposure'  of  the phenomena of Spiritualism.  This they did, and they got audiences and funds from the foes of Spiritualism, which they could not get from the friends.  But the poor mediums were as helpless as was the ancient heathen medium, Balaam, when called upon to curse: 'How shall I curse whom God hath not cursed, or how shall I defy whom the Lord hath not defied?'  Not one of  the marvels wrought by spirits could be exposed or explained by any practical exhibition of  trick or skill on the part of  the two Eddys; and these persons who had hoped to see Spiritualism finally shown up and exploded, went home in a sadder but wiser mood.  We must exercise the largest charity for the moral weakness that led to such an attempt by the mediums.  Only he who has experienced the suffering of  extreme destitution is qualified to estimate their temptation'.  They also related the same story to Olcott later on when discussing their lives.

When Olcott made his return trip to Chittenden, he had this to say:

'I was glad, when my second visit was so unexpectedly brought about, that things were just as they had been at the beginning, for I had heard all the evil stories in circulation and sifted them thoroughly, and was in a condition of  mind to do justice to people who had not always acted so as to make friends, had few real ones, and fewer opportunities granted to lay their pathetic tale before the world.

It was not because I had sympathy with their beliefs, nor that their welfare was a matter of  greater personal concern than that of  any other decent people, but because, in common with everyone else, my good wishes went with the weak and oppressed, and this family had been worried and torn by the spirit of  intolerance, as a sheep by wolves.  Manhood revolts at the persecutions, cruelties, and indignities they have been called to suffer in consequence of  the direful inheritance of mediumship that was bequeathed them in their blood - an inheritance that made their childhood wretched, and, until recently, life itself a burden'.

The Eddy Family History

Zephaniah Eddy, the father, was a farmer living at Weston, Vermont, a few ridges and valleys to the south of  Chittenden, and married Julia Ann Macombs, a girl of Scottish descent, who was also of  Weston.  She was first cousin to General Leslie Combs, of  Kentucky, who changed his name to its present form  (Macombs),  and was distantly related to a noble Scottish family.  About 1846, they sold their farm in Weston and moved to the farm in Chittenden where soon after, Julia would startle the neighbours and townsfolk with her amazing predictions and visions.

Very significant to the story is the fact that not only was there an unbroken record of psychic power extending back over several generations of  the family, but Julia's great-great-great grandmother was actually tried and sentenced to death at Salem for alleged witchcraft in the dark days of  1692, but escaped to Scotland by the aid of  friends who rescued her from jail.  Julia was clairvoyant, although back then it was called  'second sight'.  She saw and conversed with spirits as commonly as though they were ordinary neighbours.  She would hold speech with them, hear them plainly address their conversations back to her, and it seemed as if  they followed her wherever she went.  To enter deep trance and become someone else was nothing out of  the ordinary for Julia.  The neighbours though, lacking a psychological framework to logically explain Julia's symptoms, attributed them to the devil, a diagnosis Zephaniah came to share as each successive child born, with the sole exception of  the first, John, who had the father's temperament, was born with Julia's peculiarities and, at tender ages, started to exhibit traits and indications of psychic power.

Zephaniah Eddy, to the grave and unimaginable misfortune of  the children, was a cruel, ignoramus brute, and a deeply bigoted religionist.  In their early married days, Julia would keep to herself as best she could her inner revelations, refraining from ever mentioning them to Zephaniah.  It had been alleged though that the very reason Zephaniah sold his farm and moved to this rugged, inhospitable out of  the way mountain town was because Julia's mediumship was beginning to perturb the pragmatic Scotsmen of  Weston.  If this be so, and, whatever the case may have been, it did not stem the tide in the least of  the psychic force which was growing as each successive child was born.  With the addition of  Julia, a fully developed medium in her own right, eventually, the entire house was filled with young, developing mediums, the majority of  them physical, and of  cyclone power.
Throughout the Eddy story, not much is mentioned of  certain members of  the family, and it seems as if  they wanted to stay in the background and especially out of  the public eye, although they did, on most occasions, add their battery strength when needed to the situations.  William and Horatio were eventually to become the most famous, if  one were to call it that, they certainly did not, the former for materialization and the latter for dark circle phenomena, but there was an older sister, Maranda, who, although taken from physical life at only 35 years in 1871, was said by the family to have been, without question, the most powerful medium of them all and believe me, that is really saying a lot when we are considering this level of  power.

I have discovered, from another source, that when Henry Olcott journeyed to the Eddy farm in 1874, the family, originally thirteen in total number were, at that time, reduced by marriage and death to five - three sons and two daughters.  Let me now, at this point in the narrative, list the names of  the Eddy family, then at least the readers will know who is who from here on in.  Except for John, all of  them mediums.

In order of  their dates of  birth, there was born to Zephaniah and Julia Eddy, John - 1832, Francis - 1834 (died 1862), Maranda - 1836 (died 1871), William - 1838, Sophia - 1840, Horatio - 1842, Mary - 1844, James - 1846 (died 1862), Delia - 1849, Daniel Webster - 1853, and lastly, Alice - 1857.

Early Manifestations, Spontaneous Phenomena and Portents:

No matter how hard Julia had wished for or tried to keep from Zephaniah the mysterious happenings - which must have been difficult for her considering the fact that she herself was prone to trance out at any given time - once the children were born there was no stopping the continuous unfolding; the sequential, the sudden, the extraordinary and the mystifying the inevitable and unstoppable outcome of  many mediums under one roof.  With the newborn children, clouds formed in their rooms, and mysterious sounds would be heard;  their cradles would rock gently by themselves and voices whispered through the barren halls.  As time moved on, disembodied hands and faces began to appear and, becoming increasingly clearer and more distinct were the ever-present voices, full-bodied, calling to them from the darkness.  In the very early days, the children were extremely terrified and would huddle together in one bed, shivering in fear.  Thank goodness for Julia, for she played the most important role of  all in their early mediumistic lives;  she was the sole link in helping to bridge their realisation of  there being mysterious things happening about them, and their understanding of  inherited gifts as part of  their lives.  They would play by the hour with beautiful children, visible only to their eyes and their mother's, who brought them flowers and pet animals, and romped right along with them.  Once in a while, after they were all tucked away in bed, their little bodies would be lifted gently and floated through the air to different parts of  the house, at times even outside.  The Eddys, I should point out, needed no development circle or any of  the standard procedures associated with the building of  mediumistic power by a circle, and so on.  This was not the case.  Every day, living itself, was a continuous unfolding, a spontaneous rising force.  The manifestations would come at any given moment, without any warning or discrimination whatsoever.  The Eddy children, trying to be normal, attended school but, of  course, it was not meant to be . There was rapping on the walls of  the classroom, the chairs moved by themselves, voices would suddenly speak as if  out of  nowhere, glasses would be overturned, slates written on by invisible hands and the chalk then thrown across the room, and the desks would levitate in the air.  I cannot even imagine how they must have felt, but the mayhem in this one room schoolhouse escalated to the point where they were viciously attacked and barred permanently from ever returning to school.  William, Horatio, and two or three of the Eddy girls had scarcely a month of  schooling in their entire lives.  Not surprisingly, especially in the lawless days of  1874, with the advent of  being banned from school for reasons that may have involved the devil itself, the Eddys became the target of  taunts, jeers, and were ridiculed everywhere they went;  they became the focus of  inarticulate fears and prejudices.  The psychic force did not abate, and only increased in strength.

Zephaniah would, on many occasions, look out to the open field where, behind the house, William and Horatio would be playing when suddenly there would be other boys and girls playing with them.  When he advanced threateningly, they would simply vanish like steam right in front of  him.  When the late Alton Blackington, who did an extensive study on the Eddy phenomena, interviewed a number of  people in Rutland and Chittenden back in 1944 in preparation for his radio broadcast about the mediums, there was a man who well remembered the time he had called on the Eddys, then young men, and found the brothers William and Horatio working alone in the cornfield.  He hadn't been there but a few moments when  'two other figures' appeared out of  nowhere and followed the Eddys wherever they went.

The Ghostly Carriage:

On a cold winter night in December, 1852, just before bed-time, the family was gathered in the sitting room by the fire.  According to Colonel Olcott, who received the story directly from the Eddy family,  'suddenly they heard the noise of  a carriage coming rapidly along the road from the northward.  The circumstance was so strange, the ground being covered with snow which would prevent the noise of  the wheels being heard, that all went to the front window to look.  A full moon, shining bright on the new fallen snow, gave a lustre of  mid-day to objects below' and they saw an old fashioned, open carriage, drawn by a pair of  white horses with plumes on their heads, turn rapidly into the yard and stop.

Rushing to the back door and flinging it open, there stood the equipage before their astonished eyes.  On the back seat was a lady, dressed in Scottish plaid and furs, with a feather in her bonnet.  She looked kindly at them and bowed, but said nothing.  On his high box sat the driver, a thistle cockade in his hat and a capacious coat with a standing collar muffling him to his chin.  Every buckle and trapping of  the harness was plainly revealed by the moonlight, and even the ornamental scroll-work on the coach panels.

The family, with characteristic rustic bashfulness, said nothing, waiting for the grand lady to manifest her pleasure.  No-one doubted for an instant the reality of  what they saw, and even the sceptical and hard-hearted father moved to the door so as to be ready to do what might be required for the belated traveller.  But, as all eyes were fixed upon her, she and her equipage began to fade.  The garden fence and other objects previously concealed behind the opaque bodies of  the carriage and horses, began to show through, and in a moment the whole thing vanished into the air, leaving the spectators lost in amazement.  Old Mr Eddy at once exclaimed that his wife and her mother had been up to some of  their devilish witchcraft again;  but they knew it was the portent of  somebody's death.  The boys, then only ten or twelve years of  age, ran for the lantern and searched all over the road and yard for wheel-tracks, but their quest was fruitless.  The phantoms had disappeared, without leaving the slightest impression on the snow.  Two months later the grandmother died.

Olcott learned later on, during one of  the dark circles held at the Eddy house from a spirit that the phantom lady was a Scottish ancestress of  Mrs Eddy, who came to warn them of  old Mrs Macombs death.  Portents and warnings would occur before the death of  each member of  the Eddy family, but always different from the predecessors, and happening unexpectedly.

Other Ghostly Events & Warnings:

Mrs Eddy died in 1873 after a lingering illness.  During the whole time she lay in bed, manifestations of  spirits were frequent.  When the children would grow weary watching her throughout the night, she would send them to bed under the pretence that she needed quiet, and they, watching secretly, would see their dead sister, Maranda's spirit, in full materialized form, doing the necessary bedside things for their invalid mother.  They would hear the two of  them talking, and when it was necessary to turn her, Maranda, with the help of  other spirits, would do it.  One day, while all were sitting at dinner, they all heard the soft strains of  music coming through the open door, and going outside, they heard harp and flute coming from the corner of  the house, which eventually receded into the air.  A week before the mother passed, her own mother materialized in full form with a basket of  white roses in her hand to tell that Julia would soon come  'over the river'  to her.  Horatio was absent from home just before her decease and was sent for.  Delia went to the table to write the letter of  recall, and, leaving it open while searching for an envelope, when she returned, it had a postscript written on it from their spirit sister, Maranda, and signed by her with her familiar autograph.  Julia materialized before her funeral and told Delia to remove the crepe they had hung on the front door, there being, she said, occasion for rejoicing rather than for mourning.  Of  possible interest to others who do research on apparitions, there is, as a few examples, Robert Dale Owen's The Debateable Land Between This World and the Next, which has on pages 328-329, etc., three cases of  ghostly wagons and carriages being heard in England and the United States, Catherine Crowe's Night Side of Nature, the horse and cart apparitions seen in Haverhill, Massachusetts, p.413, and from Man's Survival After Death by Charles Tweedale, pp.113-115, the phantom horse rider with his two grooms running beside him.  All of  these examples are apparitions, but, unlike the Eddy's, were not precursors of  death.

Colonel Olcott  (an interesting quote)

'I am well aware that the materialization of  spirits, is what the public is most anxious to hear about, but I cannot take up that phase of  the subject, before at least skimming the surface of  this family history for the other marvellous experiences to which its members have been subjected.  It would be like Columbus returning from his gold hunt in the new country with no account of  its geography, fauna, flora or human inhabitants.  The stories I am recording were not gathered at appointed sittings, at which the narrator might have been tempted to stretch fancy to help make literary sensations;  but in general social conversation, over our pipes around the evening fire, as the discussion of  varied topics drew them out.  And in every case they have been attested by more than one witness.  Interesting is it not that the comparison drawn by Olcott was actually Columbus and his discoveries in the New World.  Nothing could be more certain than the fact that while staying at the Eddy farm in Chittenden, Olcott discovered another world'.

The Lady on the Horse, the Tolling Bell and the Ghostly Soldiers:

The son James died of diphtheria in 1862 in the north room-front, upstairs.  A week before the event he asked his mother who the lady was who came on a white horse to visit him.  His mother thought that his mind might be wandering due to illness, but he insisted that she came every day at the same hour, tied her horse to the hitching-post and came and sat in the room, waiting, as he said, for him to come to the Spirit World with her.  At this very time, Dr Ross, of  Rutland, the attending physician, prophesied the recovery of  James, but the mother instinctively knew that the phantom visitor was a portent of  death and sure enough, her fears were justified a few days later.  The very night he died he appeared to his brother - medium - William, then a lad working in the dairy on a farm over in Westchester County; William started for home before the next dawn and, when arriving home weeping bitterly, said he had come for the funeral.

The day before Maranda's death, the family was sitting at dinner, when suddenly a heavy bell tolled once, in the air, right over their heads, and slowly the reverberation pealed away as they all listened in silence.  Maranda announced to all that she saw brothers James and Francis in the Spirit  World and then stated that she wanted inscribed on her tombstone the words,  'Not Dead But Risen.  Why seek ye the Living Among the Dead?'.  Concerning Francis, while serving in the 5th Vermont Volunteers during the late war, he caught a heavy cold which quickly ran into consumption and he came home to die.  He wrote in the family Bible the exact day and hour of  his passing.  A fortnight prior to his transition, the family was once again sitting by the fire and this time heard a wagon pull up to the front door, heard the latch open, and saw two soldiers bring a coffin in and place it in the entry, and then drive off  without saying a single word.  On the coffin was a plate with a name on it, which not being able to read in the obscurity they went for a candle, but upon returning, it had slowly vanished.  After Francis entered the Spirit World they sent to Rutland by a neighbour - obviously one of  the friendlier ones - for his coffin, and when it was brought, it was the exact counterpart of  its spectral double, to the very plate and nails.

When I first visited Chittenden myself  in 1989, I stood in the family plot of  the Eddys in tiny Baird cemetery right down from the old homestead.  The original farmhouse may have been done over as such, but believe me, time has not reshaped this little graveyard in the slightest degree.  The total and absolute reality of  their beliefs and way of  life;  the feeling of  mediumship and the religion of  Spiritualism so obvious right there in front of  you with the timeless  'ENTERED THE WORLD OF SPIRITS'  inscribed on Julia's and Maranda's headstones.  On my second visit in 1992, I found the resting places of  William and Horatio, further down, in the overgrown little Pittsford cemetery.  As it was near Halloween, I placed a pumpkin by the grave of  William Eddy.  The birds sang merrily in the trees, and the wind bristled through the hills and here, I thought to myself, lies, most likely, the greatest materialization medium of  the 19th century.


The Spinning Ghost:

In the north room on the second floor of  the Eddy house is where four of  the young boys slept.  For years after she had passed to the spirit world, old Mrs Macombs, Julia's mother, would appear, and attend to her spinning wheel as she used to.  The wheel stood in the south-east corner of  the room, behind the door. The children were greatly frightened at first to hear the  'click-click-click',  and the buzzing and see no-one, but they soon grew familiar with the thing, and finally, to be sure that grandmother would awaken them, they hung a little bell on the wheel.  The phenomenon, which had greatly frightened them at first so that they hid their small faces beneath the bed coverings, had become a nightly diversion.  After a while the spirit fully materialised herself  (let us not forget that there was four physical mediums in the room - NRH),  feebly at first but stronger by degrees, until she would come looking exactly as when alive.  The story, according to Olcott, was attested to by every member of  the Eddy connection that he had seen, and the sketch represents the scene with absolute accuracy.

Mending in the Arms of William:

In the Spring of  1863, the child of  Sophia Eddy lay sick at the old Eddy homestead, of  lung fever.  Her death was expected by all, and Delia ironed a white dress and skirt for the little girl and laid them in the mother's trunk.  One evening Horatio went out to the penstock for water, and, looking up, he saw his own room in the second story lighted up and two strange old women walking about, shaking the invalid's dresses and busying themselves in other preparations, apparently for the coming death.  He ran upstairs, he said, and upon opening the door, found a table set in the middle of  the floor, covered with a sheet taken from the bed and on it the child's clothes, which had been removed from the trunk in another room.  The smoking wicks of  two candles showed the source of  light he had observed.

Knowing by experience what this sort of  thing meant, he came down and told the watchers that the child would die.  The mother, Delia, at once fell into a violent convulsion, which ended in a dead faint.  Meanwhile Horatio had gone to the door and stood watching the re-lighting of  the candles and the moving about by the ghostly women, when, just as Sophia had fainted, the light was extinguished, there was a rush of  invisible feet down the stairs and into the chamber, and the child soon began to mend in the arms of  William, who tended the little one with affectionate care.  They were afterwards told that it was fully expected that the child would die, and spirit friends had gathered there to receive her, but the mother's alarming condition induced them to unite their efforts to keep alive the flickering spark of  life.
An interesting quote by Henry Olcott concerning the  'Phantom Carriage'  mentioned earlier is the following:  'The literal accuracy of  the sketch of  the ghostly carriage, has been endorsed on three separate occasions since its appearance in the Daily Graphic, by what claimed to be spirits, who addressed me in audible voice - one of  the three being Mrs Julia Eddy herself - and all three assert that the apparition was sent by a guardian spirit.  I know the full value of  words,'  Olcott went on to say,  'and I mean to say unequivocally that a woman  'a breathing, walking, palpable woman, as palpable as any other woman in the room, recognised not only by her sons and daughters, but also by neighbours present, as Mrs Zephaniah Eddy, deceased 29 December, 1872 - on the evening of  2 October, 1874, walked out of  the cabinet where there was only one mortal, and where, under ascertained circumstances, only this one man could have been at the time, and spoke to me personally in audible voice.  And nineteen other persons saw her at the same time, and heard her discourse'.

For Colonel Olcott, a man of  clear brain and high intelligence, his experiences at the Eddy farm were nothing less than spellbinding and were his maiden voyage into this mysterious other world;  his articles in the Daily Graphic hit like thunder.  Future parts of  this article will deal exclusively with the materialisation and dark circle phenomena at the Eddy house, a short segment on the seances held out in the woods at  'Honto's Cave',  and everything else I can possibly fit into the article. Thanks to the insight of  Mr Olcott in his  'leave no stone unturned'  process, most of  the spirits that manifested were able to be sketched by the artists he employed.

The Building Rage of Zephaniah - Their Darkest Days;

With each passing moment, the mediumistic powers of  the young family members slowly and steadily unfolded and increased in intensity, as did the rage of  Zephaniah who, at first thinking that he must be bereft of  his senses, now knew that he was not;  there were too many instances now where he himself  was seeing the actual figures materialising.

In vain, he stormed and threatened, but all went on.  He called his equally pious neighbours together - Harvey Pratt, Rufus Sprague, Sam Parker, Sam Simmons, Charles Powers, and Anson Ladd - all of  them ignorant, imbecilic brutes, and they prayed and prayed that this curse might be removed from the house;  praying to abate the nuisance, or, as Zephaniah styled it, to  'cast the devil out of  his ungodly wife and children',  and, that failing, he moved to more stern, verbally threatening coercive measures, and that proved equally inefficacious.  One  of the great mysteries to me in these spiritual and mediumistic matters is how Natural Laws - the respecter of  no man, regardless of  age - progress forward with absolutely no exceptions.  In the case of  these young mediums, as innocent to the understanding of  their own inherited gifts as the freshly fallen snow, surrounded by violent, ignorant maniacs, their psychic force only increased all the more, as did their peril.
Soon, physical blows replaced prayers, and to get the evil spirits out of  them, Zephaniah endlessly beat the youngsters until he made scars on their backs that, according to Olcott who saw the wounds,  'they will carry to their graves'.  Their early lives could not have been worse.  If  the father would come upon any of  the family members in trance - which, unfortunately for William he did on many occasions - they would be beaten with a rawhide strap or pounded with his fists all over their body.  The mediums suffered incomprehensibly afterwards, because seldom, if ever, did they come out of  trance while being  'lambasted'  by Mr Eddy.

Unconcerned with the sorrowful pleading of  Julia, William and Horatio were, on many occasions, taken out and chained to trees in the deep woods;  starved for days, and kept out of  the house.  William Eddy related to Henry Olcott while he was at the farm an incident that turns my skin cold for it was one of  the most vicious things I have ever heard.  One time, as a means to bring William out of  a deep trance, Zephaniah, with the aid of  his thug of  a friend, Anson Ladd, punched and slapped William in the head repeatedly, and when this failed, they poured scalding water down his back and, as a last heroic operation, took a blazing ember from the hearth and firebranded his head with it.  William, thank God, never came out of  his trance, but the effect of  this horrible cruelty was the great scars on his head and chest that he showed Olcott while telling him the story.

'So year after year',  Olcott said,  'things went on, full of  trouble and sorrow for all in the unhappy house. No wonder I found them  'Curt, repellent',  and  'sensitive', and suspicious and calculated to arouse suspicion. I think I would be likewise under the circumstances'.  Olcott was starting to really understand the story of  their unfortunate lives. Unimaginably, this was only the beginning of  an even more terrible odyssey which was about to befall them.

The Darkness is Falling:

The year was 1857.  For many years now, a great excitement was being caused throughout the Northeast by the Fox sisters and their phenomena.  They had ushered in a new dispensation.  Spiritualism.  Additionally, Jonathan Koons in nearby Athens County, Ohio, between the years 1852 and around 1855, was causing quite a stir with the public demonstrations of  mediumship he was holding in a log cabin he had built on his property; add to this the Tippie family, two or three miles distant from them, who held similar demonstrations. Psychic prodigies were springing up everywhere.

Realising that he had a very valuable commodity, Zephaniah contacted an unscrupulous, money grabbing travelling agent, and did what any ordinary sociopath would do in the circumstances, he sold four of  his own children to him;  William, 19 years old, Horatio, 15, and their two sisters, Sophia, 17, and little Mary, only 13 years old;  the contract was signed and off  they went to be exhibited as mediums for money.

Book of Martyrs:

From Horatio Eddy's own diary, dated November, 1867, came the following sad tale:

'This day.... we suffered very much by severe tying and abuse from those who professed to be Spiritualists.  But we like martyrs, bore our pain with fortitude. We thanked the Divine Power for preserving us from the gross treatment of  our enemies.  No mortal knows what brutish tying we submitted ourselves to.  It would have made mother's heart bleed if  she had known what her children were passing through in Canastota'.  Olcott stated in People From the Other World that:  'The reader will please observe that I have not relied upon the diaries or verbal statements of  the Eddys themselves in making these strictures, but solely upon the testimony of  the editorial descriptions of  the whole press, for the journals of  nearly every section are represented in this modern Book of  Martyrs.  Such details of  the handcuffings and ligatures, the blisterings and acid corrosions, the torture of constrained positions, of  mouth-gags and halter nooses, as the newspapers did not supply, I have filled in after getting the necessary explanations from the mediums, and the drawings were made from life'.

The four Eddy teens were systematically marched from one state to another by this showman, and made to demonstrate their powers, or trickery as it was in most cases assumed, while their enemies, in brute force, tried everything in their powers to torture or constrain them to prove, by so doing, that the powers could not then manifest.  It was nothing short of  sadism, pure and simple.

During the course of  these demonstrations, or whatever they were, the mediums were usually bound and gagged, often to an inhuman degree;  at times their lips were sealed with hot wax - the scars of  which they carried for the rest of  their lives;  all four of t hem were nailed into suffocating boxes resembling miniature coffins - all of these brutish practices done to ensure the fact that the manifestations were not coming from the mediums.  The illustrations show some of  the various tortures they were made to endure.  Whether at private residences, on stage or otherwise, they were forced to hold many positions, pinioned, manacled or gagged for, in many cases, hours at a time.  As a test to prove the depth of  their trances, they were routinely pinched, their skin twisted and pricked with needles or sharp wires.
When not on stage, their torment and peril was even worse, having to face mass protesters;  religious fanatics, sceptics and groups of  rowdy drunks and violent bands of  thugs who felt they had been bilked out of  their money by tricksters. Olcott said that the hands, arms and wrists of  the sisters as well as the brothers were permanently scarred with marks of  ligatures, burning wax, and parts of  their flesh pinched out by handcuffs.  They were routinely attacked, shot at, beaten, stoned and chased out of  town in certain areas.  William and Mary showed Olcott their scars from gunshot wounds in the ankle and the arm;  Horatio was stabbed, broke a finger and was once hit by a brick in the head which was thrown from above.  Their cabinet - exactly similar to the Davenports, with its three doors - was smashed to pieces by furious mobs on several occasions.  William was once caught by thugs in Cleveland, ridden on a rail like a circus freak and, were it not for a desperate last minute rescue, would have been actually tarred and feathered.  In Danvers, Massachusetts they were nearly killed when fired upon by zealots who believed them to be agents of  the devil.

On and on it went for years on end.  For a brief  period, they were rented out to another agent who took them on a brief  tour of Europe, the records of  which I would love to find.  How they ever survived fifteen straight years of  this I will never know, but they did, and the manifestations throughout were absolutely extraordinary.  I have personally never read, or have heard of  any viable or honestly legitimate account of  these young mediums having ever been caught in fraud.  There is a quote by Colonel Olcott which I think the readers will find interesting.  He said:  'The story of the persecutions, mobbings, hardships and trials through which the Eddy children were obliged to pass, carries a moral with it, which the intelligent reader can hardly have overlooked. It must have been apparent that we are not dealing with the case of  charlatans who have recently taken to the business of  trickery for the sake of  gain, for these girls and boys seem to have inherited the peculiar temperaments from their ancestry, and the phenomena common to most genuine  'mediums'  of  the present day, attended them in their very cradles.  It will scarcely be said that children who, like Elisha, were caught up and conveyed from one place to another, and in whose presence weird forms were materialised as they lay in their trundle-beds, were playing pranks to tax the credulity of  an observant public, which was ignorant of  their very existence.  It will not be seriously urged, I fancy, against youth, whose bodies were scored with the lash, cicatrized by burning wax, by pinching manacles, by the knife, the bullet and boiling water, who were starved, driven to the woods to save their lives from paternal violence;  who were forced to travel year after year and exhibit their occult powers for others' gain;  who were mobbed and stoned, shot at and reviled;  who could not get even an ordinary country school education like other children, nor enjoy the companionship of  boys and girls of  their own age - it will not be urged against such as these that they were in conspiracy to deceive, when they had everything to gain and nothing to lose by abandoning the fraud and being like other folk.  The idea is preposterous; and we must infer that, whatever may be the source of  the phenomena, they are at least objective and not subjective - the result of  some external force, independent of  the medium's wishes, and manifesting itself when the penalty of  its manifestation was to subject the unfortunates to bodily torture and mental anguish'.

Well said, indeed.  As terrible as their lives were, it is nonetheless of  the highest evidential nature that if  they were not in fact, genuine mediums, why would they have subjected themselves to such utter danger and peril?  How much more can really be said I ask you?

Zephaniah Eddy, accompanied by the sadness of  absolutely no-one, passed away in 1862.  The tumultuous journey of  the Eddy brothers and sisters finally ended in 1872, and they made their weary selves back to the homestead farm and the waiting arms of  their mother.  Their sorrow unfortunately did not end here for Julia, their one loyal and trusted friend through thick and thin, passed to the world of  spirits in December of  that year.

Is it any wonder at all that by the time Olcott had arrived at the farm, he noticed them to be hostile, scorned men and women, who basically trusted no-one - at least, not at first. These were individuals who had been sold out every step of  the way, starting with their own father. The Eddys though, were tough, sturdy farmers - William and Horatio as strong as oxen - and they, in the most honourable sense, protected and brought home safely their sisters through the endless perils they had faced. They had made it home, battered and forlorn, but together, and with the help and aid of  their loyal and steadfast spirit friends.

Now back at home, with Zephaniah safely out of  the way, at peak mediumistic power and having the situation at last completely under their own control, it was decided that they would construct an upper section to the back of  the farmhouse, to be used specifically as a circle-room to demonstrate their mediumship through public seances.  They would, more or less, turn their house into a way-side inn, take in boarders and charge a modest fee, usually eight to ten dollars a week if  even that. Those who were poor, which many of  their clientele were, were charged nothing. When word of  the Eddy manifestations got out, the farmhouse was besieged by visitors and the mediums were inundated with letters from all over the country. It was altogether impossible to accommodate everyone and many, even after having travelled great distances to come to Chittenden, were, for one reason or another, flatly turned away at the door. Houdini, I am very happy to say, was one of these unfortunates;  there were many of  your standard  'wolves in sheep's clothing' types, and many were duly thrown out, only to usually proclaim the Eddys as frauds afterwards.

The circle-room, which would eventually become one of  the most famous in all of Spiritualism, was finally finished in December, 1873, and officially opened to the public on January 1st, 1874. The opening seance started with a dark-circle at which the spirit, George Dix - one of  the controls - in independent voice, gave a lengthy and dramatic dedicatory address.

Following this there was a materialisation seance where prayers and addresses were given by fully materialised spirits starting with Julia Eddy herself, Mrs Eaton - another one of  the controls - Mrs Wheeler, and lastly, a Dr. Horton, late of  Utica, New York, who stepped forward, fully materialised with his two baby children in his arms, and addressed his widow who was sitting in the audience.  The elder of the children, little Minna Horton, slowly eased herself down from her father's arms and, as the living embodiment of  an angel itself, quietly stepped forward and spoke words of  comfort to her mother who was weeping uncontrollably.

Since that first historic and eventful evening at the opening of  the circle-room, the Eddys, with William and Horatio as chief  mediums, and with the aid of  the others where needed, held circles every single evening, with the sole exception of  Sundays.  In light of  the usual serious exhaustion associated with this type of phenomena, it attests even further to the absolutely extraordinary power and stamina of  these mediums, especially William, who sat for materialisation. On yet another note, they usually worked in the fields, and carried on with their rugged farm chores in the daytime.

The Eddy house was eventually to be called  'The Spirit Capitol of  the Universe', and also Spirit Vale.

Observations, Light & Dark Circle Phenomena and Full Form Materialization:

My main concern is the eye-witness accounts of  the manifestations produced by William and Horatio Eddy in their circle room seances, held nightly for the public at their farm. The main emphasis, and for good reason, will be on Henry Olcott's work, but to add evidential weight and balance there will be included additional accounts by Mrs M.D. Shindler and Epes Sargent - whose work I mentioned by name in Part 1 - and within these, there are additional reports which had been made by others who had also witnessed the phenomena such as J.M. Peebles and Mr Henry Lacroix through the famous Boston Spiritualist publication, The Banner of Light  (Founded, 1857).

Colonel Henry Olcott was a pioneer in the truest sense of  the word, his investigation into the Eddy phenomena predated the work of  Geley, Crawford, Crookes, Madame Bisson and Schrenk-Notzing, to name just a few of  the weighty names associated with research into the scientific aspects of  physical mediumship. The phenomena of  fully materialized spirit forms - of  which the Eddy Brothers probably have never been excelled - is so startling and extraordinary in its nature, that Olcott's reporting was met with extreme incredulousness and shock; manifestations seemingly regulated by no known law - as of  yet - above and beyond even the understanding of science and the laws of  nature, were being produced not only through two rude farmers, but ones that were supposedly unmannered and illiterate besides.

The Mediumistic Gifts Of  The Eddy Family, In General.  By Henry Olcott:

'It is scarcely exaggeration to say that this family of  mediums, if  we may believe their story, is the most remarkable as to psychological endowments of  which mention is made in the history of  European races.

The phases of  mediumship represented by the family members were rappings;  the disturbance of  material objects from a state of  rest;  painting in oil and water - colors under influence;  prophecy, the speaking of  strange tongues;  the healing gift; the discernment of  spirits;  levitation, or the floating of  the body in free air;  the phenomena of  instrument playing and the show of  hands;  the writing of  messages on paper upborne in mid-air, by pencils held by detached hands;  psychometry, or the reading of  character and view of  distant persons upon touching sealed letters; clairvoyance;  clairaudience, or the hearing of  spirit-voices;  and lastly, and most miraculous of  all  (as Olcott stated it),  the production of  materialized phantom forms, that become visible, tangible, and often audible by all persons present.

The Phenomena Produced By William And Horatio Eddy In The Circle-Room:

(1)  The materialization of  spirit-forms in the second story of  the house;
(2)  The showing of  materialized hands;  the  'ring test'  (which I will explain), writing of  names of  deceased persons upon cards, by detached hands;  and playing on instruments in the light;  which usually happen in a circle held at the conclusion of  the materialization circle.
(3)  The playing of  musical instruments; voices; the sound of  heavy dancing;  the moving of  ponderous bodies;  the floating of  musical instruments through the air; the noise of  struggles and sword combats between two combatants;  the flashing of phosphorescent lights;  the touching and patting of  our persons by supposed spirit-hands;  a concert of  musical instruments, numerous enough to require the aid of  at least four performers;  solo-playing on the harmonicon, accordion, violin, flute, guitar, or concertina;  the improvisation of  rhymes by a voice, upon a subject named by any person present; whistling;  the imitation of  a storm at sea, with the whistling and roaring of  the gale, the force of  the waves, the sucking pumps - all these in a darkened room'.

Olcott:

'Much account has been made of  the story told by Lord Dunraven and Lord Adair (and, I may mention, confirmed to me personally by the later gentleman),  of  Mr Home's having been  'floated'  out of  one third- story window at Ashley House and into another; but what will be thought of  Horatio Eddy having been carried, one summer night, when he was but six years old, a distance of  three miles to a mountain top, and left to find his way home next day as best he could;  of  his youngest brother Webster, when a grown man, being carried out of  a window and over the top of  a house from the presence of  three witnesses  (from two of  whom I have the story),  and landed in a ditch a quarters of  a mile off;  of  William being carried to a distant wood and kept there unconscious for three days, and then carried back again;  of  Horatio being  'levitated'  twenty-six evenings in succession, in Buffalo, in Lyceum Hall, when fast bound to a chair, and hung by the back of  the chair to a chandelier hook in the ceiling, and then safely lowered again to his former place on the floor?  Of  Mary Eddy being raised to the ceiling of  Hope Chapel, in New York City, where she wrote her name?'.

Quotable Quote:

'Let any fair man stay at the Eddy house for a week or two, take time to hear both sides of  every story, and watch what occurs, and, my word for it, he will carry away food for reflection to last him the rest of  his natural life'.  (Henry S. Olcott, October, 1874).

A Motley Crowd:

The impression that is given by every account is that the Eddy house and grounds were generally thronged with people.  They themselves could only board just so many in the house so many others had to fend for themselves in the nearby hamlets. Nonetheless, Mrs Shindler stated that there were, when she was there, almost fifty people boarding at the house.

Henry Olcott's description of,  or better yet, perspective of  the visitors he saw at the homestead while there is one of  the most classic statements of  Spiritualism. After describing the stupendous beauty of  the surrounding hills and green pastures Olcott, leading up though his statement says:

'But there appears to be slight evidence that this scenery has exercised an ennobling effect upon the inhabitants. They are usually a prosaic set, and I have vainly watched for any responsive glow when I have called their attention to the natural beauties around us. The Eddys themselves form rather an exception to the rule. True, they waste no enthusiasm upon their familiar hills and valley, but the tenderness of  their hearts is shown in the gathering of  pet pigeons, dogs, parrots, ducks, and chickens, about them, and their innate refinement, by the hours snatched from menial toil, to water and trim their plants and flowers....  English visitors to this place would find abundant relaxation is the long walks or mountain climbing, but we Americans avail ourselves little of  the privilege.... but the minds of  the people who come from far and near to this Vermont homestead, are so bent upon the pursuit of  the marvellous, that all day long they sit and talk of  last night's circle and past wonderful experiences, until one fairly gets a surfeit of  the subject.

They are a motley crew, in sooth.  Ladies and gentlemen;  editors, lawyers, divines and ex-divines;  inventors, architects, farmers;  pedlars of  magnetic salves and mysterious nostrums;  long haired men and short haired women;  the  'crowing hens' of  Fowler, and the cackling cocks, their fitting mates;  women with an idea, and plenty of  men and women without any to speak of;  people of  sense and people of nonsense;  sickly dreamers who prate of  'interiors'  and  'conditions'  and  'spheres' as intelligently as a learned pig or a chattering magpie;  clairvoyants and  'healers', real and bogus;  phrenologists, who read bumps without feeling them, under  'spirit direction';  mediums for tipping, rapping, and every imaginable form of  modern phenomena;  'apostles'  with one and two arms;  people from the most distant and widely-separated localities;  nice, clever people whom one is glad to meet and sorry to part from;  and people who shed a magnetism as disagreeable as dirty water or the perfume of  the Fetis-Americanus.  They come and go, singly and otherwise; some after a day's stay, convinced that they have been cheated, but the vast majority astounded and perplexed beyond expression by what their eyes have seen and their ears heard.

Through all, the family jog on in the even tenor of  their unsystematic way, receiving newcomers with distrust, and letting life slide after a happy-go-lucky fashion. Those who stay longest with them have the most confidence in their mediumship, for they discover that their external misanthropy and curtness are the outcome of  years of sorrow and injustice, the result of  poor education and bad training. More than any man I have ever met, William Eddy lives an interior life; and to be in relation, of supposed relation, with the people of  the Silent Land, seems as natural to him as it was to the ecstatics of  the early centuries of  the recluses of  Brama'.

Before moving on to the circle-room manifestations, I want to add to this work a few important issues which were brought to light in Olcott's work, People From The Other World.  Those who are interested in this field of  research and the historical aspects of  Spiritualism and physical mediumship will especially find it significant.
Olcott:  'The Salem witchcraft tragedies were followed by such a reaction, that tardy justice was done to the families of  the victims of  the popular frenzy, and nothing was said about supernaturalism - at least nothing, I think, that aroused general interest - until the present dispensation was ushered in at the little cabin of  Michael Weekman, in 1847, where, in the family of  John D. Fox, its then lessee, there bubbled up a tiny spring that is now so great a river.  The raps and poundings which will always be known as the  'Rochester Knockings'  and forever perpetuate the memory of  Kate and Margaret Fox, were followed by many other and more wonderful forms of  manifestation, such as the lifting of  heavy bodies, the phenomenal increase and diminution of  their normal weight  (the lightest articles acquiring marvellous ponderosity and the heaviest equally notable levity), the ringing of  bells, the playing of  unseen performers on instruments, and, finally, by the materialization of  spirit-hands, faces, and full forms.

At the same time, however, that these things were going on and the attention of  the civilized world was arrested by them, similar phenomena were happening in other private families. The Davenports, of  Buffalo, N.Y., were having some slight premonitions of  the future career they were destined for, but the physical manifestations did not occur in their presence until February, 1855. A year before this the Koons family, of  Athens County, Ohio, had instrumental and vocal concerts by the spirits, and materialized hands wrote communications. But the Eddys tell me that they had been seeing materialized spirit-forms from their childhood, and their mother before them, and, in the absence of  conflicting evidence, I suppose that the credit will have to be awarded to them of  witnessing the first instances of  this highest form of  physical manifestation, occurring in our time.

One evening, in March, 1872, the Eddy family were sitting about the fire, when an event occurred that ushered in the series of  materializations that have culminated in the public seances now given nightly. William had cut his foot very badly with an axe, and was confined to his bed in an adjoining room. Suddenly, without warning, the grandmother's spirit in full materialized form appeared at the threshold, and gave instruction for some salves to apply to the wound, and a cooling draught to abate the fever that had set in;  after which she disappeared. Shortly after this, when Delia Eddy was engaged in reducing some maple-sugar over the kitchen fire, the spirit of a man of  short stature suddenly materialized himself,  frightening her so that she dropped a pan of  sugar she was carrying. The spirits then told the family that William was to be developed as the greatest medium of  the age, and that he must no longer sit for the instrument playing exhibitions, as he had been doing for a number of  years, but must go into the cabinet or closet alone and take no bells or instruments with him'.

Quotable Quote:

'I did not content myself with merely attending the seances of  these famous brothers, but watched them continually at their daily tasks, and in their hours of relaxation, and am firmly persuaded that all their manifestations were perfectly genuine. Especially did William impress me as a man of  singular honesty and simplicity of  character;  too guileless to protect himself  from the wiles and snares of others. I loved him as one of  God's chosen instruments to bless and comfort the mourning hearts of  those whose friends had been taken out of  their sight'.  (M.D. Shindler).


The Circle Room:

This room had three windows on each side, 13 feet 9 inches from the ground. Olcott stated that there was no ladder on the premises.  For the use of  carpenters engaged in making some small repairs, one had been borrowed from another farmer in the neighbourhood. There was one door of  entrance into the seance room, situated next to the main part of  the house. The circle room was 37 feet 6 inches long and 17 feet wide, with a ceiling 9 feet 2 inches high in the centre, and 6 feet 11 inches at the sides. At the farther end was the kitchen chimney, 2 feet 7 inches by 3 feet 4 inches, in the centre of  the gable. To the right of  the chimney was a closet of the same depth - 2 feet 7 inches - and a length of  7 feet, with a window in it, 2 feet 6 inches from the floor, and having a 2 feet 2 inches by 2 feet 3 inches opening. The door to the closet - this was William's cabinet - was 5 feet 9 inches high by 2 feet wide. The ceiling of  the cabinet at the chimney end was 7 feet 2 inches, and 5 feet at the other end, where the roof  sloped  (over where William sat).  Three sides of the cabinet were lath and plaster;  the fourth the solid brick wall of  the chimney. There were no panels to slide, and no loose boards in the floor to lift.

Every inch of  the cabinet was tight and solid. Outside the cabinet there was a platform as long as the width of  the room, and 6 feet 7 inches wide in its widest part, and was elevated 231 inches above the general floor level.  Along its outer edge ran a balustrade, or handrail, 2 feet 6 inches high, making the height from the floor of  the room to the top of  the rail, 4 feet 5 inches. The outside measurements of  this particular section of  the Eddy house corresponded with the circle room Olcott stated.

For six months after the hall had been built, there was no window in the cabinet, but one evening during the excessively hot weather in July, the medium fainted upon coming out of  the stifling cabinet, and a window was cut shortly after. A medium can handle just so much. This window, in consequence of  insinuations of  its possible use for the introduction of  costumes and confederates  (and what of  the numerous manifestations prior to cutting the window?),  Olcott obtained permission to completely seal up, which he did by tacking a fine mosquito netting over the frame outside, and sealed it with wax stamped with his signet. This precaution made absolutely no difference in what occurred inside the circle room. He examined the netting every day until he left the Eddy house, and found it just as he had left it.
The audience occupied two or three uncomfortable straight benches and, on occasion, a chair was set up front for Olcott to the right of  the benches.  The circles were held by night and the only illumination was by a feebly lit kerosene lamp placed at the southeast end of  the room. Olcott, who constantly questioned himself on whether he was being meticulous enough in his investigation I really believe had no idea just how thorough he was;  little did he then realize that it would end up being considered one of  the most thoroughly conducted investigations ever on record along these lines.

He hired a man, O.F. Morrill, of  Chelsea, Mass., a mechanic, inventor and carpenter, to examine every inch of  William's cabinet and, in brief, stated:
'I hereby certify, that, at the request of  and in company with Mr H.S. Olcott, I have examined thoroughly the walls, window, ceiling and floor of  William H. Eddy's 'cabinet', and the floor of  the platform upon which it opens, and that there is no possible means by which confederates could be introduced into the said cabinet, except through the open door, in full face of  the audience;  nor any place where costumes or apparatus could be stored. Furthermore, that after witnessing numerous materializations by alleged spirits, he is perfectly satisfied that the phenomena, whatever may be their origin, are not produced by jugglery, the personation of characters by William Eddy, or by chemical or mechanical device'  (signed, O.F. Morrill).

After some singing and light dancing in the circle room, the people would then be invited to seat themselves on the benches, and William Eddy would then mount the platform and hang a thick shawl over the cabinet door, enter it and sit down on his chair. The lamp would then be turned down very dimly, the sitters in the front row would be requested to join hands, and a violinist  (sometimes flute or even accordion)  placed at the extreme right of  the row and nearest the platform, would play on his instrument. All would then be anxious expectation. Presently, the curtain would stir, would be pushed aside, and a form would step out on to the platform and face the audience.

Henry Olcott:  'Seen in the obscurity, silent and motionless, appearing in the character of  a visitor from beyond the grave, it is calculated to arouse the most intense feelings of  awe and terror in the minds of  the timid;  but happily the idea is so incomprehensible, the supposition so unwarrantable, even absurd, that at first most people  (automatically)  choose to curiously inspect the thing as a masquerading pleasantry on the part of  the man they saw only a moment before, enter the cabinet'.  In other words, most of  them simply could not comprehend or believe what they were seeing because it was so incredible. Olcott then stated:  'The first impression is that there is some trickery; for to think otherwise is to do violence to the world's traditions from the beginning until now; besides which the feeling of terror is lessened by the apparition being seen by each person in company with numerous other mortals like himself, and the locked hands and touching shoulders on each side soon begets confidence. If  the shape is recognized it bows and retires, sometimes after addressing words in an audible whisper or natural voice, as the case may be, to its friends, sometimes not. After an interval of  two or three minutes the curtain is again lifted, and another form, quite different in sex, gait, costume, complexion, length and arrangement of  hair, height and breadth of  body, and apparent age, comes forth, to be followed in turn by others and others, until after an hour or so the session is brought to a close, and the medium reappears with haggard eyes and apparently much exhausted'.

After only his third seance, in a letter to Epes Sargent, published in Proof  Palpable of  Immortality, Olcott stated:

'I have seen shapes of  Indian men* and women and white persons, old and young, each in different dress, to the number of  thirty-two;  and I am told by respectable persons who have been here a long while that the number averages about twelve a night. The Eddy's have sat continuously for a year, and are wearied in body and mind by the incessant drain upon their vital force, which is said to be inevitable in these phenomena. For want of  a better explanation I may as well state that the Eddys claim that the manifestations are produced by a band of  spirits, organized with a special director, mistress of  ceremonies, chemist, assistant chemists, and dark and light circle operators'.

* Quite a number of  Indian spirits materialized themselves every night at the Eddys' for Mrs Eddy was, it was said, a noble, generous woman, who cherished the most friendly relations with these red men and women when in the flesh, and one winter kept in her house a whole family of  them that might otherwise have perished from the bitter cold.

Henry Olcott's First Seance: 17 September, 1874

'I reached Chittenden on my present mission, Sept. 17, 1874, and attended a circle the same evening. Outside a violent gale of  wind was blowing, the clouds hung low, the rain fell, and the atmospheric conditions seemed unfavourable. A company of twenty-five persons assembled in the circle room, among them several who, like myself, had arrived that day. Shortly after seven o'clock, William entered the cabinet, and we waited expectantly for our weird visitors. To promote harmony of feeling among the persons present, vocal and instrumental music was resorted to, continuity of  sound and rapidity of  time seeming to be more necessary than quality of  execution.

We had not sat many minutes in our first circle before a voice - the piping treble of an old woman - addressed to us some remarks from behind the curtain.... to the effect that this was a bad night for manifestations, and none but the strongest of spirits could show themselves'.

Olcott was suspicious at first, thinking that William was simply speaking in falsetto, but eventually learned from experience - having seen her materialized on several occasions and address him personally - that Mrs Eaton was one of the controls/cabinet spirits of  William Eddy; she will be mentioned on and off throughout the story, and so will this next famous little squaw of  energy and vivaciousness. The curtain presently stirred, and the Indian woman named Honto, stepped on the platform. She was, according to Olcott,  'young, dark complexioned, of  marked Indian features, lithe and springy in movement, full of  fun, natural in manner, and full of  inquisitiveness'.

Olcott, in his drive to be as exact as possible, painted a scale, full length down the side of  the cabinet door. Honto measured 5 feet 3 inches and bore not the slightest resemblance to William Eddy  (having seen her at least thirty times or more while there, Olcott said).  Honto would change her dress frequently, sometimes appearing in a dark skirt with light overdress, shaped like the garment called a polonaise; sometimes with shades of  colour reversed;  sometimes with light clothing throughout with a sash around her waist, or bands over her bosom;  sometimes with a cap, and at others bareheaded;  sometimes with her black hair a yard or more in length, flowing over her shoulders, and again with it braided in a single rope down her back. The list is almost endless with what this little energy ball could do;  at certain times she even had phosphorescent buttons gleaming in the obscure light like diamonds. Honto was indeed one of  the stars of  the show.

Olcott stated:  'The sketch  (I have drawn),  represents one of  the phenomena attending the appearance of  this spirit-girl, and what I witnessed on the evening in question. Honto steps either to the wall or to one of  the two persons - Mrs R. Cleveland and Mr E.V. Pritchard, of  Albany, N.Y. - who usually occupy chairs on the platform, and suddenly produces a knitted shawl or a long piece of  gauzy fabric, apparently from the air itself, and exhibits it to the audience. She threw the slender fabric over the railing, and so gave us an opportunity to see that its strands were perfectly opaque  (on some illustrations the railing on the platform has been omitted by the artist).  Then throwing it over her head as a Spanish women wears her mantilla, she produced another, woollen, black and apparently striped;  and then passed both behind the curtain. Mrs Cleveland was allowed to come up and feel the beating of  Honto's heart; the bare flesh of  her chest was cold and yet moist;  the breast was a woman's, and the heart beat feebly yet rhythmically; the same pulsation was felt in the wrist. After Honto retired, various other spirits of  Indians and whites (among the latter two little children)  appeared before us....  the next was that of  a dark faced squaw, who calls herself  'Bright Star'.  She is shapely, tall, well - proportioned, and of  a dignified carriage.... next came  'Daybreak',  another squaw, dressed in dark costume, who danced to the playing of  the violin, and then suddenly passed into the cabinet.... then came  'Santum',  whose appearance as regards stature and bulk is calculated to excite surprise. He measures 6 feet 3 inches tall, full half a foot taller than the medium;  his dress appears to be a hunting-shirt of dressed buckskin, stripped perpendicularly and fringed at the seams, leggings of  the same and fringed the same, a feather in his head, and sometimes he wears a powder-horn, slung by a belt across his shoulder.

After Santum came two other Indian men, and then several whites made their bow to the audience. The first of  these was William H. Reynolds, Utica, N.Y., a Colonel in the 14th N.Y. Artillery who died May 6th, 1874, of  injuries. He was dressed in black and wore a full beard.... his shirt was white.... this spirit was followed by his brother, John E. Reynolds, who died in 1860. He wore a dark suit but no beard, but a moustache.... then young Steven R. Hopkins, a lad of  fifteen, with light curly hair. We were next favoured with the appearance in the cabinet door, of  the tall figure of  the late William Brown, of  York, Pa. He is the father of  Edward Brown, who married the medium, Delia Eddy. The phenomena of  the evening concluded with the re-uniting of  a family'.

A German music teacher, named Max Lenzberg, was at Chittenden with his wife and daughter. At the request of  William Eddy at the beginning of  the evening, he played on the flute during the seance, and so occupied a chair in advance of  the front row. After Mr Brown's disappearance, the curtain was again drawn aside, and standing at the threshold were two children. One was a baby of  about one year, and the other a child of  twelve or thirteen. Behind, them, very indistinctly, could be observed the form of  an old woman, who held up the curtain with her left hand and supported the baby with her right. Mrs Lenzberg, with a mother's instinct, recognized her departed little ones, and with tender pathos, it was said, eagerly asked in German if  they were not hers. Immediately there came several loud responsive raps, and the little Lena  (the daughter in the audience), as if  drawn from her mother's side by an irresistible power, crept forward and peered at the forms that stood at the edge of  the black shadows of  the cabinet. There was a moment's silence as she strained her eyes in the gaze, and then she said joyfully:  'Ja! Ihr seid meine kleine schwestern!  Nicht wahr?'.  There came again responsive raps, and the spirit-forms danced and waved their arms as if  in glee at the re-union.

Sceptics of  the Eddys said that the baby forms seen at their seances were William with either pillows or white wrappings around his legs. Olcott said that on several occasions he had seen babies in someone's arms come from the cabinet nestled in the necks of  their bearers, and heard those forms while standing - like the Lenzberg children - speak. A very sweet little girl who often appeared, blew a kiss to Olcott every time;  she appeared in a short white frock, low necked and short sleeved, with a sash around her waist and ribbons at the shoulders.

Olcott said:  'The night of  my arrival, the voice of  the spirit, Mrs Eaton, called me to bring a light and see the condition of  the medium, the instant the last shape retired behind the curtain. I found everything as usual in the cabinet - no costumes scattered around, no signs of  dressing having been going on. The window was closed against the admission of  light, by a small black shawl and a piece of  horse-blanket held against the panes by a bar of  wood, cut to fit inside the frame. The last forms that had shown themselves were those of  the two Lenzberg children, clad in white, but, although not more than thirty seconds had elapsed, no white drapery was to be seen. The medium was in a deep sleep, his features relaxed, his breathing almost imperceptible, his skin free from moisture, and every indication presented, of profound obliviousness to external things. The glare of  the lamp and the noise of  my footsteps, did not awaken him, but, when I shook him and called him by name, he opened his eyes and regarded me with the startled look of  one suddenly aroused from slumber and seeing something unexpected at his bedside'.

From Proof  Palpable of  Immortality, by Epes Sargent we have the following interesting information:  'Mr Max Lenzberg, in a letter to the Daily Times, of Hartford, Conn.,  gives an account of  his and his family's experiences at Chittenden. He describes the battery test applied to Honto, the Indian spirit-maiden, by Dr Beard, a skeptic. The full power of  the battery was let on, and Honto received it without flinching. No mortal could have stood it.

Mr Lenzberg states that the spirit-form of  his wife's brother, Abraham, who died seventeen years ago in Texas, appeared on the stage at Chittenden in his shirt sleeves;  and he adds:  'My wife recognized him at once, and said to him,  'Let me introduce you to my husband'.  I spoke to him in German  (and he answered in German)  trans.  'Yes, it is I;  I am much delighted'.  It was a very distinct apparition;  there could be no mistake as to the reality of  the figure, and my wife said there was none as to identity'.  The older woman spirit who led the Lenzberg children from the cabinet was, it turns out, Mrs Lenzberg's mother'.

Quotable Quote:

'It has been observed by frequenters of  the Eddy circles that the appearance and behavior of  Honto are good indications of  the general character of  the manifestations for the evening;  if  she is active, the seance will be a good one;  if not, the reverse'.  (Mr Henry Lacroix, Chittenden, 1875).


Light-Circle Phenomena With Horatio Eddy:

Henry Olcott's record of  this is:  'The illustration represents what happened on the first evening of  my visit, after William's materialization seance closed. It shows some of  the visible manifestations at Horatio G. Eddy's light circles. Thousands who have attended the public exhibitions of  the Davenports and other travelling mediums, will recognize them as familiar. I was chosen as one of  the committee, on the evening when the Davenports first appeared in the Cooper Institute, several years ago, and saw five hands simultaneously thrust out of  the aperture in the cabinet - door and, grasping one, had my hand squeezed so that I felt the bruise for hours  (pardon the digression, I could not help but add that statement - NRH).  Instead of  using a wooden box, Horatio Eddy hangs two shawls upon the line that stretches from the chimney in the circle-room to the south wall, leaving an open space between it and the ceiling of  about two feet.

The one next to the chimney, and behind Horatio's chair, is a short one, and does not reach the floor by nearly three feet; and therefore, if  it were possible for him to execute tricks behind the other curtain, without betraying himself  by movements of his head, feet shoulders and body, or the disturbance of  the shawl, he would be favourably placed to do so. I have watched him closely, and have never detected any such indication of  fraud. Besides, it will appear in the course of  my narrative that, even if  he had both hands free to do what he chose, he could not have done any one of  several things that I will recount.

The shawls merely form a screen, behind which it must be almost as light as in front, by reason of  the open space between the cord and the ceiling. A table is pushed into the corner, and on it are laid the following: one guitar, one concertina, seven bells of  various sizes, two tamborines, eight harmonicons, one flute, one piccolo, one flageolet, one tin ditto, and one triangle. Horatio sits on a chair in front of  the curtain, to the left, next to him some gentleman selected from the audience, and at the right of  the latter a lady similarly chosen. I give these positions as they are upon the platform....

William Eddy then pins across the breasts of  the two males a third shawl, attaching the ends to the curtain. A bright light is thrown upon the group from a kerosene lamp placed near and turned up high. Presently there is a commotion among the articles on the table, and loud knocks resound. The bells ring, various instruments are displayed above the curtain;  the guitar is played upon near the ceiling, beneath the sitters' chairs, between the chimney side and Horatio's chair to the left, flat against the south wall, beyond the lady sitter to the right, and elsewhere;  a familiar air is played in concert by a number of  the instruments;  bells are wrung singly and in harmony together, and hands of  various sizes and tints dart into sight through the aperture in the curtain, or show themselves above the cord.

On the occasion referred to, the gentleman sitting next to Horatio was requested after a while, to give place to a lady, who, when she had taken her seat and the shawl was re-adjusted, was caressed by a child's hand, a tiny little thing, that might have belonged to a girl of  two or three years. It patted her cheek, was held at the lips to be kissed, laid upon her head, smoothed her hair, and when her eyes filled with tears, wiped them away and renewed its caresses.... I had an unobstructed view of  all that transpired;  but when this little hand was thrust from another world to cheer and encourage the mother, whose bosom it had so often clasped in life, I had drawn close up front, and saw the very dimples on it. I am, therefore, entirely able and ready to affirm that, even if  the medium were an imposter, and had wished to deceive the sitters with a clever juggle, he did not then nor could not, for he could not transform his long, brown, bony, sinewy hand, and his wrist, mutilated by the cruel tying of  many  'committees',  into the size, colour and shape of  the baby-hand that was materialized before my eyes.

A call was soon made for writing materials, and a succession of  spirit-hands clutching the pen that William offered  (see illustration)  them, and using my note-book as a tablet, wrote names on cards and threw them towards the audience. Some were names of  the dead, some of  the living; none, I am satisfied, familiar to the medium.

The performance of  the evening concluded, at the request of  a visitor, with a series of  imitations of  the boring, sawing, and splitting of  wood, the filing of  iron, and the pumping of  water, the sounds occurring behind the curtain, and all being so true to nature as to evoke great applause.

During the entire sitting, as during each of  the like character, Horatio's two hands are supposed to have clasped the bared left arm of  the person next to him;  his eyes were closed, and, as I said before, there was neither rustle of  the curtain, nor movements of  his feet, body, or shoulders. For all the attention he apparently gave to what was going on he might have been in a stupor, or enjoying a nap after a full meal.

Now, this experience offers, perhaps, as favourable an opportunity as any for the application of  the theory, that no reliance should be placed upon the evidence of  the senses. I either saw the baby-hand, and other larger ones, not the medium's, heard the coincidental playing upon several instruments, and saw the guitar played upon, not only beyond the reach of  Horatio's arm, but also flat against the south wall, in a position where he could not possibly hold, much less play upon it;  or I did not'.

On the second night of  Colonel Olcott's visit he said that Honto was the first spirit to appear, and that she remained in sight nearly fifteen minutes. Mr Pritchard and Mrs Cleveland occupied their usual chairs on the platform, and Honto danced with the latter in an extremely lively manner;  balancing, advancing, crossing-over, and turning the old lady as though  'the whole delight of  her soul were in the figures of dance'.  She then allowed her height to be measured against the backs of  Mrs Cleveland and a gentleman from the audience, Mr Ralph.  At a later seance, she allowed Mrs Cleveland to cut a lock of  her hair; had Mr Olcott fill his pipe, hand it to Horatio and he in turn handed it to her and she smoked away while prancing back and forth on the platform.

On the following evening, seven Indians and five whites appeared and the majority of  them were so obliging as to back up to the wall and allow themselves to be measured. Clearly, it could be seen and once again demonstrated that it would be altogether preposterous to imagine that William Eddy was somehow impersonating all of  these figures. Giant Indians such as Santum and Swift Cloud, and little children appeared and Olcott even timed the intervals between each one's appearance from the cabinet. On average, a little more than a minute transpired between the departure of  one spirit and the arrival of  another, all differing in size, shape and dress.

Before moving on to Horatio Eddy's dark circle phenomena, I am adding details from an interesting letter, dated 21, October 1874:

'We hereby certify that at a circle, held on the 28th of  April last, in the new hall at the Eddy homestead, among other things that occurred, was the following, which we regarded as very conclusive as to the genuineness of  the spirit materializations: 'Santum'  was out on the platform, and another Indian of  almost as great stature came out, and the two passed and re-passed each other as they walked up and down.  The stranger chief retired first, and Santum followed him.  At the same time, a conversation was being carried on between George Dix, Mayflower, old Mr Morse, and Mrs Eaton, inside the cabinet. We recognized the familiar voice of  each.  We had all examined the cabinet that evening, and helped clear it of some loose plaster which had fallen. There was no window in it then'.  (Signed: R. Hogdson, M.D., George Ralph, Sarah A. Ehle, Cora C. Ehle, Herman Ehle).

Referring to one of  the materialization seances, Mr Olcott stated:

'On the next evening I saw more spirits than on any other single occasion but one, during my whole visit. Seventeen showed themselves, and all were whites. There were of  babies, 2;  small children, 3;  women, young and old, 5;  and adult males, 7. The theory that deceptive imitations of  little children were made by wrapping white rags around one or both the medium's legs, as occasion required, was destroyed by the circumstance that the smallest child, not a babe, I saw that evening, bowed and curtsied to its mother, in reply to her question as to its identity.

Mr Pritchard, who sat next to me on my right in the front row, was called to the platform by Mrs Eaton's voice, and when he reached there, his two nephews William and Chester Packard, late of  Albany, N.Y., came out in turn to greet him; the former shaking hands with him, and laying his left hand upon his uncle's shoulder'.

Dark Circle Phenomena with Horatio Eddy:

Usually, every other evening after William Eddy's materialization phenomena, Horatio would hold one of  his dark-circles. The preparation for this event would consist of  hanging shawls or blankets over the four windows nearest the platform, to exclude even starlight, removing the table from the platform - with its array of musical instruments - to a position on the main floor just in front of  the railing, and then tying Horatio in a chair, placed to the right of  the table and in front of  the spectators. Upon the extinction of  the light, immediately the gruff  voice of  the sailor-spirit George Dix, and the piping whisper of  the little girl spirit Mayflower - the two main controls of  the dark circle - would greet the audience, special mention often being made by favourite acquaintances of  these curiously matched copartners for these striking seances.

Dix asserts, that he was drowned at the wreck of  the Steamship President, and Mayflower's story was that she died of  fever, a century ago, while captive among the Indians of  the Maine wilderness. Olcott said that he could not understand the underlying spiritual law associated with her but, when she re-visited this world, she did so as a child of  twelve years, and manifested juvenile traits in all that she did. Mayflower had a talent for improvision and would rattle off  a verse upon any subject named impromptu by anyone in the audience;  she was also an accomplished performer on various instruments, which she would play with rare power and expression. She was simple, innocent, and kindly to all;  her heart was warm and sympathetic. George Dix, on the other hand, was a manly, powerful spirit, with a grip like a vice, a rollicking prankish nature, and a hoarse voice, like that of  one accustomed to shout in storms from maintop to deck. He was an ingenious fellow, who sang, played well on violin, whistled like a Bohemian flute, and was always ready to keep the seance moving.

Compliments being exchanged, a medley performance begins. Colonel Olcott recorded:

'There is a dance of  a pack of  a dozen howling, leaping, skylarking Indians, who beat on the drums, rattle the tambourines, blow the horns, ring the heavier bells, and make a din so hideous that one easily fancies himself caught in the dance of  live redskins about starting on the warpath.  If  Horatio were unbound and using all four of  his locomotive and prehensile members, he could not imitate this dance. The creatures yell, and one can hear their stamping on the floor in cadence with their rude music. The dance is preceded by a stillness so dead that, for any sound of  life, we might fancy the room empty. A slow beating of  the time, a few clangs of  the big dinner- bell, a measured beat of  the tambourine, and then the time grows faster and faster, until, in a moment, we are in the midst of  the hurly-burly. It needed no stretch of  the imagination to see, even in the Egyptian darkness of  the hall, the wild figures circling round and round, for their demonstrations were of  so obstreperous a character as to frighten all but habitues of  the coolest temperaments. As an exhibition of  pure brute force, if  such a term may be applied to the occult power that produces it, this Indian dance probably is unsurpassed in the annals of  spiritual manifestations.

Following this episode, upon the evening in question, came a sword - combat, apparently between two persons, for the hacking of  the two blades was, it seemed to me, too violent to be done by one man operating in the dark, at the risk of chopping off  a finger, or mutilating a wrist. The play in weapons ended in a sudden groan, and the falling of  a man's body on the floor at my feet.... with a match being struck and candle lighted, the medium was found sitting quietly in his chair, with his bounds undisturbed, and no sign of  perspiration on his skin. The floor, however, was littered with musical instruments and bells, and the swords of  the unseen combatants were lying along with them.

Accordingly a gentleman present, Mr George W. Nichols, of  New York City, sat in Horatio Eddy's lap, while I, drawing up my chair in front of  him, placed my feet upon Horatio's toes and held Mr Nichols's hands, thus making it impossible that either of the three should move without each of the others knowing it.

Moreover, Horatio could not move if he wished, for his hands were tightly bound to the back of  his chair, and even if  he could disengage them, he could not move them forward to touch us, or the instruments scattered about; his slightest motion would be instantly detected by the man sitting on his lap. The light was again extinguished and a new performance began. Hands, cold, clammy and firm, stroked our faces, patted our heads and hands, slapped me on the back and legs, and Mr Nichols on the parts of  his person not leaning against the medium, a pair of  lips kissed my cheek, and two huge hands tickled me under my arms at one time. Then the accordion, concertina, and tambourine were played all about us, bells were rung, blows given on the floor with the swords, and the guitar, floating through the air or resting upon my head, played one or more familiar airs. Meanwhile every person in the front row of  the audience sat with hands joined, which is the same as saying, that no one, even if  so disposed, could get to us to do what was done.... light was called for, and we then took our seats again in the circle.

The next thing in order was the improvisation of  rhymes by Mayflower. The dear child, who came and laid her little hand on mine for an instant, allowed me to name the subject, and then reeled off  a score of  limping hexameters.... when she breathed the words through the stops of  the harmonicon, with exquisite modulation of  the sounds, her  'golden stars'  and  'silver shores'  and  'Heavenly fields'  seemed almost to come before us as pictures of  a fairy land'.

Then George Dix's voice announced that the band composed of  spirits known as Electa, Honto, Santum, Rosa, the little girl, French Mary, Mayflower, and himself, would render the piece called  'The Storm at Sea'.  The musician, Max Lenzberg, was present, and in his letter to Olcott for  'People From The Other World',  he stated  (condensed):

'The concerted pieces were an imitation of  a storm at sea, by the violin, with the accompaniment of  the mouth harmonicon, tambourine, concertina, triangle, guitar, and several bells. In the storm, the whistling of  the wind was made apparently by bowing on the guitar with one hand, and at the same time sliding the other up and down the fingerboard, producing harmonic notes. The heavy blowing of  the gale was imitated by a tremolo on the violin, accompanied by a confusion of  sounds from the other instruments. The shock of  waves against the ship was forcibly suggested by lifting a heavy table and beating on the floor with its legs. There was one sound that could not possibly be imitated by any instrument, viz.:  the pumping of  water, with the suck of  the piston, the gurgle of  water in the tube, and its splash, as if  running off  the deck.

Throughout the whole entertainment, the medium sat in a chair in front of  the spectators, with his wrists tied together and to the back of  the chair. A light was struck instantly after some of  the most remarkable performances, and he was found in the same position and tied in the same manner as at the first'.

Miscellaneous Wonders:

In the light circle with Horatio, a standard feature was the writing of  notes by the spirits and then having them handed out to members of  the audience. One night, a number of  blank cards were called for and handed to one of  the spirit's arms that thrust itself  through the curtain. The pen and inkstand were then passed through in like manner, and immediately a number of  cards were showered upon Henry Olcott, who was sitting in front of  the curtain. The ink was so fresh, he stated, that he had to lay the cards on the railing to dry.

Olcott said that he was greatly pleased at the favor shown him by the spirits and that the facsimilies he was going to print would, no doubt, be very interesting to the public. When he said this there was ringing of  bells, strumming on the instruments, and pounding on the table, that gave a sufficiently marked response that they were quite pleased.

In one of  the most unprecedented experiments ever attempted for that time, Olcott had procured in nearby Rutland one of  Howe's Standard platform scales - the signed certificate of  its quality and accuracy included in his book - and had it placed upon the platform to the right of  the cabinet.

When Honto came out she saluted everyone in her usual way then turned and scrutinized the strange machine with Indian-like hesitancy. After being told what was desired, she boldly stepped on to the scale, and bent forward to look at the movements of  Mr Pritchard as his hand moved the poise along the beam. When the balance was attained, Honto stepped off  the pad and passed into the cabinet. Upon a match being struck, it was verified that the spirit weighed 88 pounds. Honto then reappeared and was asked by Olcott to make herself  lighter. She again mounted the scale and this time was 58 pounds;  the next sequence she weighed the same, 58, and for the last attempt, the beam showed 65 pounds. She changed her weight three distinct times and, I must say, the picture of  Honto on the scale is one of  the sweetest things I have ever seen.

The Return Of  Julia Eddy:

On the day that Mr Olcott and his artist friend were making the sketch of  Julia Eddy's grave, he suggested that it would be a genuine test of  the power of  the spirits if  Mrs Eddy herself  could come from the cabinet that evening; they would keep the matter to themselves and see what might come of  it. There were fourteen people in the audience and nine spirits showed themselves. First came William Brown, who, it turns out, was the chief  control of  the materialization demonstrations during the summer months, then came Maria Ann Clarke;  then a Mrs Griswold, who was murdered in Vermont not long ago, and who, upon a former visit to the circle-room, gave all the details of  the crime.

The fourth spirit was Julia Eddy herself, who stood motionless at first looking at Olcott and his artist friend. She bowed and then retired into the cabinet, then immediately returned to address the audience....  'Death, where is thy sting?  Grave, where is thy victory?'  were her first words. Her voice, according to the report, was so clear and loud that it could have filled a New York city auditorium they said. She wore a white waist and dark shirt. Her hair was in ringlets. She said to Olcott,  'Your writings are true, and be assured the Truth will prevail. A thousand spirits are watching your every step, and wishing you Godspeed. They see the rapid spread of Truth upon earth;  and they and a countless host besides are helping it on. Go on, my friend;  we will welcome you in gratitude and joy when you come to the other world, for daring to tell the truth, and helping to disseminate it. I thank you for your kindness to my children, who have suffered so much and so long for the good cause'.

Olcott said:  'I needed no stenographer to fix upon my memory this astounding address, of  which I gave only a fragment. She spoke of  her own sufferings and trials upon the earth, and denounced the bitter and unstinted anger of  all who slander and persecute mediums, especially her own children'.

Spirit Power - The Spring Balance Demonstration

Two Howe's Standard spring balances were purchased from L.G. Kingsley of Rutland so that Olcott could test the power of  the detached hands coming through the curtain during Horatio's light-circle. The experiment was two-fold, viz.:  to ascertain how much the hands could pull horizontally, and how much vertically. One of  the balances was fastened with a stout cord to the handrail, allowing a sufficiency of  cord to bring the hook of  the balance within easy reach of  the spirit - hand, for the horizontal pull. The other was attached to a strong ring, made for the purpose, and screwed into the floor, between the left foot of  the gentleman sitter and the right foot of  the medium. There were twenty-six persons present, the date was September 30th, 1874. After some instrument playing and card writing, the guitar, tambourine, and several bells were thrown over the curtain, after which a hand was thrust out, and by the opening and closing of  the fingers, indicated that they were ready for the experiment.

Olcott stepped on to the platform and handed the hook to the hand, which grasped it, moved its fingers on and off  the hook to get a firm hold - as anyone would do - and then, easily, steadily, and without spasmodic action, compressed the spring until the pointer ran down to the 40 pound mark. The spring was held there in place until Olcott reached out his hand to take back the balance, and then simply recoiled as gradually as it had been compressed. The spirit hand was the left one, large, broad and white. Olcott stood within a foot of  it when it pulled and noticed that upon the wrist there were two thin parallel lines of  tattooing in blue India ink. In one of  the finest statements that I have ever heard concerning spirit phenomena, Horatio said that while the pulling was being done by the one hand of  the spirit, he braced his other hand against the back of  Horatio for leverage, causing Horatio to lean forward;  obviously if  the medium was the one pulling, he would have leaned the opposite way.

The vertical pull was done by the right hand of  George Dix, the powerful sailor spirit. The date was October 2nd. Adding superior evidential value to the Eddy phenomena was the fact that Dix had a little finger missing from his right hand. The hand, according to Olcott, was white as marble, and he could actually see the tendons contracting during the strain of  the pull, and the blue veins of  the wrist. The pull was steady, as the other, but much more powerful, for the entire 50 pounds was indicated by the pointer. After this incredible feat of  strength, Dix slapped Olcott heartily on the back and tickled him in the ribs. Olcott stated that Dix could most likely have easily pulled 100 pounds more, and assent was given by Dix issuing a thunderous pound on to the table almost shattering it into a thousand pieces.

Quotable Quote: Henry Lacroix, Chittenden, 1875

'We can very well understand that a skeptic, coming and remaining here but a night or two, and seeing the manifestations of  materialization under their ordinary aspect, returns home dissatisfied, and, more than that, with a strong suspicion that he has been fooled. Hence the rumors, widespread, take consistency here and there, that the spectres of  Spirit Vale, as Chittenden is called, are unreal, intangible, and but objects of  trickery. We would certainly advise all skeptics, and even investigators who have made some headway, to go elsewhere - to see about home what is produced by inferior mediums, and furthermore, to prepare and educate their powers of  understanding. It is unsafe for those who have been in darkness to satisfy their desire for light by rushing out at once into the full blaze. The subjective and objective realities of  Spiritualism are no mere child-playthings;  they cannot be comprehended with initiation;  and the thick-headed, which form the majority, need not expect to get ahead of  others who step by step have advanced, and now possess conviction and comprehension.

Some over zealous people, in wishing to instruct the visitor about the - queer - ways of  the great mediums, will tell you to be cautious how you express yourself  before them, or to those around;  how to deport yourself  in every way - as the very sensitive,  'bear-like, uncouth, uncivilized'  brothers may dismiss you on the slightest grounds, and when least expected. It is due to truth, and to the medium brothers that we should lay bare the case, and in a few words. We have found, by personal experience, unsought, unlooked for, that the brothers, far from wishing harm to those parties who try to injure them, or being inclined to resent on the innocent the injuries received, take such little notice of  these fly-bites, numerous as they are, as to render unto their enemies good for evil. The two brothers who minister unto the spiritual wants of  so many are simple in their ways, language, and dealings; manhood, beside, being stamped upon their brows in unmistakable characters. Accustomed as the principal medium for materialization  (William)  is to the inner life, his manners reveal less of  the outward than is found in Horatio, who enacts what are called the light and dark circles. Both, however, endeavor in every way to make themselves agreeable to their guests, and are always ready to answer questions in a genial mood. The active care of  the farm devolves upon William, who is seen all day long, and every day, attending to such work. The outside business, and attendance of  the guests, is performed by Horatio. The lady guests are often seen in the kitchen helping the cook, and sometimes William, who occasionally in the morning performs that drudgery, as well as washing of  linen, under the influence of  the spirit of  an Irish washerwoman, named Ann Cuddy'.


Excerpt from A Southerner Among the Spirits:  The Banner of  Light, October, 1875. Henry Lacroix.

'A goodly number of  Indian spirits make their appearance here, but we heard none of  them speak except one.... that class of  control comes oftener, we are told, when the medium is unwell, or in bad condition, so as to give him strength. On Tuesday, August 3rd, six of  these Indian spirits appeared, attired in gorgeous manner;  some of  their head-dresses were ornamented with beautiful flowing plumes, which they bent forward in the full light outside the door of  the cabinet. As one of  them, called Massasoit, protruded his head outward, three beautiful pond lilies  (of  which none are to be found in the neighbourhood)  were seen among the other ornaments upon his head. Another, who came to the medium Mrs Cutter, had a gorgeous costume and a brilliant head-dress from which a seemingly living serpent, of  the milk-adder species, coiled around it, dangling its head'.

M. D. Shindler:  'During one of  William's seances, a young woman emerged from the cabinet, holding a young baby in her arms. Mr Brown, the husband of  the medium, Delia Eddy, at once recognised his sister, and asked her if  that was Delia's baby. The spirit form bowed her head in affirmation.  'May Delia go to the platform?'  he inquired. Again there was an affirmative bow. Delia accordingly went upon the platform, took the apparently living, moving baby in her arms, kissed it affectionately, and returned it to its spirit nurse. With bowed head and streaming tears she returned to her seat beside her husband, amid a silence broken only by the suppressed sobs of  other mothers who had witnessed the affecting scene. No mother who was present on that occasion will ever be persuaded that this was not a real spirit scene'.

Henry Olcott:  'One night Mayflower told me, as evidence of  the superior knowledge of  spirits, that she herself could harden and weld copper, and make a small machine that would lift the house we were in, as easily as I could my hat. When I asked her why she would not impart some of  her knowledge for the benefit of  the world, her reply was that, when our men of  science got so far progressed as to lose their empty conceit, and discover that they hardly knew the alphabet of science, and were prepared to learn, these and many more important discoveries would reward them'.

The Ring Test:

Colonel Olcott:  'When the ring test was about to begin, I was requested by the medium  (Horatio)  to take both his hands in mine and keep a firm hold.... our hands crossed, my right holding his right, and his left my left. The iron ring used for the experiment was then exibited through the shawl by another hand, so that all could see it, and then dropped upon the floor at my feet, striking it with a metallic sound, and rolling off  the platform. After all who chose had had the opportunity to examine it, it was passed back, and taken behind the curtain by the spirit hand. I then felt an arm and shoulder pressing against my back, as I sat touching the edge of  the table behind me, and the ring, and a cold hand that held it touched the bare, warm skin of my left forearm. A tremendous shock ran through the medium's body, and instantly the iron ring slid down from his arm over my right wrist and hung there'.

The Table And The Glass:

After a spirit concert one night, George Dix, the sailor spirit requested Joe Rugg, one of  the Eddy family's faithful farm hands, to bring a small stand and a glass of water. These directions were complied with, and the water being placed upon the stand, the light was extinguished again, and, for a moment, the audience was in total darkness. The candle was re-lighted, and the glass of  water was inverted upon the stand, the water still within the glass, and nothing over the mouth to keep it in. The light was put out again, and when again called for, the stand was upside down on the floor, and the tumbler, with its contents, right side up, balanced upon the point of one of  the legs. The light was extinguished again and re-lighted, and then the tumbler was on the floor, at the feet of  Olcott, the water gone, and a wreath, weaved together with ribbon and sea-shells by beautiful Mayflower  (see next section),  inside, as dry as a bone.

Mayflower And Her Beautiful Gift

Colonel Olcott, when in Rutland, procured some ribbon of  three colours and sent them to Chittenden in the care of  Mr Luther B. Hunt, a friend of  Horatio who was visiting the homestead. The parcel sent by Olcott, with a note, Mr Hunt said he put in the pocket of  his coat, which hung in his bedroom, intending to take the ribbons with him to the next dark circle, and hold the little maid - Mayflower had promised Olcott one of  her beautifully braided ribbons - to the fulfilment of  her promise to him. On the same day, William being, as he many times was, under influence, said to Mr Hunt,  'if  you will go upstairs and look in your pocket you will find something'. Mr Hunt went and searched his coat, but found nothing, and returning, reported his ill-luck. But William said that he had not looked in the right place, it was in the vest-pocket where the articles were. And in the vest-pocket, sure enough, he found two wreaths, one for Olcott and the other for another gentleman.

The next evening at the dark circle Mayflower, addressing Mr Hunt, said that he had overlooked the note that she had left for Olcott with the wreaths. Another search of  the vest disclosed a tiny note, written on a small square of  thin paper, and being to the effect that Mr Olcott was her dear friend, and she thanked him for his kind expressions, and hoped that he would keep the wreath to remember her by (all of  us should be so lucky).  The wreath illustrated on the left was how it looked originally. Olcott, carrying out a little test of  Mayflower's powers, in total darkness, laid the wreath on the lap of  the woman sitting beside him. Of  course immediately Mayflower noticed it and said:  'Oh, Mrs Murphy, what have you got in your lap? It's my wreath!  Mr Olcott, you want me to braid it over again for you?'.  He said he did, in another pattern and with the ribbons passed through some perforated sea-shells  (she had done this before for a woman).

Mayflower stated that she did not have any sea-shells with her at the moment, but she would get some and re-braid the ribbon again, and return it next time they met. Olcott secretly then dropped the little wreath on to the floor - it was total darkness still - and when the light was struck, the wreath was gone. Ten days later, after the Indian dance, and the  'Storm at Sea'  demonstration, the beautiful little wreath braided through with sea-shells appeared in the final stage of  the table and glass demonstration -