Athens County is in southeastern Ohio, bordering Virginia.  A small log cabin here became the birthplace of  a whole family of  spirits who started turning up in scattered places throughout the world.  The cabin was along the Little Muskingum River in the Wayne National Forest.

Johnathan Koons was a medium who regularly held séances in his cabin, and in 1852 contact was made with the spirit of a pirate named John King .

Jonathan Koons, the head of  the family, and his wife Abigail had nine children. They were self-educated farmers but well versed in politics and the philosophy of the times.  They settled and farmed an area in Athens County, called Mt. Nebo, a hill that towers over the town that is now located nearby.  Early in 1852, Koons had come across newspaper descriptions of  the Fox Family rappings and had at once made a personal investigation of  the growing phenomenon.  He attended several séances throughout Ohio and allegedly learned from the spirits that he was a gift medium.  When he returned home, he also discovered that Abigail and his oldest son, Nahum, were also endowed with psychic abilities. 

After holding a number of  séances of  their own, the Koons' were ordered by spirits to build what was dubbed their  "Spirit Room".  They were given the exact specifications on how to build it, the size, the furnishings and the equipment to use. The Koons' immediately went to work and following the spirit's instructions, constructed a log cabin that was 12 x 14 feet, had three shuttered windows, a single door and a seven foot-high ceiling.  The room was then furnished with benches that would hold about 20 people.  The spirits also requested that they equip the Spirit Room with a number of  musical instruments:  a tenor drum, a bass drum, two fiddles,  a guitar,  an accordion,  a trumpet,  a tin horn,  a tea bell,  a triangle and a tambourine.  Koons was not a wealthy man and could not afford all of  the instruments  (plus, he had trouble finding them in this remote part of  Ohio)  but managed to order some and borrow the rest from neighbors.   After another séance, the spirits then demanded two tables, a rack for the musical instruments, and wire with which to suspend a few small bells and some images of  doves that were cut from sheets of  copper.

After faithfully following all of  these instructions, the Koons' began giving public séances.  Koons, Abigail and Nahum acted as mediums and in the darkened cabin, the spirits began giving lengthy communications on various spiritual subjects, as well as concerts on the musical instruments.  Neighbours from all over the region began descending on the Spirit Room and Mt. Nebo, attracted by not only the rumours about what was taking place there but also because the racket made by the spirits could be heard for a mile in any direction.

The Koons family although they did not gain much material profit from their venture, the Spirit Room in Athens County became, for a short time in the 1850's, a Spiritualist destination that attracted hundreds of  believers from all over the country.

It was not long before visitors from other parts of  the country began to arrive as well.  What was nearly as amazing as the fact that so many people came to Athens County was the ordeal that they had to go through to get there.  Although still somewhat remote today, it was a virtual wilderness in the 1850's.  It was located in a rough and hilly area not far from the Virginia  (now West Virginia)  line.  To reach it, one had to travel by stagecoach from Columbus over rutted and often washed out roads.  Then, to reach the Koons' cabin, visitors still had to walk another two miles along a wooded trail.  However, few pilgrims regretted their journey and felt completely rewarded by the manifestations that awaited them. Charles Partridge,  a well known New York publisher, later wrote that he found at least 50 people gathered for the first performance that he attended.  Many of  them were from various parts of  Ohio, but there were representatives from other states too. Koons, on the advice of  the spirits, gave preference to those coming from far away.  There were no admissions or other charges to attend the séances but those who stayed the night at the Koons' home usually contributed some offering.  Throughout this, Koons was still working and maintaining his family's farm.  He was at times so exhausted that he fell asleep during the séances and so there is little reason to believe that the Spirit Room was ever a money-making project.

And while it may not have made money, it certainly attracted attention.  Published accounts soon began to appear in journals and Spiritualist newspapers and from these reports, it becomes quickly obvious that the séances were not for spectators with fragile nerves.  The exhibition was often loud and the spirit's performances on the musical instruments was usually ear-shattering.  All of  the reports  (whether we choose to believe them or not)  agree that in the total darkness of  the crowded room, it would have been impossible for the Koons' themselves to provide the deafening and boisterous entertainment.

The program usually followed a set routine.  After the audience was seated, the lights were turned out and the door and windows closed.  The start of  the séance was usually announced by the banging of  the bass drum, which one witness compared to the firing of  a cannon in the close quarters.  Then Koons, who sat at a table with his wife and son beside him, would start to plat a lively tune on his fiddle. In moments, all of  other instruments would join in, keeping perfect time although played with unseen hands.  What is more astounding, the reports all stated, was that the instruments did not remain stationary but would circle the room, playing wildly as they danced above the heads of  the spectators.

During one séance, Dr. G. Swan of  Cincinnati wrote later of  a flying tambourine:    "One moment I would feel it on my head or brushing my hair and the next moment, it would be on the other side of  the room."  The triangle was also carried about the room and played in the same manner.  Another witness, John Gage of  Illinois, reported that the triangle dashed about over the heads of  the visitors and was "occasionally thrust almost in my face, so that I was afraid that it would hit me."   On one of  its flights, the triangle dropped into his wife's lap and then smacked him up the side of  the head.  Both agreed that it weighed close to 20 pounds.

According to another witness, the floating instruments would play in unison and were so loud that it made the  "whole house roar so as to almost deafen us."  No one seemed to recognize any of  the tunes that the instruments played, but they were melodies of  some sort and not just noise.  Charles Partridge stated that the instruments would start together and then stop abruptly,  "as if  by some signal."  The music was sometimes accompanied by songs that were sung in what seemed to be  "something like human voices".  John Gage described them as  "unearthly".  The words, all of  the witnesses agreed, were apparently not in English.

Throughout all of  this though, the  "master of  ceremonies"  was not Jonathan Koons, but rather a spectral voice that came through the tin horn.  He called himself John King and he proclaimed that he was the leader of  the spirits present, which numbered 165 in all.  He was said to be the spirit form of  the Welsh buccaneer Henry Morgan, who died in 1688.  A total of  fifty-six members of  the King family showed up in Koons' cabin.  The most popular spirit was John King's daughter, Katie.  She became a regular guest at séances held in United States and Europe.  Her appearances to the Italian medium, Euscapia Palladino, became widely known, but her relationship with English medium Florence Cook would become one of  the most astonishing cases in the spiritualist movement.  The spirit's entire body materialized at Cook's senses and was seen by dozens of  reputable people. King, and his daughter Katie became popular fixtures at the Koons' séances and later, with the famous Davenport Brothers as well.

The musical part of  the evening was usually followed by the appearance of  spirit hands that were either luminous themselves or illuminated by phosphorized sheets of paper that were prepared by the Koons'.  Visible to a little above the wrist, the hands felt like real flesh and according to witnesses were sometimes either hot or cold.  Dr. Swan, who requested that a hand be placed in his own, reported that     "it felt precisely like the hands of  the subjects that I have handled in the dissecting room."  Partridge, who also held out a hand and asked the spirits to take hold of  it, said that it gave a distinctive grasp when it touched his hand but added that  "it did not feel like the hand of  a living person."

These phantom hands also played a part in the last feat of  the evening, when the luminous appendages would write messages on pieces of  paper.  All those who described their visit to the Spirit Room saw the hands write out messages and at incredible speeds.  Many of  the witnesses watched the hands from a short distance but one fascinated spectator pressed so close to watch that the hand playfully poked his nose with the end of  a pencil!   Six witnesses from four different states testified that they watched the armless hand write with a pencil.  It wrote very slowly and so one witness asked it to write faster.  At this request, the pencil began scrawling so rapidly across the paper that  "we could hardly see it go."  In five minutes, it had filled the page, which it passed to one of  the witnesses, a Mr. Pierce of  Philadelphia, who was then given an opportunity to examine the mysterious hand. He reported that it was human in all respects, even to the fingernails, but was slightly cooler than his own.  Pierce then took another sheet of  paper and the spirit's pencil and began tracing an outline of  the hand on the paper as far as the wrist but  "found nothing any further than that point."  The hand then shook hands with him and immediately vanished.

Reports of  these wonders traveled out across America and hundreds came to Mt. Nebo, claiming that it was a place of  spiritual significance and a sacred site to the Shawnee Indians.   According to some sources, a psychical society christened Mt. Nebo as  "one of  the most haunted spots in the world".  Despite the fact that the Koons' have long since vanished from the memory of  those in Athens County today, the reputation of  this being a haunted place has remained behind in tales of ghostly cemeteries and local legends.

The Koons' apparently gave up their medium performances and moved to Illinois.  In an obituary for Nahum Koons, it was told, that he died in 1921 at the age of  84 in Franklin County, Illinois.  He and his family had accompanied his father and month to Franklin County, where they lived for about ten years before moving to Perry County, near DuQuoin.  Nahum then moved to Perry County, Missouri until 1880, when he again returned to Illinois and the farm that he and his father purchased after leaving Ohio.  He also lived in Oklahoma and Arkansas for a time, after the death of  his wife in 1899.  He remained a Spiritualist throughout his life, which was described by those who knew him as  "exemplary".   He passed away in his sleep on the 26th October - leaving no clue as to why he had abandoned what was apparently an amazing mediumistic abilities.

Students of  Spiritualist history are sure to recognize through that the Koons' were ground breakers as far as manifestations go.  Many of  the happenings at their séances were also reported at later séances, under the control of  entirely unrelated mediums.  The mobile musical instruments were part of  the attractions offered by the Davenport brothers and the spectral hands were seen at many séances, including those of  D.D. Home. 

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