The Hydesville Rappings

On the night of March 31, 1848, mysterious rappings in a small farmhouse in Hydesville, New York, changed religious history. The Fox family, particularly daughters Kate (11) and Margaret (14), appeared to communicate with an invisible entity through a code of knocks. The episode launched the Spiritualist movement, which would claim millions of adherents and whose influence continues today.

The Fox Family

John and Margaret Fox moved into a small wooden house in Hydesville with their daughters Kate and Margaret in late 1847. The house had a reputation for strange noises, which previous tenants had attributed to rats or settling boards.

In March 1848, the noises intensified. The family heard rappings and knockings throughout the house, primarily at night. The sounds seemed to respond to voices and questions.

March 31, 1848

On this night, young Kate Fox addressed the invisible noisemaker directly. “Here, Mr. Splitfoot, do as I do,” she said, clapping her hands. The rappings imitated her claps.

Margaret Fox, the mother, developed a questioning system. She asked the entity to rap once for no, twice for yes. Through this method, the family learned they were communicating with the spirit of a peddler named Charles B. Rosna, who claimed to have been murdered in the house and buried in the cellar.

Neighbors were called in and witnessed the phenomena. The news spread rapidly.

Investigation

The cellar was excavated, but initial searches found nothing. Years later, in 1904, a wall in the cellar collapsed, revealing human bones and a peddler’s tin box. This discovery seemed to vindicate the original communications.

However, the identity of the bones was never conclusively established, and some questioned whether they had been planted.

The Spiritualist Movement

The Fox sisters became famous. They gave public demonstrations of spirit communication, drawing huge crowds. Other mediums emerged, claiming similar abilities. Within a decade, millions of Americans and Europeans embraced Spiritualism—the belief that the dead could communicate with the living through mediums.

The movement attracted serious thinkers, including scientists and writers. It offered comfort to the bereaved, especially in an era of high mortality and during the Civil War, when so many died far from home.

The Confession

In 1888, Margaret Fox confessed that the rappings had been a hoax. She demonstrated on stage how she could produce the sounds by cracking her toe joints. Kate was present and supported the confession.

Margaret claimed they had invented the trick as children to frighten their mother, and it had spiraled out of control. She blamed their older sister Leah for exploiting them.

However, Margaret later retracted the confession, claiming she had been pressured and paid to make it. Both sisters died in poverty within a few years.

Assessment

The Hydesville rappings present a complex case. The confession suggests fraud, but the retraction muddies the waters. The bones found in 1904 either support the original story or indicate that someone went to considerable effort to create evidence.

Whatever the truth, the impact was real. The Fox sisters launched a religious movement that changed how millions of people thought about death, the afterlife, and the possibility of communication with the dead. Those March night rappings echo still.