Chapter I: Front Matter

THE MISSING LINK
IN
MODERN SPIRITUALISM.

BY
A. LEAH UNDERHILL,
OF THE FOX FAMILY.

_REVISED AND ARRANGED BY A LITERARY FRIEND._

NEW YORK:
THOMAS R. KNOX & CO.,
(SUCCESSORS TO JAMES MILLER,)
813 BROADWAY.
1885.

COPYRIGHT, 1885, BY
A. LEAH UNDERHILL.

TROW'S
PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY,
NEW YORK.

Dedication.

TO MY HUSBAND,
DANIEL UNDERHILL,
WHO,
BEFORE I HAD OTHER CLAIMS THAN THOSE OF TRUTH AND RIGHT,
NOBLY SUSTAINED ME WHEN OLDER FRIENDS WAVERED,
THIS NARRATIVE IS DEDICATED,
NOT LESS GRATEFULLY THAN LOVINGLY.

EDITOR'S PREFACE.

The author of this volume, having written it from time to time, from her recollections and documentary materials, which include bushels of letters--but unwilling to commit it to the press in the disjointed condition which was a natural consequence of her own want of much practice of the pen--did me the honor of requesting my aid in revising and arranging it for publication. Her honesty and sincerity of character have caused her to insist upon a preface to that effect. Though deeming this a superfluous scruple on her part, I am induced to comply with her wish for a different reason; and that is, the opportunity it affords of bearing my testimony to the remarkable accuracy of her memory and of her truthfulness, as those qualities have proved themselves throughout the intimate intercourse of many weeks, during which she has often had to repeat the same recollections of facts and incidents, under what was almost legal cross-examination, without ever the slightest variation in their details, and without ever allowing anything to pass which might be in the least degree tainted with inaccuracy or mistake. As she is so well known to so many friends, it is superfluous for me to express on this page, which will meet her eye for the first time in print, the high and affectionate esteem and respect with which that intimate intercourse, with all its opportunities for observation and judgment, have inspired the

EDITOR.

CONTENTS.

PAGE
INTRODUCTION 1

CHAPTER I.
HYDESVILLE 5
"Mysterious Noises" heard in the House of John D. Fox, in
Hydesville (Town of Arcadia), near Newark, Wayne County,
N. Y.--Statements of Witnesses.

CHAPTER II.
HYDESVILLE (_Continued_) 20
The Last Digging in the Cellar--Mob Antagonism--Noble
Friends--Experiences and Theories--Antecedents of the
House--Franklin.

CHAPTER III.
ROCHESTER 30
My First Knowledge of the Matter--Hasten to Hydesville--Rapping
on a Canal Boat--Experiences--Mother Comes to Rochester--Calvin
Brown--Devious Route of Projectiles Up-stairs from Cellar to
Garret--A Death-knell Sounded all Night on the Keys of a Locked
Piano.

CHAPTER IV.
ROCHESTER (_Continued_) 47
Ventriloquism--"Proclaim these Truths to the World"--The Call
for the Alphabet--Voices in Raps--God's Telegraph between
the two Worlds--An Eviction--Committee of Five--No Money
Accepted--Improper Questions to Spirits--"Done"--Struggle
against the "Uncanny Thing"--Benjamin Franklin.

CHAPTER V.
ROCHESTER (_Continued_), November, 1848 57
Light Articles made Immovable--The Coffins--Adieu of the
Spirits--Their Return--First Steps toward Public
Investigation--"Hire Corinthian Hall"--First Committee of
Investigation--Second--Third or "Infidel" Committee--Behavior
of a Great Dining-table--The Tar and Torpedo Mob.

CHAPTER VI.
MEDIUMISTIC VEIN IN OUR FAMILY 74
Some Family Antecedents--Our Great-grandmother--Phantom
Prophetic Funerals--Vision of a Tombstone Nine Years in
Advance, etc.

CHAPTER VII.
MEDIUMISTIC VEIN IN OUR FAMILY (_Continued_) 89
Marvellous Writing by a Baby Medium.

CHAPTER VIII.
ROCHESTER (_Continued_) 100
"Repeat the Lord's Prayer"--First Money Accepted--Muscular
Quakerism--Letter from George Willets--Letter from John E.
Robinson--Caution against Consultation of Spirits about
Worldly Interests.

CHAPTER IX.
ALBANY AND TROY. 1850 115
Excursion to Albany--Delavan House and Van Vechten
Hall--Rev. Dr. Staats and the Judges--High Class of
Minds Interested--President Eliphalet Nott--Pecuniary
Arrangements--Excursion to Troy--Trojan Ladies--Mob Attempts
on Life of Margaretta.

CHAPTER X.
NEW YORK. 1850 128
"The Rochester Knockings at Barnum's Hotel"--Hard Work--Our
Visitors--A Poisoned Bouquet--Hair of the Emperor
Napoleon I.--Hair of John C. Calhoun--Investigation at
Residence of Rev. Rufus W. Griswold, by the Leading Literary
Celebrities of New York.

CHAPTER XI.
RETURN TO ROCHESTER 142
Letters and Newspaper Articles Respecting our New York
Campaign--Letter from Amy Post--Letters from John E.
Robinson--Article from a Sunday Newspaper--From the New York
Day-Book--Letter from Dr. C. D. Griswold--Letter from Jacob
C. Cuyler--Article by Horace Greeley--Poem from the Sunday
Dispatch.

CHAPTER XII.
BUFFALO. 1850-51. 165
Urged to Return to New York--Visit to Buffalo--Attempt by a
Pretended Friend to Frighten us Away--Thunderbolt from the
Buffalo Commercial Advertiser--The "Females"--Knee-joint
Theory--Our Reply Challenging Investigation of it--The
Doctors' Day--Mrs. Patchen's Peculiarity.

CHAPTER XIII.
BUFFALO (_Continued_) 179
Investigations upon Investigations--A Meeting at the Phelps
House--Manifestations with Bells, etc.--Mr. Albro's Report--A
Death Scene--Letter from Me to the Commercial Advertiser, and
how I forced its Insertion--Article from the Buffalo Daily
Republic--Letter from Mr. Greeley--Mr. E. W. Capron--Departure
from Buffalo.

CHAPTER XIV.
BUFFALO (_Continued_) 197
Letters from John E. Robinson and Welcome Whittaker.

CHAPTER XV.
EXTRACTS FROM D. M. DEWEY'S HISTORY 206
Letters from Rev. Charles Hammond and John E. Robinson.

CHAPTER XVI.
THE OHIO CAMPAIGN 219
Return to Rochester--Attempted Burglary--Summons to
Ohio--"Rev." C. C. Burr--"Toe-ology"--Gold Medals and
Jewelled Watch--First Public Speech--Committee Investigations
as usual--Calvin's Illness, and henceforth Mrs. Brown--First
Spiritual Convention.

CHAPTER XVII.
MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS CONNECTED WITH THE OHIO CAMPAIGN 231
N. S. Wheeler--E. S. Brownfield--Chillicothe Committee--Charles
F. Whippo--M. L. Wright--D. A. Eddy--Extracts from the
Press--"A Fair Challenge from Mrs. Fish" and Sequel--Columbus
Committee--D. A. Eddy--M. L. Wright--Interesting Letter from
Dear Amy Post--Article from the Cleveland Plaindealer.

CHAPTER XVIII.
NEW YORK CITY, FROM JANUARY, 1852 250
Competing Claims upon Us--Decision in Favor of New York as
Residence--Death of Calvin R. Brown--Remains Removed to
Rochester for Burial--Personal Friendships--Alice and Phoebe
Cary--Course of Test Experiments at Dr. Gray's--The Monday
Evening Circle--Rules of Séances.

CHAPTER XIX.
NEW YORK CITY (_Continued_) 269
Our Brilliant Success with the Superior Intellectual
Classes--Whiskey at Washington--Cognizance of Domestic
Secrets--Discomfiture of Anderson, "the Wizard of the
North"--Remarkable Experience with a very Notorious Person.

CHAPTER XX.
PHOSPHORUS 282
Spirit Lights Visible at Dark Séances--Private Circle in Jersey
City in 1857--Solid Granules of Phosphorus Appearing in Earth
which I had Touched--Surprising and Distressing Letter--The
Good Spirits and Daniel Underhill to the Rescue--Benjamin
Franklin--Marriage to D. Underhill, November 2, 1858, and
Close of my Public Mediumship--Analogous Phenomena in Private
at Home.

CHAPTER XXI.
BOSTON AND THE HARVARD PROFESSORS, 1857 297
Agreement for an Investigation by a Committee of Harvard
Professors--Expulsion of a Student from the Divinity School for
the Crime of Mediumship--Professor Felton--Agassiz--Varley,
the Electrician of the Atlantic Telegraph Company.

CHAPTER XXII.
BOSTON AND THE HARVARD PROFESSORS (_Continued_) 312
Disinterested Judgments upon the Sham Investigation--Our Part
in the Proceedings--More Fair Investigation by the Collective
Representatives of the New England Press--Investigation by a
Body of Unitarian Clergymen--Our Triumphant Return
Home--Theodore Parker.

CHAPTER XXIII.
ROBERT DALE OWEN AND PROFESSOR FELTON, PRESIDENT OF HARVARD
COLLEGE 326
Masterly Letter from Mr. Owen.

CHAPTER XXIV.
EXPERIENCES OF ROBERT DALE OWEN THROUGH THE MEDIUMSHIP OF THE
AUTHOR 339
Moving a Ledge of Rock on the Sea-shore--Raps on the Water, and
in the Living Wood--Seeing the Raps--Moving Ponderable Bodies
by Occult Agency--Crucial Test--A Heavy Dinner-table Suspended
in the Air by Occult Agency.

CHAPTER XXV.
EXPERIENCES OF THE AUTHOR WITH ROBERT DALE OWEN (_Continued_) 348

CHAPTER XXVI.
SPIRIT CURES--MR. CAPRON'S WIFE 361
Statement by E. W. Capron--Wife of General Waddy Thompson, of
South Carolina--Wife of Mr. Davis, of Providence, R. I.

CHAPTER XXVII.
MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS 368
J. Heddon--S. Chamberlain--John E. Robinson--A.
Underhill--George Lee, M.D.

CHAPTER XXVIII.
MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS (_Continued_) 386
E. F. Norton--John E. Robinson--Governor N. P.
Tallmadge--Pauline M. Davis--Same--John E. Robinson--Prof.
J. J. Watson.

CHAPTER XXIX.
SOME OBSERVATIONS ON MEDIUMSHIP 403
Mysteries of Mediumship--To Prove the Immortality of the
Soul--Passivity and Harmony at Séances--Honest and Candid
Scepticism--Imaginary and Self-induced Mediumship--Deceptive
Communications--Cautions--Rappings--Spirits made
Visible--Beware of Fraudulent Mediums--Not all Spirits
Reliable--Cabinets.

CHAPTER XXX.
MISCELLANEOUS INCIDENTS 415
Felicia Hemans--Spirit Dictations of Music.