The Hydesville Peddler

“Occupational portrait of a peddler, full-length, standing, facing front, with two bags held at his sides by a harness, neck brace visible between legs] Daguerreotype by Myers, between 1840 and 1860. https://blogs.loc.gov/teachers/2017/12/profiling-portraits-occupational-portraits-of-the-19th-century/”

Amongst the issues that have arisen from  poor research, about the original events at Hydesville, together with the general acceptance of books written years after the events, rather than searching the contemporary documents of that time,  is one   concerning the actual name of the peddler.

It appears that the name generally accepted is Charles B Rosna.but that name did not exist in any of the early records. Paul Gaunt has been following this up for many years and in this copy of Psypioneer http://www.iapsop.com/psypioneer/psypioneer_v1_n9_jan_2005.pdfdebates the issue of “What is known of the Hydesville Peddler”.

Then, late in 2011, I was completing a detailed review of all the electronic newspaper archives available in the US, UK, N.Z. and Aus to establish what was published in regards to Mysterious Knockings, Rappings, Spirit Manifestations and or the Fox Family over the period from 32st March 1848 to March 1852. In doing so I discovered credible evidence for a new surname. This was passed on to Paul and published in this edition of Psypioneer http://www.iapsop.com/psypioneer/psypioneer_v8_n1_jan_2012.pdf with some more thoughts about the issues relating to the Peddler from Paul.

The piece that I discovered nominated the name Rasme.

Taken from the Jeffersonian Republican December 13 1849

“From The New York Tribune, 1st December 1849 (the copy of the Tribune itself I have but in such poor condition it is not capable of reproduction)”

Knowing that the public mind, in various locations in Western New York, has been somewhat agitated on account of certain sounds, called by some “mysterious,” we shall offer no apology for making the following plain statement of facts in regard to our knowledge of the matter.

The sounds were first heard about two years since, and have not yet ceased, but seem to be spreading from one place to another and gradually claiming the attention of the public mind. When first heard, they were manifested by a simple hollow–sounding rap upon the floor of a house. This rapping was continued every night, for a long time and finally commenced in the daytime. It was at first entirely unintelligible to the inhabitant of the house.

At length a line girl said. ” Now do as 1 do,” and snapped her finger three times. She was answered by three raps. On repeating it she found that it invariably repeated the number she made herself. Another person said, “Now count ten,” and it was done. “Now count the age of “____ (one of the children.) It was done correctly. Another was tried with like success. As it began to display signs of intelligence the family became alarmed and the females all left the house at night.

The neighbors were called in but there was no cessation of the sounds. The excitement became intense, and at one time, it is said, nearly or quite 300 persons assembled to discover from whence the sounds proceeded. The house was thoroughly examined from garret to cellar, but, while the sounds continued, no one ever discovered the operator. At length it was discovered that every time a question was put that required an affirmative, a rap was heard for a negative no sound.

The question was put, “Are you a spirit?” The answer was by rapping three raps. By this means they found that it purported to be the spirit of a man. Many expedients were resorted to by which to find out the name of the man whose spirit was making these manifestations. At length a stranger asked ” If I will call the Alphabet, beginning with A. will you rap when 1 come to the first letter of his name.” The answer was affirmative.

He then commenced “A, B, C,” when he came to C, there was a rap. Again he went on, and it rapped at H, and in that way he spelled out the name of Charles Rasme.

This was a fascinating find from a very early source, written into the paper by George Willets, cousin of Issac Post and one of the 5 people who formed the circle to investigate the “Rochester Rappings” on a superficial look it seems to indicate that the issue of the peddlers name could be satisfactorily explained.

However, there is a caveat on this; the way the piece is written it makes it appear that it was a continuation of the communication started by the girls, and it ocurred while they were in the room. In the  E E Lewis booklet, produced from the original witness statements from all who had been present, neither Rosna nor Rasme is mentioned. Let us take a quote from Mr Dueslers statement about the name (the only reference to asking teh name in teh report and later on teh first night after Mrs Fox and the two girls had left ” I commenced with A, and asked if that was
the initial of its first name? there was no rapping. When I came to C, the
rapping was heard, and at no other letter in the alphabet. I then asked in the
same way, in regard to the initial of its sir-name; and when I asked if it was
B? the rapping commenced. We then tried all the other letters, but could
get no answer by the usual rapping. I then asked if we could find out the
whole name by reading over all the letters of the alphabet? and there was
no rapping.” So a C and a B no Charle no Rosna or Rasme.

Even if EE Lewis did preserve anonimity then how did George Willets know the name and get the facts concerning who asked the question wrong? None of the people who sat at the in the circle at Rochester had been present when the name was given at Hydesville. It is none because, most importantly, neither the two girls , nor their Mother were in the cottage at the time the name was given. They could have found out from conversations with those present, but surely that would  have been a different story to that presented to the newspaper above.

I am aware of a rumour that this name was actually either given at the Rochester Circle or at some other session after the Hydesville rappings had finished but have been unable to piece together any supprting evidence for this.

It is also important to note that at Lily Dale an artifact, claimed to be the peddlers pack, is on display. However, there is absolutely no documentary evidence about the discovery of this item. This contrasts with the excitement generated when the peddlers bones were, apparently, discovered in the foundations of the Fox Cottage.

Remember even the New York Times carried that story on November the 24th 1904

When this event raised so much interest it does seem odd that there is no mention of the finding of the pack in any available literature i.e. books, magazines and newspapers. Indeed the first appearance of the pack is a mention in a book by Mercy Cadwallader called Hydesville in History and published in 1917 ( https://archive.org/stream/hydesvilleinhis00cadwgoog#page/n69/mode/2up ). This book has all the usual historical errors, the ages of the fox sisters are incorrect and the younger one asks Mr Splitfoot to do as I do whilst the actual contemporary record by EE Lewis (misquoted by Anne Leah Fox and repeated elsewhere) noted no mention of Splitfoot and it was the elder sister who asked the Spirit to do as I do. It also has an essay from a medium called PLOA Keeler called the Skeleton in the Fox Cottage which suddenly has the Pack appearing. Unfortunately Dr Keeler, although an influential figure in American Spiritualism was also controversial being caught out in fraud, which he admitted, by Harry Houdini and also by others in earlier days ( http://www.spiritualismlink.com/t2166-interesting-blogs-re-houdini ) so not the most reliable finder of the coveted pack.

Sadly there was no need for any of these distractions because it is the essence of the real story surrounding the Hydesville events which stands up to scrutiny. In particular the fact that the major discoveries were in the communication between the Spirit and the neighbours AFTER the two girls had left the cottage.

It is also interesting to see how little publicity this received in the Spiritualist Press I have found this article in Lily Dales own Sunflower paper.

However it does not make much of the find, does not mention the pack and focuses more on Spiritualism’s achievements without the Fox family. I guess feelings were still raw about the death blow to Spiritualism when the two girls admitted it was all a fraud. Even Margaretta’s subsequent retraction (but Katie never did) did not smooth things out. It’s worth reading the exonerating circumstances surrounding their reasons, in my article for the Spirit of PN (the Spirit that existed while Psychic News itself was out of production). It is also worth noting that whilst Leah became acceptable to Spiritualists, the movement turned their backs on Maggie & Kate as a result of their problems with Alcoholism. So when they died the movement hardly acknowledged their passing.

https://spiritofpn.wordpress.com/2011/04//05/the-unhappy-mediums

Now recent events put me onto the research to find the pack and it seems in doing it I may have lost the bones that were claimed to have been found, whilst still not resolving the issue of the pack. It did concern me that none of the reports were clear about what was found in the foundations and no detailed review was made to ensure the validity that this was a single headless skeleton; as claimed. The following comes after a visit to Mr Hyde who gathered the bones up and reported their finding.

Now courtesy of IAPSOP I have tracked the following alternate history

http://www.iapsop.com/archive/materials/occult_review/occult_review_v2_n7_jul_1905.pdf
P 52 CORRESPONDENCE
[THE following is a letter addressed to me by Dr. Veeder, of Lyons, N.Y., in answer to an enquiry which I set on foot relative to a statement which appeared in the London Press to the effect that discoveries had been made of human remains at the Fox Sisters’
House, at Hydesville. The statement was referred to on p. 160 of the April number of the Occult Review. The letter appears to minimise the importance of the alleged discoveries.-E d.] To the Editor of the Occult Review.

My dear Sir,-Your letter of May 2nd and the copy of the Occult Review have been received.
I have seen Mr. Hyde personally, and he showed me the bones, which he himself took from the cellar of the Fox Sisters’ House, of which he is the owner at present. These were the bones of the forearm of three arms, in part,-and some other odds and ends of bones, perhaps about a dozen in all. It looked as though they had been picked up by some boy or some one without a knowledge of anatomy and put into the cellar, a portion of the loose wall having been pushed or fallen over.

There does not seem to have been any attempt at verification, or any interest taken, they were simply dumped into a nail keg in the barn and left there. The whole thing seems trivial. It seems to me I am unfortunate, this is the way spiritualistic phenomena have invariably turned out so far as I have had any opportunity for observation.-Yours very truly, Ju n e 5, /905. M. A. Veeder.

In the April edition on P160 the Occult Review wrote “h y d e s v i l l e d is c o v e r ie s “An interesting piece of information, which I should be glad to have verified, comes to hand from Newark, NewYork* It is stated that the walls of the house of ‘the Fox Sisters at Hydesville, in this neighbourhood (where, it will be remembered, Modern Spiritualism was bom), have recently fallen in. They were found to be hollow, and within the space between was a headless skeleton. This is a curious commentary, if true, on Margaret Fox’s narrative, elucidated through ” spirit” rappings, that the agent of the phenomena in question was the headless victim of a murder who was buried beneath the house.”

Of course the American Society of Psychical Research then Wrote this http://www.iapsop.com/archive/materials/aspr_proceedings/aspr_journal_v3_1909.pdf
Editorial. 191
EDITORIAL.
A year or more ago a story went the rounds of the newspapers to the effect that a skeleton had been found on the site of the house in which the Fox sisters had lived, confirming the report that a man had been killed there and had afterward made himself manifest through the raps of the Fox sisters.
The story did not seem to merit any special attention, but as it has been mentioned in Mr. Carrington’s “Coming Science,’* with some credence, it may be well to call attention to a personal investigation of the incident by a physician of our acquaintance.
He was asked by the editor of the ” Occult Review1′ to look into the incident at the time. He reports to us that he found a number of bones there, but that there were only a few ribs with odds and ends of bones and among them a superabundance of some and a deficiency of others. Among them also were some chicken bones. There was nothing about the premises to indicate that they had been buried there, but might have been put there by boys in sport. He also reports that within a few days past he has learned that a certain person near the place had put the bones there as a practical joke and is now too much ashamed of it to confess it.
Whether there is any better foundation for these incidents than for the original story it is not possible to decide, but it is certain that the probabilities that there is anything more than a casual coincidence or than a trick played on the credulity of the defenders of the Fox sisters are very much shaded.

Sometimes research brings extra heartache because all to often a cherished belief is potentially proved false. Now the Doctor’s report could be false but somehow I would not like to bet on it. No bones then no pack I guess. But I note that in 2007 the following was said to Nickell of Csicop  “I examined the trunk at the Lily Dale museum, whose curator Ron Nagy (2006) conceded there was no real provenance for it nor any proof of its discovery in 1904. And the trunk’s condition appears far too good for its supposed half-century burial (figure 2).”

So the Peddler and his murderer remain enigmatic figures with no substantive physical evidence to prove their reality.

Therare many who have held the pack and psychometrised it (feeling the energy with their senses to try an read its history) who will still believ that the pack is real. However, it must be rememberd hundreds of people will have held this pack believing it is real and thereby entangling the energy of that belief into its fabric. So anyone holding the pack is going to sense that energy and is likely to believe in it.

Of course it still does not discredit the truth of Spiritualism, nor of the events at Hydesville., indeed Hydesville led on to the demonstration at Corinthian Hall, Rochester in 1849, where both the information and events which ocurred, through Margaretta’s mediumship, could not be disproved by 4 investigating committees.

Despite these issues I have experienced to much, myself, and read too much, from totally reliable sources, to deny that Spiritualim is based upon real communication.