Hydesville, The Story of the Rochester Knockings Chapter 3/8

CHAPTER III.

“Know well my soul, God’s hand controls

Whate’er thou fearest.”

From the time the Fox family entered the house at Hydesville, about December, 1847, they were

incessantly disturbed by similar noises to those heard by Lucretia Pulver and the Weekmans. During

the next month however (January, 1848) the noises began to assume the character of slight knockings

heard at night in the bedroom; sometimes appearing to sound from the cellar beneath. At first Mrs.

Fox sought to persuade herself this might be the hammering of a shoemaker in a house hard by, sitting

up late at work. But further observation showed that the sounds originated in the house. For not only

did the knockings become more distinct, and not only were they heard first in one part of the house,

then in another, but the family remarked that these raps, even when not very loud, often caused a

motion, tremulous rather than a sudden jar, of the bedsteads and chairs—sometimes of the floor; a

motion which was quite perceptible to the touch when a hand was laid on the chairs, which was

sometimes sensibly felt at night in the slightly oscillating motion of the bed, and which was

occasionally perceived as a sort of vibration even when standing on the floor. After a time also, the

noises varied in their character, sounding occasionally like distinct footfalls in the different rooms.

In the month of February, the noises became so distinct and continuous that their rest was broken

night after night, and they were all becoming worn out in their efforts to discover the cause of the

annoyances. These disturbances were not confined to sounds merely,—once something heavy, as if a

dog, seemed to lie on the feet of the children; but it was gone before the mother could come to their

aid. Another time (this was late in March) Kate felt as if a cold hand was on her face. Occasionally

too, the bedclothes were pulled during the night. Finally chairs were moved from their places. The

disturbances, which had been limited to occasional knockings throughout February and March,

gradually increased towards the close of the latter month, both in loudness and frequency. Mr. Fox

and his wife got up night after night, lit a candle, and thoroughly searched every nook and corner of

the house; but without any result. They discovered nothing. When the raps came on a door, Mr. Fox

would stand, ready to open the door the instant the raps were repeated. Though he opened the door

immediately there was no one to be seen. Nor did he or Mrs. Fox obtain any clue as to the cause of

the trouble, notwithstanding all the efforts they made and the precautions they exercised.

The only circumstance which seemed to suggest the possibility of trickery or of mistake was, that

these various unexplained occurrences never happened in daylight, and thus notwithstanding the

strangeness of the thing, when morning came they began to think it must have been the fancy of the

night. Not being given to superstition, they clung, throughout several weeks of annoyance, to the idea

that some natural explanation of these seemingly mysterious events would at last appear, nor did they

abandon this hope till the night of

FRIDAY, MARCH 31st, 1848,

a date which was destined to be indelibly imprinted on the minds of the coming generations as the

daybreak of a new era in the spiritual development of humanity, a date which has since been regularly

observed as marking the advent of the greatest spiritual revelation of modern times, and recognised as the anniversary of the Spiritualist movement in all parts of the world.