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On September 18, 1856, Harvey Wilson wrote to Roswell White in Wabasha, Minnesota. Harvey was living in English Prairie and sent Roswell a money draft of $75 from Richard Wray. No mention of what the money was for but it may have had to do with the sale of the White farm.
But much more interesting in the letter is this story he sent along:
“Almira, James Kimball’s wife, has been very sick and deranged and is now considerable wild, after her child, which is a fine smart girl, was about six weeks old, she [Almira] was taken dangerously sick. They had two doctors and sent for us [so] we went down. I stayed about two days and thought her some better and came home... [but about] two days later went back and found her raving crazy and had to be held a good deal of the time.”
He stayed another two weeks and she began to get better so they brought her home and she stayed with them for two weeks, “about half regular”. “She does some work and takes some care of the children and sometimes talks and acts as regular as ever. We have hopes she will regain her senses. There are various causes assigned for it. James and some think it is caused by spirits. The doctors say it’s caused by the misplacement of certain nerves when her child was born. Other doctors in Woodstock think that it was caused by medicines, quinine and opium, given her, which is my opinion.”
It seems odd that Almira’s husband “and some” thought that spirits could be overtaking her, but in the 1850s, Spiritualism, which was a social religious movement, was very popular, in which they believed in the continuity of consciousness after death and the possibility of communication between the living and the dead.
In the next paragraph of his letter, Wilson wrote, “Spiritualism is still progressing. Jessie Buckner preaches every other Sunday at Solon. About four weeks ago they had a grove meeting near Antioch. It was said there was five thousand persons present and many speaking mediums”.
Throughout the White letters there were mentions of church, spiritualism, mediums and phrenology. Phrenology was the belief that an individual's character could be deduced from the size and shape of various bumps on the head, which Roswell must have believed. He once wrote to his wife, Jane, “Mr. Foster...is a very fine man (phrenologically).”
One friend wrote to Roswell, “Spiritualism is steadily working its way into the minds of the masses and I think will finally gain the day. We have two established circles that meet [several times a week].”
But another friend, George Swan, wrote, “All well in English Prairie, when I was there last... Mrs. Wilson and family are all deluded with Spiritualism. We are wholly clear of that delusion, on our prairie, as yet. May God deliver us from that and all other delusions forever, is my ardent prayer.”
By 1853, when the popular song "Spirit Rappings" was published, spiritualism was an object of intense curiosity. But by the late 1880s the credibility of the informal movement had weakened due to accusations of fraud perpetrated by mediums, and formal spiritualist organizations began to appear. The popularity of the movement waned after the 1920s, but is still around in different forms and names.
Story by Laura Frumet
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