by Karen | Jun 17, 2025 | Karen's Korner
William Hilton Burr was born in 1870 to William A. and Georgiana Hilton Burr in Steuben, New York. He was the youngest of their four children, having two older sisters and an older brother, Franklin. William lost his father when he was only ten years old but was able to graduate from Alfred University and Cornell Law School.
William married Mabel Winifred Adams in 1901, and they moved to Rochester New York, where he practiced law and they ran a boarding house. He worked as an attorney for the Grocer’s Association in the early 1900s and was a member of the Monroe County Progressives Organization. For many years he was prominent in the Prohibition Movement and was chairman of the New York State Committee of the Prohibition Party in 1920. He also started the first credit rating bureau in New York.
In his book, Photographic Copies of Written Messages from the Spirit World (1918), William states, “For many years I was an agnostic. As such I did not deny nor yet believe in a future life. The evidences commonly accepted were not satisfactory to me. I wandered through the paths of unrest, earnestly desiring to know the truth. Years of investigation have changed my opinions. I am no longer agnostic.”
William’s brother Franklin, a graduate of Buffalo Medical College, died when William was a young man in 1898. It was through a medium and slate writing that William first received s communication from Franklin in 1908 in Rochester. Being a skeptic at the time, William brought his own slates to the session. He watched the medium closely as they placed a short pencil lead between the slates and tied them shut. After sitting in the sunny room, conversing for about 30 minutes, they opened the slates and found the following message: “Will. I am here. I did not die. You never will die. Franklin Burr.”
William was obviously impressed with his first slate writing session. Because of that, we continued with the procedure. William saved 34 slates between 1908 and 1917 which were later published in his book. He also became involved with Spiritualism. In 1923, he was President of the General Assembly of the State of New York Spiritualists, and in 1925, President of the Rochester Spiritual Association.
From the article in the Democrat and Chronicle, 18 April 1922, Rochester, New York. “‘Spiritualism, next to the almighty dollar, is commanding more attention than any other subject in the minds of thoughtful men and women,’ said William H. Burr, attorney, yesterday. Mr. Burr has been interested in spiritualism and has been an investigator for more than twenty years. He is active in the Plymouth Church, and he says that the large numbers attending services there show the increasing interest of the masses in spiritualism.
“He believed the mases of people would learn the difference between Christianity as taught by Jesus and the dogmatic theology that began a few hundred years before. He condemned the lack of Christian charity. For those who call Fraud, he said that they “scarcely one of them even investigate for themselves as did the Psychic Society of England and the societies in other places, and as have Crooks, Hyslop, Wallace, Lodge and thousands of others.
“Spiritualism like Christianity has been unfortunate in some of its adherents. There may be frauds professing both. But this does not alter the essential truths. It cannot fail to conquer, because its fundamental teachings are beautiful, essential and true. Its critics cannot endure, because they are essentially wrong.”
William gave several addresses, including one in Elmira, New York, entitled, “The effects of Joan of Arc on our present-day life at the odd fellows temple.” He was President of Geneva Assembly of Spiritualists, NY and Plymouth Spiritualists Church of Rochester, NY in 1927.
At the end of his book, William writes what he believes was proven by his slate collection. First-that all communications written upon slates that he published were made under conditions which could not be falsified. Second- there were at least 18 types of handwriting. Third- the signatures looked authentic. Fourth- That love and knowledge in this life continue on to the next world. Fifth- That communication between life in the body and life in the spirit is proved beyond doubt.
At the end he wrote, “It is my hope that the facts which I have presented may lead sorrowing hearts to cease mourning for their dead, and to know that the day is fast approaching when the broken heart ties of the flesh will be reunited in that beautiful home beyond the dark shadows of care and pain.”
William died in 1951 in Royalston, Massachusetts at the age of 80. His book has recently been reproduced so that it is available to all who are interested in slate writing and Spiritualism.
by Karen | Mar 22, 2023 | Karen's Korner
Lena Barnes was born to Frank and Jennie Barnes in Groveland, Massachusetts in 1882. She married her first husband, Charles E. Crossman in 1901, but that marriage did not last. She married Harland A. Jefts in 1910 in Greenfield, Massachusetts. She and Harland lived in Connecticut in 1923 where he worked as a foreman. Lena worked as a corporate trainer, teaching sales to the junior staff. They opened their own Spiritualist church in Boston after that and met Ethel Post in 1926.
Ethel Post opened her church, Spiritualist Temple of Truth and its school, in the fall of 1928 in Miami. The church school had four staff members, which included Lena. Lena taught Philosophy and Comparative Religions. She also worked with Ethel in the afternoons, giving private readings. From 1929 onwards, Lena traveled with Edith Post as she demonstrated her mediumship skills throughout the northeastern United States. In 1930, they visited Canada as well.
As the school prospered, Lena took over the financial and managerial positions for the church and later at Camp Silver Belle in Ephrata, PA. After 1935, she was also a stockholder in in the Mountain Springs Hotel. The Jefts were living at the hotel and Harland is listed as a Yacht captain in the 1940 census. Lena published several booklets under several pseudonyms including Peggy Barns and Lena Barns. These included, Lo, I am With You Always, Self Realization, Psychic Facts, and A Way of Life and Fundamentals of Spiritualism.
In 1950, Lena and Harland lived with Ethel and her new husband, James Parrish, in Miami, Florida over the winter. Lena worked as teacher, lecturer, and writer. She was treasurer for the camp and on the board of directors, and Vice President for the hotel. She died in Ephrata in 1963. Harland died three years later in Brattleboro, Vermont.
by Karen | Mar 16, 2023 | Karen's Korner
Ethel Sullivan was born about 1885 in Jonesboro, Indiana to James and Ella Sullivan. She was exposed to the religion of Spiritualism as a child. Her mother, aunt, and uncle were all members of the Indiana Association of Spiritualists and active at Camp Chesterfield in Anderson, Indiana. Ethel married Porter L. Stout in 1905 and they had a son, Roland, the following year. In the 1910 census, Porter was listed as a salesman and Ethel was a milliner. By 1914, Porter was using the last name, Riley. When he died in 1922, his last name was given as Stout-Riley.
It’s unclear if there was an official divorce, but Ethel Stout married spiritual healer and “suggesto-therapist” (hypnotist) Myron H. Post in 1916 in Anderson, Indiana. Myron had been married before to Dora and they had a son, Frank, born about 1893. Myron worked as an insurance attorney while married to Dora. In 1920, Ethel’s son Roland was living with them, and in 1930, after he married Annabell, they were still living with Ethel and Myron in Anderson, Indiana.
Myron and Ethel quickly became involved in the life of Camp Chesterfield, moving there permanently in 1923. Myron was ordained as a Spiritualist minister and served as Camp President until 1932. Ethel gave her first public demonstrations in 1925 and gained a reputation as a trumpet and materialization medium famous for her spirit guides, Sir Joseph Banks and a Cherokee girl called Silver Belle.
Tension grew between Ethel and Mabel Riffle at Camp Chesterfield. In 1927, Ethel and Myron moved to Miami, Florida, and founded the Spiritualist Temple of Truth, to showcase Ethel’s mediumship and train and accredit new mediums. The sweltering Florida summers shortened the Miami Temple’s season, so the Posts took up an offer by John Stephan, to move their summer programming north to an underused park property in Ephrata, Pennsylvania.
The Morning Call (Allentown, PA), 3 Sept 1932, stated, “Mrs. Post is one of the most highly developed mediums before the public today. She has worked upon platforms of the principal camps and churches of the U.S. and Canada and has presented her various phases of clairvoyance, ballot reading, trumpet; both in light and dark and materialization before psychic research societies of both countries with splendid results.
“Ethel’s direct voice demonstrations and spirit materializations attracted world-wide attention. She would enter a deep trance while sitting in a cabinet, bringing forth her spirit guides and others. During her lifetime, she submitted to many tests to prove the legitimacy of the physical manifestations she produced. There is one account of a séance in 1928 where doctors weighed a manifested spirit as well as Ethel during a demonstration and found her weight loss equaled that of the spirit’s weight. As many as five spirits could materialized during a séance, but Jayne Cuthbert described an unbelievable event in which nearly fifty spirits manifested. In a 1945 account, she stated, “While there were materialized individuals on the floor talking with their loved ones on earth, at the same time during the séance there were voices singing in the cabinet.”
New York Spiritualist Leader, 16 November 1941. Vol. 1 No. 1 said, “Mrs. Ethel Post-Parrish, one of the most famous of materialization mediums, and her not cabinet assistant, Mrs. Lena Barnes Jefts (who has written many distinctive booklets on Spiritualism) spent last week at their Camp Silver Belle quarters in Ephrata, PA, before leaving yesterday for the south to make preparations for opening their Institute of Universal Science for winter classes in St. Petersburg, Florida.”
Ethel divorced Myron Post in 1939 in Dade County, Florida. Her last husband was Jimmy Parrish who she married at the age of seventy-one in 1957. She died the next year, and her ashes were spread about the grounds of Camp Silver Belle.
by Karen | Mar 5, 2023 | Karen's Korner
Herman Storer was born in New Haven, Connecticut in 1825 to William and Mary Storer. He began work as a printer and publisher and married his first wife, Sarah Butler, while living in New Haven. She died in 1849 at the young age of 21. Herman remarried to Emily Trowbridge. By 1865 they were living in Brooklyn, and he was working as a chemist. It’s not clear when he became a physician, but he is listed as being one in the 1880 Boston census.
When he became a Spiritualist, Herman worked consistently, either as a medium, lecturer or healer. He was a Spiritualist for more than 50 years and very prominent in camp meeting work, especially during the 1870s and 1880s. He took an active role at Nickerson’s Grove camp and later at Onset Bay. “He had a large clientele as a Spiritualist healer, but he did not wholly discard the use of medicine; much of it, however, he claimed to use under spirit direction. He was a broad and liberal minded man,” according to the Boston Globe, 28 Dec 1896.
The Boston Post, 1 April 1895, published an article about Storer relating his conversion to Spiritualism to those attending the Boston Spiritual Temple on the 47th anniversary of modern Spiritualism: “The calendar indicates that we have made forty-seven stops on the spiritual highway, but the calendar does not indicate the progress made in public opinion since the dawn of modern spiritualism. I have been a spiritualist for forty-five years, and the joy and blessing of my life I attribute to this source.
“I began, as ignorance usually begins, by denying the manifestations. My friend, an editor of a country journal, had been down to Eliken Phelps’ and published the wonderful manifestations said to have happened there. I sent out word to him that I would not attempt to build up my journal on the basis of sensational stories. He came in to see me, and I saw that he was thoroughly convinced of the seances. At his invitation I went down to Stratford and called upon Dr. Phelps. I heard something in the front room. I went and looked. There the piano was being pushed from where it usually stood to where it now rests, and a piece of music came up and rested on the stand.
“I looked at the doctor. He had been a Congregational minister and was the picture of a reverend and reliable man. My house has been full of brother ministers and lawyers belonging to the family. They have been confounded and no evidence of anything, but spirit work has been discovered. I asked them if a medium could be found to give some more evidence. He mentioned Miss Brook, a girl of 13, at Bridgeport. I went down there at once and was invited to join the circle at her home in the evening. The circle began to ask silent questions, and though the raps came we were all ignorant, except the questioner, as to the responses. By and by it came my turn. I asked if there was any spirit that would communicate with me. At once the table was covered with raps.
“My first wife spelled out her maiden name and how long she had been in the spirit—less than two years. And then came a message spelling her baby’s name. Facts followed facts, then my future mediumship was predicted, which after two years came true and has been with me ever since.” Storer died the following year in April 1896.
by Karen | Feb 14, 2023 | Karen's Korner
William J Colville was born about 1859 in England. Little is known about his early life. His mother died when he was a young boy. His father lived only a few years after her death. From a young age Colville “expressed certain traits peculiar to highly sensitive organisms; and though he and others may have been spiritually unconscious of what was working beneath the surface, yet indications of some occult force were at times unmistakable,” according to an article in Medium and Daybreak Vol 9, No 442, Sept 20, 1878.
He was brought up in an orthodox church and first felt his talent was the work of the devil, but he overcame that fear. When he was 17, he attended a lecture by Mrs. Cora L.V. Tappan in 1874. Inspired, he returned home and composed a poem “The Resurrection.” He began to occasionally read his inspirational poetry, received while in a trance state, in private homes.
By the time he was 19, he was able to “deliver discourses with the same fluency as at the present time. The special phase of his mediumship, which is inspirational speaking, is about to undergo a great change.” After that, physical phenomenon, rapping, table oscillations took place. He had 12 guides for public demonstrations, including native American spirits.
In September of 1878, he addressed a select meeting at the Spiritual Institution in London before leaving for the United States. He made his home in Boston for the next decade. He was a popular speaker in the city and at Spiritualist camps. He attended Queen City Park in Burlington, Lookout Mountain in Tennessee and was a regular guest at Lily Dale in New York. At the 1888 Tenth Anniversary of American Spiritualism lectures in Boston, he made his farewell appearance before traveling to California.
Between lectures, Colville also published several articles, books and edited journals. His books included: The Spiritual Science of Health and Healing (1887), Universal Theosophy: The Science of Health and Healing (1887), Spiritual Therapeutics; or, Divine Science, (1888), A History of Theosophy (1896), and Old and New Psychology (1897).
While in California, Colville lectured, taught classes, and was business manager for George Chainey and Anna Kimballâ’s Gnostic in San Francisco. He then published an edited The Problem of Life (1890-1893) with Alzire A. Chevailler. The publication was, “Devoted to Spiritual Science and Philosophy and all Subjects Pertaining to the Welfare and Progress of Humanity / A Magazine Devoted to Spiritual Science and Philosophy as related to Universal Human Progress.”
In his first issue, he wrote, “ How many are there who enter the ranks as teachers and practitioners of Spiritual, Mental, or Christian Science, who realize anything more than a very small part of the work they are called upon to do, and how many are there who even attempt to begin at what is really the right end of the line, if true progress is to be made? The moral elevation of the race is of primary importance, its intellectual advancement is of secondary value, its physical soundness comes third.”
Colville returned to London in 1914 and gave lectures to the London Spiritualist Alliance and The Buddhist Society of Great Britain and Ireland. During his life he toured the U.S., England and Australia. He died in San Francisco in January of 1917. His obituary stated that “W. J. Colville, one of the foremost British lecturers on theosophical topics, died yesterday at the Wiltshire apartments after a brief illness with pneumonia.” He was 57 years old and “spent many years lecturing and writing.”
