Caroline (Carrie) Edna Skinner was born in 1844 to Solomon and Candice Skinner of Sherman, Chautauqua County, New York. Solomon died in 1846 when Carrie and her sister were young girls, and their mother remained a widow. Carrie received a common school education before she began teaching in the district schools when only seventeen years old. Afterward she attended the Westfield Academy and taught during the summers.
In 1871, Carrie married Herbert S. Twing, a bookkeeper turned vineyardist. They had a son Edward from his first marriage, and Carrie had a daughter, Candice who was born in 1875 and died young. Carrie identified with the spiritualistic movement early in life. It’s unclear how involved Herbert was with Spiritualism, but he was the business secretary at Camp Cassadaga in Florida in 1900.
In1876, Carrie was mentioned in the Boston Globe as a mechanical writing medium. She attended Lake Pleasant Camp in Greenfield, Massachusetts the following year, working as a medium. By 1879 she was called a “celebrated test medium” at an event in Buffalo, New York.
During the 1880s she appeared at many northeastern locations, working as a test medium and giving private readings. The Cleveland Leader and Morning Herald, 6 April 1888, wrote “About one hundred persons paid twenty-five cents each to attend the public séance given by Mrs. Carrie E. S. Twing at Memorial Hall last evening. They enjoyed a privilege then which few could be more esteemed by a Cleveland audience—that of holding direct communication with Artemus Ward.” He was a humorist in the Cleveland area who wrote for the newspaper.
By the 1890s, Carrie regularly attended Lily Dale as a medium and speaker. She also authored several books, including A Thrilling Account of the Late President Garfield’s Reception in the Spirit World. Written through the hand of Carrie E. S. Twing, (1881), JIM, The Touch of an Angel Mother. A psychic story (1905), ‘Lisbeth, A Story of Two Worlds, Henry Drummond in Spirit Life, and Golden Gleams from Heavenly Light.
Carrie garnered a wide reputation as a lecturer and traveled extensively through the country. During the early 1900s, she attended Camp Cassadaga, lived for a time in Portland, Oregon, attended Temple Heights and Lake Pleasant as well as Pine Grove Spiritualist Camps. In 1902 she was Vice President of the New York State Association of Spiritualists.
Carrie died in 1910, two years after her husband. The Buffalo Courier, 26 August 1910, wrote: “Mrs. Carrie E. S. Twing, the well-known lecturer, died at her home, a few miles southeast of this place today, after an illness of three weeks, from apoplexy. Mrs. Twing was taken ill in Boston while on a lecturing tour and was brought to her home here August 5th, lingering until now. Mrs. Twing frequently spoke at meetings of the granges.”
“She was a speaker of much force, and had been heard throughout the middle, eastern and southern states. She was an authority on spiritualistic matters and a medium of acknowledged ability. “