by | Jun 28, 2023 | Karen's Korner
Atelston Gaston was born in 1838 in Castile, New York, the second of six children born to Edmon and Phylinda Gaston. He moved with his parents to Crawford County, Pennsylvania in 1854 where he attended public schools. He married Thankful Caroline Hammond by 1850 and they had two daughters, Ada and Alma (who died in infancy).
Athelston worked as a farmer until 1873, when he moved to Meadville and became a lumber manufacturer. He was also active in politics. He served two terms as mayor of Meadville, Pennsylvania (1891-1895) and was elected as a Democrat to the Fifty-sixth Congress (March 4, 1899-March 3, 1901). After an unsuccessful run for reelection in 1900 to the Fifty-seventh Congress, he returned to the lumber business.
Both Athelston and Thankful were active Spiritualists. He served for 18 years on the Board of Directors of Lily Dale and was President of the Lily Dale Assembly for 15 years. His picture hangs in honor in the Assembly Hall of Lily Dale. They had Spiritualist weddings in their home in Meadville, and in 1903 Cora L. V. Richmond and her husband were their guests. She spoke and held a private mediumship circle for a small group of friends.
The Evening Republican, 15 September 1888, printing a story about Athelston and a local minister. Mr. Crumrine, a Presbyterian minister from Cochranton, PA brought slates to Lily Dale to test mediums. They were screwed together, and the screws covered with wax. Mr. Mansfield volunteered to conduct the slate writing experiment, but they had to reschedule. “Mr. Crumrine left the slates in charge of Mr. A. Ganton, of Meadville, Pa, who promised to hold a séance with Mansfield and report the results. Suffice it to say that Mr. Gaston held three seances with Mansfield, the medium saying that this would be necessary in order to “magnetise” the slates. At the third séance, which was held on Sunday afternoon, September 2, the medium declared that his familiar spirit told him if he would take the slate to the auditorium, where the lecture was then progressing, and form a circle, an attempt would be made to write upon the slates. Accordingly, Mr. Gaston took the slates to the auditorium, and at the close of the lecture a circle was formed on the stage and connection established by clasped hands with the audience.” Mr. Gaston took the slates home to Rev. Crumrine where they made sure the seals were intact and opened them to find a message. Part of the message to Crumrine said, “If he will investigate in the right way, he will soon find that his friends can write to him, and that this is not nor never was the devil.” It was signed by Thomas Vreeland.
In October 1903, Thankful died after an illness of 30 years at the age of 67 years old. She had been a Spiritualist for 45 years. Athelston was accidently killed in a hunting accident while on a trip along Lake Edward in northern Quebec, Canada, September 23, 1907. His services were conducted by Mrs. Cora L. V. Richmond of Chicago and Lyman C. Howe of Fredonia, New York.
by | Jun 14, 2023 | Blog, Karen's Korner
Edgar W. Emerson was born in Boscawen, New Hampshire about 1855 to Francis and Julia Emerson. Edgar was the fourth of six children born to the couple. His father worked in cotton and sawmills and Edgar joined him as a mill worker when he was 16. He later worked as a carpenter.
By 1880, Edgar’s father had passed, and Edgar was living at home in Manchester, New Hampshire with his older brother, Charles, their mother and his 11-year-old twin siblings, Julius and Julia. Charles was listed as a painter in the census and Edgar as a spiritualist MD. He travelled extensively over the next three decades, working as both a lecturer and medium at many of the camps in the northeastern United States, including Lily Dale, Lake Pleasant, Sunapee, Hazlet Park, and Neshaminy Falls. He was a welcome guest to Spiritualist groups in Brooklyn, Boston, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and Indianapolis.
The Buffalo Courier, 27 August 1890 wrote: “The day’s entertainments were closed with some remarkable platform tests, by Edgar W. Emerson of Manchester, N. H. Some 20 different tests were given to persons located in various places in the auditorium. It is hardly presumable that by any collusion the medium would be able to locate all of these persons in scattered positions. The names of deceased friends were given, with time and cause of death, residence, personal description, etc. Besides all this, the persons to whom the tests were given were pointed out. “
By 1900, Edgar was listed in the census as a clairvoyant living with his twin siblings. There is no indication that he ever married. The Greenfield Recorder (Massachusetts), 21 September 1904, wrote: Edgar W. Emerson, whose powers as a psychic and test medium have attracted the attention of scientists and scholars far and near, will lecture and give messages at the meeting of the Greenfield Spiritualist Society, Sunday evening, at the Knights of Malta Hall. Skeptics, investigators and all interested are invited to be present. The seats are free.”
In 1910, Edgar was listed as a clairvoyant with a rural practice. He was still living with Julius and Julia in Manchester. The Boston Globe, 30 March 1901 quoted him at the Boston Ladies’ Aid Day celebration of modern Spiritualism: “My Spiritualism is not a belief, but a positive knowledge, and I desire to grow in this knowledge.”
Edgar died in 1919 at the age of 63 in Manchester, New Hampshire. The Fitchburg Sentinel (Massachusetts), 21 January 1919 wrote, “Dr. Edgar W Emerson died at his home in Manchester, N. H. on Jan. 18 after a lingering sickness. He was well known in this city as a long time and faithful worker in the cause of Spiritualism which was his life work.”
by | Jun 7, 2023 | Karen's Korner
Edward Hanigan Denslow was born in 1844 in Mount Pleasant, Indiana to farmers Henry and Sarah Denslow. In his younger days he spent time traveling with the circus and theatrical companies in the west. He took up drinking but was “transformed” after marrying his first wife, Anna S. Johnson in 1865 and having three children. In 1873, he discovered that he possessed healing powers and opened an office in South Bend where he used laying-on of hands. He later opened a sanitarium in Sturgis, Michigan.
The South Bend Tribune, 27 November 1880, published a statement from Edward: “Since the publication of my Thanksgiving proclamation, I find that the question is often asked, how is it possible that the so-called magnetic and motorpathic healing can in any way produce beneficial effects upon diseased organizations? Without entering into a discussion of the subject here, I invite all interested in the matter to call at my office over Strayer’s gun store on Michigan Street and I will convince you there is nothing impossible or mysterious about it.”
Edward’s first wife, Anna, died in 1885, a year after his brother, Robert, passed, and a year before he lost their daughter Cora to illness in 1886. By that time, Edward was a well-known magnetic physician in South Bend. He married Clara Balfour of Bangor, Michigan in South Bend, Indiana in 1887, the same year his daughter Grace married. By 1890, he had moved his office to Sturgis, Michigan.
In the late 1880s, Edward became a missionary for the National Spiritualist Association. He traveled west to Wichita and Kansas City. In 1897, at the First Society of Spiritualists, Kansas City, he was a guest trance speaker.
The Kansas City Journal, 22 February 1897, wrote, “The subject of the address was the transference of thought on waves of ether. Dr. Denslow took the position that every wave of ether bore some one or more thoughts emanating from either the physical or spiritual world. He believed there was a tendency toward the refinement of ether and to increased sensitiveness on the part of the people, so that impressions derived from ether waves were more frequent and distinct than formerly.” He was quoted as saying: “I have never known a bad spirit. The spirits who seek to communicate with us are good spirits. Their influences are for the good, and by making ourselves susceptible to the thought transference received through the action of the ether we can place ourselves in communication with the natures which will exert upon us the best influences and neutralize the tendency to bad of the physical world.”
The Fort Wayne Sentinel, 6 Nov 1901, wrote, “Mr. Denslow is a highly developed medium and his life readings are of a high order of excellence and very satisfactory. Advice given upon all questions pertaining to the welfare of mankind.”
Edward, his second wife, Clara, and her sister died in a tragic fire in 1906. Clara, who had suffered with depression, decided to take her own life by dousing herself and then her husband with gasoline in their home. The resulting fire led to the three deaths. Edward was 62 and along with being a popular healer, was remembered for his membership in the Masons and the Knights Templar of Sturgis.
by | May 15, 2023 | Karen's Korner
Joseph W. Dennis was born in 1827 in Green County, New York to Joseph and Julia Ann Dennis. He married Delia Toles, and they had two children before she died. He married his second wife, Lucy Mayfield, in the late 1850s and they had a son in 1860. Joseph lived in Buffalo most of his life working as a dock builder and contractor. In his obituary, it said he built most of the docks and coal trestles in the city of Buffalo. He was prominent in Republican politics and was an alderman during 1873-1874 for the third ward.
It is unclear when Joseph became involved in Spiritualism. He posted an advertisement in The Watchman in 1887. It said, “Send to J. W. Dennis for a sheet of his Magnetized Paper which is a magnet that will bring to the wearer, a Spirit Guide for Development or Healing. Ten cents per sheet. Can give references from mediums.”
The Buffalo News, 14 March, 1895, published one of Joseph’s poems submitted by another person. “J.W. Dennis, who wrote the verses quoted, is a Buffalo man, well known in Lily Dale, and every spiritualist in Buffalo will laugh over this satire on Mr. Dennis. His request to not mourn for him appeared in the Progressive Thinker, March 6, 1895
When I am Born Again
No black for me
No robes of night,
No clouded brow,
But robes of light;
No pall on coffin lid,
No priestly quack
No tears of grief,
No hireling hack,
No woes, no wails,
No sorrow’s veins.
But shouts of joy
And songs of mirth
Proclaim the news,
“Another birth.”
Joseph was a member of the Buffalo Spiritual Church Society and gave many lectures at their meetings in the late 1890s. In a 1900 announcement, he was referred to as reverend. He gave the lectures alongside medium Mrs. C Lewis Chase, who gave readings. In 1903, Joseph attended Lily Dale with prominent Spiritualists, Carrie E. S. Twing, W. M. Lockwood, and W. J. Hull. Joseph was a regular contributor to the Harmonia published in 1885-1886 a published a piece called “My Vision” in the January 1886, vol. 1 no. 7 issue.
Joseph’s wife, Lucy, died in 1911. He followed the next year at the age of 85. City hall flags flew at half-mast the day of his funeral in his honor.
by | May 9, 2023 | Karen's Korner
Maud E. Barrock was born in 1852 in Marion County, West Virginia, the fourth child of Sarah J. and Phillip S. Barrock. Her father was a Baptist and mother a Methodist. They said she was born with a double veil over her face. When she was only a toddler, luminous lights were sometimes seen about her, and sparks flew from her hair. She liked to spend time in the dark and often her mother couldn’t find her. Her cradle rocked by itself. By the age of five, she had unseen playmates and said she could hear the trees and plants singing. Of course, her parents didn’t take kindly to all these happenings and thought the devil was behind everything.
A kettle of boiling lye accidentally spilled on Maud, and she was treated by a doctor. But when he returned to the house, she asked for pencil and paper and wrote, “Get pine needles, crush and mix with linseed oil, put between beet leaves and apply immediately.” The doctor recognized an old friend’s handwriting and did as she instructed. Maud recovered.
Her parents refused to educate her, believing her abilities were the work of the devil. She tried to sneak off to school but was caught. In a moment of temporary blindness, a spirit came to her and instructed her how she would learn from the spirit world in a grove of trees near the creek. And that she did.
When the civil war began, the family moved to Iowa. Maud spoke in French and German by then, advised neighbors on happenings duirng the war, and found missing things. She also communicated with spirits via rapping sounds. Unhappy, Maud ran away at one point, returned home and went through an exorcism at the church, and ran away again. She even thought of suicide before finding Mr. John J. Hall from New York City, who told her she was a medium. Her spirit guide came to her then. His name was Clarence.
In 1868, Maud married Albert Lord in Wisconsin. They had one daughter who was known as Adrienne de Corische. After Albert died, Maud married J. S. Drake in 1887. He was a contractor and hydraulic engineer and was involved with politics and a newspaper writer. “Mr. Drake apparently has the ability, education, experience, courage and inclination so necessary to assist in this important work,” according to The Religio-Philosophical Journal, 1887.
In 1900 they were lodging in St. Louis. Drake was listed as a lawyer and she a lecturer. He was ten years her senior. They eventually moved to Boulder Creek, California where they lived 27 years. After Drake died in about 1914, an Ernst Lydick, who was living in Pittsburgh, received many spiritual messages from Maud’s control, Clarence, and her deceased husband to travel to California and take care of her.
Maud and Ernst were eventually married. Maud died in 1924 in Santa Cruz after she initially survived burns when her house burned at Boulder Creek. “For many years a spiritualist of considerable prominence, the events of the wedded life of the deceased woman, as told this morning by her third husband, Ernst B. Lydick, also a spiritualist and author of various literary works of psychic phenomena form an unusual and sometimes weird story.”
Maud’s biography was published as Psychic Light: The Continuity of Law and Life in 1904 by Frank T. Riley Publishing Co. Kansas City, Missouri and contains much more information about her.
by | May 2, 2023 | Blog, Karen's Korner
John W. Day was born in Gloucester, Massachusetts in 1838, son of Joseph and Augusta Day. His maternal grandfather was Rev. Ezra Leonard who converted to Universalism. John was educated in grammar schools and went to high school in Portsmouth at the Hampton Academy. He joined the office of The Trumpet, a Universalist publication and then the Banner of Light soon after its inception in 1857 as an apprentice to “the art preservative.”
He thought of joining the Universalist ministry but his poor eyesight, which made him abandon printing as well, lead to several outdoor jobs. He spent 2 years at sea and 5 years in the army ending up a captain in the cavalry from 1861-1866. When he returned to Boston in 1867, he worked for The Banner as compositor, shorthand reporter, and Associate Editor. In 1880 he married Nellie M. King, twenty years his junior, of Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was a member of the Masons, Odd Fellows, and the Grand Army of the Republic.
In 1880 he was living with the King family and working as reporter at age 42; Nellie was 23 and they had no children. John authored many poems and recited them at Spiritualist meetings in the Boston area. Twenty of the poems were published as A Galaxy of Progressive Poems in Boston in 1890. His “The Wine of the Spirit” begins:
Another year hath trod th’ arena’s floor
Where uses stern to Being’s call respond;
And we with gladness hail the loved once more
Who bring their message from the Fair Beyond!
We mark with joy Progression’s prophet shine
That streams puissant from that primal ray
When angel fingers from the land divine
Swept the dark lignite clouds of doubt away.
According to the Biography of Mrs. J.H. Conant, the World’s Medium of the Nineteenth Century published in 1873, “Mr. John W. Day, a reporter at the Banner of Light office, listened on many occasions to utterances through Mrs. Conant while she was under control by Parker (spirit Theodore Parker), and minuted in shorthand what that spirit desired to put forth as a biography of his medium.”
Unfortunately, John died from a gunshot wound in Somerville, Massachusetts in 1898 after he retired from working at the Banner. His work as editor and reported greatly influenced the dissemination of information about Spiritualism across the country.
