Warren Chase was born in 1813 to the unmarried Susanna Durgin in Pittsfield, New Hampshire. His father, Simon Chase, who was married to Huldah Peaslee, died during the War of 1812 before Warren was two years old. For giving birth out of wedlock, Susanna was criticized by the community and thrown out of the church.
Chase was sent to live with a Quaker family, and when his mother died, he became a ward of David Fogg at 10 years old. According to Chase, his time with the Fogg family was a dreadful experience. At the age of 14, unable to read or write, he ran away to his grandmother’s house. He was taken in by Nathaniel Chase and then by the Norris family with whom he remained until he was 21.
In 1834, Chase moved to Michigan and in 1838 to the Wisconsin Territory, settling in Kenosha. Throughout his life he had opposed organized Christianity. He became interested in the theories of Fourier and Spiritualism. The philosophy of Andrew Jackson Davis also made a deep impression on him, and he was a follower for over thirty years.
In 1843 and 1844, he led a discussion group that formed the Wisconsin Phalanx. In 1844, he moved with the Phalanx to Fond du Lac County to form a new Utopian community known as Ceresco. About 180 people lived there at its peak, farming nearly 2,000 acres. The community dissolved in 1850, but Chase carried his reformist theories into politics, serving as a member of the constitutional conventions of 1846 and 1848. He was a Democratic member of the state senate from 1848 to 1849 and Free Soil candidate for governor in 1849.
Chase helped found Ripon College, supported the temperance, abolitionist, and Spiritualist movements, and wrote many books and articles. His Spiritualist experiences are represented in his Forty Years on the Spiritual Rostrum (1888) and his socialist activities in The Life Line of the Lone One, an Autobiography of the World’s Child (1857).
Of Spiritualism, Chase wrote: “These scientific discoveries, and the facts of modern spiritualism, by which we have opened an intellectual correspondence between the two spheres of being, takes the whole subject of life after death out of the hands of priests and superstitious bigots as effectually as geology does creation, and astronomy the position, forms, and motions of worlds. Hereafter spirit life will be in the domain of science, and the continued existence of our friends after we put their bodies in the ground, a demonstrated fact, which the success or failure of some persons to communicate will not alter, since each case is subject to incidents, if not accidents, in which the will of both parties has a share, and the laws are such that many may not be able to comply.”
Chase moved to Michigan in 1853, then to Missouri, where he was elected as a Presidential elector in 1872. In 1876 he moved to Santa Barbara, California and worked as editor of the Independent newspaper. He was elected to the state Senate and served from 1879 to 1882. For the rest of his life he was active in the abolitionist, feminist, and temperance movements. Warren Chase died in 1891 at his residence in Cobden, leaving behind a wife and two children.
Chase, Warren (1867) The Gist of Spiritualism: Viewed Scientifically, Philisophically, Religiously, Politically and Socially. Willia White and Company, Boston
Chase, Warren. (1888) Forty Years on the Spiritual Rostrum. Boston.
Theodore Weld was born in Hampton, Connecticut in 1803, son to Elizabeth Clark and Ludovicus Weld, a minister of the Hampton Congregational Church. After attending Hamilton College and the Oneida Institute, he went on to study at the Lane Seminary in Cincinnati in 1834.
It was an experience in grade school that led to Weld’s profound concern for racial equality. When an African American boy named Jerry entered his class, the teacher segregated Jerry from the rest of the students. Theodore asked to be seated next to the boy. As an adult, Weld became a passionate abolitionist. He gave lectures, trained workers for the American Anti-Slavery Society, and wrote influential pamphlets anonymously. He was also an adviser to an anti-slavery bloc in Congress in the early 1840s.
It was during an anti-slavery convention that Weld met Angelina Grimké. Angelina was born in Charleston, South Carolina in 1805, the daughter of a slave-owning judge. Growing to detest slavery, she followed her older sister Sarah to Philadelphia in 1829. There she adopted the Quaker religion and turned to teaching. Shortly after, she became an abolitionist and promoted women’s rights.
Grimké and Weld were married in 1838. Since Weld was a Presbyterian, Angelina was formally dismissed from the Society of Friends. Theirs was not a traditional marriage. A collection of letters during the couple’s courtship shows that they wanted an egalitarian marriage. They spoke of their spiritual attraction to each other, and that they had same-sex friends who were just as dear to them. They said a marriage should be founded on “spirit and equality.”
The Welds had three children, Charles Stuart, Theodore Grimké, and Sarah Grimké. In 1840, they moved to New Jersey where they ran schools until 1862. During that time, they became progressively less orthodox. Angelina’s became interested in the Millerite movement in the mid-1840’s, and later the couple became involved with Spiritualists, including, medium Isaac Post and William Lloyd Garrison.
The Posts had rented rooms to Kate and Margaret Fox, who had gained a reputation for communicating with spirits through rapping noises. Amy became the Fox sister’s mentor during the early part of their careers. The Posts, like Angelina, had given up their Quaker religion. Since the Welds believed physical bodies were only temporary housing, Spiritualism was a good fit for their ideals. It supported the belief that spiritual friendship was the foundation of all relationships. In the spirit world where there was no sexism or racism.
In 1863 the Welds moved to Massachusetts, where they continued teaching. Angelina suffered a stroke in 1873. Weld lived to be 91 years old and died in Hyde Park, MA in 1895.
Additional Reading:
Abzug, Robert H. (1980) Passionate Liberator: Theodore Dwight Weld & the Dilemma of Reform. New York: Oxford University Press.
Nelson, Robert Kent (2006) Society of Souls: Spirit, Friendship, and Antebellum Reform Imagination. William and Mary dissertation
Isaac Post was born in 1798 on Long Island, New York. Amy Kirby Post was born nearby in 1802 to Joseph and Mary Kirby. They were both members of the Society of Friends (Quakers). About 1821, Isaac Post married Amy’s older sister, Hannah. They moved to Cayuga County, New York in 1823 and had two children before Hannah became ill. Amy moved in with them to help care for the children. Hannah soon died, and Amy stayed on, eventually marrying Isaac in 1828. He and Amy had two sons.
Soon after marrying, Amy and Isaac joined a radical wing of the Quaker church headed by Elias Hicks. They moved to Rochester in 1836 and Isaac went into business as a druggist. In 1842, they helped found the Western New York Anti-Slavery Society. Amy organized fundraising events and group conventions. They held meetings in their home and hosted prominent lecturers including Frederick Douglas and Susan B. Anthony. Their home was also part of the Underground Railroad.
Amy became involved in the women’s movement at the same time. She attended many conventions and signed the “Declaration of Sentiments” and “The Just and Equal Rights of Women” resolution. After the War, she became a member of the Equal Rights Association and the National Woman Suffrage Association. In 1872, she successfully registered to vote, but she was turned away at the polls.
In 1848, the Posts rented rooms to Kate and Margaret Fox, who had gained a reputation for communicating with spirits through rapping noises. They introduced the girls to their circle of friends and gave up their Quaker religion to become Spiritualists. Amy became the Fox sister’s mentor during the early part of their careers, giving them advice, encouragement, and protection. She and Isaac attended their original weekly circle along with R. D. Jones, John E. Robinson and George Willets.
After much trial and error, Isaac became a spirit writing medium. In 1852, he published a book entitled: Voices from the Spirit World, Being Communications from Many Spirits which included messages from Benjamin Franklin and Swedenborg. Amy focused her attention on public speaking and promoting Spiritualism. The Posts became leading defenders of the Spiritualists in Rochester. Their son Willet, followed in Isaac’s footsteps, becoming a druggist and Spiritualist.
Amy and Isaac stayed active with their social reform activities until the end of their lives. Isaac died in 1872, but Amy remained active for many years afterward. Less than a year before her death in 1889, she attended the International Council of Woman Suffragists at Washington.
Additional Reading:
The Post Family Papers (1817-1918): https://rbscp.lib.rochester.edu/finding-aids/D93
Powalski, Caitlin (2009) Radical transmissions: Isaac and Amy Post, Spiritualism and Prograssive reform in Nineteenth Century Rochester Rochester History, Vol 71, No. 2, Fall 2009. Available on-line: https://www.libraryweb.org/~rochhist/v71_2009/v71i2.pdf
Rev. Robin Reale, PhD (ABD), Special Education Public Policy, is an ordained Spiritualist Minister and Metaphysician through the Fellowships of the Spirit, Lily Dale, NY. Robin serves Spiritualist churches throughout Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, Indiana, and New York as lecturer, medium, and Spiritualist historian. November 1, 2000 was dedicated Robin Reale Day in Massachusetts following receipt of the prestigious Eugene Rooney Public Service Award for excellence in teaching & training. She served in Peace Corps Chad and Senegal, and consulted in Lithuania to rebuild the education system after communism.
Sojourner Truth was born in 1797 as Isabella “Belle” Baumfree (Bomfree), one at least 10 children born to James and Elizabeth Baumfree. The Baumfrees were slaves to Colonel Hardenbergh and lived on his estate near Esopus, New York. After Hardenbergh died in 1806, Belle was sold several times, ending up with John Dumont. She married another slave named Thomas and had five children, one fathered by Dumont because of a rape.
In 1799, the State of New York began to abolish slavery, but it wouldn’t be complete until July 4, 1827. Dumont promised Belle her freedom, but never let her go, so in 1826, she escaped with her infant daughter, Sophia. She worked as a housekeeper and later rescued her son, Peter, suing the slave owner in court.
In 1843, Belle became a member of the Methodist church. God came to her and told her she must preach the truth. She changed her name to Sojourner Truth and lectured on abolitionism, women’s rights, religious tolerance, and pacifism. In a letter from Cora LV Scott to Amy Post, she described Sojourner’s lectures as “…pearls cast from the crown of Truth …the world will long remember her when other names are forgotten.”
In 1856, Sojourner made another big change. She had become fascinated by Spiritualism and sold all her possessions in 1857 to move to the village of Harmonia near Battle Creek, Michigan. As she continued with her lectures, they were now more than political stances, they were inspired teachings.
The Battle Creek area was a meeting place for all types for progressive thinkers at the time. Hicksite Quakers accepted Spiritualism and formed the community that was soon home to Swedenborgians and Universalists. Reynolds and Dorcas Cornell, founding members of Battle Creek’s Hicksite Meeting who were practicing Spiritualists, incorporated the Village of Harmonia in 1855. Their son, Hiram, founded the Bedford Harmonial Institute in 1851.
Andrew Jackson Davis traveled to Harmonia to speak about his Harmonial Philosophy. They hosted the Michigan Annual meeting of Progressive Friends. The village was also home to ex-U.S. Senator Nathanial Tallmadge, and Spiritualist lecturer and Fourierist, Warren Chase.
Sojourner lived in the village from 1857 to 1867, before relocating to nearby Battle Creek. During the 1870s, she remained politically active, trying to secure land grants for former slaves from the Federal government. She met with President Ulysses S. Grant and actively supported his reelection. She even tried to vote for him but was turned away.
Sojourner was nearly deaf and blind toward the end of her life. She never learned to read or write, but her lectures helped change the cultural fabric of the United States. She died in 1883.
Additional Reading:
Irvin Painter, Nell (1996). Sojourner Truth: A Life, A Symbol. New York and London: W. W. Norton & Co.
Johnson, Paul E.; Wilentz, Sean (1994). The Kingdom of Matthias: A Story of Sex and Salvation in 19th-Century America. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Wilson, Brian C. (2013) “The Battle for Battle Creek: Sectarian Competition in the Yankee West.” Quaker Theology. Vol 23, Summer-Fall
Rose Champion de Crispigny, born Annie Rose Charlotte Key in 1859 in Kensington, UK, was a daughter of Admiral the Rt. Hon. Sir Astley Cooper Key and Lady Charlotte Lavinia McNeil. She was fortunate to be the daughter of a distinguished sailor who traveled to many foreign countries. Her father also loved science, and the family met many distinguished persons of the day.
Rose married Lt. Philip de Crespigny, R.N. while still a teenager. They had four children, including Frederick Philip Champion de Crespigny, who inherited the baronetcy, from his father’s side of the family. Although she married a man of the sea, the family moved to the countryside of New Forest. Rose took on the role of wife and mother. She also developed her talents in music, art and writing while living there. As an artist, she favored landscapes. Her writing covered genealogical and local history in the beginning, but she eventually turned to popular fiction and detective novels. She published more than 30 books.
Rose found herself unhappy with both Orthodox views of religion in which she had been raised and the materialist view of the universe proposed by science. Theosophy began to pique her interest. It opened to her the concepts of Eastern philosophy and meditation. Her friendship with Mr. A. P. Sinnett, one of the pioneers of the Theosophical Society, was a major influence on her.
After the death of her husband, Rose moved to London in 1914, right at the beginning of WWI. She had developed a dislike for professional mediums because of her connection with Theosophy but agreed to attend her first séance with “direct voice” medium, Mrs. Etta Wriedt, of Detroit. She described it as the “most marvelous experience of her life.”
She opened her home for seances to help those grieving over the loss of loved ones so they might contact those who had passed on to the spirit world. She investigated all phases of phenomena, including physical, trance, psychometry, clairvoyance, clairaudience and trance speaking. She became one of the organizers of The Lyceum Club in Piccadilly and a member of the British College of Psychic Science. She had public speaking engagements for large audiences, including the Queen’s Hall meetings.
Rose became one of the earliest members of the British College of Psychic Sciences when it was founded in 1920. She developed into a valued member of its Council under the Presidency of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, whose friendship she cherished. Later, she became Hon. Principal of the College, and Vice-president of the Marylebone Spiritualist Association.
Rose passed on to the spirit world in February of 1935 after a short illness. Her passing was a great loss to members of the College who respected her courage and expertise.
Edmund Dawson Rogers was born in 1823 to a poor Methodist family in Holt, Norfolk. His father, John, abandoned the family, leaving his mother, Sarah, alone. With help from Sarah’s brother, Edmund was able to attend grammar school where he studied Latin and Greek. When he left school, he apprenticed with a druggist and studied botany for six years.
Rogers married Sophia Jane Hawkes in 1843 and two years later moved to Wolverhampton where he worked as a surgeon’s dispenser and joined the Staffordshire Mercury as a journalist. By 1848, he was appointed editor of the Norfolk News. It was during this time that he began to doubt his faith and at the same time was introduced to the spiritual teachings and philosophy of Emanuel Swedenborg who lived 100 years before him.
Rogers used his knowledge of mesmerism to help an invalid lady, “Miss A.” in 1865. She was confined to her bed and he used the technique to give her some relief from her suffering. Miss A. would soon confide in him about her peculiar abilities, which included premonitions and clairvoyance. Roger visited Miss A. regularly for several years. She related to him her visions of the spiritual plane. During a family outing, he was even able to contact her from 40 miles away.
Rogers became more involved with Spiritualism. In 1869, he attended seances with D.D. Home and Mrs. Marshall. In 1870, he became acquainted with the Everitts and attended Mrs. Everitt’s seances. Conan Doyle’s book refers to a narrative given by Rogers in 1885 at a séance conducted by Mr. Elington.
At the séance, ectoplasm was produced. Rogers described it as “a dingy, white-looking substance” that swayed and pulsated. He said that there were fourteen persons present and that there was sufficient light to enable the writer of the report “clearly to observe everybody and everything in the room.” The ectoplasm took form. Eventually, the connecting link severed and became invisible, and the “form” advanced to Mr. Everitt, “shook hands with him, and passed round the circle, treating nearly everyone in the same manner.”
In 1870, Rogers became the first editor of the Eastern Counties Daily Press which became the Eastern Daily Press. He moved London in 1873, and at the request of leading members of the Liberal Party established the National Press Agency. That same year, he helped form the British National Association of Spiritualists. He also founded the journal Light which he edited from 1894 until his death in 1910.
In 1881–1882 he founded the Society of Psychical Research with Sir William and was a founding member of the London Spiritual Alliance. He also published and edited The Tenant Farmer (1894–1898) and The Free Speaker (1873–1874).
Rogers and his wife, Sophia, had six children, two sons and four daughters. Sophia died in 1892. Rogers followed in 1910 while living in London.
Additional Reading:
Rogers, Edmund Dawson. (1911) Life and Experiences of Edmund Dawson Rogers, Spiritualist and Journalist (new edition by Kessinger Publishing, London, 2004)
Harriet Hosmer was born in 1830 in Watertown, Massachusetts to physician Hiram Hosmer. Her mother and three siblings died when she was young. That may be why she was encouraged by her father to pursue physical sports such as rowing, skating, and riding. He also allowed her to travel alone across western United States.
Harriet’s interest in sculpture began early. She wasn’t allowed to take sculpting classes because she was a woman. Instead, she studied human anatomy with her father and then took anatomy classes Dr. Joseph Nash McDowell at Missouri Medical College. Dr. McDowell was a Spiritualist who was interested in devising experiments to test psychic phenomena.
In 1851, Harriet wrote of one of several psychic events she experienced during her life. She was out riding her horse when she saw a fence rail move. It traveled several yards and rounded a post before standing upright. Like her mentor, Dr. McDowell, Harriet believed that the laws of the physical world also governed the spiritual world and that with study, they would be revealed.
In 1852, Harriet moved to Rome with her father and her lover, Charlotte Cushman. She studied under Welsh sculptor, John Gibson, from 1853-1860. She was welcomed by the local artist colony and visited Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning in Florence.
While in Italy, Harriet experienced a spiritual visit. Her maid, Rosa, was sick and went home to recover. Harriet woke in the middle of the night after hearing someone in her room. She saw Rosa looking at her from the edge of the bed. “Now I am content, now I am happy,” Rosa said. Harriet found that Rosa had died the next day. Harriet also experience a premonition in 1866, when she saw a carriage accident just minutes before it happened.
As a woman of her time, Harriet was one of a small number of women sculptors. Now she is considered an innovator in the field for woman. She followed a Neoclassical style, creating works that represented mythological icons. The Sleeping Faun, created in 1865 in Rome, is one of her most celebrated works. Like many of her pieces, according to Colbert, she “had to discover an apt vehicle of expression for her faith while not offending those in her audience who were practicing Christians.”
Harriet was romantically involved with Lady Ashburton who provided her with a studio at Albert Gate Studios near Kent House in Rutland Gardens for 25 years. She later lived in Chicago and Terre Haute, Indiana. She designed machinery and developed new processes of modeling to take the rough shape of a statue in plaster and coat it with wax to work out the finer forms.
Harriet Hosmer died at Watertown, Massachusetts in 1908. Along with her sculptures, she contributed to art history and feminist and gender studies. When asked about her career path, she said, “I honor every woman who has strength enough to step outside the beaten path when she feels that her walk lies in another; strength enough to stand up and be laughed at, if necessary.”
Additional Reading:
Colbert, Charles (1996) “Harriet Hosmer & Spiritualism.” American Art, Vol 10 No. 3.
Sherwood, Dolly (1991) Harriet Hosmer: American Sculptor, 1830-1908. Columbia: University of Missouri Press.
Mabel Collins was born in 1851 to Edward James Mortimer Collins, a poet and journalist, and Susanna Hubbard, a merchant’s daughter. The family lived in Guernsey, England where they had many financial issues and lived a chaotic lifestyle. Mabel was taught at home by her father, and by the time she was twelve, began to write romances. Her mom died in 1867 and her dad remarried Francis Cotton, to whom he turned his full attention, ignoring his children.
In 1871, Mabel married Keningale Robert Cook. He was six years older than her and well educated, receiving several degrees, including a Doctorate in Law in 1875. Cook became a stockbroker in London and published poetry and articles in the magazine, Woman. Mabel soon published there as well. By 1875 her first novel, The Blacksmith and Scholar was in print.
Mabel was a medium in the 1870s. Florence Marryat was so impressed with a communication from her daughter via Mabel that she gave an account in “There is no Death” (1891). In 1878, Mabel began to have Egyptian related communications. Some of this material became “Idyll of the White Lotus” and appeared in the Banner of Light.
Mabel was first introduced to theosophy in 1881 when a neighbor loaned her Isis Unveiled by H.P. Blavatsky. When Blavatsky came to London in 1884, Mabel met with her on two or three occasions. Mabel wrote her book, Light on the Path, during that year. She described leaving her body and arriving in a hall where the wall was covered in jewels. She found that there were words that she memorized and later wrote down when she returned to her body.
Mabel was not happy with married life and complained of being bored. She and Keningale separated in 1885, and when he died in 1886, he left Mabel enough money to live comfortably for a while. After Blavatsky returned to England, she shared a home with Mabel. They created the monthly journal, Lucifer, in 1887, but Blavatsky did not contribute toward her share of the expenses and appeared to be jealous of Mabel gaining attention. Blavatsky eventually moved out.
Mabel continued with her writing, publishing a weekly column, and writing books. Blavatsky worked against her at every turn, trying to force Mabel into crediting Blavatsky’s spiritual guides with the content of Light on the Path, and accusing Mabel of practicing the dark arts. Mabel finally lodged a complaint for libel in July 1889.
Because of the stress, Mabel developed eczema and suffered from incessant headaches. She had a nervous breakdown and spent four months being cared for by her sister. Mabel’s problems with Blavatsky did not stop until 1891, when Blavatsky died.
Mabel spent much of her time writing but was not making enough money and was forced to declare bankruptcy in 1892. By 1912, she finally began to write regularly for the Occult Review. In 1913, her bank folded, taking her savings with it. She ended up begging for money from various sources. Her letters continued in the Occult Review throughout that year.
The First World War threw Mabel in a deep depression. To aide in the war effort, she visited soldiers and wrote her book, The Crucible. In 1915 she went to stay with Catherine Metcalfe and wrote Our Glorious Future at Metcalfe’s home. They were to spend the last twelve years of Mabel’s life together. Mabel died of angina in 1927 at the age of seventy-six.
Additional Reading:
Collins, Mabel (1885) Light on the Path. Reprinted Quest Books, 1970
Ann Harrison was born in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. After attending the High School for Girls, she trained as a Pharmaceutical Assistant with Boots the Chemists. The traumatic loss of her fiancé led to a career change. She studied to become a teacher and worked for some years in a Primary School.
After her first husband passed in 1990, he returned in spirit to a friend of his sister. Ann was excited and couldn’t wait to make contact. Over the next two months, she not only contacted her husband, she became a Spiritualist. She was accepted into a little church in Hull and began a course of study with Mavis Pitilla at the Arthur Findlay College.
Ann developed clairvoyance and clairsentience abilities. She created spirit-inspired verses which she read during Spiritualist services. Beginning in 1993, she worked as a platform medium with a friend. They took turns speaking about the philosophy of Spiritualism and demonstrating the survival of the soul at local churches, sometimes traveling over 30 miles.
Ann’s involvement with the Spiritualist community led to her meeting her second husband, Tom Harrison in 1993. Tom had been involved with Spiritualism since he was three years old when he heard his uncle speaking in trance. His mother was Minnie Bessant Harrison, trance medium and member of the Saturday Night Club, a séance group. After returning from the war, Tom spent 8-9 years assisting his mother, witnessing over 1500 materialised forms and welcoming over 200 visitors to their circle.
Impressed by all that Tom had experienced with his mother, Ann assisted him as he spread the news of what he witnessed. Between 1994 – 98, they travelled widely in the UK. Ann did little mediumistic work, but they sometimes did private sittings.
Ann and Tom regularly sat in the home circle of a family in West Yorkshire. They produced a variety of phenomena, including table movement, telekinesis, apports, trance speaking and direct voice. Ann was known as the Alphabet Lady. She would call out the letters, the table jerking to select the one it wanted, until a message was spelled out. Later, a wooden spoon marked with a luminous spot on the tip of the bowl replaced the table. It would float in the air and would dip in front of her when the correct letter was stated.
After moving to Spain in 2000, Ann worked at several centres, especially the Acacia Centre near Murcia. She also taught workshops, conducted presentations, and led Sunday services at times. In 2005, they published an account of Tom’s life and his mother’s mediumship and founded the publishing house, Saturday Night Press Publications. Tom passed in 2010. To date, Ann has published 40 titles, most on Physical Mediumship.
Ann writes, “I love my work as I know what a difference the knowledge that we live on forever made to me and so many. Death is not the end but an opening to a wonderful eternal life in a much better place – how much better depends on the loving life you have lived here.”
