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  [Illustration: Mrs. Margaret Fox]




  THE MISSING LINK
  IN
  MODERN SPIRITUALISM.

  BY
  A. LEAH UNDERHILL,
  OF THE FOX FAMILY.

  _REVISED AND ARRANGED BY A LITERARY FRIEND._

  NEW YORK:
  THOMAS R. KNOX & CO.,
  (SUCCESSORS TO JAMES MILLER,)
  813 BROADWAY.
  1885.




  COPYRIGHT, 1885, BY
  A. LEAH UNDERHILL.

  TROW'S
  PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY,
  NEW YORK.




  Dedication.


  TO MY HUSBAND,
  DANIEL UNDERHILL,
  WHO,
  BEFORE I HAD OTHER CLAIMS THAN THOSE OF TRUTH AND RIGHT,
  NOBLY SUSTAINED ME WHEN OLDER FRIENDS WAVERED,
  THIS NARRATIVE IS DEDICATED,
  NOT LESS GRATEFULLY THAN LOVINGLY.




EDITOR'S PREFACE.


The author of this volume, having written it from time to time, from
her recollections and documentary materials, which include bushels of
letters--but unwilling to commit it to the press in the disjointed
condition which was a natural consequence of her own want of much
practice of the pen--did me the honor of requesting my aid in revising
and arranging it for publication. Her honesty and sincerity of character
have caused her to insist upon a preface to that effect. Though deeming
this a superfluous scruple on her part, I am induced to comply with her
wish for a different reason; and that is, the opportunity it affords of
bearing my testimony to the remarkable accuracy of her memory and of her
truthfulness, as those qualities have proved themselves throughout the
intimate intercourse of many weeks, during which she has often had to
repeat the same recollections of facts and incidents, under what was
almost legal cross-examination, without ever the slightest variation in
their details, and without ever allowing anything to pass which might
be in the least degree tainted with inaccuracy or mistake. As she is so
well known to so many friends, it is superfluous for me to express on
this page, which will meet her eye for the first time in print, the
high and affectionate esteem and respect with which that intimate
intercourse, with all its opportunities for observation and judgment,
have inspired the

    EDITOR.




CONTENTS.


                                                                    PAGE
  INTRODUCTION                                                         1

                      CHAPTER I.
  HYDESVILLE                                                           5
    "Mysterious Noises" heard in the House of John D. Fox, in
      Hydesville (Town of Arcadia), near Newark, Wayne County,
      N. Y.--Statements of Witnesses.

                      CHAPTER II.
  HYDESVILLE (_Continued_)                                            20
    The Last Digging in the Cellar--Mob Antagonism--Noble
      Friends--Experiences and Theories--Antecedents of the
      House--Franklin.

                      CHAPTER III.
  ROCHESTER                                                           30
    My First Knowledge of the Matter--Hasten to Hydesville--Rapping
      on a Canal Boat--Experiences--Mother Comes to Rochester--Calvin
      Brown--Devious Route of Projectiles Up-stairs from Cellar to
      Garret--A Death-knell Sounded all Night on the Keys of a Locked
      Piano.

                      CHAPTER IV.
  ROCHESTER (_Continued_)                                             47
    Ventriloquism--"Proclaim these Truths to the World"--The Call
      for the Alphabet--Voices in Raps--God's Telegraph between
      the two Worlds--An Eviction--Committee of Five--No Money
      Accepted--Improper Questions to Spirits--"Done"--Struggle
      against the "Uncanny Thing"--Benjamin Franklin.

                      CHAPTER V.
  ROCHESTER (_Continued_), November, 1848                             57
    Light Articles made Immovable--The Coffins--Adieu of the
      Spirits--Their Return--First Steps toward Public
      Investigation--"Hire Corinthian Hall"--First Committee of
      Investigation--Second--Third or "Infidel" Committee--Behavior
      of a Great Dining-table--The Tar and Torpedo Mob.

                      CHAPTER VI.
  MEDIUMISTIC VEIN IN OUR FAMILY                                      74
    Some Family Antecedents--Our Great-grandmother--Phantom
      Prophetic Funerals--Vision of a Tombstone Nine Years in
      Advance, etc.

                      CHAPTER VII.
  MEDIUMISTIC VEIN IN OUR FAMILY (_Continued_)                        89
    Marvellous Writing by a Baby Medium.

                      CHAPTER VIII.
  ROCHESTER (_Continued_)                                            100
    "Repeat the Lord's Prayer"--First Money Accepted--Muscular
      Quakerism--Letter from George Willets--Letter from John E.
      Robinson--Caution against Consultation of Spirits about
      Worldly Interests.

                      CHAPTER IX.
  ALBANY AND TROY. 1850                                              115
    Excursion to Albany--Delavan House and Van Vechten
      Hall--Rev. Dr. Staats and the Judges--High Class of
      Minds Interested--President Eliphalet Nott--Pecuniary
      Arrangements--Excursion to Troy--Trojan Ladies--Mob Attempts
      on Life of Margaretta.

                      CHAPTER X.
  NEW YORK. 1850                                                     128
    "The Rochester Knockings at Barnum's Hotel"--Hard Work--Our
      Visitors--A Poisoned Bouquet--Hair of the Emperor
      Napoleon I.--Hair of John C. Calhoun--Investigation at
      Residence of Rev. Rufus W. Griswold, by the Leading Literary
      Celebrities of New York.

                      CHAPTER XI.
  RETURN TO ROCHESTER                                                142
    Letters and Newspaper Articles Res