MRS. MARGARET FOX _Frontispiece._ PAGE JOHN D. FOX 10 DIAGRAM, PROSPECT STREET HOUSE 42 AUTOGRAPH ILLUSTRATIONS OF A BABY'S MEDIUMSHIP 90 MRS. MARGARETTA FOX KANE 122 DIAGRAM, TROUT STREET HOUSE 209 CLEVELAND (OHIO) GOLD MEDAL 225 AUTOGRAPH LETTER OF ALICE CARY 265 AUTOGRAPH LETTER OF SAME 266 AUTOGRAPH LETTER OF JOHN W. EDMONDS 267 AUTOGRAPH LETTER OF HORACE GREELEY 268 DANIEL UNDERHILL 292 MRS. KATIE FOX JENCKEN 465 GREEK WRITING BY A FIVE-MONTH'S-OLD INFANT 470 A. LEAH UNDERHILL (THE AUTHOR) 475 THE HYDESVILLE HOUSE 477 NOTE.--The steel-engraved portraits of the Fox family are from paintings, of dates very different from those referred to on the pages which they face. With the exception of the parents (Mr. and Mrs. Fox), they represent the three "_Fox girls_" (as they were called) at ages more matured than would correspond to the text of the pages which they accompany. Photography was not so advanced and universal as at the present day. INTRODUCTION. It is not that the history of Spiritual Manifestations in this century and country has not again and again been written, nor that a library of the splendid literature of Spiritualism--narrative, philosophical, and religious--does not already exist, that I have deemed it a duty to give this history to the world. It happens that nobody else possesses--both in vivid personal recollections and in stores of documentary material--the means and the data necessary for the task of giving a correct account of the initiation of the movement known as Modern Spiritualism; and the now hastening lapse of years gives warning that if to place it on record is a duty--as many friends have often urged--it is a duty not to be much longer delayed. Many mistakes and material omissions have been made in former summary accounts from pens of friends, as well as misstatements from those of foes; nor could any one heretofore form any clear or complete idea of the early years of the epochal period which dates from March 31, 1848.