Wayne County Life

The Newark-Arcadia Historical Society's Historic Cemetery Walk will be held this weekend! For the first time, a performance will be held inside the mausoleum!

The event will be held with three shows nightly at Newark Cemetery on N. Main St. in the Village of Newark.

Parking will be at Wayne Warehouse (right across the street), and on the east side of the street. Tours will begin inside the Harriet L. Nichols Memorial Chapel.

Tickets will be available at the gate: $7 per person or $15 per family.

A special encore performance will be held at 7:00 p.m. Sunday, Oct.20th, at the N-AHS Museum, 120 High St. (across from the library).

Our "restless spirits" this year include: Samuel Mora (Steve Heald), Postmaster James Pitkin and wife Maude (Jim & Rita Weiler), F.E. Thompson (Brent DeJohn), Simon & Elizabeth Hallagan (Lyle & Elaine Bean), Anthony & Madeline Furfaro (Doug Lowe & Carolynn Roden), and IN THE MAUSELEUM itself!, Charles Raynor & Michael Flynn (Dave Schwind & Steve Murphy).

For additional information, please call 315-331-6409

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Submitted by: Chris Davis, Newark-Arcadia Historical Society

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The 2012 Winter Lecture Sereis, sponsored by the Newark-Arcadia Historical Society, begins this Saturday. All programs begin at 2:00 p.m., at the Newark-Arcadia Museum, 120 High St.

Jan. 28th - "The Scoop on our Old Houses, Part 2", by John Zornow. A continuation of last year's informative talk on historic Newark houses.

Feb. 4th - "Solemn Pride", a Civil War play video presentation. Directed by Larry Ann Evans, the play was originally presented on the stage of Ohmann Theatre by Wayne County Historical Society and Lyons
Heritage Society last fall. Larry Ann, Executive Director of Wayne County Historical Society, will speak following the show.

Feb. 25th - "Newark & Marion Railroad" by Christopher Baker. The Newark & Marion opened in 1905.

Mar. 10th - "The History of the Wizard of Oz", by Valerie Lapresi-Schmitz. Children as well as as adults will enjoy this one.

Apr. 7th - "Tiffany Mosaic", by Arlene Copeland. The mosaic is located in the chapel of Clifton Springs Hospital and is a treasure.

More information will follow. All programs are free of charge, with donations gratefully accepted.

For information, please call 315-331-6409. We hope to see you!

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Submitted by: Stephanie Knarr, Lyons Heritage Society Member


Directed by Larry Ann Evans of the Wayne County Historical Society and Pat Alena of the Lyons Heritage Society, "Solemn Pride" and "Ever True" will be on stage tonight at the historic Ohmann Theatre in Lyons.

Show times are Saturday at 7:00 p.m. with wine/cheese and Civil War discussion immediately following and on Sunday at 2:00 p.m. with coffee/cookies and Civil War discussion.

Tickets are $12 and all proceeds benefit the Wayne County Historical Society and Lyons Heritage Society.

Come see members of the Heritage Society portray a touching affair of one of the most memorable moments in history.

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SUBMITTED by Amy Blum (29-Aug-2011)

Visitors Will Experience the “Look” and “Feel” of Historic 17th-Century Event

In 1669, French explorer LaSalle and his 10-man exploration entourage arrived at the bustling Seneca town of Ganondagan, populated by approximately 4,500 Seneca people living in 150 longhouses. On Saturday, September 24 from 10 am – 4 pm at “A Seneca Encounter with LaSalle,” historic re-enactors from throughout North America will transform Ganondagan State Historic Site to the day when this remarkable meeting took place, and the public is invited to attend.

LaSalle meets the Seneca (Photo: Kim Burkard)

Participants will be able to visit with French, Jesuit priests, Seneca, and Dutch traders dressed in authentic 17th-century clothing. They also will be able to test their skills at Colonial and Native games, view the re-enactment of the LaSalle encounter, visit a trading post, take tours of Ganondagan’s bark longhouse, and hike the Site’s trails. Artisans of period crafts—rarely available at any festival—will be selling their works as well as providing demonstrations and information about their crafts. Food will be available onsite for purchase. Thanks to the excellent documentation by the French priest Galinée who accompanied LaSalle, there is a high degree of accuracy regarding clothing, weaponry, and period crafts and trade items.

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Fox Sisters

By: STEPHANIE L. KNARR

Spiritualism –a belief that spirits of the dead communicate with the living.

Today marks the 163rd anniversary of the Birthplace of Modern Spititualism in Hydesville, New York.


On March 31, 1848, the spirit of a peddler, allegedly known as Charles B. Rosna, found a way to effectively rap amid the walls of the Fox residence in Hydesville. With syncopated taps, he spoke to the young girls of the house, Katie and Maggie Fox.

Original Cottage before it was moved to Lilydale in 1916.

The little cottage located on the corners of Hydesville and Parker Roads was owned by Dr. Artemus Hyde and occupied by John and Margaret Fox and their children at the time of the sensation. According to the peddler spirit, James Bell, who through a series of taps and shakes was named as his murderer, earlier occupied the little cottage. 

Spectators came from near and afar to see the unseen. No one could believe that such a blasphemous encounter was happening in this small Christian hamlet. Some onlookers reveled in the phenomena and took their turn to speak with Katie and Maggie and the potential chance of reuniting with their loved ones. 

The Fox Sisters moved from the little hamlet to live life in big cities like Chicago, New York and London doing séances for thousands of people, including Mary Lincoln, the wife to President Abraham Lincoln. Their older sister, Leah, ended up joining them in their ventures as they traveled across the country proving their existence and attempting to dispel rumors of “the great hoax”. 

Spiritualism became a new religious movement and to this day still has many followers. During the 1880’s, people who were able to communicate with the dead were called mediums and were mostly women. This enhanced the current radical movements of the time like abolition and women’s suffrage. Though this phenomenon was popular throughout the world by upper-class citizens, the movement itself began to die due to the public outcry claiming fraud. However, despite some, an organized religion was formed and a spiritualist camp was established in Lily Dale, NY just south of Jamestown.

The fraud claim became a plausible accusation, as the Fox Sisters themselves both denounced later that what they were performing was in fact hocus-pocus. Others still stand for the cause and claim that Maggie Fox recanted due to severe pressure and Katie Fox recanted her story as she was a pauper and was able to sell the story for $1,000. Katie and Maggie and Leah all died in the 1880’s as paupers, but left behind many believers. 

To everyone’s later surprise however their tale continued to unfold.

In the early 1900’s, some children were playing in the then vacant cottage that jarred loose some fieldstone of the foundation. As the fieldstone crumbled in, a skeleton and a trunk appeared. At last, physical proof that spirits really exist! The peddler’s remains and his trunk were found. It appeared that the peddler’s body was placed in between the outside wall of the foundation and a built up wall on the inside of the cellar. Once again, the sensation was inflamed with renewed passion and believers flooded to the Hydesville site. The Wayne County Sheriff’s Department took the skeletal remains away and the peddler’s trunk ended up in the Museum in Lilydale, which is still on display today.

In 1916, a spiritualist by the name of Bartlett, purchased the run-down cottage and moved it to Lily Dale. Unfortunately, in 1955, the cottage caught fire and burned down. Today, there is a memorial stone before it and where the cottage once stood is now a meditation garden.

The work of the Fox Sisters did not go unappreciated. In fact, as the residents in Hydesville know, a man by the name of John Drummond moved here from Canada to continue the work of the infamous celebration of life after death. John, known to be an eccentric man, scoured the county in search of time period barns. He purchased the barns and removed the wood, one piece at a time and relocated it to the empty corner lot. Board by board, John rebuilt the cottage with only slight changes, on the original foundation. John Drummond’s intentions were to eventually build a local spiritualist organization. John opened his home and allowed tours of the cottage. At the door, you would receive a pamphlet of the eerie Hydesville story along with excerpts of news clippings announcing that the peddler had been found.

In 1983, the replica of the Fox Cottage once again caught fire. A spark from a wood burning stove caught a pile of timber and ignited. The house was left with smoke and water damage once the fire department announced that the fire was out. John Drummond went to live with his neighbors, Ro and Jan Strassburger and remained there until his death.

In November 1991, the Strassburger’s had a controlled burn of the damaged structure of the replica cottage. They claimed that people were trespassing on the property and getting hurt inside the charred remains. They state it was clearly done for liability purposes. Some local residents say that they fought the issue of a controlled burn solely because they did not want the evil spirits floating over their homes costumed by black rolling smoke.

And here we are today, at the brink of the celebration of 163 years of modern spiritualism. The tiny cottage that could not withstand multiple occasions of heat and flames will always remain a hot topic for local residents, historians and believers alike. "There is no death, there are no dead"

A small celebrational ceremony will be held today at the site in the Fox Sisters Memorial beginning at 5:00 p.m. 

Controlled burn of cottage replica in 1991

For more information on the National Spiritualists Association or the Fox Sisters, you may visit http://www.nsac.org/foxproperty.htm.  Also, the Newark-Arcadia Museum has information and other materials available at 120 High Street, Newark, NY. (Across from the Newark Public Library) They are open on Saturday's from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.

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By: STEPHANIE L. KNARR

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By: Stephanie L. Knarr

Spiritualism –a belief that spirits of the dead communicate with the living.

Tomorrow will mark the 162nd Anniversary of the Birthplace of Modern Spititualism. On March 31, 1848, the spirit of a peddler known as Charles B. Rosna found a way to effectively rap amid the walls of the Fox residence in Hydesville. With syncopated taps, he spoke to the young girls of the house, Katie and Maggie Fox.
The little cottage located on the corners of Hydesville and Parker Roads was owned by Dr. Artemus Hyde and occupied by John and Margaret Fox and their children at the time of the sensation. According to the peddler spirit, James Bell, who through a series of taps and shakes was named as his murderer, earlier occupied the little cottage.

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SUBMITTED by Larry Ann Evans, Museum of Wayne County History (18-Feb-2010)

New Museum Exhibit, “Wayne County and the Burnt-over District”

The Wayne County Historical Society’s Museum of Wayne County History has a new exhibit opening, “Wayne County and the Burnt-over District.” The preview party for the exhibit will be Thursday, 4 March 2010 at 7pm. .

Wayne County is unique in that many religions and religious movements had major connections to the area and three can even call Wayne County their birthplace; Mormonism, Modern Spiritualism and the Neversweats. The upcoming exhibit, which will run from March 5-August 7, will examine this part of the “Burnt-over District” a term coined by Charles Grandison Finney who in his 1876 book Autobiography of Charles G. Finney referred to a “burnt district” to denote an area in central and western New York State during the Second Great Awakening. The name was inspired by the notion that the area had been so heavily evangelized during antebellum revivalism as to have no “fuel” (unconverted population) left over to “burn” (convert).

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SUBMITTED by Larry Ann Evans, Museum of Wayne County History Executive Director (18-June-2009)

Museum cards and cookbooks are flying off the shelves!

The two latest endeavors of the Museum of Wayne County History, the Historical Pack of Wayne County Playing cards and the cookbook, “Behind Bars: Recipes from the Old Jail” are both fantastic gifts for any occasion.

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