The historical importance of the Hydesville rappings is frequently deemed the spark for the modern Spiritualist movement. In 1848, in Hydesville, New York the young Fox sisters, Maggie, aged 15 and Kate, aged 12, proved they could have two-way communication with a spirit through rapping noises.

The Fox family moved to a Hydesville property in 1847 and it took a few months for rapping noises to occur in the sister’s bedroom. At first, these rapping sounds were dismissed by the Fox family who did not take the noises seriously. On the 31^st of March 1848 the Fox sisters began to communicate with the spirit by making similar noises by using their hands and fingers to make similar rapping noises. Mrs. Fox started asking questions and she received by reply correct information about her age, her children’s ages, and if the spirits could bring people in from outside their family.

The Fox sisters worked out a code for the alphabet and with the help of a neighbour, William Duesler, they signified words as questions using the alphabet. When they heard rapping replies, they started the process over again until they had formed the answers to the questions they asked. Through the alphabet code, the Fox sisters determined the rappings were made by a spirit, and that the spirit communicator was a murdered peddler who was buried in the cellar.

Over time the rappings became popular in the Hydesville community with up to 300 people attending the house to have various questions asked and correctly answered. When the Fox family moved a few miles to a family member’s property a few years later, the spirit moved with them, proving that the Fox sisters were the power for this spiritual phenomena, and not the location itself.

As the public took a greater interest in these events, many spiritual circles started across America. The Fox sisters went on to give many public demonstrations and became world-famous mediums. On 14^th November 1849 Maggie and Kate gave their first demonstration in public of these rappings and tappings in a hall in Rochester.