Two sisters from Hydesville, NY are credited with the birth of the modern spiritualist movement, Margarita and Catherine Fox.

The Fox family moved into their home in December of 1847.  Not long after, events began to unfold that would become famous throughout the country.

Strange and unexplainable sounds began to be heard in the house, usually taking the form of knocks.  These sounds seemed to center around the two Fox daughters, Margarita and Catherine.  Reaching their crescendo on March 31st, the knocks were loud enough to keep the family awake.  At times, the knocks would be so loud as to actually shake the very walls of the home.

Eventually the girls began to communicate with the "spirit" who was making the sounds.  The spirit would respond to the girls when they would knock on furniture themselves while crying out "Come on Mr Splitfoot do as I do!"

A system of communication was worked out with the entity.  The spirit would knock once if the answer to a question posed was "yes" and would knock twice for "no".  Various patterns of knocks were developed to allow for the letters of the alphabet.

Questions were posed to the spirit and the answers were correctly received.  On one occasion, Mrs. Fox asked the spirit how many daughters she had, to which the spirit responded with the correct number which included two daughters who died at birth, of which the Fox daughters had been unaware.

Eventually, using this system of knocks, it was determined that the entity was the spirit of Charles B. Rosna, a peddlar who claimed to have been murdered by Mr. Bell, the former owner of the house, and buried in the basement.  This information was confirmed when the basement was searched and Rosna's body was found interred in the basement wall along with the wares of his trade.

As a result of the Hydesville rappings, a committee of investigation was set up and detailed statements taken from all witnesses. The committee then worked with the children and further, well-documented evidence was recorded.  Spirit requested that other groups be set up and soon circles and groups were communicating with Spirit all over America.

The publicity caused by the Rappings was extensive. Other children were discovered who had similar experiences but failed to understand their meaning. Later, pressure from science and the Orthodox Church brought about a change in attitude in the press and soon Spiritualism was being hailed as a hoax, but the Spiritualist Movement had been born.