We Hear the Dead (33 page)

Maggie Fox returned to spirit rapping intermittently after the death of Elisha Kane but was no longer comfortable with or successful at making her living by deceit. Her reconciliation with Leah proved to be tentative and uneasy. The younger woman never again allowed Leah to rule her life, and before long, the two sisters parted ways and thereafter enjoyed no more than a cool cordiality.

Maggie never received any money from Elisha's estate, despite the overwhelming success of his book. Desperate to acquire a means of supporting herself, Maggie eventually did what she swore she would never do and published an account of her romance, complete with Elisha's letters, in a book called
The Love-Life of Doctor Kane
. Unfortunately, Kane's family spent a small fortune to discredit her, and they were so successful that for a long time historians scoffed at the idea of a common-law marriage between Kane and Fox. Modern researchers, however, have found enough evidence in family letters to support her claim.

Kate Fox did marry and had two sons, one of whom was diagnosed in adulthood with epilepsy. After her husband died, she lived a difficult life, battling addictions to morphine and alcohol.

In 1888, Maggie publicly announced that she was a fraud and revealed in front of an audience how she had created the rapping sounds with the joints in her feet and ankles. She apologized to the public at large and disparaged the entire spiritualist movement. A year later, she recanted her confession, claiming that she had made it only for money, which she desperately needed. Belief in spiritualism continued unabated.

Ann Leah Fox Fish Brown Underhill died in 1890, attended by her devoted and wealthy third husband. Kate and Maggie died in 1892 and 1893, respectively, suffering from ill health.

Spiritualism survived well into the twentieth century, when its validity would be hotly debated by such people as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini. The Fox sisters are still credited today with the birth and popularity of the movement.

The accomplishments of Dr. Elisha Kent Kane, the most widely celebrated adventurer of his day, were soon overtaken and surpassed. The ice-free water discovered by the men of his expedition was not, in fact, an open polar sea, because no such body of water exists. Eventually the bay in which the doctor's ship had been trapped was renamed Kane Basin. Other than this nominal accolade, his fame soon receded and gave way to obscurity. In the annals of American exploration, he is nearly forgotten.

In the year 1904, beneath the little Hydesville house where the Fox sisters began their career, a crumbling cellar wall finally collapsed, unearthing the hidden tomb of an almost-complete human skeleton.

Kane, Elisha Kent.
Arctic Explorations
. Scituate, MA: Digital Scanning Inc., 2008.

Lewis, E. E. A
Report of the Mysterious Noises Heard in the House of Mr. John D. Fox in Hydesville, Arcadia, Wayne County.
Available at http://www.woodlandway.org.

Sawin, Mark Metzler.
Raising Kane: Elisha Kent Kane and the Culture of Fame in Antebellum America
. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 2008.

Stuart, Nancy Rubin.
The Reluctant Spiritualist: The Life of Maggie Fox
. Orlando, FL: Harcourt, 2005.

Weisberg, Barbara.
Talking to the Dead: Kate and Maggie Fox and the Rise of Spiritualism
. San Francisco: HarperCollins, 2004.

I'd like to acknowledge all the people who encouraged me to rescue Maggie and Elisha from the shadowy depths of history and bring their unique story back into the limelight. In particular, thanks to…

My husband, my first reader and most ardent admirer, who didn't mind my having a “love affair” with a long-dead explorer and even took me to visit his crypt in Philadelphia.

My parents and my aunt, who became spirited book promoters, and my sister, who emailed me in tears when she read about Maggie's broken engagement. Their enthusiasm provided me with the incentive to keep writing.

All the family, friends, and community members who read this book in one form or another, providing invaluable feedback and encouragement, including the Crists, the O'Donnells, and several book clubs in the Chester County, Pennsylvania area.

My students at Avon Grove Intermediate School, who witnessed the book undergo many revisions and eagerly kept track of the publication process. I need to especially thank Emma, who thought of the title.

And finally, Kelly Barrales-Saylor, who tracked me down because she believed in the story and then guided me through the sometimes painful process of making important choices in the telling of this tale.

Dianne K. Salerni
is an elementary school teacher, author, and online book reviewer. She has previously published educational materials for teachers, as well as short stories.
We Hear the Dead
is her first full-length novel. With her husband and her two daughters, Salerni lives in Pennsylvania, where she is at work on her second novel.