When Americans sought comfort in Spiritualism: Part 1
Fannie Conant: A medium for the times
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Release Date: October 21, 2025
The room was full of spirits
Frances Ann Crowell was, by all accounts, a frail and sickly child who grew to become a frail and sickly woman. She was prone to long periods of fever, sometimes lasting days. During one of those fevers, seven-year-old Fannie, as she was called, was roused to consciousness by the voice of her mother, Hannah, who seemed to be talking to an unseen someone in her daughter’s sickroom.
“Who are you talking with, Mother?” asked the child.
“Well, my dear,” said the mother, “I am talking to the angels.”
What followed would forever impact young Fannie’s life, as her mother explained, in detail, the thin veil that she believed existed between the living and the dead, between the Christian idea of body and spirit, and how reaching across that veil was young Fannie’s destiny.
“From that day, like one of old, [Fannie] ‘kept all these things and pondered them in her heart,’ wondering of those scenes and persons she sometimes beheld, though others could not, were really of angelic origin, as the philosophy of her mother would seem to indicate. She heard raps and saw articles of furniture moved in her room when she knew no mortal hand was there to perform the acts; and she gravely considered these – the first, premonitory drops of the greater shower yet to come – with a depth of interest beyond her years.” 1
Four years later, in the fall of 1842, Fannie was called to her dying mother’s bedside.
“The angels will be your father and mother,” Hannah whispered. “When you come to meet me in heaven, bring me a clear record that you have always obeyed them.” 2
Eleven-year-old Fannie promised her mother she would, and then, as she witnessed her mother draw a final breath, Fannie “saw a brilliant emanation rise and stand above the body.”
“I thought it was an angel, but it looked like my mother. When she turned to go away, she appeared to know me, and gazed so kindly upon me; yet she seemed anxious to go, and I was much frightened. The room was full of spirits – some strange faces, and some whom I had known while on earth.” 3
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A spontaneous and irresistible life of its own
What would come to be called the “Spiritualism Movement” in America, can be traced to Hydesville, NY, and two young sisters, Margaretta and Catherine Fox.
In December of 1847 — five years after the death of Hannah Crowell — the Fox family, parents John and Margaret, and their youngest two children, 14-year-old Maggie and ten-year-old Katie, moved into a simple frame house in Hydesville – a house which former residents and neighbors claimed was haunted.
Almost immediately, the proof of that haunting seemed to become evident. Strange knocking and rapping noises were heard most evenings, “and occasionally the children complained of being touched by something invisible, which at one time seemed like a cold hand, and again a large dog.” 4
Then on March 31, 1848, something otherworldly happened, or so the family claimed.
Despite having been told by their mother to “lie still” and ignore the strange noises, Maggie and Katie could do neither. At some point, Katie, the youngest “merrily snapped her fingers and called out, ‘Here, Mr. Split-foot, do as I do!’”
Almost instantaneously, a corresponding number of raps was heard.
Astonished, Katie “made a given number of motions with her finger and thumb in the air, but without noise, and her astonishment and childish delight was redoubled to find that it could see as well as hear, for a corresponding number of knocks were immediately given to her noiseless motion. “Only look, mother!” she cried; “look, it can see as well as hear!” 5
News quickly spread that the Fox sisters could communicate with spirits, and soon the girls were holding séance and circles during which audience members asked questions, and the girls, acting as mediums, answered those questions by interpreting the knocking and rapping of their otherworldly visitors.
Hundreds, and then thousands of believers flocked to their events, seeking entertainment and enlightenment. And answers.
Within two years, Spiritualism had spread far and wide, literally from California to Maine, as others picked up the mantle of mediumship, and the idea “that disembodied human spirits sometimes manifest themselves to persons in the earthly body and hold communication with them” took root in America. 6
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Give your powers to the world hereafter
As the Fox sisters were gaining notoriety with their public and private seances and circles, nineteen-year-old Fannie Crowell, now Mrs. John Conant, having gotten married in early 1850, was fighting for her life in an east end Boston boarding house. Despite near-constant medical attention, the young bride’s health had quickly begun to deteriorate, and death seemed imminent.
One evening, the owner of the boarding house, Mrs. Bryant, suggested Fannie seek out a medium, as she explain, “a person through whom spirits – or dead folks – can come to talk with their friends in earth life.” 7
Fearing she had nothing to lose, and, perhaps everything to gain, Fannie agreed.
During their first meeting, the medium went into trance and was taken over by the spirit of Dr. John Dix Fisher, a famous and well-respected Boston physician who had passed away the previous March.
And what the good doctor proposed changed everything:
“Your case has been pronounced hopeless, but I do not consider it so. If you will obey my instructions and do what I require in payment, in three weeks, I will have you well; but I shall charge you what perhaps you will call a heavy fee.”
Mrs. Conant answered that she had not much to pay with, as she was not possessed of pecuniary means, to which she supposed he referred.
“I will state my terms,” he said, “and then you may decide as to whether you can meet them, or not. You have some of the finest mediumistic powers that I have ever seen, and the world ought to have the full benefit of them.”
“I!” explained Mrs. C.
“Most certainly,” returned the spirit physician; “You are yet to be a remarkable medium if you will give your consent.”
He then proceeded to render a correct synopsis of her past life and experiences, fully explaining those sights, sounds, and occurrences which had been so strange to her from childhood. These, he informed her, were perceived and recognized in consequence of her mediumistic capacity of discernment.
While she sat rapt in astonishment at the revelation, the spirit continued:
“You are a spirit medium, and the fee I require in consideration of your case, is that you will give your powers to the world hereafter.” 8
Then the spirit of Dr. Fischer explained that he wanted Fannie and her powers for himself. That he would continue to heal others through her mediumship. And in exchange, he would heal her.
Fannie’s response was quick and sincere. “I will pay the fee.”
Three weeks later, nearly to the day, Fannie’s health had been restored to such an extent that friends and those who knew her believed it to be a medical miracle.
And shortly after, Dr. Fischer went back into practice through the mediumship of the women who would come to be called “the World’s medium.”
Under the control of Dr. Fischer, Fannie quickly got to work conducting medical examinations, making complex diagnoses and prescribing treatments and medication – even performing surgery, as happened one afternoon in December of 1855.
By then, Fannie and John were living at the home of Frederick G. Pope and his wife, Mary Redfield Pope on Tilestone Street in Boston, and Fannie was conducting both sittings where other spirits spoke through her, and medical examinations with Dr. Fischer.
On this day, Fannie was in the middle of a private séance when the spirit of Dr. Fischer took control, saying “his medium” was needed. Soon after, the doorbell began to ring violently, and, rushing to the door, Fannie found a group of men carrying an obviously injured Frederick Pope.
“She retained her consciousness long enough to hear that he had met with an accident, by which one of his lower limbs had been fractured, after which Dr. Fisher assumed control of her organism, not quitting his hold for two hours.
He first skillfully examined the wound, pronouncing it a severe one, but was of opinion that he could soon restore the patient, if the parties interested were willing to put the case in his hands. The Colonel and his family expressed a wish that he should undertake the treatment, so the spirit physician continued to work over the broken limb till all was settled for the present, as far as bandaging and preventatives to the arising of inflammation were concerned.” 9
Later, a living physician was called, however, he quickly conceded that he could do no more for the patient than had been done by the talented “spirit surgeon.”
Word of Frederick’s astonishing recovery – within three weeks he was strong enough to leave the house and soon after was able to resume normal activities – was a boon for the practice and reputation of both spirit and medium, and soon Fannie’s every waking hour was consumed by the demands of Dr. Fischer and his patients.
Recognizing the physical and mental fragility of her young houseguest, Mrs. Pope was charged with providing Fannie with gentle nourishment, and even the spirits who monopolized her time and energy became protective, forbidding Fannie from performing manual labor of any kind, including her own mending, and “ministering to her health through the subtle powers of spirit chemistry.” 10
Messages to be published
In 1857, 27-year-old Fannie entered into the mediumship project which would define the rest of her life, and, in many ways reframe America’s relationship with death. At that time, Dr. Fischer’s spirit convinced a Boston printer named Luther Colby, himself a medium, to “commence the publication of a paper in the interests of spirit communion.”
Filled with Spiritualist news, perspectives and announcements, the showpiece of The Banner of Light was Fannie, fashioned as Mrs. J. H. Conant, who shared “messages” from the other side with the publication’s readers.
“[Messages] are conducted through the mediumship of Mrs. Fanny Conant, a lady who for several years past has been influenced by spirits of every rank, grade of life, and development of mind. These invisible guests throng the circle room which the editors of the Banner of Light, with noble and exemplary generosity, pen free to the public. And there, as opportunity permits, they pour forth, through the entranced organism of Mrs. Conant, the tale of their earthly lives, their vices and errors, their bitter lamentations for earthly lives misspent, message of love and consolation to absent friends, warnings, encouragement, and every description of characteristic communication that could be conceived of as emanating from the heterogenous conditions of human existence.
“And all of this is represented in the voice, tone, gestures, and even the countenance of this wonderful medium, which such graphic fidelity that a witness with closed eyes might readily persuade himself, he was in the actual presence of all the varied characters thus delineated.” 11
In the absence of a good death
On April 12, 1861, the bloodiest and most deadly war in American history began when Confederate troops fired on Fort Sumter in South Carolina’s Charleston Harbor. Less than 34 hours later, federal forces surrendered, and the cohesion of the United States was fractured.
Over the next four years, nearly three-quarters of a million Americans died: Northerners and Southerners, fathers and sons, brothers and husbands, nearly all alone and far from home, most buried in unmarked graves or hastily dug trenches.
Few of their deaths met the definition of what many considered “a good death” – dying at home, surrounded by family who could bear witness to the dying person’s final moments and words, a necessary acceptance of mortality and a promise of future salvation in the afterlife.
In the absence of such a “good death”, were the war dead truly at peace? And how was one to know?
For a growing number of Americans, the answer was found in Spiritualism.
A request from the other side
Three days a week, Fannie and a small group of people gathered at the Banner of Light offices to hold a circle, a séance, in which Fannie would open herself up to the spirits, most of whom were men who had fallen on the battlefield.
Men like John Klinck, Jr. of Charleston, SC.
Born in April of 1831, John Jr was the second of ten children born to John Klinck, Sr., a wealthy Charleston merchant, and his wife, Jane Keckley. In 1858, 27-year-old John married Henrietta Schreiner, and the couple quickly welcomed, and then buried, two infant daughters, the sisters dying within a month of one another in late 1858 - early 1859.
When war broke out in 1861, John — who’d listed ownership of eight enslaved people in the 1860 Slave Schedule, enlisted into the Confederate Army along with two of his brothers, Theodore and 17-year-old Gustav.
Theodore, a first lieutenant in the Washington Light Infantry, Hampton Legion, was mortally wounded during the Battle of Seven Pines, VA and died on June 11, 1862. He was just 23.
Two years later, 33-year-old John, Jr. was killed during the Battle of Petersburg, VA — a nine-month battle which took the lives of an estimated 70,000 soldiers.
Although John’s body was buried on the battlefield in Virginia, granite markers in his memory were erected at two Charleston cemeteries, one listing him resting in peace with his wife, Henrietta, and the other with Theodore and another brother, Charles, who had died in 1845 at the age of two.
During a circle meeting held Tuesday, January 10, 1865, Fannie was attended by John’s spirit:
“I am John Klinck, of the Twenty-fifth South Carolina. I want to open communication with Thomas Lefar, Charleston, S. C. I am decidedly ignorant about this coming back, dead railroad, business. It’s new business to me, as I suppose it will be to some of you when you travel this way. Say I will do the best I can to communicate with my friends, if they will give me an opportunity.
I desire Mr. Lefar to send my letter to my family when he receives it — he knows where they are — and then report to this office.
“ Good night, afternoon or morning, I don’t know which. I walked out at Petersburg.” 12
In John’s case, it’s not known if the person he wanted to communicate with was ever contacted, or if the mentioned letter was ever delivered.
But that wasn’t the case with hundreds of spirits who sent messages to the living through the mediumship of Fannie. At least according to her supporters.
“The accuracy of these remarkable spirit personalities is further attested by hundreds of letters addressed to the Banner of Light by total strangers, who have read and recognized the printed messages from their spirit friends.” 13
A simple, straightforward narrative
Despite the best efforts of those around Fannie to conserve her mental and physical strength and vitality, the demands made on her during the Civil War years took their toll. The long episodes of fevers which had plagued her as a child returned, often forcing Fannie to postpone lectures and public and private sittings which found her crisscrossing the divided nation.
By 1872, Fannie had been the channel through which more than ten thousand different spirits had sent messages to their kindred and friends on earth, and her health was failing.
It was in this waning state, that Fannie was visited by the spirit of the Unitarian minister, social reformer and abolitionist, Theodore Parker, who had died a dozen years earlier. The two had been friends, and Theodore was said to have influenced Fannie’s conservative values, especially her belief that marriage was a religious bond broken only by death – a deeply personal matter following the commitment of her husband, John, to the State Lunatic Hospital at Taunton in 1869. 14
Theodore’s spirit was insistent that his medium’s story be told, and that he would be the one to “outline and dictate its essential substance.” Taking advantage of Fannie’s ability to spirit write while in a trance, as well as the dictation skills of a Banner of Light reporter named John W. Day, and drawing on the papers and reminiscences of Dr. J. T. Gilman Pike and others, spirit Theodore created a “simple, straightforward narrative” of Fannie’s life, mediumship and incredible influence on the American phenomenon of Spiritualism.
The Biography of Mrs. J. H. Conant was published in 1873.
Two years later, on August 5, 1875, Frances Ann Crowell Conant passed away at her home in Boston. She was 44 years old.
Called “one of the best known spiritual mediums in the country” and “the most facile and fluent trance medium living”, perhaps Fannie’s greatest legacy came down to this:
“There is no doubt about her honest confidence in her gift and her religion; and her life was one of modest charity and service to the poor; and to all with whom she had relations, her influence was beneficial.” 15
Sadly, not every Spiritualist was as sincere.
Copyright 2025 Lori Olson White
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End Notes
1 “Biography of Mrs. J. H. Conant, the World’s Medium of the Nineteenth Century: Being a History of Her Mediumship from Childhood to the Present Time; Together with Extracts from the Diary of her Physician; Selections from Letters Received Verifying Spirit Communications given through her Organism at the Banner of Light Free Circles; Specimen Messages, Essays and Invocations from Various Intelligences in the Other Life, Etc., Etc., Etc. – Opening Remarks by Allen Putnam,” William White and Company,Banner of Light Office, 14 Hanover Street, Boston, MA, 1873, P 16-19.
2 Ibid. P 24.
3 Ibid. P. 27.
4 Ibid. P 16-19.
5 Ibid. P 24.
6 Ibid. P. 22.
7 Emma Hardinge Britten, “Modern American Spiritualism: Twenty Years’ Record of the Communion Between Earth and the World of Spirits”, New York, NY, 1870, P. 32.
8 Ibid. P. 32.
9 Ibid. P. 55.
10 “Biography of Mrs. J. H. Conant, the World’s Medium of the Nineteenth Century, P. 37.
11 Ibid. P. 64-65
12 Ibid. P. 68.
13 Emma Hardinge Britten, “Modern American Spiritualism: Twenty Years’ Record of the Communion Between Earth and the World of Spirits”, New York, NY, 1870, P. 512.
14 P. T. Barnum, “Humbugs of the World: An Account of Humbugs, Delusions, Impositions, Quackeries, Deceits, and Deceivers Generally, in All Ages,” Carlton Publishers, New York, NY, 1866, P. 120-124.
15 “Eastern Massachusetts,” The Springfield Daily Republican, Springfield, MA, August 6, 1875, P. 6.
So glad you captured this missing piece of Civil War history. All those deaths - of course people found comfort and closure where they could. She provided a great service.
For obvious reasons, this is my favorite story yet! I love how you take us on a journey with each story. The clarity through which we're able to get a glimpse into the lives of those that came before us is mesmerizing. Thank you!