Then misses fox was like, okay, I'm gonna invite some people over to chat with you. Cool, and the spirit apparently answered back cool. Misses fox invited over a neighbor, misses Redfield, who apparently didn't have a first name. Anyway, she came over thinking the whole matter was a childish joke until the spirit perfectly wrapped her age. Misses Redfield then told her husband he had to come check it out and pretty soon a dozen or so people were standing in the fox's cottage playing guess who with his knocking spirit. According to a piece in the Paris review from 2016, the small crowd ascertained that the spirit was the ghost of a 31 year old peddler who'd been killed for $500 by the previous owner of the cottage, who then buried them under the cellar. Not only that, but according to E E Lewis, they also learned that the peddler had had his throat cut with a butcher knife, and, quote, that the body did not remain in the room next day, but that it was taken down cellar and that it was not buried until the next night, that it was not taken down there through the outside door, but through the buttery down the stairway, that it was buried ten feet below the surface of the ground. Again, those are some super specific answers to get from just knocking. Also, I have never heard of anyone entering through the buttery. Sounds slick. Anyway the next day, there were upwards of 300 people jammed into the fox's modest cottage. The excited crowd went down to the cellar and began digging, trying to find the bones of the murdered peddler. Unfortunately, they were soon met with groundwater and had to stop digging for fear that the House would flood. 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Go to try miracle dot com slash strange and use the code strange to claim your free three piece towel set and save over 40% off again that's try miracle dot com slash strange to treat yourself. Thank you, miracle made for sponsoring this episode. As rumor of a spirit communicating with the living began to spread, people from nearby towns swarmed into hydesville to either see for themselves or to be like esmeralda and Edward scissorhands and just stand there yelling Bible verses about Satan and being damned to hell. According to American heritage, in addition to knocking, apparently the spirit was now able to make a gruesome gurgling sound that sounded like a person struggling to breathe after their throat had been cut. But before too long, people began to notice that no matter who was present for the knocking and gurgling. One fact remained constant. Either Maggie or Kate were always there when the phantom sounds were heard. This led some to believe the girls were hoaxing them. For others, it was proof that these girls were special and could communicate with the dead. According to history net dot com, quote, emotions ran so high in their nearby methodist Episcopal Church that ultimately the minister asked the Fox family to leave the congregation. In his view, the girls had engaged in unholy practices and their parents must be held accountable. What would Jesus do? Probably not kick people out of his congregation. This was when journalist E E Lewis came into the picture. History net dot com refers to Lewis as an attorney. I don't know what kind of law he practiced or why he thought writing about this mysterious knocking situation going on in hydesville would be a good idea. One would think a lawyer might want to steer clear of this kind of thing, but for whatever reason, EE Lewis leaned all the way in, interviewing the family and other witnesses and publishing a pamphlet called a report of the mysterious noises heard in the house of John D fox and hydesville Arcadia Wayne county in May of 1848. Now, stranger, I get it. You're probably wondering halfway through episode one of this series, how a whole new religion could spring up from two girls, some ghosts wrapping and the interest of nosy neighbors and beyond. We are at a key inflection point in this story, with the entrance of another Fox sister. One person who got their hands on the pamphlet was Margaret fox's eldest child, Leah Fox fish. Maggie and Kate's 33 year old sister who was living in Rochester. For background, Leah had married when she was just 14 years old. Apparently, according to Leah's autobiography, quote, mister fish discovered when too late that he had married a child and soon became indifferent to his home and family. So, basically, they got married, she had a kid, and then he realized Leah was only 14 and was like,