Spiritualists


Click the image to learn more. This 1889 photograph features the Morris Pratt Institute, the only Spiritualist college in the United States, at its original location in Whitewater. The institute still exists today and is now located in Wauwatosa.

In 1848, the Fox sisters reported communicating with spirits through rappings in their Hydesville, New York home.[1] Sparked by this revelation, Spiritualists began forming churches and spirit circles throughout the United States in hope of similarly contacting the dead.[2] Wisconsin became a center for the Spiritualist movement, which counted among its followers such dignitaries as the Wisconsin Historical Society’s Lyman Draper and Territorial Governor Nathaniel Tallmadge.[3] The first Milwaukee Spiritualist congregation was founded in 1851.[4] Although the movement’s popularity waned after the 1920s, the Milwaukee area counted three congregational affiliates of the National Spiritualist Association of Churches in 1948.[5] The First Spiritualist Church of West Allis is the sole remaining local congregation.[6] The nation’s only Spiritualist college, the Morris Pratt Institute, is located in Wauwatosa.[7]

This institution, which opened in Watertown, Wisconsin in 1903, grew out of Walworth and Jefferson Counties’ strong Spiritualist communities.[8] Morris Pratt, a follower of renowned local medium Mary Hayes Chynoweth, constructed an elaborate Watertown home for the college.[9] Classes were offered in traditional subjects as well as uniquely Spiritualist fields.[10] Facing declining enrollment and financial difficulties in the 1930s and 1940s, the school relocated to Wauwatosa in 1947.[11] The Institute continues to offer correspondence courses, on-site short courses, and a research library.[12]

While accounts differ, it is possible that Leafy Anderson, founder of the African-American Spiritualist movement in New Orleans, was born in Wisconsin.[13] The Theosophical Society in America, whose founders pursued Spiritualism before codifying beliefs different from traditional Spiritualism, maintains a presence on Milwaukee’s East Side.[14]

Footnotes [+]

  1. ^ Karen Abbott, “The Fox Sisters and the Rap on Spiritualism,” Smithsonian.com, October 30, 2012, accessed September 21, 2016.
  2. ^ Mary Farrell Bednarowski, “Spiritualism in Wisconsin in the Nineteenth Century,” Wisconsin Magazine of History 59, no. 1 (Autumn 1975): 4-6.
  3. ^ Bednarowski, “Spiritualism in Wisconsin in the Nineteenth Century,” 6.
  4. ^ Bednarowski, “Spiritualism in Wisconsin in the Nineteenth Century,” 6.
  5. ^ Bednarowski, “Spiritualism in Wisconsin in the Nineteenth Century,” 19; National Spiritualist Association of United States of America, Centennial Book of Modern Spiritualism in America (Chicago, IL: The Association, 1948), 244-245.
  6. ^ “Directory of Churches,” National Spiritualist Association of Churches website, https://www.nsac.org/churches.php, accessed September 21, 2016. For more on the First Spiritualist Church of West Allis, see “First Spiritualist Church of West Allis,” Meetup.com, accessed September 19, 2016.
  7. ^ Bednarowski, “Spiritualism in Wisconsin in the Nineteenth Century,” 6; “Morris Pratt Institute (MPI),” National Spiritualist Association of Churches website, https://www.nsac.org/mpi.php, accessed September 21, 2016. The Morris Pratt Institute address is listed as Milwaukee, but it is actually in the City of Wauwatosa. See “City Comprehensive Plan: Map 1.1-1 Jurisdictional Boundaries,” City of Wauwatosa, WI website, http://wauwatosa.net/index.aspx?nid=395, accessed September 21, 2016.
  8. ^ Bednarowksi, “Spiritualism in Wisconsin in the Nineteenth Century,” 15-18; “History,” Morris Pratt Institute website, accessed September 21, 2016.
  9. ^History,” Morris Pratt Institute website, accessed September 21, 2016; Bednarowski, 17-18.
  10. ^History,” Morris Pratt Institute website, accessed September 21, 2016.
  11. ^Pratt Made Whitewater a Center of Spiritualism,” Whitewater Register, June 15, 1972, Morris Pratt Institute Vertical File, Irvin L. Young Memorial Library, accessed September 21, 2016; Centennial Book, 127.
  12. ^ “Courses” and “Events,” Morris Pratt Institute website, accessed September 21, 2016; “Morris Pratt Institute (MPI),” National Spiritualist Association of Churches website, https://www.nsac.org/mpi.php, accessed September 21, 2016.
  13. ^ Jason Berry, The Spirit of Black Hawk: A Mystery of Africans and Indians (Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 1995), 66-69; Robert L. Johns, “Leafy Anderson,” in Notable Black American Women, vol. 2, ed. Jessie Carney Smith (New York, NY: Gale Research, 1996), 9-11.
  14. ^ Robert S. Ellwood, “Occult Movements in America,” in Encyclopedia of the American Religious Experience: Studies of Traditions and Movements, vol. 2, ed. Charles H. Lippy and Peter W. Williams (New York, NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1988), 717; “Milwaukee Lodge,” Theosophical Society in Milwaukee website, accessed September 21, 2016.

For Further Reading

Bednarowski, Mary Farrell. “Spiritualism in Wisconsin in the Nineteenth Century.” Wisconsin Magazine of History 59, no. 1 (Autumn 1975): 3-19.

National Spiritualist Association of United States of America. Centennial Book of Modern Spiritualism in America. Chicago, IL: The Association, 1948.

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