Spirit Trumpets on Summers Street

Harry Houdini and Annie Benninghofen
1926

On August 12, 1920 the Charleston Daily Mail, a local newspaper for the Charleston, WV area, ran a small article announcing the 'considerable attention' a plumbing shop on Summers Street was attracting. It seems as if this plumbing shop had hopped on the Spiritualist bandwagon by displaying a selection of 'spook horns' in it's front window. The article goes on to explain that these spirit horns were used by psychic mediums who spoke in one end while the listener held the other end.

This lil' plumbing shop on Summers Street was somewhat behind the times (as we so often are, still to this day in West Virginia!). Spirit trumpets had been around for over 20 years already, since the late 1800's. They were created to solve a problem---during seances, spirits just seemed to have a really hard time having their voices heard. They spoke in garbled whispers, barely able to be understood by the human ear. So in response, mediums began fashioning amplifying devices to better hear the messages from beyond.

It is believed that the first spirit trumpet was created and named by Nahum, the son of famed Spiritualist medium, Jonathan Koons of Athens County, Ohio. It was certainly Koons who really made the use of the spirit trumpet popular among seance circles.

Charleston Daily Mail
12 August 1920

In the early days, spirit trumpets were generally homemade from metal or even cardboard. However, as they grew in popularity, their designs became more elaborate, with some even featuring glow in the dark rings at the end.  That was so you could actually SEE them floating through the air in the pitch dark of the seance room! Also, different makers began offering them for sale commercially. Everett Atwood Eckel was one of the first to do so, and sold the spirit trumpets in his tin shop, located in Anderson, Indiana. I assume that's the story with our plumbing shop in Charleston, WV. One wouldn't necessarily think to associate a plumbing service with contacting the dead (although maybe today you would, as the Jason and Grant from TAPS/Ghost Hunters were plumbers by day, investigators by night!) but if you think about it, a plumbing shop would be the perfect business to have the materials and skills necessary to fashion out skinny metal cones...whatever their intended purpose might be. But, perhaps there is more of a connection there. Maybe the owner belonged to the Spiritualist Church of Charleston (which I'll be blogging about at a later time). Or maybe they were taking advantage of their close proximity to the Plaza Theater on Summers Street, which regularly hosted performers such as Leona LaMar, The Girl with 1000 Eyes. 

Whatever the motive behind this plumbing shop featuring 'spook horns' may have been, the fact that they did so and it was documented in the local paper is just another testament to Charleston's spooky past and West Virginia's connection to the Spiritualist movement as a whole.

For more info on spirit trumpets:

How Victorian Mediums Gave Shy Ghosts a Megaphone, by Sabrina Imbler. 23 October 2019. Atlas Obscura.

Ghosts vs. Goats: A Friday Night Funny

How many times has this happened to you on an investigation?  None?  Well, its still a cute little comic by Liz Climo and illustrates an important part of paranormal field research---the need for clear, concise communication!  Make sure you speak loud and clear during those EVP sessions so that you don't catch a recording of yourself mumbling and think its a ghost, lol.  Have a great Friday, everyone and if you're out investigating this weekend, make sure you're contacting GHOSTS and not GOATS! 

Happy Easter from Theresa's Haunted History of the Tri-State!

Happy Easter from Theresa's Haunted History of the Tri-State!  Also, Happy April Fool's Day!  It's not often that we get to celebrate two holidays in one day, so make the most of it...just keep your pranks funny (and even spooky!), but not too mean. If you need some inspiration, just check YouTube for a never-ending stream of ghost prank videos, many from Japan.

And, since its the first of the month, I wanted to share with you an exciting endeavor I'm taking on throughout April. I have joined the Ultimate Blog Challenge! The main 'challenge' component is 30 blog posts in 30 days.  That means that I will have to post a brand new blog EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. Never in the history of Theresa's Haunted History have I been able to post a new blog 30 days straight. It's a daunting task, but I'm ready to take it on in order to bring you all a ton of new and interesting content!  And speaking of content...if you're jonesing for some more Easter goodies, check out my blog about Horrifying Easter Bunnies!  Stay spooky and have a great Easter/April Fool's Day!

Spook Messages

While doing research at the library, I found this article in a March 29, 1911 edition of the Huntington Advertiser.  It's not REALLY paranormal, but shows that the influence of the Spiritualism movement was still alive and well into the 20th century!  It also shows that charlatans have been preying on the vulnerable for years, using grief and faux messages from deceased love ones. 

SPOOK MESSAGES WERE EFFECTIVE

ENABLED WASHINGTON WOMAN TO GET MONEY

SON OF HER AGED FIANCE SUES TO RECOVER THIRTY-SIX THOUSAND DOLLARS

Washington, March 29---Spooks with a penchant for high finance have made Mrs. Laura Cramer, a government employee, the defendant in a suit instituted by the son of Fenton J. Hurd, a wealthy octogenarian to whom she claims to have been betrothed and from whom she received $36,000.

The son asserts that spooks wrote letters to his father advising him to "take good care of Mrs. Cramer and give her money."  He is now trying to get the money back.

Mrs. Cramer admits having indicted a few bright thoughts from over the Styx to her aged lover, but says she did so because he "was just crazy to get some message from his dead wife."  She declares Hurd gave her the money "just because he loved her."

I found a follow-up to this story in a May 5, 1913 newspaper called the Reading Eagle.  Basically, it states that Mrs. Laura Cramer milked this elderly gentleman out of a sum closer to $40,000...and was being forced to return it to his estate.  Mr. Hurd was a Connecticut millionaire, but had been declared incompetent by the state of Connecticut.  Originally, Mrs. Cramer had been awarded the money, but Hurd's son had appealed, and a higher court demanded the money returned.

The message to take away from today's post:  If the spirits are telling you to give exorbitant sums of money to your MUCH younger lover...you better make sure they actually are from the other side!