The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1900-08-30
Col. Simon P. KaSe
Dies Of Old AGE.
AS a Railroad Builder, His Law
suit With the Pennsylvania
Road Lasted Nearly Thirty
Years, and is Still
Unsettled.
Claimed to be Pioneer of New
SpirituaIism.

piobSSio VI ihOhClh opliituahobi, biSu
on Sunday night at his home, 1901
North Fifteenth street, Philadelphia.
He had been in failing health for some
time, and the general debilitation of
his health did not give him strength
enough, at Sc years of age, to stand
the unusually hot weather.
He leaves widow-his second wife
three sons and two daughters. Two
of the children, Hervey and Matthew,
live in Philadelphia. Edwin lives at
Lebanon, and the two daughters live
at Danville, near where Colonel Kase
was born.
For about twenty years Colonel
Kase had not been engaged in active
business. In early lite he was identi-
fed with the railway development OF
the State, and at the time of his death
was involved in litigation with the
Pennsylvania Railroad that had ex-
tended over a long term of years.
During the later years of his life,
Colonel Kase had been more or less
conspicuous all over the country
through his advanced ideas on spirit
ualistic naturalization. He gave
seances at his home, which were at
tended by Spiritualists from all over
the country. The Colonel put many
of his experiences in pamphlet form.
The latest of them, published only a
short time ago, is circumstantlal ac-
count Of the investigation of Spirit
ualism by President Lincoln, and pur-
ports to tell how and by whom the
Emancipation Proclamation was re.
vealed to the martyr President in
1861.
In their spiritual form, Colonel
Kase claimed he has had as visitors at
his house, not only President Lincoln,
but almost all the distinguished men
who ever lived in this country. His
library is almost filled with messages
from them, In handwriting, typewrit-
ing and almost every other preserv-
able form. He was always firm be-
lever in their authenticity. George
Washington, he has insisted, appeared
to him materialized in his Colonial
clothes, and impaired comforting in.
formation about the hereafter.
Only few days ago Carlisle Harris
who was put to death by electrocution
in Sing Sing, New York, few years
ago, for poisoning his wife, is alleged
to have come unbidden to a seance in
Colonel Kase's house, and assert that
he had been judicially murdered.
Spiritualists do not, as a rule, like
strangers to appear uninvlted at their
private manifestations, but Colonel
Kase believed in hospitality in these
matters, and extended a welcome to
everybody from the spiritual world
who had anything interesting to say.
AS was to be expected, this brought
him great amount of unpleasant
criticism from unbelievers. The per-
slstent "exposers" of materialis:ic
spirltualism did not give the Colonel
the go-by. OF all instances Of this
kind the Yost case is the most men,
orable, and the consequences were so
unpleasant that the family is reluctant
to talk about it, even now that the
Colonel has gone.
Mr.. Yost, the inventor of a type
writer that bears his name, became in
terested in spiritualism. He came to
Philadelphia from Chicago on purpose
to pursue his Investigations with Col
onel Kase. A Yost typewriter, it is
asserted by those who were present,
used to get into the middle of the
room, unassisted by human aid, and
begin to rattle off messages on all sorts
of topics calculated to convince Mr..
Yost that the communications were
The mediums at these
seances were Mr.. and Mrs. Rogers,
who at once became the target for
newspaper investigation, and Ultimate
ly fled to Europe. The expose was
unpleasant to Colonel Kase and his
friends. and he has omitted all refer
ence to it in his writings. But his be-
lief did not waver.
CAREER AS A RAILROAD MAN.
Simon P. Kase was born in Rush,
Pa, opposite Danville, August 27,
1874. His father, Justice of the
Peace, was prominent figure in local
affairs, and the owner of several good
farms. At 20 years Simon, the
youngest in the family, LETT home, and
began the building of threshing ma
chimes. This enterprise proved sue
cesstul, and in 1885 he established an
agricultural and machine shop in Leb-
anon county. In 1887 he sold out,
and returned to Danville, building the