The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1922-03-20
Two Eddy Brothers Pro
duced Ghostly Stunts In
Cave-Gave Travelling
Exhibitions

RUTLAND, March 2O.-The county Of
Antagonist, Nova Sofia, today holds
about the same place in the world of
wraiths rs did Rutland's neighbor, Chit
tenden, Ill the late 40's when the Eddy
family-headed by sturdy farmer,
Zephaniah Eddy-secured for Vermont,
what today would be termed a ringside
seat in the arena of the supernatural.
Despite the fact that travelling was
more Of a problem than it is today, 40
years ago students of the occult, the
osophists. spiritualists and all sorts of
disciples of the isms of those days jour
neyed hundreds of miles to the home Of
the Eddys and witnessed scores Of man
ifeStatiOns.
Chittenden for more than II quarter
of q century probably enjoyed the dis
uncCiOn of having acquired the Teputa-
ton of possessing the best equipped
ghostery in the world in the Eddy resi-
dence, two-Story and a half wooden
house (about seven miles from Rutland)
with squat chimneyS at each end and
tall elm trees each side of the front
door which faced the Green mountains.
1t was an ideal setting for staging
seances with ghosts and the Eddys did
a wholesale business in acting as inter-
neighborhoOd, their distinguished visit
ors, enterprising newspapermen from
the big cities and those who had gone
across the Great Divide.
Front Page STUFF.
Nearly 20 years before the Herald be-
came a daily paper Chittenden was get
ting i frOnt-page position in the worlds
news 1t held the worlds heavyweight
championship as the center of ghOstly
activities. There are probably a score
or more of Rutland folks who can relate
Eddy residence-stories of shadowy
forms coming from the cabinet of the
mediums and bringing messages from
the dead.
Julia Ann AIacombs, born in Weston,
consort of Zephaniah Eddy, was the
H. and Horatio G.--whoSe mcdiumiStic
accomplishments first set the world
agog in 1913 and aroused comment from
the greatest newspapers in this country
and England.
The Chittenden of today has forgot
ten the exploits of the Eddy family.
About the only reminder of this sturdy
Scotch woman-mothcr of two of the
greatest takers history has recorded,
William and HoratiO Eddy-is a moss
covered graveStOne standing aSlant
mound in Il deserted burial place.
At the top of the stone. carved in
concave oval. is hand with the index
finger pointing skyward and above are
the words. Our Mother. Beneath the
pointing hand Is the inscription: Julia
y Eddy, wife Of Zcphaniah Eddy. En-
tered the world of spirits Dee. 29th,
1872, aged - yrs, Q mos, II ds.
Duped Whole World.
Though Zephaniah and his spouse
long ago made their Journey into that
land from which no traveller returns.
the story of how thes" simple country
folks duned the world Of believers in
taings supernatural viii remain a one
# the most colossal and successful
schemes To commercialiZe spiritualism.
Mary Ellen Macdonald of Antigon-
i~H. :. =. is. t. use the slang of today,
a rank amateur-if she is the ghost as
reported by The psychic s!euth who in
testlgateds the my>. ferrous c'nQluonS III
Lar homn-comDarcd with the Eddys.
Mary Ellen is mot credited with high
mentality. But the Eddy boys" pos
ses;scd the keenest of intellcctS and, ac-
.9rding to old-timers. invited the skep-
t.cs to investigate their powers
70 narrate a huudredth part of the
story Of the Eddys. and how the boys
Travelled over the greater part Of the
world giving seaEceS for the coin of
whatever realm they happened to be in,
puts the ghost of AntigoniSh and the
spCctTeS that have from time To time
during the last 10 centuries annoyed
rryal families Europe in what the
sporting Paternity terms the category
Of 'pikers."
Eddys Were -SOtchers.
Students Of the occult who have
delved deep in the tales Of the iosis--
wara aud Peruvian sorCercrs and OF
Tilto, the necromancer Of the court of
King Wenceslaus. have found nothing
that would make the Eddy family third
raters in the ghost Observation-Disclosures.
it could have been termed in the late
Hos
IMPAIRED Of hearing and sight, who will
recollcct the visit of Uonto's cave that
night of brilliant moonlight on May u,