Rev A H Jervis - Spiritualism Defender

[Karyn]

Rev. Asahel Hatch Jervis was born in Oswego County, New York in 1793. He became a Methodist Church minister in Rochester, New York, and married Mary Cooley in 1821. They had four children, two girls who died young, and two sons. Kasimir would later follow in Asahel’s footsteps and become a clergyman.

In 1848, the news of the mysterious spirit rappings that took place in the Fox home in Hydesville, NY reached Rochester. The Fox sisters had their first public demonstration in the city in 1849. Asahel became interested in this new phenomenon and eventually volunteered to take notes for the sisters. According to Conan Doyle, similar manifestations began to occur in the homes of Rev. A. H. Jervis, Mr. Lyman Granger and Rev. Charles Hammond of Rochester, and Deacon Hale from the neighboring town of Greece. Six families in nearby Auburn also began to develop mediumship. The Fox sisters were not present during these events.

The rappings were scorned by the religious authorities at the time. Asahel defended the Fox sisters and criticized the opinions appearing in the Christian Advocate. The publication would not accept his rebuttal to their remarks, but he published his response in the Cayuga Chief in 1850, writing, ”It is easy to ridicule what you have no knowledge of, or argument to meet; but facts are stubborn things, and we may as well be willing to meet them first as last, for meet them we must.”

One event that took place at the Jervis home in 1849 was documented. The family sat at a tea table, and Asahel’s friend, Mr. Pickard, asked questions. He found that the spirit he spoke to was that of his mother. She gave him a terrible message. “Your child is dead.” Alarmed, Mr. Pickard took the next stage home, about 60 miles from Rochester. When he arrived, he found that one of his children had indeed died.

Soon, rappings were spreading, extending as far as Cincinnati and St. Louis to the West, and Maine, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and New York to the East. Asahel wrote, “…I have been enjoying the best opportunity for calmly investigating, for almost two years, in the company with judges, lawyers, doctors, and citizens of all professions and callings, as well as ministers and members of different churches…”

Asahel’s wife, Mary, died in 1852 and he remarried four years later to a woman much younger than himself named Lavinia. He became a minister at the Church of New Jerusalem in Rochester. This was a Swedenborgian Church, which was originally organized in England in 1787. Students studied the theological writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, a scientist and visionary who lived over a century before. The theology was introduced into the U.S. in 1784.

Asahel died in 1877, a defender of Spiritualism and the right to question traditional faith.

Additional Reading:

Britten, Emma Hardinge (1870) Modern American spiritualism: a twenty years’ record of the communion between earth and the world of spirits. Banner of Light Office, Boston.

Capron, Eliab Wilkinson (1855) Modern Spiritualism: Its Facts and Fanaticisms, Its Consistencies and Contradictions. Bela Marsh, Boston

Doyle, Arthur Conan (1926) The History of Spiritualism. Cassell and Co., London.