Spiritualism in the White House and the 19th Century

[Gene C]

Most of this info comes from the book "the Lincoln's - Portrait of a Marriage" by Daniel Mark Epstein. I know a few of you don't care for this book, but it had a fair amount of info on this subject

"the secretary of the navy, Gideon Welles, and his wife, Mary Jane, had consulted mediums when their children died" p.380

"According to the journalist Noah Brooks, who came to Washington in November 1862 and became a part of Lincoln's inner circle, Mrs. Keckley led poor Mrs. Lincoln to the spiritualists. The black seamstress had received some solace from mediums when her own son had died in the war, and she hoped they might console her mistress' p.380

"While notably superstitious, Lincoln was not a spiritualist, but he is supposed to have attended two seances, one of them conducted by Miss Colburn in the Red Room of the White House on April 23. Gideon Welles and Edwin Stanton were part of the circle, and it is said that the spirits that night were idle until Lincoln ledft the company to go upstairs, where upon on spook pulled Welle's whiskers and another punched Stanton's ear"
"Lincoln was not a believer, but he did not discourage his wife from attending the seances, for it did comfort her when a medium was successful in evoking Willie's ghost. Still, the president did not want to see her duped." p.384 (no footnotes given)