thumb|240px|The Fox sisters. From left to right: Margaretta, Kate and Leah
The Fox sisters were three sisters from Rochester, New York who played an important role in the creation of Spiritualism: Leah (April 8, 1813 – November 1, 1890), Margaretta (also called Maggie), (October 7, 1833 – March 8, 1893) and Catherine Fox (also called Kate) (March 27, 1837 – July 2, 1892). The two younger sisters used "rappings" to convince their older sister and others that they were communicating with spirits. Their older sister then took charge of them and managed their careers for some time. They all enjoyed success as mediums for many years.
In 1888, Margaretta confessed that the rappings had been a hoax and publicly demonstrated their method. Despite their confession, the Spiritualism movement continued to grow in popularity.
Early years
thumb|Braided Lock of Kate Fox's Hair|212x212pxThe childhood environment of Kate and Maggie Fox was marked by significant domestic instability that contributed to the conditions in which their claims of spirit communication emerged. In 1848, the two younger sisters—Catherine and Margaretta—lived with their parents John and Margaret, who were Methodists, in Hydesville, New York, a former hamlet that was part of the township of Arcadia in Wayne County, New York, just outside of Newark. The girls had been born and raised "in or near Consecon," a tiny village in Prince Edward County, Ontario where their father owned a farm. The family moved to Hydesville, New York, in 1847.
The house was reputed to be haunted, yet is reported to have been a prank. (The sisters claimed in 1888 that they made the sounds by cracking their knuckles and other joints
John W. Hurn, Reverend John M. Austin, and Reverend D. Potts.
Charles Grafton Page, a patent examiner and patent advocate, had developed a keen eye for detecting fraudulent claims about science. In his book Psychomancy (1853), Page observed that the rapping sounds came from underneath the girls' long dresses. Page devised contraptions that emulated the rapping sounds produced by the girls, which could be concealed under long clothing. He declaimed the girls' means of hiding from the bodily examination that would expose their fraud: