"I went to Cleveland ... to the Durham House, where Miss Fish of Rochester (N.Y.) is attending to the 'spirit knockings,' " Garfield wrote as an entry in his diary for Wednesday, June 4, 1854.
"I paid the doorkeeper $1 and was conducted into the room where the ladies (Miss Fish and two others) were," he continued. "The company (16 in number) were seated around a table, the ladies sitting at the head.
“After the company were seated, one of the ladies asked if the spirits would communicate with us by rapping. Immediately, the rapping commenced on a settee or the wall and then on the table where we were sitting.
"The manner of proceeding was as follows:
"An individual first asked if there were any spirits that would communicate with him. If there were," Garfield continued, "it indicated by two or three raps! Or you might write a list of names and where you come to the right one, it would rap!
"There were many questions and correct answers infallibly given. I was a perfect stranger to every person in the room.
"I called for the spirit of my father. It responded by rapping. The rapping of no two spirits was alike.
"I ASKED my father his name. I called over several names and when the right one was named, it rapped!" Garfield wrote.
"In this way, it told me my own name, that I had one brother living, told me his name, said I had one brother in the spirit land, name given, age also, told me how many years he (father) had been dead.
"There were many other tests and correct answers to my questions that no person (not even myself) in the room possessed.
"So it is impossible that the girl could have made the rapping for she did not possess the intelligence. 'Tis a mystery, however," Garfield concluded, "and I'll not speculate upon it."
President James A. Garfield’s father died when James was only two years old. However, when James was 6 years old, he saw the Spirit of his Father, Abram, at the foot of his bed. From that point on, James received regular messages from his father, which included guidance on his education and career, including aspirations to be a college president, a Civil War General, and a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.
When Garfield was only 20 years old, he attended a séance where his father identified himself through “rapping.”
President Garfield followed Spirit’s advice and reformed the civil service laws, which antagonized many people.
Then, President Garfield had a premonition that he would be murdered.
Garfield’s term of office was only 4 months, when he was shot at the Washington D. C. railroad station. He survived for several painful weeks before making his transition to the Spirit World.
