Remembering the Watseka Wonder

"Watseka, Illinois has been swept by a tidal wave of excitement, on account of the presumed insanity of one Lurancy Vennum, a young girl belonging to an unpretentious family in the suburbs of the city.  Her insanity, as it was thought to be, dates from July 11^th, A.D., 1877, and the remarkable phenomena continued until her perfect restoration through the aid of friendly Spiritualists and spirits on the 21^st of May, 1878."

      So began an article appearing in the September 1879 issue of the Religio-Philosophical Journal, titled "The Case of Lurancy Vennum," written by Dr. E. Winchester Stevens, a physician who treated the afflicted girl.    The case would later be referred to as "The Watseka Wonder."

       Mary Lurancy Vennum, who went by "Rancy," was born on April 16, 1864.  It was on July 11, 1877, when she was 13 years old, that she told her mother that she was not feeling well, had a "fit," and remained unconscious for five hours.  Upon regaining consciousness, she told her family that she felt "very strange and queer," but she rested comfortably that night.  "The next day the rigid state returned, and passing beyond the rigidity, her mind took cognizance of two states of being at the same time," Stevens recorded.  "Lying as if dead, she spoke freely, telling the family what persons and spirits she could see, describing them and calling some of them by name.  Among those mentioned were her (deceased) sister and brother, for she exclaimed, ‘Oh, mother!  Can't you see little Laura and Bertie?  They are so beautiful!' etc., etc.   Bertie died when Lurancy was but three years old." 

      Over the next two months, Rancy had a number of similar trances, describing heaven and the "angels."   However, sometime in September she appeared to return to her normal self.   On November 27, she began experiencing severe stomach pains five or six times a day, and on December 11, she entered a trance state and again began seeing "angels."  These trances continued over the next seven weeks and Rancy would often appear to be in a state of ecstasy, claiming that she was in heaven.  Two physicians and the family's Methodist minister concluded that she was insane and recommended an asylum.

      Upon hearing of the situation at the Vennum home, Asa Roff, a lawyer and one of the town's founders, called upon Rancy's parents and persuaded them to let Dr. Stevens of Janesville, Wisconsin, examine the girl before having her committed to an asylum. Roff and his wife were very sympathetic to the Vennum's situation as they had experienced a similar ordeal with their daughter, Mary, a dozen years earlier. 
 

      Stevens and Roff visited the Vennum family on January 31, 1878.  They found Rancy sitting near the stove, looking "very sullen and crabbed."   She called her father "Old Black Dick" and her mother "Old Granny."    When Stevens asked her name, she replied somewhat antagonistically that it was Katrina Hogan, giving her age as 63 and saying she was from Germany.   After carrying on a conversation with Stevens, she suddenly changed personalities and claimed to be a man named Willie Canning.    "Willie" then started asking Stevens who he was, what his beliefs were, whether he went to church, liked to smoke, liked to drink, etc.   After an hour and a half, Lurancy fell on the floor and went into a trance.  She then began answering Stevens' questions "with rationality and understanding,"  She apologized for having such evil conditions about her and said she knew the evil spirits calling themselves Katrina and Willie. 

        Stevens suggested that she look around her for a higher, purer, more intelligent, and more rational spirit to control her.  After looking around, Rancy said there were a great many spirits there willing to come, but that one "angel" who stepped forward gave her name as Mary Roff.    Asa Roff immediately spoke up and said that was his daughter.

        Mary Roff was born on October 8, 1846 and died on July 5, 1865 at age 18.  (Rancy was just a year old when Mary Roff died.)   Mary began suffering from "fits" at an early age and would often become violent.  Her physicians diagnosed it as "catalepsy."   According to reports gathered by Smith, she would become "a raving maniac of the most violent kind" and later would enter a clairvoyant state in which she had no normal sense of sight, feeling, or sound and seemed not to recognize anyone, including her family members.  She could see as if blindfolded and could even read a book without the cover being open.   After one of her fits, she died.

       Asa and Ana Roff were forced to put Mary in a sanatorium for a time, something which they later regretted as they eventually came to realize that there were spiritual forces at work.  It was due to the mistakes he felt he had made with his daughter, that Asa Roff was prompted to call upon the Vennums and suggest that Dr. Stevens, a Spiritualist as well as a physician, examine their daughter.

      After apparently discussing the matter with some spirits, Rancy then announced that she was going to let Mary Roff take over her body for a period of time. "From the wild, angry, ungovernable girl, to be kept only by lock and key, or the more-distressing watch-care of almost frantic parents, or the rigid corpse-like cataleptic, as believed, the girl has now become mild, docile, polite, and timid, knowing none of the (Vennum) family but constantly pleading to go home," Stevens further recorded. 

       Upon hearing of the situation, Mary Roff's older sister, Minerva Alter, paid a visit to the Vennum home with Ana Roff.  "There comes my ma and sister Nervie!" Rancy exclaimed, using her pet name for Minerva, a name not heard by anyone since Mary had died. After that reunion, Rancy, as Mary Roff, became even more homesick and begged to "go home."   Reluctantly, the Vennums consented.   

       "On the 11^th day of February 1878, they (the Vennums) sent the girl to Mr. Roff's, where she met her "pa and ma" and each member of the family, with the most gratifying expressions of love and affection, by words and embraces," Stevens continued.  "On being asked how long she would stay, she said, ‘The angels will let me stay until some time in May,' and she made it her home there until May 21, three months and ten days, a happy and contented daughter and sister in a borrowed body."

       During those three-plus months, Rancy, as Mary, recognized old neighbors and friends.  When Mrs. Parker and her daughter-in-law, Nellie, came calling, Rancy greeted them as "Auntie Parker" and "Nellie."  Rancy asked  Auntie Parker if she remembered when she (Mary Roff) and Nervie used to come to her house and sing, something which both Mrs. Parker and Nervie both clearly remembered. When another neighbor visited, Rancy called her Mrs. Lord, even though Mary Lord, a widow when Mary Roff knew her, had remarried and had become Mrs. Wagoner.

      As a test one day in March, Asa Roff, asked his wife to retrieve a velvet hat which their daughter wore before her death.   It was placed on the table while Rancy was outside.  When Rancy entered the house, she said, "Oh, there is the headdress I wore when my hair was short."  Lawyer that he was, Asa Roff tested Rancy in other ways and became satisfied that his deceased daughter was indeed occupying the body of Rancy Vennum.  On February 19, he wrote to Dr. Stevens, who had returned to his home:  "...she recognizes everybody and everything that she knew when in her body twelve or more years ago.  She knows nobody nor anything whatever that is known by Lurancy...she has been nothing but Mary since she has been here, and knows nothing but what Mary knew. She has entered the trance once every other day for some days.  She is perfectly happy."

       In another letter to Dr. Stevens, Asa Roff wrote that while Rancy was in trance one day, the voice of someone who claimed to have lived and died in Tennessee spoke through Rancy and told him that Mary would retain control of Lurancy's body until it was restored to good health.

       During the first month in the Roff home, Rancy refused to eat, explaining to her "parents" that her nourishment was coming from heaven and it was necessary for her to refrain from food until the body was ready. Gradually, she came to eat with the family.

       On May 7, Mary (Rancy) called her mother (Ana) to a private room and told her that Lurancy Vennum was coming back.  A change of personality then took place and the girl asked Ana where she was, began crying, and said she wanted to go home.  However, after about five minutes, Mary returned to Rancy's body.

       On May 21, Asa Roff recorded in a letter to Dr. Stevens:  "Mary is to leave the body of Rancy today, about 11 o'clock, so she says.  She is bidding neighbors and friends good-by...She tells me to write to Dr. Stevens as follows:  ‘Tell him I am going to heaven and Rancy is coming home well.'  She says she will see your dear children in spirit life...She talked most lovingly about the separation to take place, and most beautiful was her talk about heaven and her home."

       At 11 o'clock, Rancy "returned" and, speaking to Asa Roff as if a stranger, asked to be taken to her home.    She lived a normal life from then on.