A study in spiritualism - the spirit-writing of Leslie Stringfellow comforted and guided his parents

A study in spiritualism - the spirit-writing of Leslie Stringfellow comforted and guided his parents more than 100 years ago.
Does this sound like a journey through the sixth dimension or a simple fictional plot?
A young man born shortly after the Civil War died suddenly from a mysterious illness; he saw heaven and promised to communicate with his parents if it was possible; his parents grieved and eventually adopted a young girl; and the middle-aged couple and their young daughter left Galveston and moved to Fayetteville, Arkansas, where they died and are buried.

Henry and Alice Stringfellow communicated with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes books and an expert on spiritualism, about their son's death and afterlife. Does their family plot in Evergreen Cemetery at Fayetteville hold some mystical power?

Megan's interest in Leslie Stringfellow and his family was inspired by a simple, used paperback book Dwain ordered for her five years ago.

Megan's copy of "The Afterlife of Leslie Stringfellow (A 19th Century Southern Family's Experience with Spiritualism)" was copyrighted in 2005 and "DISCARDED BY Capital Area District Library" on April 26, 2007.

If you can find a copy of this University of Arkansas Press publication today, a used copy will run past $70.

As you can see, Megan's literally in the shadow of the University of Arkansas as she takes photographs of the Stringfellow family plot.

Leslie Stringfellow was the only child born to highly educated and wealthy parents Henry and Alice Stringfellow in Galveston, Texas.  After Leslie's untimely death Sept. 14, 1886, the family eventually moved to Fayetteville, Arkansas. Leslie is buried in a private cemetery on Galveston Island.

Included inside the book are several photographs.  This is the Fayetteville, Arkansas, home of Alice and Henry Stringfellow as it appeared in the early 1900s when they first built it.

We again have 329 Washington Avenue in Fayetteville.  This the three-story home as it appears today. We wish we could have gone inside and just walked through.  It must have been amazing to live here.

The Stringfellow family plot is in historical Evergreen Cemetery in Fayetteville, just south of the University of Arkansas campus and lies adjacent to the back of the Kappa Sig fraternity house. In front of the family marker are (from closest to furthest away), Henry, Alice, Lessie and a Tomi Green (no idea of the connection there).

These were the principal players of the Stringfellow family:  Henry and Alice on the top, Leslie on the bottom left, and Lessie Stringfellow Read, the adopted daughter of Henry and Alice.  They took her in when she was two years of age after the death of her parents.  Leslie, through his "spirit writing," instructed his parents to take this child as their own.  He even told them what to name her.  Henry was 49 years old and Alice was 43 years old when they adopted 2-year-old Lessie.

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Lessie was in her 26th year when her father, H.M. Stringfellow, died and was buried on the west side of Evergreen Cemetery.

Alice Stringfellow, who live to 97 years of age, is buried between her husband and daughter.

Alice and Henry Stringfellow were so overtaken by grief and were so desperate to know that their son was safe and in the hands of God that they went so far as to contact mediums in Boston, which left them dissatisfied and not convinced that they were actually hearing from their son.  In Galveston, a lady named Mrs. Fink introduced the couple to spirit writing where a message was written on a slate that they were certain could only have  come from Leslie because he was the only one who would have known.  The message was even signed, "Leslie."  Spirit writing has no sentence break; t's are not crossed; and "i's" are not dotted. 

For the next 15 years, the couple used a heart-shaped planchette with a pencil fitted through a hole in one end to communicate with their son.  The planchette is placed over a piece of paper.  People wanting a message from a loved one place their hands on the planchette and the deceased loved one moves the planchette through the energy of the living, thus leaving them the intended message, as in the picture above. 
The book says Leslie comforted his parents by telling them how real heaven is.  That it is as real and physical a place as earth, only much more beautiful and a place where you can easily see and visit with anyone.  
He wanted his parents to know how happy he was.  He wanted them to go on without him by taking in another child, which they eventually did.  He told them through his spirit writing, before they ever met her, that they would have a little girl that they would adopt and they would name her Lessie.  And that is exactly what happened.  She was the joy of their new lives.  

Behind Megan is the Fulbright family plot. Lessie Stringfellow Read was a women's suffrage pioneer and wrote for the Fayetteville newspaper, that was owned and edited by Roberta Fulbright. They became close friends.

Roberta Fulbright described Lessie as: "A person who could see by her own headlights, and she was capable of running herself."
She was chosen in 1916 as the national press chairman for the General Federation of Women's Clubs (like the 20th Century Club in Harrison) with more than 2 million members, representing 18 countries.

Lessie Stringfellow Reed continued to live in the family mansion after her mother died. The book says she became senile and was moved into the Fayetteville Hospital, where she died ... a year after Dwain started attending the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.

The Stringfellow family marker now shows the signs of age. No more Stringfellows to be buried in vacant slips in this family plot and no one to clean the stone. They've all locked arms in heaven ...

Megan and Dwain

Megan says the book by Stephen Chism has been an interesting and enlightening read, well worth the price of entering the Stringfellows' world.