http://www.spirithistory.com/1900lily.html Anyone ever been? http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=Lily+Dale+history&btnG=Search I recently met someone much older than I who purports to have grown up there.. Find that interesting. We both have ancestors that were puritans too.
man I was thinkin of this one commercial with the french chef tellin us how good lilly dale chicken is
Hahaha...Yeah I don't really know anything about this place... Other than it was founded by spiritualists, psychics, & mediums...I meet so many witchy people...I have to wonder if we kind of attract each other sometimes. Lately, my connections to people seem kind of mysterious. Might just be me. I thought it was pretty wild that we both have ancestors that came over on the mayflower...As she's not the first I've met. I even have a picture of our family seal from England. Could be my imagination, but I do wonder what the odds are of us meeting?
Used to live near there. Lots of strange stories came out of that area. Something about sightings of web foot creatures and a perpetual motion machine that was hidden in a barn until the citizenry got wind of it. Figured it was the work of the devil, and they burned the barn down.
Hey, I found it! The story is a bit diffeent than I heard it...That thing was not a perpetual motion machine, but a God machine. And they brought it to my home town for some reason. Local legend I guess, not reported in the news... http://www.forteantimes.com/articles/158_godmachine.shtml
Crazy area of the country. No wonder I always felt some great energy when I lived there... I see why the "spiritualists" and telepathic folks got drawn to that area. I discovered a great medicine wheel at the top of the highest point in the county when I was a kid. The Amish have a huge settlement there and the Seneca Indian reservation is there too. AWSOME vibes! http://www.burlingtonnews.net/giantsnewyork.html www.spirithistory.com/invent.html Still can't find the story about the wierd web footed creatures seen there...
I got interested 'cause I grew up there so I have been researching. Here's more... John Murray Spear and "Harmonia" Amidst our small community in the mid 1800's there arose a community simply called "Harmonia" led by a man named John Murray Spear. John Murray Spear was a part of the great Spiritualist movement that was booming in that day. He was a Universalist Minister from Boston who began channeling the spirits of great men before him like Benjamin Franklin. In turn through these channelings he was told to create a great machine. A machine known as the "God Machine." No one knows for sure what the machine accomplished in reality but over a nine month period he was told through channelings how to create it and piece it together. Some say that it was a perpetual motion machine, or even a way to communicate with God. Whatever it was it did not seem to accomplish what it was built for. Over time John Murray Spear heard of two magnetic springs on the New York-Pennsylvania border that boasted great healing powers among other things. Subsequently he moved his operation south to Kiantone, New York where he established "Harmonia." Harmonia became his "model" community with a modest beginning. Everything about the creation of Harmonia came from his spirit advisors who urged him to begin making radical changes in government and religion. These spirit advisors included Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and even Socrates. With him John Murray brought his "God Machine" hoping that the stronger magnetic properties would cause it to work as it should. Not much is known of the machine after that other than supposedly it was stored in a barn in Randolph until one day a group of locals broke in and demolished the "machine." The community continued to thrive in the area until the operation was picked up and taken south toward New Orleans. Local members stayed to run the businesses that were created out of the movement. John Murray Spear then went to England where he became acquainted with great leaders of the Spiritualist movement including the Davenport brothers, of which Ira Davenport made it back to Chautauqua County and was buried in Mayville upon his death. In 1873 Spears returned to America where he published a brief account of his twenty years as a medium. Still standing today in Kiantone is a stone building which marks the spot of the spring that brought John Murray Spear to our area. It was told that sometime in the past a spiritualist medium had ordered a cave to be dug where it was said that the remains of an ancient race of web-footed Indians would be found. Nothing was found but the story of Harmonia and the God Machine has left an indelible impression on our community. I have a line on someone who knows a little bit about the "webfooted indians" and a "swamp thing" called the luekaroo which lives just outside Randolph in a swamp that I have walked thru at night many times.... If I find anymore neat stuff from that area I'll put it here...
