Seances and Slates: W.A Mansfield Visits New Philadelphia

During the last half of the 19th century, the spiritualism movement garnered a great deal of attention and followers. Oftentimes those interested in spiritualism attempted to contact those who had passed away through seances and people known as mediums. Tuscarawas County was not immune to the attraction of spiritualism.

Content warning: This post contains a reference to suicide. If you or someone you know has a mental illness, is struggling emotionally, or has concerns about their mental health, there are ways to get help. Click here for resources to find help for you, a friend, or a family member.

One of New Philadelphia, Ohio’s most prominent citizens, and editor of one of the city’s newspapers, was a devout spiritualist who often hosted seances and spiritualist mediums in his home on the 300 block of East High Street. Maj. Charles H. Mathews (1819-1908) was born in Bristol, England and came to Ohio in the 1830s along with the rest of his family. He learned the printer’s trade in Stark County, Ohio before coming to New Philadelphia in 1841 where he, along with partners, resurrected a local newspaper called The Ohio Democrat. Maj. Mathews married Priscilla Casbear (1828-1857) in 1849, and welcomed three children, but Priscilla lived only eight years past her wedding day, dying in 1857.

Mathews served in the 80th Ohio Regiment during the American Civil War, at first as a Captain and then later promoted to Major. During the war Mathews took part in the Siege of Corinth and the Battle of Iuka, Mississippi. His interest in spiritualism, perhaps motivated by the early loss of his wife and his experience of war, began almost immediately after his return home from the war. Maj. Matthews, in 1869, challenged a local minister who had referred to spiritualism and a séance as “humbug” to an open debate on the matter. The minister declined.

Maj. Mathews married Mary Elizabeth Grim (1846-1920) in 1866 and the couple regularly hosted spiritualists and mediums at their home on East High Street in New Philadelphia, Ohio. One of the spiritualists they hosted in December 1893 was Mr. W.A. Mansfield (1869-1930), a renowned slate writing medium. Slate writing is the appearance of writing on a what was believed to be a blank slate, allegedly through the intervention of the spirits. It was this particular skill that brought Mr. Mansfield to New Philadelphia and the home of Maj. Charles Mathews.

William A. Mansfield was born in Michigan in 1869, the son of a wealthy farmer who had immigrated from Canada to Michigan. Mansfield studied business, oratory, and dramatic arts before beginning his successful career as a slate writing medium. The first reference to him as a medium occurred in a July 1883 newspaper article in Saginaw, Michigan discussing a meeting of the Michigan Association of Spiritualists. It referred to Mansfield as an “independent slate writing and physical test artist.” He traveled throughout the midwest presenting his slate writing presentations, even going as far as Colorado at one point. Newspaper reports of him often gave conflicting information about his hometown and his education. 

Mansfield married in July 1893 and the wedding was a large spiritualist affair held in Portage County, Ohio. After his marriage, William A. Mansfield’s medium activity seemed to tail off as he attended medical school at the Cleveland University of Medicine and Surgery. Despite graduating in 1895, he still appeared in a publication of “prominent workers in the cause of spiritualism” in 1897. Now Dr. Mansfield went on to practice medicine in Cleveland, Ohio for several years before moving to Barberton, Ohio where he became a prominent member of the community, served as the health commissioner, and resided for the remainder of his life. 

New Philadelphia spiritualist, and host of many seances including Dr. Mansfield’s, Maj. Charles H. Mathews died in the spring of 1908. His long, front-page obituary spoke of his spiritualism and his belief that he would meet his “departed loved ones…in the vastness of the Wonderland”. Dr. Mansfield served as the Barberton Health Commissioner for 25 years until his death by suicide in the fall of 1930. Neither a biography written of him for a 1908 history of Summit County, Ohio nor his obituary mentioned anything about his previous life as a spiritualist and slate writing medium.

© Noel B. Poirier, 2024.