The Watseka Wonder: Part One

  Mary Roff, shortly before her death

When most people are confronted by the idea of possession, images of demonic spirits overtaking a body by force usually come to mind.  Perhaps they even think of objects being thrown around the room by an unseen force or a person's head turning completely around on their neck.  But in reality, that is not always the case.  It certainly wasn't the case in the tiny town of Watseka, Ill early in 1878.

"The Watseka Wonder," as it came to be called, begins with the story of Mary Roff.  Starting at just 6 months after her birth, Mary began to suffer strange "fits" and seizures which, over the years of her life, gradually became more bizarre and violent.  In her adolescence, she would frequently go into what can only be described as trance-like states where should would literally lay motionless for long periods of time; sometimes even days.  Upon "waking" she would speak of voices she heard that she did not recognize and that "came from nowhere," sometimes even telling her to do evil things.

These fits and seizures were also accompanied at times by periods of clairvoyance wherein Mary would talk at length about places she had never been, or even tell people things about themselves she would have no way of knowing.  From all accounts Mary was very accurate.

Unfortunately, these episodes could also be very violent.  For unknown reasons, Mary Roff became enamored with the idea of blood, even convincing herself that she needed to remove all the blood from her body.  She would poke at herself with pins, slash her body with razors, and even uses leeches in her efforts to drain herself of bodily fluids.

Directly after once finding Mary laying in a pool of her own blood her parents saw no choice but to commit her to the state asylum as they thought her insane.  Sadly, cures for insanity in that age of medicine were almost medieval in their barbarism, often causing more harm than good.  Mary herself was submersed naked into a tank of freezing cold water, forcibly kept in it until her body temperature had lowered significantly, then removed and submersed into another tank of scalding hot water.  She was also doused with cold water from a hose, then wrapped in wet towels so tightly that her blood vessels would be hampered, only to then be rubbed down vigorously to restore circulation.  The treatments, as you may well could imagine, did not work and Mary passed away tragically at the age of just 19 years old.

Meanwhile, Lurancy Vennum, our second main character in this story, was just over one year old and living on her family's farm in Iowa.  At the age of seven, her family moved to a town just seven miles south of Watseka, where the Roff family still resided.  They lived peacefully with a healthy Lurancy for several years until, shortly after the twelfth anniversary of Mary Roff's death, someone who she had clearly never met, she too became ill.

Suffering the same type of fits and seizures that young Mary did, Lurancy's fits were often accompanied by severe abdominal pains and visions of what she called "angels."  She also was known to go into trances and speak aloud in voices which did not belong to her.  Afterward, when she would awaken, she would claim no memory of anything that had transpired.

Lurancy Vennum was taken to several doctors, all of whom offered the same diagnosis:  insanity; and recommended she be admitted at once to the state asylum, much like Mary Roff had been before her.

Word travels fast in small towns and it wasn't long afterward that the Roff family themselves caught wind of what was going on in the life of young Lurancy Vennum.  Recognizing the similarities between this young girl's case, and their own deceased daughter Mary's, they offered their support to the Vennums.  Recommending a Spiritualist doctor they knew, a Dr. E. Winchester Stevens, they hoped he would be able to help their child before it was too late.

Dr. Stevens observed young Lurancy for some time, seeing for himself these bizarre fits where the girl's mind and body would seem to be "taken over" by unpleasant, even angry, entities.  Among the spirits that were inhabiting her were an older woman name Katrina Hogan and a younger man named Willie Canning.

Once, while Asa Roff, the father of the long since deceased Mary was present, Dr. Stevens begged Lurancy to overcome these evil entities and find a more pleasant control in the spirit world.  Finally, one such did come through.  Lurancy Vennum stated that there was a young woman who was about to make herself known.  Her name was Mary Roff.  

Asa Roff, dumbfounded by hearing that name spoken out loud by this girl, came to full attention and said, "That's my daughter..."

(To be continued)