Cassadaga, which is a Seneca Indian word meaning “water beneath the
rocks”, was founded in 1875 by the trance medium George P Colby,
although almost another 20 years passed before the Southern Cassadaga
Spiritualist Camp Meeting Association received its official charter in
1894. Colby was born in Pike, Alleghany County, New York, in 1848, the
same year that the Fox sisters famously started the spiritualism craze
that quickly spread across North America and Europe. As a toddler, Colby
moved around – first to Indiana, then to Minnesota, where his
mediumistic abilities first appeared. Colby’s parents were Baptists, and
at the age of 12, he was baptised in a frozen lake during a
particularly cold winter. The family had to cut a hole deep into the
ice to perform the sacrament, and it seems to have sent Colby into a
near-death experience. He claimed that his dead uncle came to him and
informed him that he was a medium and that he would one day found a
centre for spiritualism in the South. Soon after, Colby’s talents
manifested in clairvoyant abilities and spirit healing – the ‘laying on
of hands’.
At 17, while working as a tailor, Colby was sent into a deep trance by a ‘band’ of spirit guides, something his Baptist parents weren’t too keen on. He left the church, and by his 20s was working in public as a medium, a not unusual occupation in America at that time. By the late 1860s, Colby was travelling throughout Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, giving readings and holding séances. His speciality was convincing sceptics of the truth of spiritualism, his various ‘guides’ providing incontrovertible evidence of the reality of the afterlife. Like other spirit guides, Colby’s were multilingual, and he passed on their communications in French, German, Swedish, and other languages. Colby’s performances were so popular that many attendees had to be turned away, and he developed a reputation as the “Seer of Spiritualism”. At one séance, he is reported to have contacted no less than 300 spirits. (As they were disembodied, there was no difficulty fitting them into the auditorium.)
Colby’s most frequent guide was a Native American Indian named Seneca, but a few others also put in appearances. There was a German scholar known as ‘the Philosopher’, a healer named Wandah, and the voluble Professor Huffman, whose speciality was public speaking. In 1875, at a séance in Iowa, Seneca instructed Colby to visit the spiritualist TD Giddings in Wisconsin. He did, and during a séance with Giddings, Seneca told Colby that he must travel with Giddings and his family – Mrs Giddings was a well-known medium too – to Florida. Here, Seneca told him, he would found the spiritualist centre his uncle had spoken of years before.
The group took a train to Jacksonville, which was as far south as the railway went then. From there, they travelled by boat to Blue Springs Landing, little more than an outpost in the lush Florida wilderness. Seneca then guided Colby through the subtropical forest until they reached a spot Colby recognised from one of his séances. The area was unusual because of its small, rolling hills – most of Florida is flatter than last week’s Perrier – and Colby knew he had reached the end of his journey. Soon after this he secured the land. In 1880, he filed a homestead claim, and in 1884 the grant came through. Along with settling land for his spiritualist centre, Colby’s guides told him his health would improve by moving to Florida, not uncommon medical advice today. He suffered from tuberculosis and damaged vocal cords, and Seneca told him he could cure himself by drinking spring water and inhaling pine smoke, an example of the ‘eclectic medicine’ – an early form of ‘alternative healing’ – popular in the US then and with many of Cassadaga’s early inhabitants. Seneca was right; Colby’s vocal cords healed, his TB disappeared, and in 1881 he was off again on another whistle-stop spiritualist tour of 17 states, holding séances in Washington Territory (it became a state in 1889), Oregon, and California. In 1884, he settled for a time in San Francisco, where he lectured and performed to packed houses.
It was at one of these meetings that Colby met the spiritualist EW Bond – one-time mayor of Willoughby, Ohio – who suggested he invite spiritualists from Lily Dale, “the town that talks to the dead”, in upstate New York, to help him in setting up his spiritualist community. Touted as “the world’s largest centre for spiritual development and the practice of spiritualist religion”, the Lily Dale Assembly started as a spiritualist camp in 1879, and is still going strong today, having since been incorporated into a town that has become a New Age tourist site. The name Cassadaga comes from the Cassadaga Lakes near Lily Dale, hence Colby’s spiritualist community was christened the Southern Cassadaga Spiritualist Camp.
The idea for the camp was to provide a winter haven for Northern spiritualists eager to escape the blistering winter cold. Surprisingly, Colby declined becoming a trustee of the camp, arguing that his talents were not suited to such earthly pursuits. He did sign over 35 acres (14ha) of his land, to which were later added another 22 acres (9ha), giving the site the 57 acres (23ha) it covers today, and in December 1894 the Southern Cassadaga Spiritualist Camp Meeting Association came into existence. Colby became the camp’s inspirational speaker and he passed on messages to the Association from his guides. His subsequent years, however, were not easy ones. In 1911, his house burned down – a fate that at different times befell several of the site’s original structures – and by the end of his life he was living in near poverty, supported in a small apartment by the community until his death in 1933.
At 17, while working as a tailor, Colby was sent into a deep trance by a ‘band’ of spirit guides, something his Baptist parents weren’t too keen on. He left the church, and by his 20s was working in public as a medium, a not unusual occupation in America at that time. By the late 1860s, Colby was travelling throughout Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, giving readings and holding séances. His speciality was convincing sceptics of the truth of spiritualism, his various ‘guides’ providing incontrovertible evidence of the reality of the afterlife. Like other spirit guides, Colby’s were multilingual, and he passed on their communications in French, German, Swedish, and other languages. Colby’s performances were so popular that many attendees had to be turned away, and he developed a reputation as the “Seer of Spiritualism”. At one séance, he is reported to have contacted no less than 300 spirits. (As they were disembodied, there was no difficulty fitting them into the auditorium.)
Colby’s most frequent guide was a Native American Indian named Seneca, but a few others also put in appearances. There was a German scholar known as ‘the Philosopher’, a healer named Wandah, and the voluble Professor Huffman, whose speciality was public speaking. In 1875, at a séance in Iowa, Seneca instructed Colby to visit the spiritualist TD Giddings in Wisconsin. He did, and during a séance with Giddings, Seneca told Colby that he must travel with Giddings and his family – Mrs Giddings was a well-known medium too – to Florida. Here, Seneca told him, he would found the spiritualist centre his uncle had spoken of years before.
The group took a train to Jacksonville, which was as far south as the railway went then. From there, they travelled by boat to Blue Springs Landing, little more than an outpost in the lush Florida wilderness. Seneca then guided Colby through the subtropical forest until they reached a spot Colby recognised from one of his séances. The area was unusual because of its small, rolling hills – most of Florida is flatter than last week’s Perrier – and Colby knew he had reached the end of his journey. Soon after this he secured the land. In 1880, he filed a homestead claim, and in 1884 the grant came through. Along with settling land for his spiritualist centre, Colby’s guides told him his health would improve by moving to Florida, not uncommon medical advice today. He suffered from tuberculosis and damaged vocal cords, and Seneca told him he could cure himself by drinking spring water and inhaling pine smoke, an example of the ‘eclectic medicine’ – an early form of ‘alternative healing’ – popular in the US then and with many of Cassadaga’s early inhabitants. Seneca was right; Colby’s vocal cords healed, his TB disappeared, and in 1881 he was off again on another whistle-stop spiritualist tour of 17 states, holding séances in Washington Territory (it became a state in 1889), Oregon, and California. In 1884, he settled for a time in San Francisco, where he lectured and performed to packed houses.
It was at one of these meetings that Colby met the spiritualist EW Bond – one-time mayor of Willoughby, Ohio – who suggested he invite spiritualists from Lily Dale, “the town that talks to the dead”, in upstate New York, to help him in setting up his spiritualist community. Touted as “the world’s largest centre for spiritual development and the practice of spiritualist religion”, the Lily Dale Assembly started as a spiritualist camp in 1879, and is still going strong today, having since been incorporated into a town that has become a New Age tourist site. The name Cassadaga comes from the Cassadaga Lakes near Lily Dale, hence Colby’s spiritualist community was christened the Southern Cassadaga Spiritualist Camp.
The idea for the camp was to provide a winter haven for Northern spiritualists eager to escape the blistering winter cold. Surprisingly, Colby declined becoming a trustee of the camp, arguing that his talents were not suited to such earthly pursuits. He did sign over 35 acres (14ha) of his land, to which were later added another 22 acres (9ha), giving the site the 57 acres (23ha) it covers today, and in December 1894 the Southern Cassadaga Spiritualist Camp Meeting Association came into existence. Colby became the camp’s inspirational speaker and he passed on messages to the Association from his guides. His subsequent years, however, were not easy ones. In 1911, his house burned down – a fate that at different times befell several of the site’s original structures – and by the end of his life he was living in near poverty, supported in a small apartment by the community until his death in 1933.
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