I have noted in earlier posts that Universalists were disproportionately drawn to spiritualism in the nineteenth century.  Many, like the Rev. James Peebles, were ministers.  At least a few members of our local Universalist congregations also gravitated to spiritualism.  One of them, Laura Steele McAlpin, became a well-known lecturer on the subject.

Laura Eliza Steele was born in 1833 in Paris, France, to English parents.  She immigrated to Canada, probably with her parents, probably in the late 1840s.  Laura’s first husband, Miles Stennett, was a surgeon-dentist in Hamilton, Ontario.

Laura left Miles in June, 1851, and ran off with Harvey McAlpin, a native of England.  Laura and Harvey had settled in Athens by 1852.  They joined the Athens Universalist Society in 1854.

Harvey McAlpin was admitted to the Bradford county bar in 1853.  He was a partner in a law firm in Athens.  In 1857 or 1858, the McAlpins left Athens and moved Port Huron, MI.

Harvey and Laura McAlpin were involved in the Spiritualist movement in Port Huron.  I don’t know whether they adopted this faith before or after they moved west.  They could have been introduced to spiritualism by the Rev. James Peebles, who served the Athens congregation briefly in 1855.  (Peebles also moved to Michigan in 1857 – to Battle Creek, about 170 miles west of Port Huron.)  By 1861 Laura was active as a medium and lecturer.

Harvey McAlpin’s life ended tragically on Jan. 23, 1861.  On that day, he picked up two letters at the post office.  After reading a few lines of one of them, he put them in his pocket and headed home.  On the way, he stopped at a neighbor’s house to borrow a pistol – to shoot a “bothersome cat,” he said.  When he arrived home, he went to his room and shot himself.  The shot was not immediately fatal; he was able to speak for about half an hour before he died, but he refused to explain his actions.  The letter he had read earlier in the day was never found.

There was widespread speculation about the cause of his suicide.  Some attributed it to “that strange infatuation – Spiritualism – of which both he and his wife had become victims.”  Others thought that he was distressed by his wife’s frequent absences (Laura was on a lecture tour in Ohio at the time of her husband’s death).  Still others blamed the “embarrassed state of his circumstances,” whatever that meant.

Laura married another lawyer, Fletcher Cuppy, six months after Harvey’s death.  She nominally lived with him in Dayton, OH, but spent much of her time on the road, lecturing and attending spiritualist conventions.  Among the cities in which she spoke were New York City, Boston, and Cincinnati.

Laura moved to San Francisco, CA, apparently without her husband, about 1865.  She lectured regularly in that city and in Sacramento.  In 1869 she divorced Cuppy and married William Smith.  After this marriage she identified herself as “Laura Cuppy Smith,” presumably retaining “Cuppy” as the name upon which she had built her reputation as a speaker.

Laura Cuppy Smith became active in the woman’s rights movement while she was in California.  She began lecturing about suffrage in addition to spiritualism.

Laura married her fifth husband, Albert Kendrick, about 1876.  They moved to Boston, MA, in 1877, where Laura continued her social activism.

Laura Steele Stennett McAlpin Cuppy Smith Kendrick’s dramatic life was cut short at the age of 49.  She died from complications of a stroke on Jan. 11, 1882.