Welcome to my Rabbit Hole Part III- Top 30 Most Influential People and Places In The World Of ‘Juvenile Svengalis’
If you have been listening to my podcast ‘Juvenile Svengalis’ you may have run across a long list of people who have peaked your interest. These are all people who inhabited the world of Eau Claire, Wisconsin in 1893 and 1897.
Two separate but intersecting events
These two hypnotic events which created a craze four years apart but also made international headlines have at least one intersecting person with two very different outcomes. One had national implications and one created a law forbidding public displays of hypnotism. Why is Eau Claire such a hotbed of hypnotic activity during this period?
I don’t know about you, but I need to start just organizing names and places because each person and location take me down their own unique research rabbit hole and now I just have a whole system of tunnels. I need to focus so you can help me do that. Here are 30 places and names in the world of ‘Juvenile Svengalis’ that have each captured my interest. I will get into each of them soon. But here they are and they all are SO interesting.
- Edna Mabel Briggs — Daughter of Joseph Briggs. A girl of 17 or 16 depending on the publication who went missing for two days and was allegedly put under hypnotic influence by Dr. Pickin and his son Asagail Pickin.
- Alma Leonard-Mabel’s friend who was also abducted.
- Dr. Herbert Flint-Dr. Flint is the “Hypnotism Expert” who is able to extract Mabel’s account of events. (More on him later).
- Mrs. Herbert L. Flint- Dr. Flint’s wife and “First Woman Hypnotist” aka ‘The Little Hypnotic Sunbeam’.
- Judge Bailey- Judge who oversaw both cases in court.
- Ms. Dumphy-The Teacher who was not having any of it.
- Professor Hestor- Professor at the 7th Ward School.
- President Emmit Horan- of the Board of Education of the 7th Ward School of Eau Claire, Wisconsin on October 16th, 1897.
- Lum Skatvolt-Juvenile Svengali
- Byron Culver-Juvenile Svengali
- Hugero- A Hypnotist who buried a subject.
- Tindell — One of the hypnotists in town who sold literature to the boys at their shows.
- The Coachman-Lum’s father, owner of a livery.
- Dr. J.W. Pickin — Owner of ‘The Vitapathic Institute’ and accused of abducting Edna Mabel Briggs.
- Asagail Picken-The son of Dr. J.W. Pickin accused of abducting Edna Mabel Briggs.
- City Editor Atkinson of the Leader Telegram- 20 boys would gather outside South Barstow Street and perform acts of hypnotism and ask Editor Atkinson to watch the results of their feats.
- Silver or Keppler- a Traveling Hypnotist
- Professor Santanelli- A Master Hypnotist.
- Bancroft the Magician- Young magician with elaborate productions and an untimely death.
- South Barstow Street- The location of The Leader Telegram.
- The Seventh Ward School- The location of the Ms. Dumphy “Ink” incident which started the craze.
- Randall Park- A Juvenile Svengali gathering place where they would display their hypnotic prowess.
- David Drummond-Byron’s future Father in Law.
- Ella Briggs-Byron’s future Mother in Law.
- Myron Briggs-Ella Brigg’s Father, Civil War Hero and a bit of a rogue according to many tall tales from the Florida Column.
- Joseph Briggs-An English Engineer, Mabel’s father.
- Joseph Culver-There are actually two. One was Byron’s father who died and one was his significantly older brother.
- Dr. Pickin’s First Wife-What happened to her?
- Dr. Pickin’s Second Wife-Where did she come from?
- Dr. Pickin’s Daughter-What happened to her?
