Chestertown: Home of the Ouija Board?

It has been the focal point for slumber parties for generations, starred in several Hollywood productions and been a topic of controversy for over 100 years.  The Ouija Board, or Talking Board, has been a tool for spiritualists and a toy for kids since the late 1880’s and has a surprising Chestertown connection.

While the actual dates for the creation of “talking boards” are fuzzy, it is the general consensus that the rise of spiritualism in the early 1800’s also led to a rise in the popularity of occult “tools”. Psychics had been relying upon “automatic writing” as methods to contact the spirit world but often the results were illegible and hard to read. Another method of “speaking” to the spirit world relied upon table knocking, a dramatic and noisy way to communicate with the dead. As more and more people began flocking to spiritualists, more commercial communication methods became necessary. After all, spiritualism had become a business and as we all know, “time is money.” One such method involved using a small basket with a pencil attached to one end. The medium simply had to touch the basket, and the spirit would take over, writing messages and making contact. This pencil basket evolved into the planchette, a tool with two rotating casters underneath and a pencil at the tip, forming the third leg. This was the early precursor to the Ouija Board as we know it. The Ouija combined that early planchette with a printed lettered board and in today’s advertising parlance made a tool so easy to use that “even a child could use it.”

So was Chestertown in 1880 a hotbed of spiritualism?  It is conceivable that a town such as Chestertown, with such a long and illustrious past and collection of (even then) historical sites and buildings may have been quite a draw for those of a “spiritual bent”.  Regardless, local E.C. Reiche must have had a burst of creative impulse (perhaps the spirits contacted him?) and he created the design that became the modern board. Another Chestertown local, Charles Kennard, saw a business opportunity in the board and created a business selling the board to “would-be” psychics and people interested in speaking to the spirit world as a parlor game. Kennard called the board Ouija (pronounced ‘wE-ja) and said it was after the Egyptian word for good luck.  It sounds pretty good, even if it isn’t actually the correct translation. Kennard further elaborated on the story by claiming the name came to him during a session. After all, who can argue with the spirit world?

Sadly, not much in business in the 1800’s was different than today. Charles Kennard lost control of his company, and former foreman and employee William Fuld ended up with ownership of the company and the board. Fuld and his partners eventually sold the design to Parker Brothers and the Board became the household phenomenon that we know it as today. Sounds a bit like the story of today’s Facebook doesn’t it?

The Ouija Board engenders a huge variety of reactions. Skeptics abound, claiming that any results are purely a trick and/or manipulation of the person manning the planchette. On the flip side, there are a surprising number of people who believe the board really does work. Even those who condemn the board as “evil” or from the “devil” are giving the idea of spiritual communication some credence. There is even talk of demonic possession as the reason the board can communicate. Wow…Demonic possession? Not words one would immediately associate with quiet and historic Chestertown. Then again, downtown can be interesting late at night…but that is another story altogether.