Henry John “Johnny” Brophy was, to all outward appearances, a perfectly ordinary little boy. Although described as “slightly crippled” (as a toddler, he had been run over by a carriage) he managed to lead a normal life. His mother was still alive, and living in Madison, Wisconsin, but since the age of two Henry lived with his grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Kaut Lund, in nearby Mt. Horeb. (It seems to be unrecorded why he wasn’t living with his mother, who had remarried after Henry’s father died.) Until he was eleven years old, Henry gave no indication that he was about to get a brief nationwide fame as the “Child of Mystery.”
Young Henry’s descent into The Weird began on March 9, 1909. As the boy was entering a side door of his home, he was hit in the back with a snowball. The impact was so fierce, he was knocked to the ground. Once he picked himself up, he looked outside for his attacker. He saw nobody.
The next day, another large snowball hit him. His grandparents joined him in the hunt for this phantom practical joker, but again, no one was in the vicinity. The three of them shrugged--hey, life does funny things sometimes--and dismissed the mystery from their minds.
On March 11, as the trio sat down for dinner, things suddenly happened which were impossible to ignore. Various objects--cups, bars of soap, spools of thread--began being hurled throughout the room by invisible hands, quite thoroughly terrifying the family, and, I presume, really ruining their meal.
The following day, Henry’s mother was in town in order to attend a funeral. That evening, as they were all in the sitting room, the spectral Hurler of Inanimate Objects made another appearance. Various household items suddenly flew through the air, and the furniture began moving itself around. The sight was so shocking that Henry’s grandfather feared he would have a heart attack. The family, not knowing what else to do, called in their minister, the Reverend Mostrom. Mostrom soon arrived at the home, accompanied by a family friend, Sam Thompson. The two men were greeted by a Bible, which threw itself off a table and landed at the Reverend’s feet.
When Mostrom, in an effort to calm the group, began playing a hymn on the organ, their invisible guest seemed to take offense. A carving knife flew past him, embedding itself in the floor in front of Thompson. This was soon followed by a hatpin.
 |
| "San Francisco Examiner," August 22, 1909, via Newspapers.com |
The clergyman’s visit just seemed to accelerate the eerie assaults. Lamps would suddenly and mysteriously shatter. The hinges of doors would unaccountably lose their screws, causing them to fall to the floor. Out of nowhere, the family would be pelted with coal. It was noted that these frightening occurrences only happened when Henry was in the house, leaving many to conclude that he was somehow responsible. However, others asked, how could an eleven-year-old of only average intelligence somehow fool all the adults around him?
Some speculated that the household objects were moving because the house had both electricity and phone service. Perhaps this was causing items to become literally electrified? The Lunds were skeptical about this theory, choosing instead to believe that Henry had somehow been secretly hypnotized, and his trance state was somehow causing the uproar.
In an effort to settle the question of whether Henry was--consciously or not--responsible for what was happening, he was sent to visit his uncle Andrew in Springfield. The minute Henry walked through his uncle’s front door, a pail of water began spinning, dashing its contents on the floor. A mirror crashed to the ground, shattering into fragments.
That question was being clearly answered.
Poor Henry was rapidly becoming unpopular among the other children, as it was impossible to play with him without things going right off the rails. When he and another boy tried a game of marbles, the marbles not only kept disappearing, the ones that remained insisted on moving themselves. The terrified boys both fled. When Henry tried racing the other children, invisible hands pelted him with rocks and dirt clods. Storekeepers refused to allow him into their shops, because whenever Henry came in, jars would fall off the shelves and break. Even the family cat refused to go near him.
When Andrew brought the boy back to his grandparents, he included a present: a basket of eggs. When he placed the basket on a table, he was unnerved to see an egg shoot out and shatter on Henry’s face.
The frazzled family decided to seek medical help. Henry was examined by a number of doctors, who reported that he was physically normal. These physicians said the boy must, in some unknown fashion, be playing a gigantic prank on everybody. The Lunds then held a prayer meeting in their home, which just seemed to make matters worse. One George Kingsley, who was both a doctor and a spiritualist, told the family that Henry was obviously a talented medium. The strange events they were experiencing were merely due to the boy not having the training to control his psychic powers. Another spiritualist claimed that Henry was surrounded by three spirits: two women and a man. The publicity the boy was unwillingly attracting became so intense that the Lunds posted an announcement in the local paper, begging the crowds and reporters to leave them in peace.
Fortunately for the family, Henry’s “wild talents”--whatever may have been their source--soon faded away. By the time of his marriage in 1917, he had long returned to being a perfectly ordinary mortal who, one hopes, spent the rest of his days in peaceful obscurity.
