Mrs. Minerva Alter said that the mannerisms and behaviour of Lurancy when under the control resembled those of her sister Mary. Lurancy Vennum knew Mrs. Alter previously as Mrs. Alter, having met her at the school, etc, but when under the control of Mary she embraced Mrs. Alter affectionately and called her "Nervie" - a name by which Mrs. Alter had not been called for many years, but which was Mary's special pet name for her. In later years she had been commonly called Minnie by her intimate friends. Lurancy, as Mary Roff, stayed at Mrs. Alter's home for some time, and almost every hour of the day some trifling incident of Mary Roff's life was recalled by Lurancy. One morning she said, "Right over there by the currant bushes is where Allie greased the chicken's eye." Allie was a cousin of Mary Roff, and lived in Peoria, I11. She visited the Roffs in the lifetime of Mary, with whom she played. This incident happened several years before the death of Mary Roff. Mrs. Alter remembered it very well, and recalled their bringing the chicken into the house for treatment.

Lurancy in her ordinary state had never met Allie, who is now Mrs. H-----, living in Peoria, 111. One morning Mrs. Alter asked her if she remembered the old dog (a dog which died during the lifetime of Mary Roff). Lurancy replied, "Yes; he died just there," and she pointed out the exact spot where the dog had breathed his last.

Mrs. Robert Doyle stated that she called upon Lurancy Vennura before she was removed to the house of Mr. Roff. She said, " What's the matter, Lurancy ? "

L. V. - "That's not my name. You knew me when I was a little girl. You know well enough what my name is. It is Mary Roff. Your husband's in partnership with my father, and you have a baby named for my sister Minerva".

Mr. Doyle was a partner of Mr. Roff in 1863, and was in partnership with him when Mary Roff died. The partnership was dissolved about six years later, when Lurancy Vennum was six or seven years old. Mrs. Doyle had a daughter named Minerva after Mary Roff's sister, who was a baby at the time of the death of Mary Roff.

When Lurancy was being taken to Mr. Roff's house she tried to get to another house on the way, insisting that it was her home. They had to take her past it almost forcibly. This house was the house where Mr. Roff was living at the time of Mary Roff's death, and was also the house in which Mary Roff died. They shortly afterwards moved to another house, to which Lurancy was being taken.

Mrs. Wagner stated that she knew Lurancy Vennum very well both before, and during, and after the remarkable circumstances of her connection with Mary Roff. When Mary Roff died Mrs. Wagner's name was Mrs. Lord, and Mary Roff had been in her class at Sunday School. She had known Mary Roff for several years before her death - since the year 1861. Mary Roff died in 1865, and Mrs. Lord married a second time in 1866. When she called upon the Roffs after Lurancy had gone there she was greeted very affectionately by Lurancy as Mrs. Lord. She made inquiries, and ascertained that none of the family had mentioned that she was going to the house. Mrs. Wagner said that throughout the time during which Lurancy purported to be Mary Roff she invariably called her Mrs. Lord, and that after Lurancy Vennum's return to her ordinary state she invariably called her Mrs. Wagner.

One circumstance which I ascertained seemed at first sight to weaken, but on further consideration, to strengthen the evidence in favour of the spiritistic interpretation. Mrs. Kay stated that she knew Lurancy Vennum and also Mary Roff, but that Lurancy as Mary Roff did not know her. It appeared, however, that Mary Roff had not seen Mrs. Kay for two years before her death. Mrs. Kay had lived in the state of Wisconsin for two years, returning to Watseka in August, 1865, the month after Mary Roff's death, and Mrs. Kay thought she had changed in appearance somewhat during the fifteen years which had elapsed between the time of her seeing Mary Roff and that of seeing Lurancy under the control.

Dr. Hodgson tried in vain to get some direct statements from Mrs. George Binning (formerly Lurancy Vennum), but received no answer to his inquiries. He writes: -

I have no doubt that the incidents occurred substantially as described in the narrative by Dr. Stevens, and in my view the only other interpretation of the case - besides the spiritistic - that seems at all plausible is that which has been put forward as the alternative to the spiritistic theory to account for the trance-communications of Mrs. Piper and similar cases, viz., secondary personality with supernormal powers. It would be difficult to disprove this hypothesis in the case of the Watseka Wonder, owing to the comparative meagreness of the record and the probable abundance of "suggestion" in the environment, and any conclusion that we may reach would probably be determined largely by our convictions concerning other cases. My personal opinion is that the "Watseka Wonder" case belongs in the main manifestations to the spiritistic category.