The 1904 City Directory listed six women who worked as clairvoyants. No articles appeared in the Pantagraph describing their work, except when one of their defenders objected to the crackdown on clairvoyants in 1915 in a letter to the editor. That writer said: "The fortuneteller who is honest, helping women out of their troubles, is not near as illegal as men running with their next door neighbor while their wife stays at home." The perception was that women consulted fortuneteller of psychics, but men did not. Officially, fortunetellers were a joke, a party trick. Or they were dangerous gypsies who would pick your pocket. It does not appear that the established fortune tellers in Bloomington or Normal were objected to. Additionally, the Spiritualist Church was well established in Bloomington. This church accepted the idea of psychic abilities and sponsored seances and would have lent credence to the practice of fortune telling.
Ada Bertoni was the wife of a very respected businessman in Bloomington. John Bertoni had a confectionary where he sold ice cream, nuts and fruits in a store at Front and Center. He was also a very high ranking member of the Knights of Pythias. The Bertonis lived at 807 S. Main. Mrs. Bertoni gave readings on Thursdays and Fridays or by appointment. When Mrs. Bertoni died in 1939, her membership in American and French occult organizations was mentioned. She was the only member of this group whose past profession was acknowledged in her obituary.
Louise Hiett was another woman who seemed to be well established. She and her husband, Reverend John Hiett lived at 210 Mulberry in Normal. She performed readings at their home. Mrs. Hiett remarried around 1905 to Bert Ross and died in 1910 of liver cancer at the Kelso Sanitarium. Although she had moved to Minneapolis with her new husband, she returned to Bloomington for treatment of her cancer; one motivation may have been that her daughters lived here. However, the cures offered at the sanitarium were also somewhat mystical!
Catherine Neely was an African American woman who was born in Mississippi in 1858. She came to Bloomington with her husband around 1899. He worked as a laborer. Catherine died in 1926 and not much could be found about her life.
Josephine Raiford was another African American woman from Mississippi, born 1860. She seems to have been quite remarkable for her time. Her husband died about 8 years before she did and worked in some capacity for the city. Prior to her death Josephine Raiford must have been very well established. In 1911 a list of all the people acting as sureties for the police of the city were listed. (Each officer had to have a bond and two sureties for it.) Josephine Raiford stood as surety for W. H. Reeves . When she died in 1925 her will was probated and noted in the newspaper. Her estate was valued at $5,700 and included two pieces of real estate which were left for her son and her daughter. Not only did she have this real estate but she had hired an attorney to write her will and on another occasion to quiet the title to her property. She was a very business like woman to be sure.
Sara Wells lived at 609 E Market and 308 N. West Street and kept her fortune telling parlor in her home. Her newspaper ad promised: "She reads your life from your very childhood, naming every hope, fear and ambition." She gave advice about legal dealings, marriage and investments. She promised to cure customers of the cigarette habit and to locate lost or stolen belongings. Of the six clairvoyants, only two put ads in the paper.
Very little is known of the last clairvoyant listed in the city directory. Jennie Beller was the daughter of J.H. Bigger and Amanda Glimpse. Amanda Glimpse was a granddaughter in one of the very earliest families that settled in Bloomington. Jennie died in 1951.