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New England's Forgotten Vampire Panic

The myth of vampires comes from Bulgaria's Krvoijac. The origins of vampires come from porphyria, a hereditary blood disease that causes the body to produce less heme; tuberculosis, which causes wasting; pellagra, a disease that thins the skin; and rabies. The first use of the word vampire was in 1047 in an Old Russian text, in which the term "upir" was used. The myth of vampires drinking blood comes from a combination of Slavic and Christian beliefs. It originated in 18th-century Western Europe. It could be from many things, such as dead bodies being found with blood in their mouths due to pressure building in the mouths of decomposed bodies, causing blood to pool in their mouths; or, before modern treatment for porphyria, some physicians recommended that their patients drink animal blood to make up for their red blood cell defect. Lastly, the blood-drinking aspect of vampires could be inspired by Vlad Tepes, also known as Vlad Draculae or Vlad the Impaler, seeing as he drank the blood of his victims.

Much like the fear of witches that swept Salem in 1692 and the fear of satanic rituals in 1980, the fear of vampires swept New England in the 1800s. The vampires were believed to visit and take the lives of their living relatives. Over the course of a century, 70 bodies of suspected vampires were exhumed to check for signs of vampirism. If they found signs of vampirism, such as appearing to have longer hair or fingernails, the townspeople would perform a ritual to kill the vampire. The ritual performed varied from one state to another. For example, in Connecticut, the rearrangement of a suspected vampire's bones was a common vampire-killing ritual. In contrast, in Rhode Island, where our story starts, the removal and burning of organs was standard, like in Mercy Brown's case.

Welcome to Exeter, Rhode Island. The year is 1892, and the people of Exeter knew farmer George Brown had a problem. First, his wife, Mary Eliza Brown, died due to consumption on December 8, 1883. Mary Eliza was a strong, hardworking woman who worked on the farm with her husband. By the spring of the following year, life started to drain from Mercy's older sister, Mary Olive, a twenty-year-old dressmaker. She complained of nightmares, which began to suck the life from her, and only became more pale and macilent as the nights passed. Only six months after her mother passed, Mary Olive joined her in eternal rest.

Two years passed, and George and Mary's only son, Edwin, began to show symptoms of the lurid disease. Dreadful dreams of suffocation and drowning stole Edwin's rest, and in the mornings, he felt like the blood had been sucked from his body. Friends advised him to travel west to Colorado Springs, hoping the esteemed spa would help restore his health and vitality. Ultimately, Edwin took the advice and traveled west with his bride, Hortense Spaulding. It seemed to work; the western climate appeared to arrest the progress of the disease. But, when his sister, Mercy, passed, he traveled back to Exeter. All progress made while out west seemed to evaporate as Edwin's health deteriorated again.

Edwin began to complain about visits from his sister. During febrile dreams, Edwin would cry out, "She was here," "she wants me to come with her," and "she haunts me." Rumors spread like the plague throughout the small community, and superstitions took over. The townspeople, now fearing their health, began to beg George to dig up the women's bodies, figure out who was to blame, and rid Edwin of the malicious spirit stealing his health and tainting his dreams. And George did just that. He took a small group of men to Chesnut Hill Cemetery, where his wife and daughters were buried, and began exhuming their bodies.

George's wife and daughter, Mary Olive, were both found to be "appropriately decomposed." But, when they got to exhuming Mercy, fear struck the men. Mercy had longer nails, hair, and fresh blood in her heart. The men took Mercy's body from her grave, removed her liver and heart, and burned them on a rock near her grave. Then, the ashes were put into Edwin's medication, as it was believed to be a tonic against consumption. Edwin died four months after Mercy, on May 2, 1892.

While most accounts of the Brown family end here, this one doesn't. Consumption continued to take George's children until there was only one left.

Annie Laura Brown, born in 1869, married Charles Edward Taylor on May 17, 1886, at the age of 17 and died on August 9, 1895, at 25.

Jennie Adeline Brown, born in 1877, married William Henry Edwards on May 13, 1894, at 17 and died on October 2, 1895, at 18.

Myra Frances Brown, born in 1882, married Arthur Freemont Caswell on May 21, 1898, at 17, and died about a year later on June 25, 1899, also at 18. She died of Phthisis, which is an old Greek term for pulmonary tuberculosis.

Hattie May Brown was the only surviving child of George and Mary; she was their fifth child. Born in 1875, Hattie married Alvin Luke Clarke on December 25, 1890, when she was just 15 years old. The couple had three daughters: Hattie Clarke, born in 1894; Myra Susan Clarke, born in 1896; and Janette "Nettie" Clarke, born in 1898. Hattie divorced Alvin in 1910 and later remarried Frank Everett Pierce in 1920. She lived until 1954, passing away at the age of 79.

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