A History of Vampires in New England

INTIODUCTON

Of all the creatures in history, the vampire is perhaps the most enigmatic. Scores of books, movies and television series have bestowed upon this being many guises, from hideous and grotesque to charming and gentle—and sometimes even comical. The New England vampire was, in its own right, a whole different character than what we have seen in film or print. In the events that took place during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the vampire of New England took on a role as a spiritual being rising from the grave to feed on the living.

The disease then known as consumption and now known as tuberculosis was sending family members one by one to the tomb. There was no cure at the time, and where medicine failed, folklore took over. At the time, the word vampire never crossed the lips of these fearful citizens, at least not loud enough for anyone to hear. The living were convinced that the spirit of one of their recently deceased was rising from the grave to feed on family members, thus spreading the dreaded disease from one person to the next. Most New England families were inclined to believe that the spirit fed only on family members, afraid of being discovered. In some cases, families lost up to five members within the span of a year. Other cases show that consumption claimed the mortal frames of loved ones over a period of several years or perhaps decades. One must figure, however, that if a family lost three or four members in the course of several years, it would have been devastating.

Scores of families began exhuming their loved ones in search of the devil’s concubine among them that was mercilessly sapping the life from them. They looked for certain telltale signs that would convince them that a vampire was at work. Among those signs was a bloated body, signifying that the spirit had recently fed. Blood around the mouth was also a mark of a recent nightly visit. Other indications were hair and fingernails that appeared as if they had grown, pale flesh, a body in little or no state of decay and perhaps even movement within the coffin. The heart was usually removed from the corpse and cut open. If fresh blood dribbled from the organ, it was known beyond the shadow of a doubt that the vampire had been found.

The most common practice of New England exorcisms for vampirism consisted of removing the heart, liver and lungs, burning them and feeding the ashes to the inflicted, mixed with some sort of medicine or water, as a remedy for their illness. Sometimes other forms of exorcism were instituted, as you will soon read.

Today, it sounds quite unreasonable for such rituals to take place, but we must keep in mind the fact that families were literally being wiped out by the dreaded consumption. In some cases, neighbors feared that the vampire would soon prey on them when the last of its kin was gone.

As you read these pages, you will find that the New England vampire was also quite an enigma. Many of the accounts are well documented and available for the interested to peruse. Others are extremely vague, and most of the graves are no longer in existence or are marked with fieldstones in a family plot, making it difficult to pinpoint who is buried where. Our research and investigations of these burial yards, based on what little we had to go on, proves that many times family members succumbed to consumption in rapid succession. Often, the family was forced to make hand-hewn stones out of fieldstone to serve as markers until more proper stones could be procured, sometimes years later, if at all. Money was also an issue when a proper stone was to be made, as the devastation of the disease left most families financially wrought, especially when the patriarch of the clan, who may have run a skilled business, passed unexpectedly, leaving a widow to tend to the farm or business.

When Obidiah Higginbotham of Pomfret, Connecticut, died in 1803, his wife, Dorcas, had to sell what she could to pay their debts, including land and possessions. Obidiah ran a small business, the Higginbotham Spinning Wheel Company, on the Nightingale Brook that ran behind the home. The family continued to make the wheels, as Darius Higginbotham had learned the trade. Men taught their young the tricks of their trade early so that they might someday inherit the family profession or become self-sufficient.

In rural New England, fieldstone markers were quite common in early burials. Wood was also used. Some markers bear a roughly carved inscription, while others are plain slates marking the final vestiges of one’s tenure on this earth.

Contained within these pages are various cases of the history of the New England vampire as best we know it. These are by far not the only instances of exorcism for vampirism. Scholars have concluded that many more exorcisms went on undocumented. This is a chapter in New England history that has made for many scary tales, best told when the moon is full and the coyotes howl in the distance.

Note: In regard to cemeteries, some are on private property, so please do not trespass without proper permission from the owners. Those burial grounds that are public should always be respected, and all rules and regulations pertaining to them should be followed.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF TUBERCULOSIS

Tuberculosis, or tubercles bacillus, has been a plague on mankind for millennia. It is estimated that the disease has existed for about fifteen to twenty thousand years. Archaeologists and anthropologists have found that the disease was present during the Neolithic period based on bones found in Heidelberg, Germany. During this period, also called the new Stone Age, humans began evolving from hunters and gatherers into settled farmers. The exact dates of the period vary from culture to culture, but it is generally accepted that it came about around 10,000 BCE.

As opposed to the Paleolithic period, during the Stone Age humans began to use more complex tools and learned the arts of weaving and pottery making. They began to settle into villages and built more permanent structures. Farming communities were established, and the domestication of animals created the necessity to possess and cultivate tracts of land. Forms of money began to emerge, and so did the need for more multifaceted governing bodies. This was a major transition in the establishment of what would become towns and cities.

It was also during this settling and farming period that tuberculosis was reportedly introduced to humans through Mycobacterium bovis, found in animals during the first eras of domestication. Dr. Robert Koch would later prove that the bacilli found in humans differed from that found in bovines. In fact, retired Rhode Island veterinarian Dr. Peter Campellone states that although it may be possible for bovine TB to be passed on to humans, he has never known of any cases:

To prevent any sort of possibility, all lactating dairy cows are regularly tested for TB. If tested positive, it is not necessarily an indication of TB positive but could be a false positive. The herd is then quarantined and tested again after ninety days. Sometimes whole herds can be classified as TB positive if enough of them test positive for the disease.

The USDA testing procedures have to be strict and thorough to ensure the safety of both herds and humans.

Tuberculosis mostly attacks the lungs but has been known to settle in other parts of the body as well. Symptoms include a chronic cough (in some cases violent enough to cause damage to the ribs), spitting blood, night sweats, fever and extreme weight loss, making one look pallid and graven as one’s eyes recede into their sockets and one’s frame becomes pale and gaunt. The afflicted could also suffer from delirium before succumbing to the dreaded disease. This explains why many of the children who later died from the disease confessed to being visited by one of their siblings in the dark hours of the night.

The Old Testament refers to a consumptive malady that affected the Jewish people during their tenure in Egypt, a region that is known for its high incidence of cases. Dr. Campellone also points to the disease being found in mummies.

Historically speaking, tuberculosis has gone under the guise of many names: phthisis, Pott’s disease, scrofula, the white plague and, of course, consumption. Early scholars were at odds over the contraction and treatment of the disease. Hippocrates, in describing the symptoms of what he called phthisis, concluded that whole families being infected meant that the illness was hereditary and not contagious. Aristotle was in sharp disagreement, stating that phthisis was, indeed, highly contagious and not hereditary.

Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (ca. 80–70 BC, died after 15 BC), a Roman writer, architect and engineer, made a curious discovery that he felt was pertinent to those afflicted with the disease. He noted that colds, pleurisy and phthisis ran rampant in regions where the wind blew from the north to the northwest. He went as far as to request that walls be built in these areas to shelter the population from these afflicting winds. One curious point of interest is that in New England, the winds are known to blow from the north. That is why many early homes of the region were constructed with the strong side of the structure facing toward the north. The low-hanging roofs and minimal amount of windows protected the inhabitants from these nor’easters. The cold, damp, northerly winds are still blamed for bringing colds and flu to a majority of the New England populace each season.

In 1720, Benjamin Marten concluded that a microscopic organism called animacula, which could thrive and multiply in a host’s body, was the cause of consumption. His theory was widely rejected. It would be 162 years before Dr. Robert Koch would prove this theory to be fact.

LIFE, DEATH AND SUPERSTITION IN EARLY NEW ENGLAND

In early New England, death was a common, horrible reality. There were many diseases to match the perils New Englanders faced, contributing to high mortality rates, especially among children. Families had many children knowing that the chances of them dying at a young age were significant. Famous Puritan minister Cotton Mather suffered the loss of eight of his fifteen children before they reached the age of two.

Bearing numerous children was a life-threatening ordeal for women, who were at high risk of dying from complications during childbirth. It was common for a woman to give birth to children in rapid succession until she could no longer have any more. Women were often weakened over time, and if they did not die from disease, childbirth or complications of having multiple children, they would be fortunate to see grandchildren. Families of higher means could hire a midwife and doctor to assist in births. After childbirth, the wealthy mother would spend up to three or four weeks recovering from the ordeal, being pampered and cared for in every way necessary. In poorer, more self-sufficient homes, it was common for the woman to be back on her feet and tending to the daily chores within a few days. In healthy environments, death during childbirth was as high as one in eight woman, and the mortality rate for children dying by the age of five was one in ten. In rural New England, where doctors were scarce, one out of four children was not expected to live past five years of age.

Life expectancy in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries varied from region to region and was in direct relation to social status. Wealthy women rarely tended to their own chores and therefore were subject to an early death due to lack of physical exercise that created health problems later in life. For instance, even in the Gilded Age, Newport, Rhode Island’s elite would be waited on hand and foot. The women looked forward to their afternoon promenade down Bellevue Avenue, where they would wave to one another from their carriages. It was about the most exercise many of them had to endure. Farmers were known to live much longer due to the rigorous daily tasks of tending to their homesteads. If disease did not take them, then they were sure to live long, healthy lives. Even the women of a farming or self-sufficient household had a longer life expectancy due to the many activities they faced each day. A majority of the gravestones Arlene and I have studied in the