1784
WILLINGTCN, CONNECTICUT
No one is really sure when the belief took hold in New England that some supernatural force may have played a role in the deaths of family members due to the horrible disease once called consumption. The influx of various diverse cultures into the country at the time brought many beliefs in folklore and lifestyles that inevitably intermingled as the different nationalities began to coexist in the new land. Consumptive victims took on the appearance of what one might consider a ghoul of sorts, becoming gaunt, pale and many times bleeding from the mouth due to profuse coughing. The look of the grave upon them certainly made others wonder if they were making that transition from human to demon. No doubt, many feared that when the person finally succumbed to the horrible malady, he or she would return and feed on the living in some way or another.
So far, the earliest record of an exhumation and exorcism for what we now term vampirism in New England has been traced back to 1784. The story is found in the Connecticut Historical Collection by John Warner Barker, published in 1836. Barker details an eyewitness account of an exhumation in 1784 by a local citizen named Moses Holmes, who spoke of a foreign doctor he referred to as a “quack.” The doctor prescribed a very unusual remedy for the family of Isaac Johnson of Willington, Connecticut. Barker narrates that on June 1, 1784, Holmes witnessed Mr. Johnson, along with two doctors, West and Grant, exhume the bodies of Johnson’s two children in order to perform the prescribed cure on himself. Johnson had become ill with the wasting disease. One of the children had been buried for one year and eleven months, while the other had been dead for just about a year.
The Old East Cemetery in WiHington, Connecticut, where Isaac Johnson and his family may have been buried.
The remedy was to dig up the bodies of the deceased and look for vines or sprouts that may be growing from the vitals. The next step was to remove the vitals, along with the vegetation, from the deceased and burn them. This would rid the family of their plight. Although the doctors found no sign of sprouts or vines within the coffin, Holmes did notice some small sprigs growing under one of the caskets. The account does not state whether the bodies were burned for good measure, but Holmes went on to note that the rest of the community should be made aware of the case so as to not be fooled by the doctor, whom he called an “imposter.” This last comment might have come in light of the fact that Mr. Johnson died in 1785 from consumption.
According to research by folklorist Dr. Michael Bell, Isaac Johnson married Elizabeth Beal, and their two children were Amos and Elizabeth. All four were presumably buried at the Old East Cemetery, just off Route 74 in Willington. Both Dr. Bell and Connecticut State archaeologist Dr. Nicholas Bellantoni attempted to find their graves but were unable to locate any markers in the cemetery bearing such specific names.
Arlene and I, along with our friend Greg Wood, also attempted to locate any sign of the Isaac Johnson family within the Old East Cemetery. Before beginning our trek, Greg quipped to his wife, Magin, “We’re going vampire hunting.”
Vampire hunting—not quite the nature of our expedition. Sure, in one light we were going searching for the graves of an alleged case of vampirism. I guess you could call that “hunting,” but we did not have wooden stakes and holy water, not even garlic. We were not expecting to encounter a creature of the dark gliding stealthily among the tombs before turning into a bat and flying away or trying to bite us on the neck. We were simply searching for some gravestones in a cemetery. Legend tripping would probably fit the scenario more in definition, but vampire hunting sounds so much more dynamic. Arlene and I made a little joke about it, and we shuffled out to the car to begin our vampire hunt.
The cemetery was established in 1899, yet many of the graves date back to before the American Revolution. In fact, about two hundred men and boys from Willington served in the American Revolution. Thirty ardent citizens scurried over hill and hollow to help the cause in Lexington. There are several Johnson plots scattered among the burial ground, but none contains the graves of Isaac, Elizabeth or their children. We know through research by Ruth Shapleigh-Brown that roughly two-thirds of Connecticut’s colonial graves are presumably long gone. Brown is the executive director of Connecticut Gravestone Network, an organization dedicated to preserving and protecting Connecticut’s old burial grounds. I attended one of Brown’s presentations and found it to be very enlightening. One reason that many of these graves are missing, according to Brown, is due to the fact that many of the settlers used wooden markers, which rotted away over time, or common fieldstones, which have sunken into the earth or were cleared away by later owners of the land who saw them as mere stones jutting up from the earth. The early settlers were mostly Puritans and did not believe in elaborate grave markers until much later. Even the final resting places of the founding fathers of some of the towns that bear their names are long lost.
In the case of the Johnson family, it seems rather unlikely that the markers were lost, as the existing stones seem to be well established. We even considered the time period in which the event was to have taken place in conjunction with the burials at the cemetery. Some of the burials predate the Johnson case and have proper markers. Even the Johnson plots have carved headstones, some of them also predating the time of the reported exhumation and exorcism. It seems strange that one whole family would be buried there, yet there would be no stones of any kind to mark their graves. The chance that wooden markers may have been erected for the entire family seems improbable, but it is not altogether out of the question.
Another interesting fact that Ruth pointed out is the way old burial yards are arranged. Many of the grave sites are not in neat rows but are strewn about haphazardly. This is not due to carelessness or lack of planning but is more in line with the makeup of the New England landscape. The region is very rocky, and in some cases, digging a grave became an endeavor when a shovel hit an immense, unmovable boulder. The easiest thing to do was to relocate the site of the grave in hopes of finding easier ground to dig. This would account for many of the burials being out of line. One mistake that historical societies often make when cleaning these old cemeteries is to assume that time and the movement of the earth has caused these stones to shift. Preservationists pull them up and replant them in a line, in keeping with what they know from today’s burial customs. Of course, this means that the stones are no longer marking actual grave sites. In some cases, Ruth found that a stone had been relocated a good distance from the actual gravesite, making it appear that a stone was missing from a grave when in reality it was several feet away, looking like it belonged to another plot.
There are certain areas, especially near a few of the Johnson plots, where there is open space with no tombstones. Could they be unmarked graves? Could the stones have been removed for some reason and never replaced? Could they have been temporary markers that may have been mistaken for fieldstones and discarded?
All of these questions and more come into play when looking for the Johnson plot. The other question that crosses one’s mind is the idea that maybe it is the wrong cemetery altogether. We checked to see if Willington may have been part of another own or if another town may have once been part of Willington. A check of when Willington was established proved that it was incorporated in May 1727, well before the exhumations took place. The surrounding towns were also well established before the Johnson incident—Tolland in May 1722, Mansfield in October 1702, Stafford in 1719, Union in 1734 and Ashford in 1714. The reason I mention this as an important factor is that some larger towns were often divided up into smaller towns and renamed, making records hard to locate. It was not uncommon for towns to be annexed into smaller segments for, among other reasons, ease of government or lack of meetinghouses. This practice went on well into the nineteenth century. I had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Bellantoni on the subject, and I found that he had come to the same conclusion long before that the Johnson plot might be on their old property; this is why no one could find th
eir graves in the Old East Cemetery.
One of the Johnson plots in the Old East Cemetery in Willington, Connecticut. Note the grassy space in the foreground.
For now, we have only scant records that state that an exhumation took place in an attempt to rid the Johnson family of their plight. This case is also the first time that a vine being part of the cure for vampirism is brought up. This idea would surface several years later in Vermont and, still later, in New Hampshire. However, cases from the mid- to late nineteenth century do not point to vines or the growth of any plants in or near coffins as a sign of ghoulish activity.
Was the Willington incident the first actual case of vampirism, the one that set the standard for scores of families digging up their loved ones in search of some spectral ghoul that fed on the living? No one is sure, but the case does fit the scenario of what would transpire for the next one hundred years, when medicine failed and folklore took over.
It is important to note that in the research of tuberculosis (consumption) before and at the time of this foreign doctor’s remedy, studies proved that consumption could be diagnosed but still could not be effectively treated.
1793
DUMMERSTON, VERMONT
Arlene and I had no problem finding the Burnett Cemetery just off of Route 5, across from the Dummerston School. Although the burial ground was not a great expanse, there were plenty of colonial gravestones that would keep us busy searching for the one that bore Lieutenant Spaulding’s name.
Arlene and I alit from our vehicle while eying the best place to start our search. Arlene took the left side, and I took the right. I immediately noticed that the right side of the cemetery was higher in elevation than the rest of the grounds. That’s when something from David L. Mansfield’s The History of the Town of Dummerston (1884) came to me. Spaulding had requested to be buried on higher ground, as the marsh and wetlands made for poor burial. Based on that statement, it made sense for us to search the right side of the cemetery. Also, since Spaulding had been a veteran of a few wars, one of the key things we looked for was a flag or plaque of some sort that the town may have placed near his grave.
The very first stone at the edge of the cemetery was, in fact, Lieutenant Spaulding’s marker. It was a much newer design than would have been common in the lieutenant’s time. Among the other stones were those of some of the first settlers of Dummerston. The burial yard is a wonderful historic cemetery worth visiting for the knowledge gained on the founding of a quintessential Vermont hamlet.
Lieutenant Leonard Spaulding was a celebrated war hero of the French and Indian War and the Revolutionary War. He was later elected as the first representative to the Vermont legislature. He was certainly not a person of low intellect or one to fall prey to superstition. In 1756, he married Margaret Sprague Love of Providence, Rhode Island. He served at Crown Point in 1758. Spaulding later settled in Putney about 1768. When his home burned down in 1771, he removed to a farm in Westmoreland, New Hampshire. He remained there for less than a year before moving his family to Dummerston. Despite being wounded during a conflict at Westminster on March 13, 1775, he still continued to fight in the Revolution while his wife and sons, Reuben and Leonard Jr., tended to the farm. Spaulding fought in the famous Battle of Bennington. During the battle, his wife was reportedly out in the garden when she heard the loud booms from cannons some forty miles away. She did not know that a battle was going on, nor did she know that her husband was in the thick of it. Lieutenant Spaulding later represented Dummerston in the General Assembly in 1778, 1781, 1784, 1786 and 1787. His accomplishments and stature as a Vermont statesman speak for themselves.
Lieutenant Spaulding’s marker at the Burnett Cemetery in Dummerston, Vermont.
All of these facts can be found in David L. Mansfield’s History of the Town of Dummerston. Mansfield also writes of a strange ritual that took place in order to rid the Spaulding family of the malady that was taking each member of the family, one by one.
Several of Spaulding’s children died of consumption at a young age. Mary died on May 12, 1782, at the age of twenty. Esther followed her on July 1783 at the age of sixteen. Timothy, twin brother to John, died on June 13, 1785. Most of the children are buried at the Dummerston Center Cemetery. On July 17, 1788, Lieutenant Spaulding died at the age of fifty-nine. As per request, Lieutenant Spaulding was buried in a graveyard east of what is presently known as Slab Hollow. The burial ground is known as Burnett Cemetery, just west of Route 5 on School House Road. This was due to the fact that his intended resting place had turned into a bog, and burial was out of the question. There is a marker to his memory at the far end of the burial yard.
It was less than two years after the lieutenant’s death that thirty-one-year-old Betsey joined her father and brothers, followed by thirty-two-year-old Leonard Jr., on September 3, 1792. At that point, family members, with nowhere else to turn, began to wonder if a supernatural force was preying on them. Historical records are a bit hazy at this point, but some scholars state that it was John Spaulding, twin brother to Timothy, who set the wheels in motion with his death on March 26, 1793.
Renowned author and investigator Joe Nickell of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry took a special interest in Vermont vampires. His research led him to the discovery that the Spaulding family members resting in the Dummerston Center Cemetery were not buried in the order they died. He also suggested that an exorcism might have been performed on Josiah, who died almost five years after Leonard Jr. Since there are no specific names given in Mansfield’s work, it is difficult to determine who was the actual “vampire” of the family.
When one of the remaining two daughters took ill, the family apparently leaned toward the vampire theory and the much-needed exorcism that would accompany it. Mansfield writes:
Although the children of Lt. Spaulding, especially the sons, became large, muscular persons, all but one or two died under 40 years of age of consumption, and their sickness was brief.
It is related to those who remember the circumstance; after six or seven of the family had died of consumption, another daughter was taken, it was supposed, with the same disease. It was thought she would die, and much was said in regard to so many of the family’s dying of consumption when they all seemed to have the appearance of good health and long life. Among the superstitions of those days, we find it was said that a vine or root of some kind grew from coffin to coffin, of those of one family, who died of consumption, and were buried side by side; and when the growing vine had reached the coffin of the last one buried, another one of the family would die; the only way to destroy the influence or effect, was to break the vine; take up the body of the last one buried and burn the vitals, which would be an effectual remedy: Accordingly, the body of the last one buried was dug up and the vitals taken out and burned, and the daughter, it is affirmed, got well and lived many years. The act, doubtless, raised her mind from a state of despondency to hopefullness [sic].
This is another instance where the presence of a vine appears in a documented case of vampirism in New England. In the Johnson case, it was explicitly stated that the vines or sprouts would be growing from the remains, and in the Spaulding case, the vine was said to be growing from coffin to coffin. It is this peculiar reference to the vine that prompts me to believe that this case in provocation may predate the Rachel Burton case by a few months, as the vine does not show up in accounts of the latter. Perhaps in the cases that followed there was no vine or root growing across or within the coffins or they were not buried exactly side by side. In such events, the vine theory would become less prevalent than the actual physical features that the exhumed showed when taken from the grave. If this idea came into play in later cases, it was not added to the documentation, with the exception of two New Hampshire cases where the “vampire hunters” were actually looking for such growth on the deceased more than any other sign as evidence that an evil, consumptive-spreading ghoul had taken over the corpse.
In any event, the vine was cut
, the body of the last interred was exhumed and the vitals were cut out and burned. The daughter, strangely enough, recovered from her illness and, according to Mansfield’s research, went on to live a long, healthy life. Mansfield does not name the daughter, but we can guess that it may have been Anna, who died on January 13, 1849, at the age of eighty-one years, nine months and six days. Reuben and Josiah both died young—Reuben, on January 20, 1794, at the age of twenty-eight; and Josiah, on December 3, 1798, at the age of twenty-seven. Margaret Spaulding lived to be ninety-four. She died on May 21, 1827, and is buried next to Anna, although there is no known gravestone to mark her plot.
1793
MANCHESTER, VERMONT
She became ill soon after they were married and when she was in the last stages of consumption, a strange infatuation took possession of the minds of the connections and friends of the family. They were induced to believe that if the vitals of the first wife could be consumed by being burned in a charcoal fire it would effect a cure of the sick second wife. Such was the strange delusion that they disinterred the first wife who had been buried about three years. They took out the liver, heart, and lungs, what remained of them, and burned them to ashes on the blacksmith’s forge of Jacob Mead. Timothy Mead officiated at the altar in the sacrifice to the Demon Vampire who it was believed was still sucking the blood of the then living wife of Captain Burton. It was the month of February and good sleighing. Such was the excitement that from five hundred to one thousand people were present. This account was furnished me by an eyewitness of the transaction.
—Judge John S. Pettibone (1786–1872), History of Manchester, Vermont
Captain Isaac Burton, a deacon of the Congregational Church, married Rachel Harris on March 8, 1789. Rachel was a young and vigorous woman of stunning beauty. Less than a year after the couple exchanged vows, Rachel contracted consumption. Her health declined swiftly, and on February 1, 1790, consumption took her to the grave.
A History of Vampires in New England Page 5
