A History of Vampires in New England

by Thomas D'Agostino

  In some of the stories I have read, the writer tells of how Mr. Brown became convinced that something had to be done to stop his family from falling prey to consumption, but as we know, he knew that it was all superstition and held no true weight in the reality of what consumption really was. Just about twenty miles away, in the city of Providence, they were treating what was now being called tuberculosis.

  Mercy Brown’s case would resound worldwide, bringing the New England vampire exhumations to an end, but not before making history in writings by Bram Stoker and H.P. Lovecraft. Upon reading Lovecraft’s masterpiece, The Shunned House, it is no surprise that the mention of the 1892 exhumation would be, at times, a focal point in the story. Lovecraft relished in New England folklore and legends, incorporating many of them into his stories. It is interesting how he repeatedly speaks of the Exeter “rustics,” a word he seemed quite fond of when referring to the rural folk of the region. He even names one of the characters in his story Mercy. Lovecraft draws heavily on the incident while weaving his own brilliant imagination into a fantastic tapestry of bizarre and enticing literature worthy of any parchment.

  A rare view of the inside of the Keep at Chestnut Hill Cemetery. The entrance has been bricked up and the door welded shut. Photo Courtesy of Christopher Martin of www.quahog.org.

  Another view of the inside of the Keep at Chestnut Hill Cemetery. Photo Courtesy of Christopher Martin of www.quahog.org.

  When Mr. Stoker died, his articles were sold off. Among them was material he used to write his novel Dracula. Found among the material were newspaper clippings of the Mercy Brown case. This could be why he used the town of Exeter in his novel. I did a few lectures on New England vampires for my old high school in Smithfield, Rhode Island, because the English literature class was studying Dracula at the time. The teacher, Mrs. Pereira, is a huge vampire fan, and it was a lot of fun speaking to the three classes within a two-day period. In fact, some of the teachers actually canceled their classes to hear about the New England vampires. They were amazed at the fact that Stoker had possession of such articles and had actually used portions of the Rhode Island vampire to create his immortal classic.

  An interesting endnote in regard to Mercy Brown’s case comes by way of the cemetery records for Exeter Historical Cemetery #22. In the grave descriptions, it clearly states in a special note under her name, “This unfortunate girl, who probably died of tuberculosis, was accused of being a vampire. She was dug up and her heart taken out and burned.”

  TUBERCULOSIS IN THE

  TWENTIETH CENTURY

  Even during the exhumation of Mercy and her sister and mother, tuberculosis was being effectively treated. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as many as one out of three people died from the disease, especially in remote rural areas where, as Dr. Bowditch concluded, the climate was damp and ripe for the spread of the horrible infection. This, however, would change with the twentieth-century discoveries that medical science developed in regard to the treatment of tuberculosis.

  By 1895, Wilhelm Konrad Von Roentgen had discovered a radiation treatment that could monitor a patient’s progress, either positive or negative. This was another major step in the fight against the dreaded disease. The National Tuberculosis Association was formed in 1904 to promote more awareness, encourage prevention and work toward a cure for TB. The society later changed its name to the American Lung Association. The first somewhat successful vaccine for TB was the BCG vaccine (Bacillus Calmette-Guerin) named after Albert Calmette and Camille Guerin, who worked on the vaccine. It was first used on humans in 1921.

  Sanatoriums and special hospitals were set up to isolate TB patients. These places, despite the ongoing advances in the treatment of TB, still thrived, and the death rate in some cases was devastating. In Burrillville, Rhode Island, there sits the remains of a small village in the middle of the woods that was erected for the purpose of isolating TB patients from the populace. They could live normal lives among themselves and be treated, yet they were far enough from the main population so as to not infect others.

  Around World War II, chemotherapy was discovered and became a major victory in the battle against tuberculosis. In 1914, Selman Waksman began research on an antibiotic for tuberculosis. His unending pursuit finally paid off in 1943, when he found that the antibiotic streptomycin not only stopped the spread of the mycobacterium tuberculosis but also caused the existing bacteria to recede from the patient. The remedy was first administered on November 20, 1944, with great success.

  Other antibiotics and treatments emerged in seemingly rapid succession. By 1952, isoniazid was on the market as an oral antibiotic for TB. In the 1970s, rifampin was a new drug that made the recovery period of TB patients shorter. These medical wonders drastically reduced the number of TB patients, until the 1980s, when a drug-resistant strain of TB, called multi–drug resistant TB, began to emerge. Although not as widespread as in the past, the disease is still being diagnosed and treated. Most of the serious cases are in developing countries. One must consider that the United States, during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, was also a developing country.

  Today, millions of people are treated for TB successfully, and the medical field continues to make advances that hopefully will someday turn tuberculosis, like the New England vampire, into a legend of the past.

  OTHER STRANGE EXORCISMS

  AND INTERESTING LEGENDS

  New England has an illustrious history when it comes to witches. It is said that a witch can become a vampire after death. Whether this has been documented in New England, I am not certain, but I do know of some cases where a person was accused of witchcraft and, when death took her mortal frame, was exorcised in a manner much akin to that of the creature of the night. In some cases, the subject is a spirit that has come back looking for life, much like the New England vampire, but in a different method. The main difference between what we call a witch and what we call a vampire is that witches might do their evil bidding out of revenge, and vampires are just trying to survive.

  A vampire was often discovered and destroyed after the body was dead, while witches were still alive when done away with. Our modern take on vampires and witches casts them as having irresistible powers, as well as charming looks. Old New England legends make witches mostly hags—old and wicked with ghastly features—yet as you will soon read, some of these supposed witches were quite young and comely.

  I have found no cases of execution for vampirism in the seventeenth century, or even early eighteenth-century New England. Almost everything bad that happened at this time was blamed on witchcraft. When someone was wasting away or became deathly ill all of a sudden, vampirism was not the culprit. Suddenly, consumption began wreaking havoc, and superstition caused people to dig up family members in search of a spectral creature of the night. Some stories reveal that the villagers were not sure themselves what they were dealing with, witch or vampire. Early Puritan capital laws made witchcraft punishable by death. The following are some interesting and lesser-known legends of witches that have traces of the vampire legend within them.

  In 1647, Alse Young of Connecticut was the first person hanged as a witch in the colonies. One year later, Margaret Jones of Charlestown, Massachusetts, swung from the gallows for allegedly having a pact with the devil. These women were also accused of being able to shape-shift into different creatures, much like a vampire.

  HANNAH CRANNA, MONROE’S FAMOUS WITCH

  Whether Hannah Cranna had authentic powers of the dark side or was just feared for her outgoing brazenness, one thing is certain: she did exist, and her stone sits on a hill in Gregory’s Four Corners Burial Ground, overlooking Spring Hill Road on the Monroe/Trumbull border.

  Hannah Cranna Hovey’s grave on a rise just above the road in Gregory Four Corners Burial Ground. Legend states that she rises each year to exact revenge upon a passing motorist. Photo courtesy of Anthony Dunne.

  History tells us that Hannah’s real last name was Hovey an
d that she was married to Captain Joseph Hovey. She was born in 1783 and died in 1859–60. The latter date may have been due to the fact that she died close to the New Year. Cranna was just a nickname given to her. She resided at the summit of Cragley Hill in the Bug Hill–Cutler’s Farm section of Monroe. Hannah was quite poor. “Goody” was the term used for humble housewives during the past centuries, but Hanna was more than just an ordinary housewife; she was a witch, or so her neighbors thought.

  The villagers were very superstitious, and Hannah took full advantage of this fact. Many of her peers would cede to her wants and needs for fear of having the evil eye cast upon them. Her reputation as a minion of the dark side grew fast and far. It is told that Hannah sat and watched over her realm from a rock seat along Cutler’s Farm Road. The devil himself is said to have visited Hannah and left a hoof mark in the rock as a sign of their meeting. Legend has it that her house was even guarded by snakes, a symbol seen in modern vampire and horror movies.

  Hannah had a pet rooster called Old Boreas. Many believed the rooster was actually her familiar. Old Boreas would crow at the exact moment of the witching hour each night. The rooster’s timing was so uncanny that the townspeople set their watches by it. It was said that those who set their watches by the crow of Old Boreas kept perfect time from that moment on. When Old Boreas died, Hannah buried him in the center of her garden by the light of the midnight moon.

  When it came her time to leave her mortal frame, Hannah confided to a neighbor her exact burial proceedings. She was to be buried after sundown, and the coffin had to be carried on foot, not by wagon, to the cemetery. She died the next day, and a terrible snowstorm kept the men from carrying her casket to the cemetery in the knee-deep snow. They loaded her casket on a wagon, despite her wishes, but it kept sliding off. They tried to tie it to a sled and pull it to the burial ground, but the ropes would unknot and the coffin would shake off the sled. Finally, they undertook the slow, arduous task of carrying her casket to the cemetery by foot.

  As soon as the last shovel of dirt covered her grave, Hannah’s house was said to have mysteriously burned to the ground. According to local urban legend, once a year, Hannah rises from her grave and stands in the middle of the road, where an unwary motorist is forced to swerve in order to miss hitting her. The motorist then crashes into a tombstone—Hannah’s—and the town provides her with a new headstone each year. The legend of her rising from the grave to seek out a victim is in vogue with that of a vampire.

  EUNICE COLE

  One particular case I researched was in regard to a woman in Hampton, Hew Hampshire, named Eunice “Goody” Cole.

  Eunice Cole was the only woman in New Hampshire to be accused and jailed for witchcraft. Eunice and her husband, William, arrived in the colonies on February 20, 1637, removing from Quincy to New Hampshire in November of that same year. They were among the first settlers of Exeter, New Hampshire, where William’s name is penned on the original deed. In 1640, they left Exeter and settled in Hampton. Mrs. Cole was a bit too outspoken for her time. From 1645 to 1656, she appeared before the magistrate several times for her vile tongue. She was arrested for witchcraft in 1657, when she cursed some sailors and their vessel after they found pleasure in poking fun at her. Those who heard her shout out that they would never see home again were convinced that she had made a pact with the devil when the ship was lost during a storm as it passed the Isles of Shoals.

  Eunice was released in 1660 to care for her older, now ailing husband but was back in jail within a year for the same charges of witchcraft. William died on May 26, 1662, and Eunice was released from jail but had no home to go to; the townsfolk had sold all of her property to care for her husband and pay for her imprisonment. She laid a curse on the village and was sent back to jail. By 1671, old and tired, she was back in Hampton. The people of the town built a crude shack for her to live in and took turns caring for her out of fear that she would curse them again. When she passed away in 1680, the neighbors feared that she would return from the dead to wreak havoc upon them. They dragged her body outside and placed it in a shallow grave. Before they buried her, they drove a stake through her heart to exorcise the demon that they feared resided within. They buried her somewhere near where the Tuck Museum sits today.

  The memorial stone to Eunice Cole at the Tuck Museum in Hampton, New Hampshire. Her home was somewhere on the property, and it is presumed that she is buried close by. Note that the stone resembles a face with a hat.

  Here is an instance where the fear of a witch coming back as a vampire prompted the people of the town to perform an exorcism.

  THE LIVING DEAD

  In Scituate, Rhode Island, there lived a young man named Charles Mattison, who was to marry a very beautiful local girl. He presented her with a fine engagement ring that became the talk of the village. Unfortunately, the wedding was not to be, as the young woman died abruptly before their nuptials. Being of some wealth, she was buried in a tomb near Middle Pike. In no time at all, the young man found another prospect and sought to purchase another ring, but he found that his funds were not in agreement with his intentions. In desperation, he stole away one night to the tomb of his first love, in hopes of retrieving the ring. After prying open the tomb, he attempted to take the ring, but her finger was swollen and the ring would not budge. He cut the finger off, and in that horrible moment blood spurted from the stub, and the girl jumped up and screamed in agony. The woman had awoken from the dead right before his eyes! Needless to say, the young man fled in terror, never looking back.

  The girl actually lived several more years, until finally she once again died and was put back in her tomb. Over time, the story was passed down, and one night the youth of the town decided to check out the tomb. A cow had fallen through the top, as it was built in the side of a grazing hill, and entry was made easy. Mattison heard of this and somehow became obsessed with protecting her place of repose. Every day, he brought fresh flowers, and by night he would guard it from intruders. He even went as far as to tie some boards and old bones together. From a hidden location, he could pull on a rope, sending the collection into a clamor that would send even the most stout hearted fleeing for safer ground. He remained true to his duty until his death. Here we have a story where the corpse rises from the dead. Of, course if this were really true, it could have just been a premature burial. We have someone watching over her grave in the dead of the night. Even if this story is nothing but legend, it certainly borrows at least a little from the vampire realm.

  THE LEGEND OF DOLLY COLE(S)

  There are a few legends surrounding Foster’s Dolly Cole. One is that she was a witch who was burned with her home. Another is that she was a witch, and her child was thrown into the river off of the bridge that bears her name. She followed and vanished. Still another is that she was a vampire. There is one more legend claiming that twenty-seven-year-old Dolly Cole was a murder victim, found in the woods near Tucker Hollow Road. There is a bit of fact in all the stories.

  The only Dorothy Cole who would fit the bill died in 1860 at the age of ninety-one years, six months and four days. True, there is a bridge named after her, as well as a stream and a hill. That is because her family owned the whole area. Her house did burn down, but years after her death. Sadie Mathewson was murdered in 1899, not 1893, at the age of twenty-four. Perhaps that is the story that has been mixed with legend to create the Dolly Cole we have all been told about. The ghost of a woman has been witnessed standing near the bridge, and it has automatically been attributed to Dolly Cole. I saw the ghost when I was about eleven years old while fishing with my father. It was the first full-blown apparition I had ever seen. It was of a young woman in a white gown with bare feet leaning into the pool to draw water into a wooden bucket. She then floated away down the path. One never forgets his first ghost.

  Some have seen a woman near the gun club off Tucker Hollow Road and say that that spirit is Dolly Cole. But that is also where Aunt Lonnie (Lannie) Davis once resided. She swo
re that after she died she would haunt the area so long as even two boards of her house remained fastened to each other. Maybe someone forgot a board or two when they dismantled the house to appease her restless spirit.

  Dolly Cole may not have been a witch, but Foster did have its share of them. For instance, Isiah Brown married Peggy Hurley, or Herlihy, of Ireland. She was renowned for her spells and herbal remedies. Isiah died in 1897 and is buried at Foster Cemetery #034. Peggy may be buried there, but it is not on record; however, there are a few stones with no inscriptions. Abby and Whaley Brown were called the witches of Jerimoth Hill. The two sisters were feared far and wide for their ability to cast spells and cause items to fly about rooms. They are buried at Foster Cemetery #001 on the Rhode Island–Connecticut border. Abby was born in 1803 and died in 1875, but there is no Whaley Brown mentioned in the records. I researched to see if Whaley was a married name, and it is not. I have visited the cemetery on a few occasions but do not remember seeing a Whaley Brown among the stones. There is a Phila, born in 1805 and died in 1880, and a Pardon Brown, born in 1792 and died in 1869, who would have been about the same age as Abby. Whatever the case, the two sisters were known as witches almost into the twentieth century.

  The Dolly Cole Bridge at the bottom of Dolly Cole Hill in the Hopkins Mill Historical District. This is where the ghost of a young woman has been witnessed over the years.