1937 Vampirism in Rhode Island

# Vampirism in Rhode Island

By J. Earl Clauson

WHAT this mausoleum of extraordinary practices should have said, of course, is that up to the time of writing no case of vampirism in Rhode Island had come to its notice. What it did say was that Rhode Islanders were too sensible to indulge in such a ceremony as took place at Jewett City, just over the line, where a corpse was disinterred and burned to destroy the vampire which inhabited it.

Because no sooner were the words off the press than reports began to come in of vampirism in Rhode Island. In the light of what we know now, if we could recall our words, we should say that Rhode Islanders were too liberal to interfere with ladies who wanted to sell themselves to the devil and become witches, but were thumbs down on vampires.

Still, on the whole, we’re rather glad we put it that way about vampires, because it brings to light a very singular story from Exeter which otherwise might have passed to oblivion with the people who knew about it.

Vampires, in case you haven’t studied the subject exhaustively, are peculiar creatures and hard to understand. Noah Webster, who knows everything, says they are the souls of the dead, ordinarily of those dead by violence, which come out of the tomb by night and prey on the blood of the living, usually of relatives.

This explains the Exeter case we’re going to tell you about because there it was all in the family. At the same time it leaves a considerable mystery, the difficulty being to understand how a soul could transport the living blood of its victim. But perhaps we have the wrong idea about souls.

Anyway, if you visit the Chestnut Hill cemetery in Exeter you will ﬁnd back of the ancient and active Baptist Church which adorns that eminence the graves of three members of the widespread Brown family, a mother and two daughters. They were buried there between 40 and 50 years ago, having died apparently of tuberculosis within a comparatively short time of one another.

A son and brother, Edwin A. Brown, lived at West Wickford. A photograph we’ve seen shows him a big, husky young man; nevertheless he, too, came down with tuberculosis, which, thanks to the efforts of such men as Dr. John I. Pinckney, is a far less common disease today, but the ailment was only retarded. Perceiving that Brown was growing worse, his relatives in Exeter got together and discussed the situation.

Out of their conference developed a conviction that his life was being sapped by visits from a vampire. Very likely it was responsible also for the deaths of the other three members of the family, and was living in the grave of one of them. What to do - what to do?

In the play John A. Balderston made out of Bram Stoker’s hair raising tale, “Dracula,” the indicated disposal of a vampire is to drive a stake through the heart of the corpse the creature inhabits. This involves long watching to make sure of picking the right body.

The chief difficulty at the Chestnut Hill Cemetery was that there were three bodies, any one of which might be the one infested. Also the Exeter Browns had, as you shall see, an improvement on Eastern European practices, where apparently vampires were most numerous.

Equipping themselves with picks and shovels, they repaired to the graveyard and dug up the bodies of the mother and two sisters. This, as we get the story, was done in the daytime, without thought of unfavorable comment.

From each body the heart was removed and in a ﬁre lighted on a nearby rock in the cemetery reduced to ashes. The bodies were returned to their resting places.

The gravestones of the Brown family are still there, and the stone on which the hearts were burned. In the veins of one of the sisters, the old story goes, there was blood, proof of vampirism.

The object of burning the hearts was to procure medicine for the ailing Edwin A. Brown of West Wickford. He dissolved the ashes in the medicine his doctor was giving them. Apparently it was not effective, for later he went with three other North Kingstown men, two of whom at least are alive, hearty and prominent in town affairs today, to Colorado Springs to seek relief from his disease.

He came back after a while better but not cured, and died young.

It struck us as an altogether remarkable tale, not only because of the belief in the old superstition, but because of its persistence to comparatively recent times. The peculiar rite we have described occurred not longer ago than 1890.

The late Sidney S. Rider, historian and antiquarian, tells of a similar case in these plantations about the time of the outbreak of the Revolution. Unfortunately for record purposes he fails to locate it with any exactness.

In this instance, a young farmer, to whom Mr. Rider refers as Snuffy Stukeley, was the father of 14 children. The oldest, Sarah, died. Stukeley had a frequently recurring dream that half of his orchard died, and sure enough, one after the other, ﬁve of his children followed their oldest sister to the grave.

The logic of the case was vampirism. So after due consideration the six bodies were disinterred. Five were found badly decomposed.

Sarah’s body, however, was in good condition and her arteries were ﬁlled with fresh blood. Her heart was removed and burned.

Notwithstanding the precaution, a seventh child, a son who had been ill at the time of the exhumation, died. There Mr. Rider’s account stopped, leaving it to be inferred that the rest of the children reached maturity.

He said he had heard of a similar case at Wakeﬁeld, perhaps in a past too remote to obtain details inasmuch as he doesn’t give them.

We hope this recital cheers you up. It’s interesting to consider that there still may be people in the remoter parts of the State who have not been able to rid themselves of belief that there is something in the vampire idea.

The notion apparently found birth in Greece, perhaps even in Greek mythology. It obtained its strongest foothold in the Balkan States and the Carpathian sections of Austria and thereabouts. If anybody knows how it became rooted in Yankee minds we're not among them; it seems an utterly alien growth.

It seems to us also it must be harder to believe in vampires than in witches. We have yet to hear of any prosecution for witchcraft in this ancient community.

### Print Info

* These Plantations
* Vampirism in Rhode Island
* Author: J. (James) Earl Clauson
* Publisher: Roger Williams Press, E. A. Johnson Company, 1937
* Original from: the University of Wisconsin - Madison
* Digitized: Aug 9, 2011
* Pages 67-69, 3 Pages

### Links

* https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89067604199&view=1up&seq=83&q1=a%20photograph%20we%27ve%20seen
* https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/ssd?id=wu.89067604199;seq=83;num=67
* https://books.google.com/books?id=ITgoAQAAMAAJ&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=Vampirism+in+Rhode+Island
* https://www.amazon.com/These-plantations-foreword-Sevellon-illustrations/dp/B00086PKJM

### Citations

**APA:** Clauson, J. E. (1937). Vampirism in Rhode Island Version (University of Wisconsin - Madison). In *These plantations, with a foreword by Sevellon Brown and illustrations by Milton Halladay and Paule Loring* (pp. 67–69). Printed by the Roger Williams Press, E.A. Johnson Co. https://books.google.com/books?id=ITgoAQAAMAAJ&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=Vampirism+in+Rhode+Island.

**MLA:** “Vampirism in Rhode Island .” *These Plantations, with a Foreword by Sevellon Brown and Illustrations by Milton Halladay and Paule Loring*, by J. Earl Clauson, Printed by the Roger Williams Press, E.A. Johnson Co, Providence, R.I, 1937, pp. 67–69, books.google.com/books?id=ITgoAQAAMAAJ&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=Vampirism+in+Rhode+Island. Accessed 29 Mar. 2021.

**Chicago:** Clauson, J. Earl. “Vampirism in Rhode Island .” Essay. In *These Plantations, with a Foreword by Sevellon Brown and Illustrations by Milton Halladay and Paule Loring*, 67–69. Providence, R.I,: Printed by the Roger Williams Press, E.A. Johnson Co, 1937. https://books.google.com/books?id=ITgoAQAAMAAJ&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=Vampirism+in+Rhode+Island.

**Harvard:** Clauson, J. E. (1937) “Vampirism in Rhode Island ,” in *These plantations, with a foreword by Sevellon Brown and illustrations by Milton Halladay and Paule Loring*. Providence, R.I,: Printed by the Roger Williams Press, E.A. Johnson Co, pp. 67–69. Available at: https://books.google.com/books?id=ITgoAQAAMAAJ&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=Vampirism+in+Rhode+Island (Accessed: March 29, 2021).

**Vancouver:** Clauson JE. Vampirism in Rhode Island . In: These plantations, with a foreword by Sevellon Brown and illustrations by Milton Halladay and Paule Loring [Internet]. Providence, R.I,: Printed by the Roger Williams Press, E.A. Johnson Co; 1937 [cited 2021Mar29]. p. 67–9. Available from: https://books.google.com/books?id=ITgoAQAAMAAJ&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=Vampirism+in+Rhode+Island