Magic, Myths, and Stories that are Probably True

If you don’t live in New England you likely have a few thoughts of quaint villages, fishing boats as far as the eye can see, and a magnificent display of color every October. If you search the internet for posts such as this, there is an even greater chance that you have thoughts of dark dirt roads that stretch on for miles, farms speckling the landscape just far enough apart to prevent you from hearing someone scream, and humorless age-lined faces watching strangers that have the courage to walk into the local general store looking for directions.

You just have to love the lasting impressions of a good horror flick.

But, some of the stories that are still told in the dark of night in New England have just enough truth to be truly bizarre.

Take the rash of vampires that took over the imaginations of villagers up and down the coast from the late 1790s well into the next century. There are cases of family members being struck down with mysterious illnesses after burying a loved one who died of the same afflictions.

To save the day, the village would dig up the recently deceased and discover fingernails that appeared to grow, larger teeth than they remembered, and often a tell-tale trickle of blood that had run down the chin of the now confirmed vampire who had obviously recently finished a meal of their own flesh and blood, so to speak.

One such case comes to us from Vermont when a young lady named Rachel Harris died of consumption. Within a year, her husband married Rachel’s step-sister and shortly thereafter she too, began to show signs of sickness. Of course it had to have been Rachel, who apparently suffered some serious issues with jealousy on the other side and came back to exact her revenge on her poor step-sister. Three years after Rachels passing the entire town gathered to exhume the body and burn her lungs, liver and heart; after which it is assumed they went about their business like nothing happened. The step-sister died later that year.

More modern history buffs who investigate these matters thoroughly, have come to the conclusion that the term “Vampire” may not have been used at all in most cases, but the legend will persist as legends often do. Most of us know now that the bodies that were dug up and defiled had died of tuberculosis, but vampire lore has been around throughout written history in one form or another and has versions of it through out the world. Who is to say that somewhere fact didn’t turn into fiction.