The Legend of Mercy Brown--New Englands Last Vampire

I was looking on information about vampires for my book, and I ran across the legend of Mercy Brown, one of the most popular North American vampires. I found it fascinating, and thought I'd type it up here.

Mercy Brown was a daughter of George and Mary Brown in the late 1800s. I suppose the story starts when Mary Brown died of consumption, now called tuberculosis, in 1888. She was followed closely into the after-life by her's and George's oldest child, Mary Olive.

Then, in 1891, Mercy, at the young age of nineteen, died of consumption as well, leaving George and the youngest child, Edwin (whom was also ill with the same disease), behind.

Friends and neighbors of the family, being superstitious, believed that one of the family members was a vampire, which was why all George's family were dying. Two months after Mercy's death, George was finally convinced that digging up the dead family members and burning what remained was the only way to make Edwin well again.

So Mary, Mary Olive, and Mercy were all dug from their graves. Mary and Mary Olive were, of course, thouroughly decomposed; Mercy, however, still had blood in her heart and was not decomposed at all. Her heart was removed and burned, and the other two women's remains were also burned as a precaution.

Despite their efforts, Edwin died about two months later.

Of course, there is a rational explaination as to why Mercy was not decomposed at all, while Mary Olive and their mother were--Mercy had been buried in cold weather, and the ground was frozen around her, preventing any significant decomposition.

So, was Mercy Brown really a vampire, or simply an object of the superstitions of the nineteenth centure? You decide...

QUOTE OF THE DAY
Throughout the vast shadowey world of ghosts and demons there is no figure so terrible, no figure so dreaded and abhorred, yet dight with such fearful fascination, as the vampire, who is himself neither ghost nor demon, but who partakes in the dark natures and possesses the terrable qualities of both.
~Montague Summers