There is also evidence of the same practice having occurred in New England.
During the late 18th century and until nearly the end of the 19th century, when tuberculosis, then better known as consumption spread from one member of a family to another it was sometimes suspected to be due to vampirism, though the name vampire was not used at this time.
In Rhode Island, there is the case of Nancy Young. She died of tuberculosis on the farm of her family near the town of Foster in 1827. She was the eldest daughter of the family, maybe 18 or 19 years old at the time and the first in the family to die of the disease. Her younger sister Almira soon afterwards became afflicted with the disease.
When Almira told her father about a dream in which Nancy had visited her, the father consulted the town elders who then came to the conclusion that the family was afflicted by a demo which was lingering with the body of Nancy in the family burial plot. Soon afterwards, the body of Nancy was exhumed and cremated. At the advise of one of the town elders, members of the Young family formed a circle around the the burning corpse so that the smoke would fumigate and purify them.
One of the last known cases is that of Mercy Brown which occurred in the town of Exeter, Rhode Island in 1892. The details of the case were reported at the time in Rhode Island newspapers such as The Norwich Courier and the Providence Journal.
Mercy Brown’s mother had died of consumption in 1883, and so had an older sister six months later. After several years following, Mercy’s older brother Edwin caught the disease, and then finally Mercy herself. Mercy died in January, 1892. Two months after she died, her body and those of her mother and dead sister were exhumed.
There was nothing left of the mother and sister but skeletons, but Mercy’s body was relatively intact and blood was found to be dripping from her heart and liver.
Consequently, both of these organs were cremated. However this did not cure Edwin of his consumption and he very soon died from the disease.
