Imagine if you will, a disease so deadly, that hospitals were built specifically for those who contracted it. A disease that killed one in seven people, and those who had it, were given an 80% chance of dying. A disease that was highly contagious and believed to be genetic. A disease called “consumption” due to the rapid weight loss it caused (leading people to believe it was consuming them from the inside) in addition to fatigue, night sweats, coughing up white phlegm and in some cases, foamy blood. The disease is Tuberculosis, and in the 1800’s, was believed to be caused by vampirism. Poor Mercy Brown was thought to be one of those vampires.
In the late 1800’s, in the town of Exeter, Rhode Island, George Brown and his wife Mary Eliza raised their family; one son, Edwin, and two daughters, Mary Olive, and Mercy Lena. Tuberculosis was running rampant and the disease, being as contagious as it was, took out entire families at a time. Unfortunately it also struck the Brown family.
In 1884, Mary Eliza passed away, unable to fight the disease any longer. As if that wasn’t bad enough, tuberculosis had spread to George’s eldest daughter, Mary Olive, who passed away a short six months later. She was only 20.
The remaining family members were, by all accounts, healthy. Things were looking up, until tuberculosis struck again in 1891. George’s only son, Edwin became ill. Having heard that the mineral waters and dry air found in Colorado had healing effects, Edwin moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado. After 18 months he was still weak, coughing up blood, and continued to have difficulty breathing. Adding to that, he had become homesick. He packed up and went back home to Exeter. Little did he know what had transpired in his absence.
In 1902, F.O. Stanley contracted tuberculosis and was given 6 months to live. Hoping for a cure, he moved to Estes Park Colorado. While it did not cure him, he lived an additional 38 years, and built the famous Stanley Hotel.
On January 19, 1892, Edwin’s sister, Mercy Lena, 19, had also succumbed to tuberculosis.
With his wife and daughters gone, and his son Edwin deteriorating quickly, George searched for answers. Townspeople had only one explanation, the belief that in deceased relatives, lived flesh and blood that fed on the living of those who were of “feeble health.” They claimed that this meant that one of the deceased was draining the life from the living, causing them to pass, one by one. George dismissed their theories and continued looking for answers based in science.
When science didn’t offer any answers, (it wasn’t until March 1882 that Dr. Robert Koch discovered Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacteria that causes tuberculosis.) George began to give some credence to the town’s supernatural beliefs including a “vampire hysteria.” They told George that either his wife or one of his two daughters were sucking the life out of them, and therefore the cure for Edwin lived within their bodies.
Although reluctant, George gave Dr. Harold Metcalf his blessing to exhume the bodies of Mary Eliza and Mary Olive. On March 17, 1892, family and friends returned to the family plot in the town’s Chestnut Hill Cemetery. Their coffins were opened and their bodies had decomposed sufficiently, and were nothing but skeletons.
That left only Mercy.
While Mercy had died in January she hadn’t been buried, and her body rested in a crypt until the ground had thawed enough for her grave to be dug. When they lifted the lid from her coffin, they found her body on it’s side, her face appearing flushed, and blood clearly evident in her veins.
Dr. Metcalf was not concerned about her lack of decomposition, claiming that her state was consistent with the fact that she had been dead for less than two months. The townspeople were not satisfied and insisted on removing Mercy’s heart and liver. Upon their removal, a great quantity of blood dripped down, further feeding their superstitions. To them, Mercy was undead.
They built a large fire on a pile of rocks, placing Mercy’s heart and liver there until they had been fully cremated. The ashes were taken to George Brown and mixed with water, making a tonic that they were certain would cure Edwin. While he drank it down, it did not stop the disease from taking him. Edwin Brown died on May 2, 1892.
Mercy’s body was laid to rest in the ground of Chestnut Hill Cemetery, where today you will find her headstone, weathered and aged. To this day, people visit her grave, leaving behind gifts and notes. It is said that one note left for her read, “You go girl.”
The story of Mercy Brown came at the end of an era. An era where vampires were real, and supernatural rituals were required to save the living. Hers was not an isolated case, however was one of the most well documented. Mercy Brown was the “Last New England Vampire.”
