You will find this grave in North Smithfield, Rhode Island.
In memory of
Simon Whipple,
Youngest son of
Col. Dexter Aldrich
& Margery his wife,
who died May 6,
1841,
aged 26 years.
Although consumption’s vampire grasp
had seized thy mortal frame
Note that there is at least one more line to the engraving! All but the beginning of the poem is covered by dirt since it is located in a forest and nature seams to gradually englobe this 200 year old cemetery.
No, I will not tell you the story of his death, since we have nothing on him. If we are to believe the tombstone, he – as so many in those days – died of consumption [tuberculosis].
Also, you will not find here the story of any rituals performed, for as far as I know none have been performed on his corpse. No ill relatives to save, no hasty exhumations at nightly hours, no pierced hearts for special potions, no burned corpses, no superstitiously arranged bones like in some of the other vampire tales of the region.
The only thing that ties this to the Rhode Island vampires is the text on the cross and the word “vampire” used a full half a century before Stoker made the word known to the general public.
๑۞๑ Related: ๑۞๑
† Superstitions
† Legends
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