The Ray Family of Jewitt City

When people hear the word New England, a few thing comes to their mind like the New England vampire craze and the witch trial.  The belief of these creatures was deeply rooted to the culture that even if more than two hundred years after the last supposed witch was hanged, people are still crazy about the idea of vampire and witches.

The case of the Ray family of the Jewitt City, Connecticut was no different from the other cases.  Their family is also infected with the consumption during that time.  The Rays are in battle with the said disease for nine years that resulted to the death of several family members.  Lemuel Ray was the first one to die of the disease; he was 24 years of age.  After more than 3 years, Henry Ray also succumbed to the disease (Montague Summers recorded the name of the father as Horace Ray that also appeared at the Norwich Weekly Courier); he was followed by the 26-year old Elisha.

In 1854, Henry was showing some symptoms of the disease similar to the other family members who died.    The other family members were in panic, and they knew back then that they are dealing with something supernatural; a malevolent force is trying to kill them one by one.  The family concluded that these random deaths from their family are cause by their dead relatives that rose from the grave during the night time to feed on the blood of their loved ones.

Based on the accounts of the local newspaper, the family exhumed the body of Elisha and Lemuel but the body of Henry was spared due to an unknown reason.  The family incinerated the body of Lemuel and Elisha believing that it would put the curse to an end.  Henry’s death was not documented, there is a belief that he was cured from his disease and survived the consumption.

Incidentally, there is also evidence about the other suspected vampire within the area of Connecticut.  During the 90s evidence were found that more than 29 graves have been desecrated in Hopeville.  One of the most noted unearthing of the graves is that of the Walton family which is located around 2 miles away from the Ray Family.   One of the corpses has his head decimated; other corpse who also died of consumption has a clear evidence of unearthing.  Interestingly, members of the Watson Family also died from tuberculosis.  As we all know, a series of death in the family that time has been treated as a sign of an undead corruption.