Case file · Folklore / legend
Martha Dwight exhumed, Belchertown
In July 1788 the Reverend Justus Forward of Belchertown, Massachusetts, opened the grave of his daughter Martha, dead since 1782, hoping to save his other children from consumption.
1788 CE · 42.28, -72.40 · status: official
The account
It is one of the earliest documented cases of the New England 'vampire' ritual, in which families dug up a tuberculosis victim to stop the dead from draining the living.