"With a Pounce Like Great Guns" - The Earthquake of 1727
New Englanders were a superstitious lot in the 17th and 18th Centuries. One natural event that occasionally terrified Yankees were earthquakes. Most, if not all, colonists understood earthquakes were a natural occurrence, but saw them as part of a divine intervention by God. According to one 17th century account, “it pleased God suddenly to raise a vehement earthquake coming with a shrill clap of thunder, issuing as is supposed out of the east, which shook the earth and th
"The Savage in Man is Never Quite Eradicated" - The New England Vampire Panic
In the late 18th century, a bizarre panic set in throughout rural New England and continued almost until 1900. Known today as the “New England Vampire Panic”, the century long fear appears to be in response to outbreaks of “consumption”, known today as tuberculosis. The first known reference to an American vampire scare appeared in the June 1784 edition of the Connecticut Courant and Weekly Intelligencer. Moses Holmes warned people to beware of “a certain Quack Doctor, a f
The Deadly Tale of Jedediah Kornman
We've received many requests for Untapped History to re-post the fictional account of "Jedediah Kornman". Eric spent several weeks researching and preparing this story as part of the launch of our October Candlelight Tours. It was shared on our Facebook page last week. Enjoy! Jedediah Kornman (1780 - 1804) worked on the planking gang at Jackman Shipyard. Untapped History recently uncovered Kornman’s journals during a research effort and, we believe we are the first to see t
