Exeter (Rhode Island)

Exeter is a small, spread-out town in southwestern Rhode Island. Exeter is noted by folklorists as the site of one of the best documented examples of vampire exhumation: the Mercy Brown Vampire Incident of 1892.

Understand
Its population was 6,425 in 2010.

History
The town of Exeter was formed in 1742 from the western part of North Kingstown. The name Exeter is derived from the county town and cathedral city of Exeter in Devon, England.

After several cases of consumption (tuberculosis) occurred in the family of George and Mary Brown in Exeter in 1982, friends and neighbors believed that this was due to the influence of the undead. George Brown was persuaded to give permission to exhume several bodies of his family members in order to perform rituals to banish an undead manifestation. As superstition dictated, Mercy Brown's heart and liver were burned, and the ashes were mixed with water to create a tonic and was given to a sick person to drink, as an effort to resolve his illness and stop the influence of the undead. The young man died two months later. What remained of Mercy's body was buried in the cemetery of the Baptist Church in Exeter after being desecrated. The incident was part of the wider New England vampire panic.

Get in
The best way to get to Exeter is by car because the town is very spread out and no car rental locations are within Exeter.

Get around
A car is the best way to get around but it could be done with a bicycle.

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