Once upon a time, a mad scientist lived in West Virginia. Once upon a time, a West Virginia insane asylum was bursting at the seams with unfortunate inmates. Once upon a time, these two unfortunate realities crossed paths. Fair warning: don’t expect a happy ending to this gruesome fairy-turned-reality tale. Instead, at the end of this sordid story, expect the grisly production and preservation of two of the only modern North American mummies still in existence today, all right here in West Virginia.
Nameless. Hairless. Graveless. That's the plight of two of the only modern American mummies in existence, whose names have been lost in time, whose hair has been lost in a flood, and whose graves were denied them by a mad scientist.
Nameless and graveless is not the plight of the man who made these two mummies, both of whom were female residents of the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum.
No, the mummy-maker, one of the only modern mummy makers known to North America, has a name: Graham Hamrick. He was a farmer and historian who lived in Barbour County, West Virginia in the 1800s. He's buried in Saint Mary's Chapel Cemetery. His gruesome experiments survive him.
In addition to being a farmer and historian, Hamrick was also a patent-holder and an inventor... of sorts. He was even awarded both bronze and gold medals for his invention from the Paris Inventor's Academy of France.
What did he invent? A custom embalming brew, made of local herbs and other unknown but common ingredients. It was a brew he perfected on many specimens: squirrels, birds, snakes, human blood, a stray human arm, the severed head of an African American male, the deceased body of an infant, and the remains of two female insane asylum patients.
Only the bodies of the two unfortunate women have survived the ravages of time (and the flood of 1985). Not much is known about either. One died in childbirth in her twenties at the asylum. The other died of natural causes in her forties, also at the asylum.
Although the Philippi mummies are the most famous inhabitants of the museum, the building hosts a variety of other fascinating historical displays as well, including artifacts from the first land battle of the Civil War, which also took place in Philippi, West Virginia.
Have you ever seen the Philippi Mummies? Did you know the story behind the making of these two rare modern American mummies? You can visit the Barbour County Historical Museum for yourself to learn more! And while you’re in Philippi, don’t miss the chance to see one of the town’s other one-of-a-kind attractions: the Philippi Covered Bridge, the longest covered bridge in West Virginia and the site of some remarkable state history.
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