HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
Where a Damariscotta medium's 1882 trance became Maine's buried-alive legend
Main Street, Damariscotta, ME 04543
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Exterior viewing from the public street only; the building is private and not open for tours.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Village sidewalks in downtown Damariscotta
Equipment
Photos OK
19th-Century Spiritualism in Maine · Premature-Burial Folklore · Documented Local Legend
Mary Howe lived in Damariscotta in the late 19th century, part of a family whose house stood in the village. She was a practicing spiritualist medium in her fifties who, with her brother Edwin, held seances for visitors. Her specialty was entering deep trance states, and on at least one earlier occasion she remained in a trance for about a week before the episode became the talk of the town.
During her final trance in 1882, Mary did not revive. Reporting on the case says she remained unresponsive far longer than usual before a town physician declared her dead. Her brother, who believed she would wake as she had before, reportedly kept her body warm with heated stones, and accounts describe the body as remaining warm and showing no ordinary signs of death for an unusual length of time.
On a cold December night in 1882, by order of the Lincoln County sheriff, Mary Howe was sealed in a casket, taken quietly to a local cemetery, and buried in an unmarked grave. The clandestine burial was meant to keep townspeople who doubted she was truly dead from locating the grave and digging it up. The location of her grave was never publicly recorded. Her story has been documented in Maine newspapers and in Greg Latimer's book "Haunted Damariscotta."
Sources
The central legend is the fear that gave the case its hold on the town: that Mary Howe was buried alive. Many residents in 1882 doubted the physician's verdict, which is precisely why the sheriff ordered a quiet, unmarked burial. That doubt never fully settled, and the buried-alive question has been retold in Maine for more than a century.
The Howe family house in the village has since been associated with reports of unexplained activity, and a separate house where Mary is said to have spent her last days above ground has drawn similar accounts; one retelling claims an exorcism was once performed there. These reports are folkloric and uninvestigated rather than verified phenomena.
Author Greg Latimer, who documented the story in "Haunted Damariscotta," has searched for Mary Howe's hidden grave, which remains unidentified. The legend endures less because of any single ghost sighting than because of the unanswered question at its center.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
The Howe family's house sits in central Damariscotta and is now private residential apartments, so the site is best experienced as a free self-guided stop while walking the village. Read the Mary Howe story, view the exterior from the sidewalk, and respect that people live there.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Kansas City, MO
On June 17, 1933, gunmen ambushed a federal law-enforcement party in the south parking lot of Kansas City Union Station, killing four officers — including FBI Special Agent Raymond Caffrey — and the prisoner they were transporting, escaped bank robber Frank Nash. The FBI attributed the attack primarily to Vernon Miller and, controversially, to Pretty Boy Floyd and Adam Richetti. The killings outraged Congress and directly prompted legislation granting FBI agents the permanent authority to carry firearms and make arrests.
Wausau, WI
The McCrossen Block at 501 Third St N is the oldest surviving commercial building in Wausau, constructed in 1875 in the Italianate Commercial style. On September 16, 1880, dentist J.C. Bennet shot rival physician Dr. E.L. Hagel in his office inside the building. Bennet was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison, making the case one of the first documented murders in Wausau's history.
Prescott, AZ
The Bashford-Burmister Building on Cortez Street is one of Prescott's prominent late-1800s commercial blocks, associated with the Bashford-Burmister Company, a major northern Arizona mercantile firm. The site is linked in local history to James Fleming Parker, a train robber who killed a court official during a jailbreak and was hanged in Prescott in 1898.