OBJECT FILE
The Conjured Chest
FOLLOWKentucky Historical Society collections, Frankfort, KY, United States
THE OBJECT
A hand-carved wooden chest made around 1830, probably in Meade County, Kentucky, by an enslaved man named Remus at the order of Jeremiah Graham. It passed through the Graham family and their descendants — the Ryans, the Gregorys, Virginia Cary Hudson Cleveland — to her daughter Virginia Cary Hudson Mayne, who gave it to the Kentucky Historical Society in 1976. The KHS holds it in its collections; the sources used do not say whether it is on the floor.
REPORTED ACTIVITY
The family story, first written down in a letter from Cleveland to her daughter, is that Remus cursed the chest after Graham beat him, and that death or ruin followed whoever kept their belongings in it. Beverly Mayne Kienzle, Cleveland's granddaughter, published the family's account with the victims' names in The Conjured Chest: A Cursed Family in Old Kentucky (2017). The KHS presents it as a documented family legend.
WHERE IT IS NOW
In storage — kept by Kentucky Historical Society. Kentucky Historical Society collections, Frankfort, KY, United States.
PROVENANCE · 2 ENTRIES
TRACE ON THE MAP →1830 – 1976
Jeremiah Graham and descendants (Graham → Ryan → Gregory → Cleveland → Mayne)
family homes, Meade County and later Louisville, KY, United States
c. 1830 is the KHS's estimate for the making. Individual household dates within the family are in Kienzle, not reproduced here.
Source: Kentucky Historical Society, 'New Details About the Cursed Chest'; Kienzle (2017)
1976 — CURRENT LOCATION
Kentucky Historical Society (gift of Virginia Cary Hudson Mayne)
Kentucky Historical Society, Frankfort, KY, United States
Source: Kentucky Historical Society, 'New Details About the Cursed Chest' (donated 1976)
PERSONAL ACCOUNTS · 0
REPORT AN EXPERIENCE →Nobody has filed an encounter with this object yet.
ADD TO THE CHAIN
Sign in to add a sourced step to this object’s history.