In Episode 448, Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger explore a neighborhood in Montpelier, Vermont, searching for the former home of Dr. Lucy Cooke, better known as “Sleeping Lucy” the Clairvoyant Physician. Back in the 1860s, Lucy would place herself in a trance-like state, examine the insides of her patients, then recommend medicine based on her discoveries. Was she just a faith-healer, or the real deal?
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Produced and hosted by: Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger
Edited by: Ray Auger
Guest Voice Actor: Lisa Strykowski
Theme Music by: John Judd
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:
*A note on the text: Please forgive punctuation, spelling, and grammar mistakes. Like us, the transcripts ain’t perfect.
[SMALL CITY SOUNDS]
RAY: I love Montpelier, Vermont, Jeff!
JEFF: You’ve said that before!
RAY: I come up here with my family pretty regularly. Did you know Montpelier is the only state capitol in the United States that does NOT have a McDonald’s?
JEFF: I guess I know what we won’t be eating for lunch.
RAY: It’s just as well. I haven’t been feeling good lately.
JEFF: Oh? What’s wrong?
RAY: I’m not sure. Trouble sleeping, my stomach seems to always be churning, I’m tired.
JEFF: Hmmm I call that Tuesday.
RAY: Fair enough. I guess we’re getting older.
JEFF: I’m glad we came to Montpelier, Ray. Because I think we can find you some medical treatment.
RAY: I don’t think I need a hospital or anything like that.
JEFF: No, I get it. What would a hospital do but run a bunch of tests, pile up your medical bills, and then prescribe you some expensive pill that you don’t even know what it does?
RAY: There’s that.
JEFF: You don’t need a hospital. We’ve come to Montpelier, Vermont, to search for Sleeping Lucy, the Clairvoyant Physician.
[INTRO]
JEFF: I’m Jeff Belanger. Welcome to Episode 448 of the New England Legends podcast.
RAY: And I’m Ray Auger. Thanks for joining us on our mission to chronicle every legend in New England one story at a time. We’re always on the hunt for ghosts, monsters, aliens, roadside oddities, and all the other wicked strange history that makes New England a very weird place. We can’t do it without you! Please reach out to us anytime through our website with your story leads. And also be sure to share our podcast with your friends. That’s how we grow and keep finding new stories.
JEFF: We’ll go searching for Sleeping Lucy right after this word from our sponsor.
SPONSOR
[SMALL CITY SOUNDS]
RAY: So we’re looking for a psychic doctor called Sleeping Lucy?
JEFF: Well, not an M.D. like we know it. But many people believed she was the real deal. Can you imagine…
RAY: Right, I walk into her office, she puts her fingers on her temples and says: bowel obstruction. Eat more fiber.
JEFF: Wouldn’t that be better than X-Rays and CT scans?
RAY: Definitely.
JEFF: This is a strange story for sure.
RAY: Most of them are. Here’s a little more background on Montpelier. Not only does it not have a McDonald’s, it’s the nation’s smallest capital city. The population is about 8,000 people. It was first settled in 1787 by Revolutionary War veterans and named after a city in France. It became the state capitol in 1805. When the railroad arrived in 1849, things started to take off financially and more people moved in making it a business and agricultural center. Today, the city—though it feels more like a town—is home to a funky independent spirit. You see it in the lack of chain stores and restaurants and in the style of everyone in town.
JEFF: So true. We’re standing diagonally across the street from Main Street Middle School in Montpelier.
RAY: Right.
JEFF: And we’re going to walk just a short distance down Liberty Street.
RAY: This is a residential section of Montpelier—right near the heart of downtown. There are nice homes and lawns on this street. Some big trees on the front. It looks like a really nice neighborhood.
[WALKING STOPS]
JEFF: I’m sure it is. Okay, we’re here. This house was ground zero for where people used to come get unusual medical treatment from a most unusual physician. To find out what that looked like, let’s head back to the year 1860 and get you some medical help.
[TRANSITION]
RAY: It’s November of 1860 here in Montpelier, Vermont. Tensions over the issue of slavery are rising all over the nation. Abraham Lincoln was just elected president a few days ago in a deeply divided race. But most of those tensions are happening far away from Vermont. Vermont made slavery illegal here the very day they adopted their state constitution back in 1777. Up here, folks are thinking more about their various farms and industries.
JEFF: And like any city, some folks in town are going to get sick.
[COUGHING]
JEFF: When you’re sick, it’s tough to know who to trust.
RAY: Yeah, there’s a lot of quacks out there; and snake oil salesmen. Anybody can call themselves “doctor” these days. Though there are some medical schools out there that offer training, there’s no governing board of regulators or anything like that.
JEFF: There is one newcomer in town who is gaining some attention. Her name is Lucy Cooke.
RAY: There aren’t many women doctors these days.
JEFF: And there aren’t any doctors—men or women—like Lucy. She calls herself Sleeping Lucy – the Clairvoyant Physician.
RAY: Sleeping? Clairvoyant? Physician?
JEFF: I know, it sounds crazy, but there are some folks in town who swear she’s the miracle cure for whatever ails you.
RAY: Really?!
JEFF: Let’s head over to her home and office on Liberty Street.
[WALKING ON SIDEWALK UNDER NEXT LINES]
JEFF: Lucy Cooke was born in North Calais, Vermont, just about 10 miles northeast of Montpelier. She was the fourth child of Luther and Lucy Ainsworth. When Lucy was just eight years old, her family fell on hard financial times, which forced all nine of the Ainsworth children to leave home and find work. Lucy worked as a laborer and then a tailor’s apprentice.
RAY: That’s a rough start to her young life. Separated from her family and forced to work.
JEFF: Definitely tough. Ahhh. Here we are.
[KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK]
[DOOR OPENS WE WALK IN]
RAY: We’re standing in the front parlor of Cooke’s house. It’s setup kind of like a parlor and kind of like an office waiting room.
JEFF: Good afternoon, Mrs. Cooke. I was just telling Ray about you. I’m curious how you discovered your gift for this?
LUCY: When I was 19, I grew very sick. I lie upon a sick bed several months, am given up to die by three physicians; but finally falling into an unusual sleep, in a dream-like state, a suggestion comes, in an unaccountable manner, of healing by certain roots and herbs prepared in a certain manner. I awake—not having spoken for six months and at times greatly distressed if I attempted to whisper—and call aloud for some friend, requesting these articles be got and prepared. With much doubt as to the benefit of these drinks, my friends administered these draughts; from which time I steadily improved.
JEFF: After her full recovery, Lucy began to apply the remedy to other sick people. The mixture worked for others, and Lucy’s reputation as a healer began to grow. When she was 23 years old, she began promoting her services in flyers and advertisements. When Lucy was 26, she was living in Moriah, New York, still offering her herbal remedies, but then she teamed up with a mesmerist named Charles Rawson Cooke.
RAY: Since the 1830s, Mesmerism was a growing form of entertainment, but it also had spiritual implications. The mesmerist places others or themselves into a hypnotic trance. In that state, the entranced would have strange experiences. They may claim second sight or even communication with spirits of people who have passed on.
JEFF: Once the Spiritualist movement took off in 1848, Mesmerism and Spiritualism were often combined into some form of clairvoyance. Charles Cooke and Lucy Aisnworth became partners in every sense of the word. The two were married and began seeing many patients together. Lucy learned Mesmerism from her husband and began to apply it to her healing work. Charles would place Lucy into this altered hypnotic state where she could perform her diagnosis.
LUCY: While in this state I am able to examine the human system in all its parts – I can describe the internal organs with the same precision as when laid open to view by the anatomist. I can tell the condition of the lungs, heart, stomach, liver, and other organs; detecting any and all disease that may be lurking in the system, and prescribing a remedy for such as can be cured.
JEFF: So Lucy places herself in this trance-like state where she appears to be sleeping. Then examines the patient’s insides and figures out what’s wrong with them. She comes out of her trance and recommends a treatment—maybe herbal remedies, tinctures, or other medicines they’ll whip up for you for an additional fee.
RAY: Lucy and Charles moved to Reading, Vermont, in 1848, and in 1851 they welcomed their daughter, Julia into the world. Sadly, Charles died of a typhoid-like illness in 1855. After her husband’s death, Lucy sold their property, and she and her daughter moved to Liberty Street in Montpelier, where she continued to see clients.
JEFF: That she did. Here’s an advertisement for her services in the local newspaper. Go ahead and give it a read, Ray.
[PAPER RUSSLING]
RAY: It says, Sleeping Lucy! Mrs. Lucy A. Cooke, well known as Sleeping Lucy, will be at her residence on Liberty Street, 2 doors down from Main Street, Montpelier, 24 days from November 1st 1860. Examinations, 50 cents. Medicines according to each case.
JEFF: Lucy has been known to even set broken bones while in this hypnotic state. And when she awakens, she claims she remembers nothing. And her business is good. While her husband was alive they were able to afford a second home and even commission painted portraits of Lucy. And though Montpelier is her home base now, Lucy has been known to travel to Boston and Springfield to setup shop in hotel rooms for several days at a time where she sees paying patients.
RAY: She must get the diagnosis right enough of the time that people come back to her and tell others.
JEFF: That’s true. Okay, Ray. Are you ready for your exam?
RAY: I… I uhhh… I think so?
LUCY: [SLEEPING]
JEFF: And that takes us back to today.
[TRANSITION]
JEFF: Lucy never claimed to be able to communicate with the dead or anything like that, though she did make the news twice for helping local police locate missing bodies using her clairvoyant gifts. Lucy was mostly satisfied with being a unique physician.
RAY: Lucy and her daughter Julia left Montpelier in 1875 and moved to Boston where Lucy continued her work right up until her death from colon cancer in 1895. She’s buried in Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her epitaph reads Dr. Lucy A. Cooke: Sweet be thy sleep.
JEFF: Most of what we know about her early life we get from an autobiographical poem she wrote in 1884. So we may have to take what’s in there with a grain of salt. But we do know she was successful at what she did.
RAY: Lucy Cooke wouldn’t be able to do what she did if she were around today. In 1906 the food and drug administration was formed which put a lot of people out of business who ran health resorts, sold mineral spring water, or promised any kind of health benefit unless it was sanctioned and approved by the government. The country’s view of healthcare changed big time just a few years after Lucy’s death.
JEFF: There’s also an element of faith in the equation here.
RAY: What do you mean?
JEFF: Faith healers aren’t exactly new. If Lucy’s patients believe in her, and believe she somehow metaphysically fixed something inside of them, then some of them really were cured. It happens.
RAY: That may be so, but… uhhh… I don’t feel any better.
[OUTTRO]
JEFF: Maybe After the Legend will make you feel better. That’s when we take a deeper dive into this week’s story and sometimes we veer off course.
RAY: After the Legend is brought to you by our patreon patrons! We can’t do it without them. This group of ultimate New England Legends insiders help us financially with all of the expenses it takes to do what we do. All we’re asking for is $3 bucks per month and for that you get early ad free access to new episodes, plus bonus episodes and content that no one else gets to hear. Most people won’t be there for us, so we’re hoping you will. To help the cause click over to patreon.com/newengland legends. We’d appreciate it.
To see some pictures related to this week’s story, click on the link in our episodes description, or go to our website and search for Episode 448.
Before we part until next time, please make sure you’re subscribed to our podcast because it’s free and then you won’t miss a minute of the weirdness. Also take a minute to post a review for us. Those reviews help others find us in a crowded sea of shows. We’d also love it if you visited our website. You can find a link in the episode description. Our website has an interactive map to every location we’ve ever covered—over 400 of them and growing. On our website you’ll also find a calendar for Jeff’s ongoing story tour and dates to see my band the Pub Kings, and ways to follow us on social media.
We’d like to thank Lisa Strykowski for lending her voice acting talent this week, thank you to our patreon patrons, thanks to our sponsors, and our theme music is by John Judd.
Until next time remember… the bizarre is closer than you think.