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The Milk Maiden

The Milk Maiden is a local folklore surrounding true events originating from the town of Hankins, New York. The Milk Maiden was a name attributed to Evangeline (Eva) Hale.

Ophelia (b. 1847) was a mid-wife for most of the middle to upper-class townsfolk. Her upbringing was mostly unknown, as she was raised on a dairy farm that was eventually handed to her after the death of her father, Anthony Hale, known founder of Byrne Dairy, in 1868.

She is most famously marked in the town papers as being the first woman to conduct business at the Hankins weekly farmers market.

In the years following Mr. Hale's death, Ophelia successfully took over her father's farm. Still making success as a midwife due to her hyperlactation as well as her community-recognized maternal charm, she employed several dairy farmers who she led in maintaining the farm.

Mad Cow Outbreak

Following the years after the first documented case of the Mad Cow Outbreak (1874), Ophelia became the sole supplier of dairy in her town. Due to the nature of Mad Cow Disease, no other supplier in town had cattle that produced milk. This was except for Ophelia Hale, which is where she obtained the nickname "The Milk Maiden." However, suspicion rose through the town, as word spread that the dairy farmers the Milk Maiden had once employed had been laid off for several months.

Sightings of decaying cattle and rabid wolves roaming the property without protection spread.

It is rumored that Ophelia continued producing milk from her own breast milk, as she continued selling through the years despite the loss and extinction of her cattle.

Mental Decay

Townspeople as well as the people she served noticed in the coming years (1874-1876) Ophelia's slipping mental condition. She started claiming to be seeing things, people dressed as animals or other creatures (Skin-walker), and strange prophecies about the town.

Slowly, this fanatic thinking spread through the townspeople, and in the year of 1876, there was widespread chaos and panic that showed signs of mass hysteria and schizophrenic behavior.

This spread of madness was given context when the babies of all of Ophelia's midwife duties developed abnormal speech patterns as well as Infantile Spasms/West Syndrome.

No further historical documents lead researchers to know what happened to The Milk Maiden, but her house, now named "Milk Barn," is a popular renovated Airbnb stay.