There has been much written about haunted and cursed items in paranormal circles. Many think the terms are synonymous because both can leave an negative imprint in their surroundings however there is a difference. A haunted item  might be a precious item once belonging to a deceased person, who clings to it as he or she did in life, is perhaps one way that an item might become infused with energy. Or, interestingly, the emotional intensity of the objects creator might somehow become embedded in the fabric of the item itself. A cursed item differs because there has been a deliberate attempt to harm set into play. It is generally believed that a cursed item will act generationally causing turmoil until the curse is lifted.

According to http://catholicwarfare.blogspot.com

"While everyday objects are not usually problematic, certain objects, such as coins, statues, images, dolls, or other things have been "blessed" or "cursed" or used in a ceremonial sense that opens them up to the spirit world. Sometimes the blessing can bring about the aroma of God's goodness, and other times the stench of hell. Many people keep cursed items in their homes for years without knowing anything about them, only to discover that they were the source of a spiritual problem in the house. These days, you can even purchase such items in auctions like ebay and visit them in paranormal museums!"

Such is the case of the Conjure Chest  which currently resides in the Kentucky History Museum.

This rendition of the story of the Conjure Chest is from https://thefreakgeek.org/2015/04/10/jacob-cooleys-cursed-chest/

150 years ago Jacob Cooley was a slave owner in Kentucky.  He was everything that you’ve heard about in history books about slave owners, mean, cruel, strict and very arrogant.  When Jacob found out his wife was pregnant he demanded a chest of drawers from one of his talented slaves, Hosea.  Hosea soon set to work and crafted a beautiful chest of drawers.  For whatever reason, Jacob Cooley hated the finished piece and declared it unfit for his yet unborn child.  In a rage he beat and killed Hosea.  The other slaves were enraged to hear of the death of Hosea.  They decided to seek vengeance from a local conjurin’ man.  A death curse was placed on the chest to carry on through Cooley’s lineage.  A drawer was sprinkled with owl’s blood while a chant was sung and thus began the terrible curse of the chest.

All those associated with the chest fell victim to the curse. Although Jacob Cooley himself evidently escaped the malevolence, his descendants were not as fortunate. The baby for whom the chest was built died soon after birth. The chest was in his nursery. His brother inherited the chest, and he was stabbed to death by his personal servant. Jacob Cooley had another son, John, who inherited one of his father’s many plantations. The young man led a serene bachelor’s life until a vivacious young woman, barely out of her teens came into his life.

Her name was Ellie and she soon married John, who was much older than her. The couple inherited the cursed chest. Knowing of the tragedies that had befallen her husband’s siblings, she put the chest in an attic. Meanwhile, Jacob Cooley’s youngest daughter, Melinda, eloped with an Irishman named Sean. With nowhere to live, Melinda turned to Ellie. John and Ellie had done well and had accumulated several farms in Tennessee. They turned over one of these to Sean and Melinda to work. While Melinda bore her young husband a brood of children and worked from sunrise to sunset, Sean hated the farm life.

Ellie tried to help the failing marriage but Sean soon ran her off and Melinda was left to work her fingers to the bone trying to bring happiness to her ambivalent husband.Trying to cheer up Melinda, Eliie sent over the cursed chest.  It had sat in her attic for so long she had forgotten that it was supposedly cursed.  Within days of receiving the chest, Sean left Melinda for the roaring night life of New Orleans.  Melinda soon took to her bed exhausted and depressed.  She soon died.Shortly after his wife’s death, the curse fell on Sean.  He was killed when a gang plank from a river boat hit him in the head.

Meanwhile, John Cooley was left to find homes for Melinda & Sean’s orphans.  He assigned many of them to family members but the youngest, a toddler named Evelyn, ran up to John with her little arms outstretched.  John ended up taking her back to his home in Kentucky.  There she grew into an intelligent and beautiful young woman.  She was able to get her teaching certificate and soon began to teach in a one room school house.

Not long after her teaching career began, she met and married a man named Malcolm Johnson.  As a wedding gift, Ellie sent the couple the chest.  However, the curse remained dormant for many years.  Evelyn & Malcolm enjoyed a happy marriage in which 3 children were born to them.  They even adopted a little girl named Arabella.

Arabella grew up lovely and strong.  She married a man that she truly loved and they rode off for their honeymoon, leaving her wedding gown in her mother’s possession.  Evelyn decided to use the old chest her adopted mother gave her so many years before.  She gently laid Arabella’s gown in it and forgot all about it.  A few days later Arabella’s husband died quite unexpectedly.  The curse was no longer dormant.  Arabella’s child died soon after the child’s baby clothes were stored in the chest.  It began to look like anytime anyone put clothing in the chest, the owner of the clothes died suddenly.  It happened to Evelyn’s daughter in law, when she put wedding attire in the chest.  Evelyn’s Aunt knitted her son a scarf and gloves for Christmas.  Soon after he stored them in the chest, he fell off a train trestle and was killed.

Bizarre deaths and accidents struck more and more of Evelyn’s family.  Evelyn was struck with guilt and depression and took her own life.  As the twentieth century unfolded, the chest was inherited by Virginia Cary Hudson from her grandmother, Evelyn Johnson. Mrs. Hudson thought tales of the “curse” were heresay. She was wrong. Her first baby’s clothes were put in the chest. She died. Another child’s clothes were tucked in a drawer and she contracted infantile paralysis. Another daughter’s wedding dress was stored there, and her first husband ran off. A son was stabbed in the hand. He had clothes in the chest.

A friend of the family stored his hunting clothes in the chest.  He was shot in a hunting accident.  On and on it went until the curse had claimed 16 victims.  All of them had stored their clothing in the chest at one time.  Mrs. Hudson began to believe in the curse and decided to put a stop to it.  She talked to an African-American friend of hers, Annie.  Annie was a bit of a conjuring woman herself.  She told her the curse could be broken if 3 conditions were met: First, Mrs. Hudson would have to be given a dead owl without her having to ask for one. Secod, the green leaves of a willow tree had to be boiled from sunup to sundown. The dead owl had to remain in sight. Third:  the boiled liquid was then to be buried in a jug with it’s handle facing east, toward the rising sun, below a flowering bush.

A stuffed owl given to Mrs. Hudson’s son by a friend accomplished the first requirement. Mrs. Hudson plucked leaves from a nearby willow tree and boiled them in a large, black pot. The owl kept watch from a kitchen counter. At dusk, old Annie and Mrs. Hudson took the jug and, with its handle pointed east, buried it beneath a flowering lilac bush outside the kitchen window. Annie said they would only know if the curse had been broken if one of them died before the first full days of fall. Annie died in early September. The seventeenth, and last known victim. The final private owner of the conjure chest was Mrs. Hudson’s daughter, Virginia C. Mayne. Though she may have been skeptical of the curse, and knew fully the story of its “lifting” by Annie and her mother, she never stored anything in the chest and kept it hidden in her attic. The Kentucky History Museum has it now. Mrs. Mayne donated it to the museum in 1976. According to museum registrar Mike Hudson, “The chest is in storage in our vaults, awaiting the time when it fits into a new exhibit.” Supposedly the curse has been removed. Has it? Tucked safely in the top chest drawer is an envelope… with a cluster of owl feathers inside. The museum isn’t taking any chances.