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Taphophobia (taphos meaning grave and phobos meaning fear) is the fear of being buried alive and it permeated Europe and America in the 18th and 19th centuries. It was especially bad during cholera and small pox epidemics because people believed some illnesses could leave them in a state that mimicked death. Americans and Europeans even purchased safety (or security) coffins and used waiting mortuaries to avoid being buried alive.

Taphophobia was reinforced by fictional stories like Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Premature Burial” and newspaper articles that were purportedly true. Even doctors reported that they had exhumed graves of people who had been buried alive because it looked like the bodies had moved in the coffins, but this was before forensic scientists understood what happens to a corpse during decomposition.

Most of the newspaper accounts ended in tragedy, but in some stories people survived premature burial because grave robbers played unwitting heroes – probably one of the few times grave robbers were portrayed in a positive light. Nearly all of these supposedly factual reports were based on local urban legends and unverifiable rumors from other countries.

Below are some extraordinary “true” stories of people who were buried alive, starting with one of the earliest I could find.

The Pennsylvania Gazette February 24, 1729

A Milkwoman’s Daughter at Endfield was lately buried alive there: When she was going to be interred, some People at the Funeral, thought she looked fresh, and taking a Looking- glass, and applying it to her Lips, they fancied they perceived a Dew on it as from Breath; but the cruel Mother mock’d and reviled them, and swore she should be buried, and so she was; but this coming to the Ears of a near Relation, he got the Grave dug up, and the Coffin open’d, when she was found with her Knees drawn up, and the Nosegay in her Hand bitten to pieces, struggling for Life. A Surgeon was sent for to bleed her, but it was then too late.

Newbern Sentinel April 3, 1819

Extraordinary Occurrence. Extract of a letter from Bavaria “We have witnessed a superb funeral of the Baron Hornstein, a Courtier; but the result is what induces me to mention it in my letter. Two days after, the workmen entered the mausoleum, when they wit- nessed an object which petrified them! At the door of the sepulcher lay a body covered with blood—it was the mortal remains of this favorite of courts and prin- ces. The Baron was buried alive! On recovering from his trance he had forced the lid of the coffin, and endeavoured to escape from a charnel house—it was im- possible! and therefore, in a fit of desper- ation, as it is supposed, he dashed his brains out against the wall. The royal family, and indeed the whole city, are plunged in grief at the horrid catastro- phe.”

Vermont Phoenix January 27, 1837

Terrible.— A foreign paper gives an account of a melancholy case of premature internment, which, we hear, lately took place in Hermannstadt in Transylvania… Lieutenant Colonel Elsas- ser, Auditor General of that city, was attack- ed with cholera, which apparently proved fatal, and the body was soon after deposited in a tomb, without any particular examina- tion having taken place. On succeeding to his estate, his heirs missed from his person- al effects, a valuable ring, which had been an heir loom in the family for several gener- ations, and accused a favorite servant of hav- ing obtained possession of it. The servant denied the theft, and said that his master al- ways wore it on his finger, and that it was undoubtedly buried with him. They there- fore determined to open the tomb, to assure themselves of the fact, but their astonishment and horror may be imagined, when they as- certained from the strongest evidence that the Colonel had been buried alive; he having afterwards turned himself in his coffin, and had actually devoured the flesh from his arms, through hunger, before he died a dread- ful death!

The New Bloomfield, PA Times March 15, 1881

Buried Alive. From Bucharist there comes a remarka- ble story illustrating an assurance which, it is to be feared is too often the case, and for which there is no remedy except legis- lation of a proper character. A young lady died of small-pox, and according to the sanitary laws of Roumania she was buried at once. As she had been recently betrothed the presents of her lover were buried with her, according to the Rou- manian custom. These presents consisted of jewels and they excited the cupidity of three robbers, who went to the grave at night and dug up the coffin. When it was opened one of the robbers was afraid to touch the corpse, whereat his fellows jeered at him. At this he gave the head of the corpse a sound cuffing and let it drop. At the next instant the dead woman arose and said, “Don’t kill me, I beg you.” Naturally the robbers fled and the unfor- tunate girl arose and, crawling from her grave, went home and was received with mingled terror and joy.

The Wichita Beacon January 2, 1904

WAS BURIED ALIVE Experiences of Man Supposed To Have Died Independence, Mo. Jan. 2.— George Hayword, a manufacturing jeweler, died here recently. He was 82 years of age. Until two weeks ago he was strong and worked every day at his trade. Mr. Hayward when a young man in England was buried alive. This is the story of his startling ex- perience as told by Mr. Hayward: “It was in Marshville, County of Gloucester, England, where I was buried. While helping to haul straw one day by accident I was struck in the head with a pitchfork. It penetrated my skull and made me feel faint and dizzy. Two doctors were called. One of them insisted that my condition was due to a blow on the head and the other that I had pleurisy… two weeks elapsed and my eyes closed in supposed death… Yet I was painfully conscious of every movement going around… As soon as the undertaker arrived I knew I was to be buried alive… Well the time for the funeral ar- rived and then the burial. Suddenly the shoveling ceased and the silence of the tomb was complete. I did not seem to have the fear then that a person would naturally expect under such circumstances. All I remember is that the grave is a lonely place and the silence of the tomb was horribly op- pressive. A dreamy sensation came over me and a sense of suffocation be- came apparent. How long I remained in this condi- tion I do not know. The first sense of returning to life came over me when I heard scraping of a spade on my coffin lid. I felt myself raised and borne away. I was taken out of my coffin, not to my home, but to a phy- sician’s office. I beheld the doctors who had waited upon me at my home, dress- ed in white aprons. In their hands they had knives…Both approached the table and opened my mouth, when by superhuman effort, my eyelids were slightly raised. The next thing I hear was, ‘Look out, you fool, he is alive.’ “ ‘He’s dead,’ rejoined the other doc- tor. “‘ See, he opened his eyes,’ continued the first doctor. The other physician let the knife drop and a short time after that I commenced to recover rap- idly. Instead of cutting me up they took me home…I owed my life to the doctors’ dispute as to what ailed me during my illness.”

San Francisco Chronicle January 1, 1906

GHASTLY FIND IN CEMETERY Bodies of Soldiers Exhumed at Old Fort Hayes Indicate That Men Were Buried Alive Hayes City (Kas.), December 31. —From Disclosures made this week in the old burying ground of old Fort Hayes it is evident that many soldiers were buried alive there in a cholera epidemic. The bodies were now being moved to Leavenworth, and the fort is being abandoned as a military re- serve. Coffins were dug up that give evi- dences of the frightful struggles of the inmates for life. Some of the bodies had turned over; others had the legs drawn up to the neck; others were grasping the hair. In the epi- demic the health laws required thee immediate burial of victims, and this ghastly evidence indicates that a large number of cholera patients were alive when buried.

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Categories: History