4 replies to this topic

[KlaineyGStudy]

In the summer of 1915, Dr. D. K. Briggs of Blackville, South Carolina, was called to attend the thirty-year-old woman Essie Dunbar, who had suffered an attack of epilepsy. He found no signs of life and declared her dead.

The corpse was put in a wooden coffin and the funeral arranged for eleven in the following morning, to give Essie’s sister, who lived in a neighboring town, the chance to participate. Although the ceremony was a lengthy one, with three preachers taking turns to perform, the sister had still not arrived when Essie’s coffin was lowered into its six-foot-deep grave.

She appeared a few minutes later, however, and the ministers agreed to dig up the coffin so that she might see Essie one last time. But when the screws were removed and the coffin lid opened, Essie sat up in her coffin and smiled at her sister.

The three ministers fell backward into the grave, the shortest suffering three broken ribs as the other two trampled him in their desperate efforts to get out.

The mourners, including Essie’s sister, believed that she was a ghost, and fled yelling. When they saw that Essie, who had climbed up from the grave, was actually pursuing them, they stampeded into town in a state of complete hysteria.

For many years, Essie Dunbar was viewed with suspicion in the neighborhood; there were rumors that she was a zombie who had returned from the dead.

Source

All I can say is; I am glad her sister was late to her funeral!

[MacCionoadha BeanSidhe]

KlaineyGStudy, on 23 February 2020 - 05:00 AM, said:

All I can say is; I am glad her sister was late to her funeral!

Same here.

[MacCionoadha BeanSidhe]

They had a similar incident in the town of Halifax, Massachusetts. It happened many years ago; I'm not sure when as he didn't mention it. The pallbearers were carrying her coffin to her grave and dropped it. When the casket impacted the ground, you could hear the deceased lady yelling to get her out. They took the coffin back to the house and opened it to find her alive. She died again a few days later, and the husband said, as they approached the cemetery, "... Don't drop her again!" Here's the account, as told by Guy S. Baker, who wrote the 'History of Halifax, Massachusetts.'

Quote

Once, when visiting a neighboring town, Marshfield, my good friend and
fellow researcher, James McVicar of Braintree, and I decided to inspect the
Hatch Hill area. Being of a neighborly spirit, Mr. Hatch added a bit of levity to
our visit. When he discovered I was from Halifax, he asked, "Are you from
the Halifax where the woman died twice?"

By way of explanation he told me this story which he says is the gospel truth.
It seems that in a house on Thompson Street within sight of my home there lived
an elderly couple. The wife passed on, causing her husband to go into an apparent
state of shock. His noncommunicative state continued right up to the funeral
services for his departed spouse. The "last rites" were held in the parlor of their
home. Because of the short distance from the home to the grave, the bearers
escorting the casket carried it to the cemetery without benefit of a hearse. With
the procession in order, the ascension up the stone steps at the cemetery was
begun. But, alas, the coffin was dropped. In the hush of the astonished gather-
ing, a voice cried out, "Let me out! Let me out!" The route was hurriedly
retraced, the casket was opened and the re-instituted wife was ministered to.
She survived for only a few days, however. During this time the husband had
continued in his state of numbness. And in a few days she expired and the pro-
cession went back over the same path to the grave site. The route was the same
and it was made without incident until the marchers came directly to the stone
steps. Suddenly the husband came to life and cried, "For God's sake and for
mine, don't drop her again!" Two stones mark their dual graves.

Edited by MacCionoadha BeanSidhe, 23 February 2020 - 06:25 PM.

[KlaineyGStudy]

Make one wonder just how many people were actually alive when they were buried in the early days? Now that is creepy!

[Altersense]

LOL, I laughed so hard imagining her chasing after everyone to prove she was alive and not a ghost. My warped sense of humor would of had a field day with this for many years. On another note, I was just considering yesterday if people were, in fact, as superstitious as history leads us to believe. They obviously didn't prep the body as we do now to delay decomposing, I do not know why this seemed so far fetched that a mistake was made from time to time and instead of concluding they were never actually dead, but assumed they had come back from the dead and reanimated their body or that they were a very solid looking ghost, LOL. Either way, priceless