"Another Narrow Escape from Burying Alive"

At work I do a lot of historical research. Today I was looking through the microfilm of an 1849 Huntsville, Alabama newspaper when I came across the above headline. Obviously I stopped to read it.

The article begins: "Some four or five appalling cases of this sort have occurred at Cincinnati and St. Louis, lately, in the midst of the fearful rate of mortality from the scourge [cholera epidemic]."

It then tells the story of a man who "was seized with cholera" and died a few hours later. They put his body in a coffin for mourners to see but before the the funeral "the dead man rose from his coffin, to the great terror of those around, and walked out of his shroud." Then the story adds a quip about how the man sent his coffin back because he didn't need it anymore. It ends with this: "This is true, and it is another warning against too much haste in burials."

Indeed.

(The Democrat [Huntsville, Ala.], 22 Aug. 1849)