Friday, October 10, 2014

With Halloween just around the corner I thought that for freaky Friday this time we would do something really scary.

This is no made up story for telling around the campfire, but a true tale...which makes it even more freaky if you ask me. After all, truth is stranger than fiction, right?

Octavia Smith Hatcher

In the late 1800s, the city of Pikeville, Kentucky was shaken with an unknown disease, and the most tragic case of all was that of Octavia Smith Hatcher. After her infant son Jacob passed away in January 1891, Octavia went into a bedridden depression where she gradually became very ill and slipped into a coma. On May 2 of the same year, she was pronounced dead of unknown causes while still in her bed.

Embalming was not yet a practice, and Octavia was buried very quickly in the local cemetery due to the sweltering heat. Barely a week after her burial, many of the townspeople had been stricken with the same debilitating illness and fallen into a comatose state. The difference? After a time, the townspeople began to wake up. Octavia’s husband began to fear the worst and worried that he had prematurely buried his wife while she was still breathing. He procured an exhumation of her grave only to find that his worst fears were in fact true. The lining on the inside of the coffin had been scratched and torn to pieces. Octavia’s nails were bloodied and broken, and her face was contorted with horrific fear. She had died in the ground after being buried alive.

Octavia was reburied and her husband erected a lifelike monument over her grave site. The monument still stands today. It was later speculated that the mysterious illness had been caused by a Tsetse fly, an African insect that can cause a disease known as sleeping sickness.

Now if you want something even more creepy than this little tale, look up on Google (or another search engine ) the articles on modern pre-mature burial or buried alive. You would be surprised at the number of them, I think! Just something to ponder tonight when you go to bed.

Coffee out on the patio again. I hope it doesn't rain on us this early.

9 comments:

linda m said...

Sure, scare the pants off me. Now I'll be afraid to fall asleep. Hahaha. That is a good one. You hear about such things happening and hope it won't be you. Have a great weekend. Nice Fall weather here in WI.

Hermit's Baby Sis said...

Bubba -
I think not - I won't go check out any other stories like this. One is enough, thank you very much. Let's just believe that we won't any of us be left in that particular state, ok?
Ready for the cool, so will you bring it on, please? It IS October, right?

JO said...

I have read this one before it is freaky don't need to look for anymore. :)haha

It finally stopped raining here but it sure is wet, this last rain will take a few days to dry out I'm sure. Weeds anyone.

HermitJim said...

Hey Linda M...
Not a good thing to be thinking about just before bedtime. I'm glad we have embalming now.

Thanks for coming over today!



Hey Sis...
I certainly hope that this is the case. One more reason to be cremated, I reckon!

Thanks for coming over today!

HermitJim said...

Hey Jo...
It happened more than we would like to think back in the early days.

Thanks, sweetie, for dropping by today!

Dizzy-Dick said...

Waking up in a crematorium just before it the fire starts burning you would also be a terrible situation. But being buried alive, is still probably on top of the list of scary situations.

Dizzy-Dick said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Mamahen said...

Hmm 1 such story is enough for me...can you imagine waking up in there (body shudder)!

Mamahen said...

Another thought I just had....with the rising cost, they are giving folks with no insurance the option of not embalming these days again....not an option I would take.