Buried Alive - the Legare Tomb legend

So the sad story goes....in the 1800's a young girl, perhaps a teen or pre-teen, was visiting family on Edisto Island, in South Carolina. While there, the girl took ill with malaria or some other disease fatal in that time period. She died shortly after becoming ill, and since people then believed that diseases could be caught from the dead, a coffin was hastily constructed and she was interred in the Legare family tomb.
Years later, another death occured, and the tomb was re-opened for its new resident. To the shock of everyone present, a skeleton tumbled out in front of them. Seems the girl they had interred years before was only in a coma, and once awakened, fought her way out of her flimsy coffin but was too weakened by disease to budge the masoleum door. Scratch marks covered the door from her panic before she died, trapped. The tomb still stands but there is no door. Rumor has it any attempt to close the tomb, even with saran wrap, will be ripped open overnight.


cemetery with legare tomb in the distance


the infamous masoleum


me, inside the tomb. the memorials behind me did not have a female name


the first "broken column" tombstone I have seen down south, in the distance


weather makes interesting patterns on old tombstones


a small grave marker found under a pile of leaves. it provided no date, only initials


I tripped over this one, so had to take a pic


someday, I shall have a fence like this.....

Ghost cloud in Strawberry Chapel Cemetery

Too low to the ground to be moss, looks like a low flying angel if you focus on the large face close to the center, can also see other faces, as if it were a cloud made of spirits.

Evil Middleton Shack

I finally stopped at that shack on Middleton Plantation property, not part of the tour obviously, as it sits rotting on the side of the road. Barbed wire surrounds it, but not aggressively enough to keep me out. I felt a very negative energy coming from it(ya think?), enough to keep me from entering by myself. Pics of the outside show a creepy shack, but on closer detail on the right, you might see an angry, screaming face in the tree and possibly a figure in the window.

Victorian Postmortem Photography

They're not just dead people, they're dead people propped up in chairs or held by the living. Victorian Postmorts make the uninitiated ask "WHY?????" So, here is why. In those olden days of.....olde.....the majority of people did not have cameras. Many did not even have a photographer nearby. Rich families had portraits painted, the poor and middle class got their pics taken at weddings, or not at all. Therefore, there would be no record of what a person looked like before they died. Often the only picture ever taken was post-death. Some of these people look alive. Some look eerie. Some had photographers nearby, some had to send a letter (no phones, folks) and wait, while their dead loved one did what dead people do, perhaps reposing on ice or hopefully somewhere chilly. You don't want a dead person hanging around your house in the summer. So, these pictures are artistic, creepy, sad, and haunting. NONE OF THESE POSTMORTS ARE MINE, credit goes to paulfrecker.com and thanatos.org.
In case you're new to postmorts, I'll start you off with some a little easier on the eyes.....

Yeah, she's a goner. Check the script. "taken 9 days after death" Obviously preserved well and propped up nicely. Looks alive, doesn't she?

Very artistic. Either the photographer was creative or the family was.

Very nicely done. Twins, I think. The grief is captured well, and victorian postmorts of black children are rare, for obvious reasons.
Now, we get into the babies and children.

Artistic. Don't think I would have picked butt-nekkid though.

Very touching, you don't often see a dad holding a deceased infant. Notice how he is holding his/her little hand. I suspect either the mother died as well, or was too distraught to be photographed. The look on his face...

This girl seems severly annoyed posing with her sibling.









The baby really could have been displayed nicer. Really, it looks like it was thrown on like a ragdoll. The expressions the living children wear are quite sad. The little girl does not look well at all.

Whole family this time, wearing expressions like they've done this before.

And now, remember how I mentioned the letter sent and the photographer taking awhile to get to the house? Dead kid sitting around = nightmare juice. This isn't the worst I've seen, but take a deep breath here.

Yeah.

Strawberry Chapel Cemetery

Not really hidden, but way out in the country past the Mepkin Abbey Monastery in Cordesville, SC. Was recently vandalized, as if it wasn't already falling apart enough on its own. Pics taken last week. I was sad to see that security cameras had been installed, yet no one cleaned broken bottles out of the crypt or did much other cleaning-up. This cemetery dates to the 1700's.


The pics I took inside did not turn out, although pics I took inside a few years ago did. I don't think it helped to have my mom, the queen of skeptics when it comes to the paranormal, standing right outside it. Will have to go out there again solo.

Confederate graves, obviously. I like the shaft of light coming up from the grave in the pic here.

Sigh. Looks like someone got drunk at a ghost feast and started overturning tables.


Nothing to see here, stuck my camera into a hole in a tomb, just proves I CAN take pics in dark places, and how that greenery is so....green.....in total darkness, I don't know.

I bet the vandals were disappointed to find that under the concrete slab were bricks.






The only mortsafe I have seen down here. Or at least it really looks like a mortsafe.



Looks like someone got bored being dead and climbed out.


Broken by time, this partial tombstone is deeply rooted in with this tree. Notice how on the bottom right of the stone the roots look like two fingers hanging on.

That's it. Next up, dead folks! In chairs!

The real Empire De La Mort

The real Empire of The dead, pics taken in the catacombs under the city of Paris. At some point in Parisian history, more detail later, graveyards were dug up and bones made into elaborate tunnels and rooms, miles and miles of them. It is rumored there were great parties down here, albeit highly sacreligious, but I'm sure good times were had by all, dead and alive.




Awwww, it's a heart!


Supports erected to keep bones from falling on people. No one likes a bone shower. I hope.