She Awoke trapped in her Coffin…
In 1891 Octavia Hatcher was twenty years-old. She was married to the most successful businessmen in the state of Kentucky and was awaiting the birth of her first child. There should have been nothing but excitement and hope for a bright future for the family, but that was not to be.
After the devastating loss of her child, Octavia became despondent, eventually becoming bedridden. She was pronounced dead on May 2, 1891.
Yet just days later, an odd sleeping sickness struck the town, during which the afflicted seemed dead for a time before reviving. Octavia’s husband, James Hatcher, fear she too may have afflicted with the illness. When the coffin was disinterred she discovered the horrifying truth— Octavia Hatcher had been buried alive.
Most legends are a mixture of fact and fiction, but in the the story of Octavia Hatcher the line behind history and legend is much more difficult to spot. For many in Pikeville, Kentucky, the story of Octavia Hatcher’s tragic death is complete fact, but as skeptics of the story point out, there is no known documentation to support such an event occurring.
In the city of Cleveland,Tennessee is a legendary mausoleum haunted by the spirit of young girl killed in a tragic accident at a railroad crossing. Legend says if you circle the tomb seven times and then approach it's entrance, the metal door will swing open and invite you in. Yet this legend isn’t what made the ornate marble mausoleum the basis of one of the most infamous ghost stories in East Tennessee— it’s that the marble tomb seems to bleed.
