New Haven is a small Vermont town south of Burlington and several miles past Vergennes, off Rte. 7. A quiet, peaceful little Vermont hamlet with an unusual link to the past.
The fear of being buried alive is the fear of being placed in a grave while still alive, most likely the result of being incorrectly pronounced dead. Before the advent of modern medicine the fear was not entirely irrational. Throughout history there have been many cases of people being accidentally buried alive.
Like something straight from an Edgar Allen Poe collection or a book of ghost stories, the plight of Dr. Timothy Clark Smith (1821-1893) is unusual to say the least. Let's just say that although Tim has been dead for many years, things are definitely looking up...or at least he is.
In 1893, Tim died at the Logan House in Middlebury, Vermont - on Halloween ironically enough. He left behind a wife and several children. Supposedly, he died with a fear of catching sleeping sickness, which would give the illusion of death, later to awaken in a cold, dark grave, very much alive.
His body was interred at the Evergreen Cemetery in New Haven, VT. in a specially prepared grave. Beneath the odd, grassy mound of earth, Timothy's face was positioned beneath a cement tube that led to the surface. The 6 foot tube ended at a piece of 14x14 inch plate glass allowing Tim to gaze upward in the event that he was buried alive. An article by Joe Nickell of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, states that one of his children traveled to New Haven, VT from Iowa to supervise the construction of the specially designed crypt. According to the cemetery sexton, the burial vault has two rooms. One for Dr. Smith and the other for his wife. The burial vault is arched with stairs (capped by the stone in the lower front of the mound) and leads to the two rooms, with the viewing window at the top of the shaft.
If you want to visit Timothy Clark Smith, take Rte. 7 to New Haven (a small town just a few miles north of Middlebury, Vermont). When you arrive in town, take Town Hill Road for about a mile or two. Look for Evergreen Cemetery on the left. The grave mound is clearly visible from the road and is about midway between the entrance and exits to the cemetery.
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