The South Carolina Lowcountry is filled with legend & lore. One such story comes from Beaufort about a doctor who feared being buried alive after treating patients during the yellow fever epidemic. Dr. Perry was from a wealthy planter family who lived on St Helena Island.
Victims of the fever would often slip into comas with shallow breathing resembling death. Dr. Perry lived in fear of contracting the deadly virus and being buried alive. He left instructions with relatives to bury him with a jug of wine, a loaf of bread, and a pickax should he wake and find himself stuck inside (this is where the term “wake” comes from).
If he should find himself in a coma, he would drink the wine, eat the bread, and chop his way out of the vault.
Upon his death in 1845, the deceased Dr. Perry was interred in an above-ground brick mausoleum, along with the items he had requested. Unfortunately, Dr. Perry did not escape death or his final resting spot.
The mausoleum is at the St. Helena Episcopal Church graveyard.
Written By: John G. Clark Jr.
