Man Buried In His Bed

Kinston, Alabama

William "Grancer" Harrison was a wealthy cotton planter. He liked square dancing so much that he had a dance hall built on his property, and he let it be known that he wanted to be buried near the hall in the family cemetery, and that he wanted the dances to continue, so that he could hear them from his grave.

Grancer's grave was a custom above-ground sarcophagus, built to his specifications before he died in 1860. Its top was left open because, once dead, Grancer was lowered into it resting on his feather bed, dressed in his dancing clothes and shoes. Then the tomb was sealed over him.

Perhaps Grancer hoped that the music would revive him, and that he'd be appropriately dressed when he busted out of his grave and rejoined the fun. The Civil War, however, quickly put an end to the dances, and Grancer remains entombed and bedridden. A marker notes that the "sounds of a fiddle and tapping feet" can sometimes be heard near the sarcophagus. Grancer wants to be let out!