Tales of Wilmingtonians who, back in the day, were buried under unusual circumstances

John Staton, Wilmington StarNews
·2 min read

In Wilmington, we see dead people.

Not only is there a thriving "ghost tour" industry, but those tours sometimes go into stories of Wilmingtonians who died or were buried under unusual circumstances: Samuel Jocelyn, supposedly buried alive at the cemetery at Fourth and Market streets; or Nancy Adams Martin, the young woman who died at a sea and whose body was placed, seated in a chair, in a cask of whiskey to preserve it before she was laid to rest at Oakdale Cemetery.

As it turns out, stories like those are just the more famous tips of a somewhat morbid iceberg. Louis T. Moore's 1956 tome "Stories Old and New of the Cape Fear Region," is filled with fascinating tales and history of old Wilmington, including a chapter on the unusual or notable deaths of people buried here.

The inscription on the grave of William Wilkings in Oakdale Cemetery in Wilmington. Wilkings died in a duel in 1856.
The inscription on the grave of William Wilkings in Oakdale Cemetery in Wilmington. Wilkings died in a duel in 1856.

There's Dr. William Crawford Wilkings, who Moore writes "is believed to have been the last man killed in the South in a political duel." The disagreement occurred in 1855 over a local political election. Wilkings is buried at Oakdale.

In Wilmington's Bellevue Cemetery, Moore writes, a father and son are buried under a dual monument after both having been executed by the state of North Carolina in the electric chair in 1925. Charles and William Elmer Stewart had killed two police officers who discovered their illegal still.

In Oakdale there's William A. Ellerbrook, buried with his dog in 1880 after both perished in a fire. Moore notes several other cases where pets were buried with or next to their former owners.

Then there's the case of the woman, buried "in a little cemetery in the Southern section of Wilmington." Apparently, before the woman died, she had been bed-ridden for a number of years. After her death, "her relatives deemed it appropriate to place the iron bedstead over her grave. Resting against the bed was the spring on which the patient lay for so many years."

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: People in Wilmington, NC who were buried under unusual circumstances