The Dalles times-mountaineer. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1882-1904, 1892-02-06
He was Buried Alive.

Under the above caption the Chicago NeaCs
of the 18th inst. publishes the following con-
cerning the late John w. Cowden, former
successful and prominet physician of Belle
vue:
CDR. John w. Cowden was, up to few
months ago, prominent man and well-to- do
physician of Rock Island. One night he was
called to the bedside of a patient on I'd
avenue in that city, where, while attending
the wants of the lady who was ill, he suddenly
expired, the result of heart trouble. He was
taken in charge by his relatives and friends,
who, according to the story, refused to per-
NIT an inquest by the coroner, and the next
day the doctor was buried.
Meanwhile telegram had been sent to
his brother at Omaha, but he was away from
home at the time, and upon his return he
found it impossible to arrive for the funeral.
Shortly after the doctors death one of his
sons had a dream that his father had been
buried alive and had turned over in his
coffin. This seemed to greatly disturbe the
son but he did not for time disclose his un-
easiness.
After about month the Nebraska brother
came to look after matters pertaining to the
doctors death, and, being anxious 10 see his
dead brother, he arranged to have the body
disinterred, 1t is given out that group of
immediate friends, including a Davenport
physician, were to assemble at a certain
place and view the remains, but they never
arrived, for the reason that the brother secured
a permit from Banker Mitchell of Rock
Island, who is president of the Cemetery as
sociation, for the disinterment, and then he
and the grave-diggers proceeded to the sacred
spot where the doctor was consigned to
Mother Earth only month before
1t is said there were only three persons
present, the two diggers and the brother when
the cover was taken off. 1t wasthen that the
ghastly horrors Of the grave were unfolded to
the human eye.
The brother gave a shout of horror and
groan of agony at the sight of the coffin,
which lay in the box with the side kicked out
and the doctors foot protruding. He then
knew the worst had happened, for the brother
had been buried alive and afterward died in
all the agony that can come TO a person upon
awakening in the grave. Being anxious to
know the result in its entirety, the casket was
taken out of the grave and the lid of the coffin
removed. An awful sight met their eyes, for
there lay the dead doctor in the dried blood
that had oozed from the terrible wounds
which had been self-inficted during his brief
but terrible moment while life existed in the
grave. The doctor had pulled out the greater
portion of his hair, torn off his ears, gouged
out his eyeballs, scratched his face into shreds,
chewed the ends of his fingers off and died
after turning face downward in his coffin.
The sight was enough for the living
brother to see, and, not caring to disturb the
other relatives, he had the body reinterred,
and returned to where the friends had met
and informed them that the condition of the
corpse was such that it was necessary to place
it back in the grave. He assigned no reason,
it is said, and the friends took it for granted
that matters were satisfactory to the brother.
They did not know how the visiting brothers.
heart was aching. The matter has rested, and
the relative returned to Omaha.