Kate’s comments: All I can say is, I hope this was the 19th century equivalent of an urban legend! Although this article appeared in an Ohio paper, the subject was from New Jersey; hence, the transcript has been place with the NJ news.

from The Ohio Democrat
New Philadelphia, Ohio
Thursday, June 8, 1882

BURIED IN A TRANCE
__________________

Terrible Struggles of a Man who was Interred Alive.
__________________

    In the latter part of March a man named James Gilliland, residing in N. J., died after a brief illness. He was a carpet weaver by trade and was well-known in the neighborhood. After death his house was visited by sympathizing friends who were anxious to look once more on their departed comrade. There was a peculiar appearance about the body, which was the subject of comment, and many of the visitors refused to believe that life had departed. Even after the body had been prepared for death and inclosed[sic] in a coffin there were none of the ordianry appearances found in a corpse, and Gilliland’s friends were greatly agitated over the matter, many of them believing he was only in a trance. So strong was this belief that physicians were called in to make an examination. They found the body slightly warm and having none of the chilly feeling to the touch which is always found in dead bodies; the face was somewhat flushed and the supposed dead man resembled a person in dead sleep more than a mass of lifeless clay. The doctors, however, after a critical examination, pronounced Gilliland dead, and the funeral took place the following day, the interment being in the cemetery.
    Last week a brother of Gilliland came to New Brunswick to make an examination, having heard that there were suspicions that the man was not dead when the burial took place. He proceeded to the Cemetery in company with a man to re-open the grave. When the coffin was reached, the lid was carefully removed, and, to the great horror of the man, he discovered indubitable evidence that his brother had been entombed while in a trance, and had afterward recovered consciousness.
    The body was found lying on one side with the face terribly scratched, as though done while in agony. It is thought that the unfortunate man on recovering consciousness, endeavored to free himself from his coffin and that a terrible struggle for life took place, the hands being horribly lacerated, while the face plainly showed signs of terror. The body was immediately re-buried. 

-- transcription by Kate Maynard, 2009.