Encyclopedia of Horror Lore Archive

Date of Haunting

The haunting began in 1852 after death within the Legare family.

Name/Name & Location

Julia Legare also is known as J.B. Legare was visiting other members of the wealthy Edisto Island family in Charleston, South Carolina.

Physical Description

The tomb was made of reddish stone and sat inside of the Presbyterian Church grounds with a metal fence surrounding it. Inside of the tomb, you can see 3 tombstones and what looks to be a stone bed on the floor.

Origin

The Legare family lived on Edisto Island during the mid-1800s for some time and becoming a wealthy local family. In 1852 the 22-year-old daughter Julia fell ill and slipped into a coma, and eventually was pronounced dead later. Her legend begins after being entombed in her family’s mausoleum crypt for almost 15 years.

Mythology and Lore

When Julia fell into the coma her heart and respiratory rates dropped so low the doctors were not able to detect them. This was because of the poor medical equipment they had during this time. The physician declared Julia dead and informed the family. They began to arrange final rites for her at the Edisto Island Presbyterian Church for later that afternoon to lay Julia to rest. She was taken to the Church to await the ceremony, and the tomb was opened and prepared.

In the 1800s the ceremonial activities were conducted at a rapid pace as they didn’t have embalming fluids yet. So poor Julia was buried the same day as she died after her loved-ones had time to pay their respects to her. Then she was taken from the church to the mausoleum and placed within the crypt. A large marble door was securely closed and locked to secure her final resting place. After 15 years another family death required the Legare family to open their family crypt again. This is when the family realized their horrible and tragic mistake. Julie’s remains were found crumpled at the foot of the mausoleum door; she had been buried alive. It is believed that she awoke from her coma entombed and tried to escape, but sadly couldn’t. The family had her re-entombed within the crypt and the door resealed so she could rest again.

When they returned to visit her, they found the tomb door would be open, a clergyman at the church would close the tomb again yet the same thing would happen. This happened over decades to elders of the church. They used chains, unbreakable locks, and even called in industrial machinery to seal a door into place. All of them would be open and or unhinged from the mausoleum, the original door still lays broken around the entry to her tomb. Mediums from all over believe she would never allow a door to be sealed so that no one would ever suffer her fate again. The church stopped putting doors on the mausoleum out of hopes her spirit would be able to rest knowing the tomb is safe. Visitors to this day can visit the grounds, some have reported an essence near the tomb. Others have captured pictures that cannot be explained by the caretakers of the cemetery.

Is there anything we missed about the Tomb of Julia Legare? Let us know in the comments section below!

Date of Discovery

While the actual date of discovery is unknown, due to the historically oral tradition that it originated from. It is said that these creatures have existed in story-form since before the Bering Land Bridge, which dates back at least 20,000 years.

Name

The Tornit is likened to the Bigfoot or Sasquatch of the contiguous United States, as well as parts of Canada. It is the Alaskan counterpart, known well in the Inuit culture, that goes by the names of Tornit, Alaska Bushman, or simply Bushman.

Physical Description

More suited for an arctic climate, it resembles the Bigfoot quite a bit in its visage, like giants who are ape-like in demeanor with longer arms and a body covered in a thick dark brown hair, or fur. It stands an intimidating seven feet tall and possessed a strength that was infamous amongst the Inuit people.

Origin

The Tornit stems from the Inuit culture, an indigenous culture of the arctic circle, but since there is no written history of this culture before the late 1800s, only the cultural anthropological studies done on the Inuit tribes during that time can be relied upon for information on their origin. We see that most of the accounts of these stories coming from Newfoundland and Labrador, which reference the modern-day Baffin Bay in Greenland.

Mythology and Lore

They were feared as brutish thieves and killers, although there is some folklore where they were painted as being shy, making themselves scarce, and doing their utmost to avoid encounters with the Inuit people. In the most popular versions of the oral tales, storytellers would talk of these hairy giants that would stalk their villages until nighttime, to steal their food and kayaks—the most important things that these communities possessed. They also spoke of how these creatures would murder villagers who may have gotten in their way.

There are stories that depict the Tornit species as being these murderous villains that they were known widely to be, but there were also stories that spoke the opposite of their character. Alternate versions of the tale suggest that the Tornit would get away with their thievery, but would be tracked back to their own villages where all of the Tornit present, male, female, and any children would be slaughtered by the individual native who had the most stolen from him.

Never to be confused with being an overly intelligent species of humanoid, the overall idea of them can be considered oafish in nature, but not necessarily murderous so much as protective, defensive, or vengeful creatures—possessing only the baser instincts of survival. In certain regions where the Inuit tribes thrived, there were still less popular stories where Tornit and native women intermarried and lived peacefully with those who came and went within their territory.

Modern Pop-Culture References

While not necessarily modern in nature, these books convey the stories of the Inuit people that these creatures originated from.

Mary Farnstrom

Author. Artist. A little bit Alaskan. Mary lives with her dog in a rural cabin outside of Fairbanks, Alaska. They explore the bounty of the Alaskan wilderness during the summer and cozy up in their log cabin during the winter.