Dr. Timothy Clark Smith received a bachelor’s degree from Middlebury College in 1842 and a medical degree from the University of the City of New York in 1855. During his career, he worked as a teacher, clerk in the US Treasury Department, and also physician. He was a staff surgeon for the Russian Army from the year of 1856 to the year 1857. He was also in the US Consul in Odessa, Russia from the year 1861 to 1875, and Galatz, Romania from 1878 to 1883.
Yet despite all of his achievements and worldly experience, Smith harbored a horrific fear of being buried alive. Timothy Clark Smith was so fearful of premature burial. This fear known as taphophobia was not uncommon in the past. Horror stories of presumed dead clawing at their coffin lids were commonplace. With medicine, death and burial being relatively unregulated industries, misdiagnosing a coma or catalepsy as death was a very real threat.
Because he feared being buried alive, he was interred in a specially designed grave. His face is positioned beneath a cement tube that leads from beneath the ground to the surface and ends at a 14 x 14-inch plate glass window. In addition to arranging Dr. Timothy Clark Smith so he could see the surface if he was alive, he was buried with a bell in his hand so he could signal for help.
Most noticeably, however, is the horizontal window he installed at the surface of his grave, six feet above him and centered squarely on his face so that people could check on him to ensure that a mistake wasn’t made. He died in 1893, and to all accounts, it went smoothly. Today, the window’s visibility only extends a few inches down the six-foot-long cement shaft due to moisture and the age of the glass.
According to cemetery records, Smith does not rest alone. In a separate chamber, noticeably lacking a window, lies Smith’s wife. Her crypt is a darker affair, accessed only by a set of covered stairs leading into the crypt. Smith’s fears were relievedly unfounded. His body remained where it lay and his bell stayed silent. The viewing window above, while providing pre-mortem reassurance to Smith, became little than a local curiosity.
Sources: Cult Of Weird, YouTube Whits Life.