Sophia Catherine Nance (1824-1853) was buried under a church in Columbia (South Carolina) in a metal coffin with a glass window showing her face, due to her great beauty. Her grave has become a local legend, especially because she was left behind when the church was expanded and little is known about her life.

Birth
10 Jul 1824
Death
24 Jan 1853 (aged 28)
Burial
Washington Street United Methodist Church Cemetery
Columbia, Richland County, South Carolina, USA
Memorial ID
48708209

Strange But True: Buried Beneath A Church

There's a woman buried underneath Washington Street United Methodist Church in Columbia, SC. Her tomb is made of metal, and there's a glass cover showing her face.

Church officials believe her name to be Sophia Nance. She died in 1853, and since that time, her body has remained in what is now an abandoned graveyard underneath the church.

The graveyard was originally above ground, but the church contstructed a new building over top of it in the 1920s. Families with loved ones buried there were given the chance to move their relatives, but no one from the Nance family ever came forward to inquire about moving Sophia.

Legend has it, her family chose her burial style based on her beauty. She died at age 28, and church historians say the family wanted to preserve her face. So they chose a unique tomb that covered the body entirely, but left a glass plate over the face, leaving that part of Sophia open for viewing.

Since that time, a few people have made the trip beneath the church to see Sophia. Church officials say, five years ago, someone tapped on the glass and broke it, leaving the face exposed to the elements. Condensation formed mold on top of the face, leaving what now appears as a white mask as a cover.

Little is known about Sophia, more than 150 years after her death. Church historians are still trying to figure out why she died so young, and how her two children died. They reportedly died at ages two and six, and are buried nearby. Historians do believe Sophia was originally from Newberry, and that her maiden name may have been Wells.

There are no records of Sophia Catherine Nance ever existing. She is in no census, there are no mentions of her name in newspapers. We know she once lived though because her metal coffin, with a glass oval revealing her face, lies underneath the floorboards of Washington Street United Methodist Church in downtown Columbia, South Carolina.

"The casket resembles an Egyptian mummy's sarcophagus and is shaped like a woman's body, with feet raised, stomach slightly concave and chest curved outward. At one end of the coffin, a small oval metal plate covers a similar glass piece. Through the glass, observers can see the face which once belonged to Sophia Nance." (A Grave with a View by Angshuman Nas, Currents, Spring 1992)

When the church needed to expand in 1928, they sent a call out to family members who had loved ones buried there to move the graves to Elmwood Cemetery. No one answered the call for Sophia so they built over her.

To get to her casket one must first remove the cleaning cart from a broom closet and lift up a rug. This reveals a trap door which if opened leads to a crawlspace 20 inches high.

On hands and knees you must traverse past tombstones, tree stumps and electrical wiring for about 20 yards. Turning a corner at a floor joist and a steel pipe brings you to her casket half-buried in the ground with the top half sticking out. Peering into the glass window one would see that:

"Her dried-out skin has darkened and become like leather, but the pores are clearly visible. Withering eyelids partly cover empty sockets, and brown eyebrows remain on her forehead. Her nose is perfectly shaped, though the skin is taut over the bone. In her mouth are five or six decaying teeth. There are beads of moisture around the neck, and a bit of her clothing is visible under her chin." (A Grave with a View by Angshuman Nas, Currents, Spring 1992)

A tombstone raised 10 inches above the grave has the following inscription:

aged 28 years 6 months and 14 days

You can't go down there anymore. About 1996 a crack appeared in the glass, possibly from a child tapping it as it was not uncommon for children to go see the woman beneath the floorboards. The remains began to decompose making the skull appear that it was covered by a soft, white foam. The Reverend Mike Alexander considered getting the glass cover fixed but decided to "let nature run its course".