For centuries, one location in the United States has captivated the
collective creepy imagination. Its mere mention is enough to mentally
transport us to a moonlit dirt road in dark, creepy woods. Still a
favorite topic of movies and television shows, you could call it “a ghouled place to live”, but Sleepy Hollow will suffice.
Now, Sleepy Hollow is indeed a real place. It’s not the same as it
was back in 1818 when Irving penned his classic American ghost story,
but almost two centuries later, the town still celebrates its biggest claim to fame.
Formerly known as North Tarrytown, this village was renamed Sleepy
Hollow in 1996 to pay homage to Irving’s story and identify itself as
the home to America’s very first wildly popular ghost story. But while The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
was a work of fiction, there are countless ghost stories and haunted
places throughout the Hudson Valley making this spot one of the most
haunted places in the country (if not the world).
When you think of New York, the legendary ghost ship known as the Flying Dutchman
is certainly not a connection you might draw. But the ship was said to
make landfall every seven years. One such place is the wide, lake-like
part of the Hudson River called Tappan Zee. During terrible storms, the Dutchman has been reported sailing up the river. As if that’s not reason enough to avoid the water, the Manitou
(or spirits of those who’ve drowned in the Hudson since native times,
numbering at least several hundred) are blames for the rogue waves and
sudden storms very common to the waterway there. Near Donderberg
Mountain, it remains a custom for sailors to tip their hats out of
respect for the imp, or dwerg, of John Coleman, skipper to Henry
Hudson who drowned there in 1609, or else face the storms he will send
down to try to sink their ships. Elsewhere on the Tappan Zee, Captain
Kidd and his ghostly crew of the Adventure Galley are believed to
haunt the waters beneath Bear Mountain Bridge in search of buried
treasure, and the ghost of Rambout Van Dam appears in the Sunday morning
mist below the Tappan Zee Bridge as a skeleton with glowing green eyes
wearing ragged clothes in a rowboat. Brigadier General “Mad” Anthony
Wayne is also believed to haunt the river, patrolling for enemy ships.
Ghostly women seem to be one common theme in Sleepy Hollow as well. (And
I don’t mean the ‘Lady in Black’ said to haunt the apartments near
Patriot’s Park.) Sleepy Hollow’s more frequently reported ghost, the
Lady in White, is often seen and heard around Raven Rock. Her wailing is
said to be a harbinger of oncoming winter storms. Her story, however,
has a few different variations. Some say she was an Indian maiden who
leapt to her death in the river at Raven Rock and was turned into a
spirit by ravens. Another version says that an old woman was trapped in a
blizzard while foraging for firewood near Spook Rock (a.k.a. Raven
Rock). There is another variation which says that a woman went to the
rock in her wedding dress to wait for her fiancé to return from war and
froze to death in the snow; some people claim that during winter storms,
you can still hear her calling, “My Beloved! Have you come for me?”
Whichever version you prefer, people report floating lights crossing the
cemetery on their way to Raven’s Rock on Buttermilk Hill, accompanied
by ‘unearthly moans’, before harsh winter storms approach. An old legend
claims these moans emanate from Raven Rock itself stemming from an old
Indian curse.
Another female spirit there is that of Mother Hulda, an old German woman
living in a hut alone near the old burying grounds and Raven Rock.
Though shunned by the Dutch community, her herbal remedies were always
secretly in demand. In 1777 when the Redcoats marched in to Tarrytown,
Mother Hulda took up her musket to defend the town. She lost her life in
the battle and was buried in an unmarked paupers grave on the north
wall of Old Dutch Church. There, she can still be seen wandering among
the tombstones. She may have some spooky company in the form of a
statue, as well. The ‘Bronze Lady’ of Sleepy Hollow Cemetery is a statue
at a mausoleum. Teenagers claim that if you sit in her lap, spit in her
eye, kick her in the shins, knock on the door of the tomb, and look
inside, you’ll be plagued by nightmares for two weeks. Although if you
ask me, that’s asking for trouble. The King Mansion,
at Tarrytown House Estate and Conference Center, is haunted by the
white-gowned ghost of Sybil Harris King who paces the second floor
hallways.
While Washington Irving’s headless horseman was a fictional character, he borrowed the idea from old European legends like The Wild Huntsman
as well as historical incidents around Tarrytown. British Major John
Andre was pulled into the treasonous plot of the infamous Benedict
Arnold and captured by patriots near a tulip tree along Albany Post
Road. He was later hanged for his involvement on October 2, 1780. Today,
a large tulip tree still grows about where that fateful moment occurred
near Andre’s Brook in what is today called Patriot’s Park. Still today,
shortly before dawn, people have reported hearing a horse galloping
fast past the creek, followed by the sound of uncontrollable sobbing,
said to be that of John Andre mourning over his mistakes. If legends are
to be believed, the only way to stop his piteous crying is to utter the
words his captors first spoke to him: “What party are you from?”
But what about the headless Hessian, you ask? Well, you might be
surprised to learn that there actually was one. Many Hessians fought
with the British as mercenaries during the Revolutionary War. (And yes,
Irving was named after General George Washington.) One of the clashes
with American troops occurred just nine miles from the heart of Sleepy
Hollow in what was known as the Battle of White Plains. According to a
memoir written by General William Heath in 1798, a cannonball took off
the head of a Hessian artilleryman during this campaign. And of all
dates for this incident, it happened on Halloween of 1776. A year later,
bodies strewn over the same hills were removed and it’s believed that
this headless Hessian’s skeleton was then taken and interred among the
dead at Old Dutch Burying Ground. At midnight, the headless Hessian is
reported to ride his horse at the Old Dutch Church and Sleepy Hollow
Cemetery even to this day. Other sightings include a headless Hessian in
full uniform on Mount Airy Road near Teller’s Point some ten miles
north of Sleepy Hollow and yet another on Albany Post Road at the Rogers-Haight Homestead (where allegedly a soldier lost his head in an argument with another soldier over a pig).
Lastly, no list of hauntings in Sleepy Hollow would be complete without
mentioning Washington Irving’s hone named Sunnyside. Originally a simple
tenant farmhouse built back in 1656, what Irving called “Wolfert’s
Roost” became his home in 1835. He remodeled it extensively, adding a
Spanish monastic-inspired tower and turning the house into what
resembles a Dutch mansion. But even when Irving moved in, there were
whispers that the house was haunted.
After thorough renovations in 1945 made possible in part by John D.
Rockefeller, Sunnyside opened as a public museum in October 1947.
According to the New York Times article on its grand opening
celebration, the centuries-old ghost story is that of a haunting by “…a
young lady who wandered through the orchard. She is said to have died of
love and green apples.” Irving himself claimed to have seen her in an
upstairs bedroom on one occasion. She may have otherworldly company,
though, since Irving’s five nieces are believed to haunt the house and
property, tidying up the museum after it closes. Even the love of
Irving’s life Matilda Hoffman—tragically killed at 17 by consumption and
believed to have been part of the inspiration for Katrina van Tassel—is
said to still peek at visitors from behind trees in the old orchard.
The home’s original owner, Wolfert Acker, also haunts the same orchard.
Yet the second best-known ghost of Sunnyside is none other than
Washington Irving himself. In 1843, Irving wrote, “I really believe that
when I die I shall haunt it [Sunnyside]; but it will be as a good
spirit, that no one needs to be afraid of.” An “amiable ghost”, Irving
has been witnessed in his former bedroom where he died on November 28,
1859, as well as his study. Whether or not it’s quite considered
amiable, it’s believed that Irving’s ghost has a habit of occasionally
pinching the butts of women. Forever the ladies’ man, I guess.
As if that weren’t enough ghosts, every April 25th, the spectral Lincoln Funeral Train
is said to roll past the estate on the old Hudson River Railroad line
making its annual spooky pilgrimage to Springfield, Illinois, as it has
since 1865.
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