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The Brutal Murder of Emma Brooks
“Brutally murdered for $300 that she carried on her person, Emma Brooks, an eccentric, unmarried woman, about 70 years of age, was found with her head almost severed from her body, lying in a pool of her own blood, in the front room of an old, secluded house in which she lived, two miles from Highland, on the road leading to New Paltz…” Kingston Daily Freeman, July 15, 1909 The summer of 1909 was marked by a crime so brutal it shocked all of Ulster County. On the evening of July 14th, in a ramshackle farmhouse perched along the New Paltz turnpike near Highland, 72-year-old Emma Brooks met a violent…
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The Nefarious Black Horse Tavern
“My way led through a lovely country, rich in charming scenery, and affording far-off glimpses of lordly river and frowning mountains. A picturesque point on the road, going north from Sing Sing, is just before the old tavern is reached…Here the thoroughfare takes a sweep of almost half a circle and crosses the stream over a bridge of rustic character. Black Horse Tavern is a two-story wooden structure, sadly the worse for wear…” Rambles in Colonial Byways, by Rufus Rockwell Wilson, 1901. Don’t let this romantic description of the scene deceive you. While the region of Croton is truthfully a beautiful part of Sleepy Hollow Country, the aptly named Black…
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The Deaths of Buttermilk Hill
“Buttermilk Hill” is the name of a desolate, rugged mountain, about a mile from Unionville Station, studded with a thick growth of young trees, underbrush, and rocks. It is about a half mile from the base to the top of the mountain, and to ascend it one must follow a lonesome, tortuous, rocky wood road, starting from the Sawmill River Road, which lies at the foot of the hill on the eastern side.” The New York Herald, Thursday September 1, 1881. “MURDERED IN THE WOODS” Something might be off about Buttermilk Hill. Today most people know of it as an area of scenic walking paths in Rockefeller State Park Preserve…
