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Rockefeller’s War on Snakes
“I will pay 25-cents for each snake killed on my estate. I desire to rid my land of these reptiles, and any one may enter the war of extermination.” JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER -The New York Times, June 12 1906. John D. Rockefeller declared war. A war on snakes. Reportedly afraid of the reptiles since his youth and unable to walk safely in portions of his estate, there had been no other explanation given for the public announcement of the need to exterminate the snakes on his large estate in Pocantico Hills, particularly the Buttermilk Hill area which is “the wildest in the county.” For weeks following the proclamation of war,…
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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…
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Ghosts of the Octagon House
“We have a ghost here, you know. Oh yes, we have. It followed us from 144 West 12th Street in New York City where we used to live. We’ve never seen it; it’s a fragrance that haunts the house.” -Carl Carmer This colorful house is an architectural and visual gem. With a string of occupants as colorful as the house itself, you would be perfectly reasonable to suspect a few lingered on after death. Before we get to the ghosts—and several owners have heartily embraced the presence of resident spirits—let’s take a brief look at its history and the characteristics that make it one-of-a-kind. The Armour-Stiner House is one of…
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John André’s Ghost
“Down the post road, on still autumn nights, belated wayfarers sometimes heard the sound of hoofs. A madly galloping horse seemed to approach, but no horse or horseman was visible to the keenest eyes…All agreed that the hoofbeats stopped as though the rider had reined in suddenly, and that they were never heard further south than the immense old tulip tree, known as André’s tree, that spread it’s gaunt ghost-like arms in the moonlight.” –Chronicles of Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow, by Edgar Mayhew Bacon Two ghostly horsemen. One gallops headless out of the pages of Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and the other rides alongside from the pages of history…
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The Capture of John André
“In the centre of the road stood an enormous tulip-tree, which towered like a giant above all the other trees of the neighborhood, and formed a kind of landmark. Its limbs were gnarled and fantastic, large enough to form trunks for ordinary trees, twisting down almost to the earth, and rising again into the air. It was connected with the tragical story of the unfortunate André, who had been taken prisoner hard by; and was universally known by the name of Major André’s tree.” –The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, by Washington Irving Looming in the background of Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” is the historical capture of John…
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Milton Minnerly, 1877.
Take a walk in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery amongst the tombstones. Wind your way along the ridge of the hill to take in the dramatic views. There are monuments all around you, but you find a sunny patch of grass with a rock angling down a slope like an old scar. It’s a nice place to rest, so you brush away some loose lichen, leaves, and pine needles that have settled into the cracks. Your fingertips find something else though, faint in the sandpaper surface, and different from the deep veins and crevices. It almost feels like letters. The sun and shadows hit just right to highlight a faint inscription in…
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The Mystery of the Woman in Black
“Tales of a mysterious woman haunting the streets late at night, dressed in black, with a veil over her face and a hand held under a shawl, have been told there since Monday night…The figure was seen coming from the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery one night. Another time it was in Beekman Avenue, and often in Beekman Walton’s yard. A heavy thunderstorm occured Tuesday night and the figure was out.” Nyack Evening Star, Monday January 30th, 1899. “Effigy of Woman” For a brief period in 1899, something other than the headless horseman haunted the streets of North Tarrytown, today known as Sleepy Hollow. A woman in black, shrouded, and face obscured,…
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Holt-Lyon Company
Over the course of its existence, the Holt-Lyon Company manufactured a variety of hand-powered kitchen appliances like cream whips and egg beaters, bread slicers, and mayonnaise mixers. Holt-Lyon was incorporated around the year 1900 for capital of $20,000 (about $700,000 in 2023 dollars). The business was the joining of forces by Nelson Lyon, who had manufactured egg beaters near Albany, New York, with Thomas Holt, who held patents for improved egg beater designs. The partners leased a factory on Josephine Street on the Tarrytown, New York waterfront for their steam-powered equipment. Hand-powered egg beaters and similar hand-held mixers first appeared in US patents filed in the 1850s. Their innovative utility…
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Shad, the Most Delicious Fish
“Fain would I pause to dwell upon the world of charms that burst upon the enraptured gaze of my hero, as he entered the state parlor of Van Tassel’s mansion . . . Such heaped-up platters of cakes of various and almost indescribable kinds, known only to experienced Dutch housewives! There was the doughty dough-nut, the tenderer oly koek, and the crisp and crumbling cruller; sweet cakes and short cakes, ginger cakes and honey cakes, and the whole family of cakes. And then there were apple pies and peach pies and pumpkin pies; besides slices of ham and smoked beef; and moreover delectable dishes of preserved plums, and peaches, and…
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Bannerman Castle
“The sloop continued labouring and rocking, as if she would have rolled her mast overboard. She seemed in continual danger either of upsetting or of running on shore. In this way she drove quite through the highlands, until she had passed Pollopol’s Island, where, it is said, the jurisdiction of the Dunderberg potentate ceases.” -The Storm-Ship, by Washington Irving Bannerman Castle, one of the Hudson Valley’s most prominent ruins, sits like a sentinel at the North Gate to the Hudson Highlands. In Washington Irving’s short story “The Storm-Ship”, this small island marks the northern end of the domain of The Heer of Dunderberg, a Dutch goblin king who vexed many a sailing…
