Witches and Witchcraft
Think of witches and Salem, Massachusetts comes to mind—and for good reason. Salem hanged nineteen people and pressed one man to death under heavy stones during its infamous 1692 trials, a dark chapter that stands as one of America's most tragic episodes of mass hysteria. Sleepy Hollow Country? Zero deaths. Not a single execution. While Salem was consumed by paranoia that turned deadly, the Hudson Valley took a notably different path. Jane Kanniff, the accused Witch of West Nyack, actually won her case in New York State's last witch trial—walking out acquitted rather than condemned. It's a distinction worth noting: our accused witches lived to become legends rather than martyrs.
That's not to say our local witch stories lack drama or tragedy. A hundred years ago, people took witches seriously enough that it was a brave man indeed who passed Hulda's cottage even in broad daylight. From the bewitched mill of Sing Sing to Hulda's remarkable transformation from a barely-there fictional character into a full-fledged local legend complete with her own headstone, Sleepy Hollow Country has pulled off quite the magical collection of witch tales. The difference? Our witches got to stick around and become legends the old-fashioned way—by outliving their accusers and haunting the local folklore for centuries to come.
-
The Bewitched Mill of Sing Sing
The tale of the bewitched mill of Sing Sing comes to us down a winding path—from ancient campfires at the now-vanished shad fishing camp at Crawbucky Point, through newspaper archives, to a battered 1922 pamphlet in the Westchester County Historical Society. It’s the kind of story that reveals as much about how folklore travels as it does about witches and mills. First, a quick note on names: the village we now call Ossining was known as Sing Sing until 1901, when locals, weary of being associated with the infamous prison, opted for a different anglicization of the Mohegan ‘Sint Sinck.’ In our tale, Sing Sing refers to the village, not…
-
Hulda the Witch of Sleepy Hollow
“. . . in the days of our nation’s birth-throes he was a brave man who passed the cottage of the witch, even in the daytime. A hundred years ago the people took witches seriously.” –Chronicles of Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow Hulda, the witch of Sleepy Hollow, has pulled off quite the magical feat: transforming from a seven-paragraph footnote in an 1897 book into a full-fledged local legend with her own headstone at the Old Dutch Church. Originally, Hulda’s tale was a mere seven-paragraph whisper in Edgar Mayhew Bacon’s 1897 book, Chronicles of Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow, nestled comfortably in the “Myths and Legends” section. Bacon suggests that perhaps, long…
-
The Witch of West Nyack
“This neighborhood has the doubtful honor of having been the scene of the last trial for witchcraft held in New York State, possibly the last among a so-called civilized people.” -The History of Rockland County, by Frank Bertangue Green Think of witches and Salem, Massachusetts comes to mind. But Sleepy Hollow Country has its own witch trials, including the case of Jane Kanniff, whose 1816 ordeal in West Nyack marked the last witch trial in New York State—six miles from Sleepy Hollow as the raven flies.. Jane Kanniff—though some sources call her Hannah, and local Dutch farmers reportedly referred to her as ‘Naut’ Kanniff, a salutation of unknown meaning—was, like…
