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The Bard of Tarrytown
The Bard of Tarrytown. The Poet of the Pines. The Tanyard Poet. The World’s Most Gifted Seer, Palmist and Medium. These were just some of the professional titles used by the tireless and shameless self-promoter John Henry Titus throughout his long life. He missed the chance to apply even more apt titles to himself: Spinner of Yarns, Teller of Tall Tales, Purveyor of Pablum. Hold on as we explore the life of John Henry Titus through a trail of newspaper advertisements, news articles, and self published books. Here in Sleepy Hollow Country we are all too familiar with out-of-towners sweeping in to school us simple, unsophisticated yokels. A fellow named…
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The Last Tarrytown Castle
Carrollcliffe, standing at one of the highest points in the village, is the last surviving Tarrytown castle. There were once two castles here. Or maybe four depending on who you ask and how you choose to define a castle. Just north was Ericstan, a castellated villa by Alexander Jackson Davis that was demolished in 1944. To the west was Edgemont, the painted brick home of Julian Detmer, with decorative crenelations in the style of a castle. To the south is Lyndhurst, which is occasionally described as a castle although it is more accurately a Gothic Revival mansion. Carrollcliffe was constructed by Howard Carroll, Inspector General of New York state’s troops in…
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The Lonely Life of Silent Pete
“For nearly 20 years—as far as anyone knows—a shabby, slouching figure of a man has been walking daily between Yonkers and North Tarrytown, creating for Hudson Valley residents a new legend. He never speaks: so he’s called Silent Pete. Iron Mike and Nothing Joe. He just walks.” The Tarrytown Daily News, Tarrytown, NY. May 19, 1938. Tarrytown and North Tarrytown (today’s Sleepy Hollow) were once the haunts of Silent Pete, a reclusive and mysterious character who walked a regular route along the river towns in southern Westchester County. Reclusive and mysterious characters aren’t in short supply in Sleepy Hollow Country. In fact, Silent Pete picked up the mantle from two…
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Ghoulish Jokester Robs a Grave
“Echoes of Ichabod Crane’s ghost stories in the Tarrytown cemetery led to the discovery early today that some one had removed a skull from a pauper grave and placed it on top of a tombstone in the conventionally gruesome manner.” -The Washington Times, May 25, 1929 One night in May 1929 a person passing through the hamlet of East View received quite a jolt at the sight of a human skull atop a tombstone in the county poorhouse cemetery. Not bothering to give his name, the individual reported to Town of Greenburgh police that a ghost was roaming the cemetery. Sergeant Dunkel investigated and found the skull placed on top…
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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 over the last decade performed a most difficult feat: she has transformed from a minor fictional character into a real person, complete with a headstone in a place of honor at a local church. Until very recently, the historical record of the alleged witch of Sleepy Hollow consisted entirely of seven short paragraphs in Edgar Mayhew Bacon’s 1897 book Chronicles of Tarrytown…
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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 including Hulda the Witch of Sleepy Hollow and Jane Kanniff, the alleged witch of West Nyack. In the hamlet of West Nyack, six miles from Sleepy Hollow as the raven flies, is a historic marker at the site of the last witch trial in New York State. Some versions of her story use the name…
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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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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,…
