In 1798 a young man of about 15 named Washington Irving left his Manhattan
home to avoid the yellow fever outbreak. He made his way up the Hudson River to
healthier climes staying with friends in Tarrytown. Irving was an imaginative boy
proudly bearing the name of our nation's founder, George Washington, who he had a
chance to meet as a child. It was while he was in Tarrytown that he learned of
nearby Sleepy Hollow, and along with it it's Dutch heritage and local ghost stories.
He would wander the graveyard at the old Dutch Church, read the names off
the stones, and imagine these ghost stories come to life.
Sleepy Hollow's most infamous spectre was the headless horseman,
a Hessian soldier who is said
to have had his head blown off by a cannon in a battle during the American
Revolutionary War. The Hessian was buried in an unmarked grave here in the church
burial ground, and was said to rise from the grave, tormenting the local townsfolk
in a nightly quest for his head.
It was from these stories and the people he met and places he saw in and around
Sleepy Hollow as a youth that years later, while in Europe, Washington Irving
would penned the short story for which he is best known: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,
in 1820. Tales of Headless Horsemen were a familiar part of
European folklore dating back to the Middle Ages, but The Legend of Sleepy
Hollow, one of America's very earliest pieces of folklore, is perhaps the most
widely known today.
It tells the tale of a lanky schoolmaster named Ichabod Crane,
a newcomer to Tarrytown from Connecticut. He had the appearance of a scarecrow
eloped from a cornfield, and an appetite for the finer things in life. He could
nary afford them, but as schoolmaster his pension came in the form of room and
board, of pastries and pies, sweet meats, and apple cider, courtesy of the local
housewives. Ichabod also had an eye for the young
ladies of the town, who saw him as a gentlemanly personage, a learned man of
letters with vastly superior eloquence and taste when compared to the rough
country boys. Strolling the church burial grounds he would recite for the damsels'
amusement all the epitaphs on the tombstones. And by night he would share
in the telling of tales of ghosts and goblins with the old Dutch wives as they
sat spinning - particularly, tales of the Headless Horseman. And though he had seen
many spectres in his time, he would have passed a pleasant life of it, in spite of
the devil and all his works, if his path had not been crossed by a being that
causes more perplexity to mortal man than ghosts, goblins, and the whole race
of witches put together.
And that was... a woman.
One of his singing pupils was a
coquettish blooming lass of fresh 18 named Katrina Van Tassel, plump as a
partridge ripe and rosy cheeked is one of her father's peaches. Her character
was based on a real resident of Sleepy Hollow,
whose grave can be found here in the old Dutch Church burial ground.
Ichabod had a soft and foolish heart, which quickly fell for the young Katrina,
and he began to vie for her hand in earnest. But Ichabod had a rival in his romantic
pursuit: village hero and town prankster, Brom Bones, who also vied for Katrina's
affections. To try and deter Ichabod, Brom Bones played a series of pranks on him,
but Ichabod was unswayed in his pursuits, see, Ichabod was as interested
in Katrina's inheritance as he was in Katrina herself. So he may Bend easily,
but he does not break.
One fine autumnal day a messenger arrived inviting Ichabod
to a party at the Van Tassel's. Donning his very best in order to impress his
mistress, he mounted a borrowed broken-down plowhorse and issued forth
to the Van Tassel estate. After filling his belly with every sweet morsel
offered in the fall harvest buffet, music from the Great Hall summoned Ichabod and
all the partygoers to the dance. The Lady of his heart was his partner in the dance,
while the sorely smitten Brom Bones sat alone in a corner.
As the evening wore on the gaiety gave way to the more somber activity of reciting
tales of ghosts and apparitions, particularly, those in neighboring Sleepy Hollow.
There was a contagion that blew from the
very air of that haunted region; it breathed forth an atmosphere of dreams
and fancies.
The chief part of the stories turned about to the region's
favorite spectre: the Headless Horseman, who had been heard of late patrolling
the countryside, and tethered his horse nightly among the graves in the
churchyard.
The old Dutch Church was a favorite haunt of troubled spirits. Nearby rolls
a large brook, spanned by a wooden bridge that leads to the church. This was the
place where the horseman was most frequently encountered, and was said to
disappear upon arrival at the bridge. Brom Bones affirmed that even he had
been overtaken by this midnight Marauder, racing him to the bridge when suddenly
the Hessian vanished in a flash of fire. Ichabod Crane was a superstitious man,
easily spooked quick to believe the ghost stories told sotto voce
in the dark.
When the party ended and the revel gradually broke up, Ichabod
lingered in hopes of finalizing his courtship of Katrina. But in the end she
rejected him, and Ichabod, crestfallen, was forced to make his way home through the
dark countryside alone. It was the witching hour, and as he
sojourned his mind replayed the tales told this evening, and all things became
menacing spooks to him: a large crooked tree, the guttural twang of a bullfrog,
and the rustling of the wind. Then, in the dark shadow of the grove, on the margin
of the brook, he beheld something huge and towering. It was a horseman, mounted
on a powerful black steed. He came up alongside them on the road. Ichabod
quickened his steed in hopes of leaving this unwelcomed companion behind.
But the horseman kept pace. Ichabod was horror-struck on perceiving that he was
headless - but his horror was still more increased on observing the head that
should have rested on his shoulders was carried before him on the pommel of
his saddle. Ichabod's terror rose to desperation, and with several kicks to
his horse he sped away. They dashed through the woods, the horsemen ever on
his tail. They plunged toward the bridge and church where Ichabod was sure the
horsemen would disappear. He fought with his might to stay atop this broken-down
plowhorse, despite losing his saddle in their flight.
"If I can but reach that bridge,"
thought Ichabod, "I'm safe."
He heard the black steed panting and blowing close
behind him. Another kick and his horse thundered across the bridge gaining the
opposite side. Ichabod cast his gaze behind to see if his pursuer would
indeed vanish according to the legend. Just then he saw the Goblin rising in
his stirrups and in the very act of hurling his head at him. It encountered his
cranium with a tremendous crash, and he tumbled headlong to the ground as the
horseman passed by like a whirlwind.
The next morning Ichabod's old horse was found back at the farm, but there was no
sign of Ichabod. Only his hat was discovered on the ground near the bridge,
next to a shattered pumpkin. Some said the events were a prank by Brom Bones to
eliminate his romantic rival, and finally win the hand of fair Katrina.
But the old country wives, who were the best judges of these matters, maintain to
this day that Ichabod Crane was spirited away by the galloping Hessian.
After living in various places in the US and Europe, Washington Irving spent his final
years in and around Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow.
He died on November 28th 1859 at the age of 76.
He was buried here in the Sleepy Hollow cemetery.
Over the years treasure hunters
would chip away at pieces of his gravestone, so it's had to be replaced,
his grave now gated off in this private area.
Sleepy Hollow was a town,
Irving said, where a drowsy dreamy influence seems to hang over the land
and to pervade the very atmosphere. 200 years later that still holds true.
If you come to visit Sleepy Hollow, come in October, but be wary at the
stroke of midnight on Halloween, for you might just lose...
your head.