The Jersey Devil
The Jersey Devil, a creature that supposedly roams Leeds Point New Jersey, is quite famous. In fact New Jersey’s hockey team in the NHL is named for this legendary creature. There have been many sightings.
A hero of the Barbary wars, Commodore Stephen Decatur was the first American war hero who was not part of the Revolutionary war. He was a man of good, dependable character. In 1820 he died when wounded during a duel. He willed $75,000 to his family, which would be about $1,200,000 by today’s standards. He fired a cannonball at the Jersey Devil. The result was a gaping hole right in its middle. But that didn’t bother the monster. It casually left the scene.
The Jersey Devil had a run in with Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon’s brother. He owned about 1000 acres in New Jersey. He wasn’t a crazy man.
The 1800′s saw the Jersey Devil raid man people’s property. It was reported to have stolen chickens, and sheep. This included a raid on Vincentown in 1899. It seemed to take a lot of animals. In 1909 thousands of people claimed to have seen the monster. This happened all around the Delaware Valley.
Panic ensued in Burlington when footprints belonging to the Jersey Devil were found in backyards and on rooftops covered with snow. These were not normal human footprints. They were prints as hooves would leave. A group of Jacksonville hunters organized a search. But their hunting dogs, upon seeing and sniffing the footprints became so agitated that they would not follow them. A Glaucester city man claimed to have seen it walking around on his roof for about 10 minutes. He described it as about 3 ½ feet high with the head of a collie, the legs of a crane, the face of a horse and 2 foot wings.
The Jersey Devil went after a telephone pole worker . The devil chased him until he climbed the telephone pole. A coworker chased it away by shooting it in the wing. If a cannonball couldn’t harm it how could a mere bullet drive it off?
Maybe the Jersey Devil only appears to people who have had a few too many. It’s still fun to talk about it.
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