The Jersey Devil
There’s a well known mythic monster in New Jersey called the Jersey Devil. There’s a hockey team named for it. 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. He died in 1820 from wounds suffered during a duel. His estate included about $75,000 which would be over $1 million dollars in current money. His run in with the Jersey Devil involves his firing a cannonball at the creature. Supposedly it blew a hole in the creature. But that didn’t bother the monster. It simply flew away into the distance.
Napoleon’s brother, Joseph Bonaparte, saw the Jersey Devil while he was hunting on his estates. He owned about 1000 acres in New Jersey. He too was well respected.
There were many property raids made by the Jersey Devil in the 1800′s. It was reported to have stolen chickens, and sheep. Vincentown was the target in 1899. It seemed to take a lot of animals. Thousands of people saw it in 1909. These people were from many of the 30 towns in the Delaware Valley.
Panic ensued in Burlington when footprints belonging to the Jersey Devil were found in backyards and on rooftops covered with snow. They were not footprints people could make. They looked like animal prints – hooves. A group of Jacksonville hunters organized a search. The hunting dogs, however, refused to track it. In Glaucester a man saw it on his roof. 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 man escaped up the telephone pole. Another worker chased it off with a gunshot to the wing. Was that the same creature who wasn’t hurt when a cannonball blew through its stomach?
It’s likely that the Jersey Devil is nothing more than a series of different animals seen in the dark or under the influence of alcohol, combined with a vivid imagination. But the myth is fun.
