For the most part, the Sourlands are known for its exquisite beauty and isolated atmosphere. However, behind the beauty and the isolation lurks a vast array of ghost stories and legends. Many of these legends and tales are a part of the oral culture of the Sourlands, though some of the details and plots of the stories vary from person to person. While some of these stories seem credible, others are shaky at best. Whether you are a skeptic or a believer, take these tales and stories for what they are worth. It’s all in good fun!!

What is the source to these tales? One reason is that the Sourlands are thought to be haunted by the devil. The basic story goes:

As a winged creature and intent on building a great wall to divide East from West, he dropped some of the rocks he was carrying upon Devil’s Half Acre as he hurriedly responded to his wife’s sudden call to dinner, but afterward did not bother to retrieve them because of many other acts of deviltry he was engaged in round the world” (Luce, 124).

The Devil, a practical demon, used the boulders thereafter as the place on which to crack hickory nuts. One of the monsters supposed to haunt the Mountain is the Devil Bird, a hybrid blend of human and animal parts something like the Jersey Devil of the Pinelands: he sweeps out of the sky to snatch lambs and chickens away to his rocky lair, where he feeds on their hot blood, crouched over the whitening bones (some human) of his victims. Guns cannot hurt him, traps cannot catch him, and his cry is like nothing heard on earth (Luce 125).

What about stories about human ghostly appearances? One controversial one is that of Knitting Betty, whose appearances are reflected in the many (conflicting) stories about her. Knitting Betty is sometimes referred to as the “headless ghost” that guards the rock in her namesake. Other stories depict her as a different kind of ghost that does in fact have a head and is rather timid. But what is the genesis of her haunting? Who was she? While the answers to this vary greatly, let’s start with her “non-ghostly” persona. In this story, Betty was the sweetheart of a Revolutionary War soldier who went to fight for the patriotic cause. She picked a spot on a large rock near Zion Road (located in East Amwell) to wait and watch for his return, in which she knit to pass the time and constantly looked down the road to catch the first glimpse of him as he came home. When she learned that her solider had died in battle, she refused to acknowledge the truth and stayed at that rock until her death. After her death, the rock became known as “Knitting Betty’s Rock.” Some stories depict her spirit as living on, as a ghost that haunts this rock. Other stories depict her as a vanishing ghost in a lace gown. In more ghoulish versions, she is headless and holds her head on her lap along with her knitting yarn. How did the stories evolve into her being headless? This varies, but the most common story to accompany this is that she was

beheaded by British scouts on suspicion that she was a spy; by a cannonball falling from the sky that also scattered her yarn (which turned into the boulders around her Rock); after a shot was fired during a family fracas (Luce 126).

Another notable character is Charley Sutphin, but not because he is a ghost or a legend. More or less, Sutphin told many ghostly tales about the Sourlands to Hunterdon Democrat in 1931, in which he was a former resident of the Sourlands. The publication of this article accompanied the arrival of the Lindberghs, whose home was near completion. Following the Lindbergh baby kidnapping, the article was run again as a prophetic of what was to happen. Sutphin apparently knew about nine murders that occurred on the Mountains. Sutphin firmly believed that the Mountain was haunted and that strange things happened that were not the cause of any mortal. He also claimed to have seen many of these spirits first hand and believed in the notion that spirits that died violent deaths always return to the scenes of their demise. These ghosts included

Clossey the Murdered Fiddler, who was known for using his cane to retrieve a moonshine jug by the handle. “Moonshiners were in the business there even in the old days…Clossy’s cane was the calling card which admitted the bearer of the jug into places where illicit liquor was sold.” “There is a ghostly lady thru whom the sun can be seen, who walks about the mountain roads in the day. All who have seen her comment on her uncommon beauty.” A woodcutter “brave with drink” once admired her vulgarly and learned a painful lesson. “As he sought to touch her, she slapped him across the cheek. He bore livid welts in the shape of a human hand upon that cheek until his death. (Hunterdon Democrat, 1931).

But the tales do not end here. Many people on that live on the Mountains believe that ordinary object, such as rocks, might be the vehicle for supernatural forces. As one tale goes, late one afternoon, some workmen dug up a large rock near Stoutsburg, with the intent to use it for construction the next day. When the workmen returned the next day, the rock was gone and hole from where the rock was extracted was gone too! Not only was there grass on the former hole, but the tools were under there as well! For those who are still non-believers and still skeptic, here’s a story of a non-believer and what happened to him. This story concerns Steve French, a Civil War veteran who was a common patron of the Zion tavern. Upon his journey home drunk he stopped at a burial ground. His companions were curious to know what he did there. Here is Henry Charlton Beck’s conclusion:

One night they found out. They saw Steve French lying on one of the graves, shouting over and over “Arise ye dead, and come to Judgment!” The boys went home and decided to wait for the next pension check and the events that undoubtedly would follow it. Sure enough, Steve took more aboard than he could handle and, although his path was a little off center, he wandered into the graveyard on his way home. There the boys of th4e area were ready for him when Steve began moaning and shouting “Arise ye dead! Just as he had before, they jumped out of the bushes with this reply, “Yes, Lord, we’s a-comin’! Steve French ran all the way to his mountain shack and never went near the cemetery again! (Luce, 128).