Lore - Legends 38: Fife & Drum

Episode Date: October 14, 2024

We’ve all heard that war often leaves a few ghost stories in its wake. As proof, we offer a key territory in America’s most formative conflict…and all the terrifying stories that still linger there as a result. Narrated and produced by Aaron Mahnke, with writing by Harry Marks, and research by Jamie Vargas. ————————— Lore Resources:  Episode Music: lorepodcast.com/music  Episode Sources: lorepodcast.com/sources  All the shows from Grim & Mild: www.grimandmild.com ————————— Sponsors: Quince: Premium European clothing and accessories for 50% to 80% less than similar brands, at Quince.com/LORE for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Squarespace: Head to Squarespace.com/lore to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using the code LORE. SimpliSafe: Secure your home with 24/7 professional monitoring. Sign up today at SimpliSafe.com/Lore to get 20% off any new SimpliSafe system with Fast Protect Monitoring.   ©2024 Aaron Mahnke. All rights reserved.

Welcome to Lore Legends, a subset of lore episodes that explore the strange tales we whisper in the dark, even if they can't always be proven by the history books. So if you're ready, let's begin. Most of us know the basics. When we think about the Revolutionary War, we can name a handful of locations that we automatically associate with it. Lexington, Boston, Philadelphia, Valley Forge, Saratoga. These were all home to key battles and confrontations between the British and the colonial army. But one state in particular stands out as a proving ground for America's forces.

New Jersey. Nestled along the eastern seaboard between Pennsylvania and New York, New Jersey was the location of a number of critical battles. The Battle of Fort Lee, for example, in November of 1776 was a crushing blow to Washington's army, and the ten crucial days that followed could have spelled disaster had his troops not captured the Hessians in Trenton on Christmas. But the Garden State saw more than just a few decisive victories for the colonial army. It also saw heavy loss, and that loss can still be felt today.

There are graveyards, fields, and even homes that bear the legacies of those who died fighting for their country. It's more than blood and bullets. Their restless spirits walk the earth, unaware that they did not die in vain. They search for salvation that will never come, haunting fields and houses where they took their final breaths. What happens to a soldier who doesn't come home from war? What becomes of their spirit? The Revolutionary War took the lives of as many as 70,000 patriots.

But if the stories are true, many of them have yet to move on. They're still marching, their spectral rifles at their sides into a battle they can never win. So consider this your call to arms, because today we go to New Jersey to battle with the past. I'm Aaron Manke, and this is Lore Legends. It was the place to be. In the lead up to the American Revolution, the colony of New Jersey enjoyed unbridled political and religious freedom. As the saying goes, everything is legal in New Jersey, and there was some truth to that. So of course, New Jerseyans were prepared to hit, and hit hard, once the Revolutionary

War came to the Garden State. But no matter how intensely they fought, no one was safe, especially not James and Hannah Caldwell. Born in 1734 in Club Creek, Virginia, James was your average family guy. He graduated from what is now today Princeton University and was eventually ordained, becoming the pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Elizabethtown in 1761. Two years later, he married his college sweetheart, Hannah Ogden, of Newark, New Jersey.

Together they had a remarkable, if not exhausting, total of ten children over the course of 16 years. But after the outbreak of the war, James had to put parenting on hold. In February of 1773, he joined the war effort as the chaplain and assistant quartermaster general of the 3rd Regiment New Jersey Line. For the next nine months, he earned the nickname the Fighting Parson, which as far as nicknames go is an excellent one. And he deserved it too.

He actually recruited 100 men from his congregation to join the military. And during the Battle of Springfield on June 23rd of 1780, he found a resourceful way to keep his soldiers on the battlefield. When his comrades started to run low on the paper wadding to pack the powder and ball into their muskets, James saved them with an ingenious idea. Use the paper from their hymnals. Sadly though, his resourcefulness couldn't shield him from the worst of the war. On February 25th of 1779, Caldwell's home was burned to the ground by the British. He moved his

family around after that from Springfield to the town of Connecticut Farms, which is now known as Union, New Jersey. And from there, the fighting parson joined the army at Jockey Hollow. And yet, no matter how far he moved his wife and children, the fighting followed close behind. It would seem that James and his family just couldn't catch a break. In the summer of 1780, British troops made their way to Connecticut farms. Once James got word that the enemy was en route, he loaded his elder children into a wagon and sent them to stay with friends nearby. But the others would not escape. Hannah and three of their younger kids, as well as their nurse and a young girl the Caldwell family

had taken in, all stayed back at the house. On June 7th, Hannah had just retired to her bedroom with their eight-month-old infant in her arms when the alarm was raised that British soldiers were afoot. A reportedly squat soldier wearing a red coat stepped into their yard just as Hannah gave the baby to the nurse. He walked up to the window, calmly aimed his weapon, and fired two musket balls into Hannah's chest, killing her instantly. Now historians are divided as to why she was shot. Some say that the soldier had mistaken her for a sniper, while others believe her murder

was retaliation for what her husband had been doing during the war. Time has erased any chance we might have of finding the answer, but the pain of that loss would never go away. Hannah's body was removed from the home before it was burned down, and she was buried shortly after. James Caldwell survived for another 17 months until, on November 24th of 1781, he too was killed. Sadly, despite everything he had gone through, his death was not a heroic one. He simply became just one more of the war's many victims to senseless violence. James, it seems, was shot by an American sentinel over a dispute regarding a package. It was rumored that the man had been bribed by the British to take him

out, but there was no evidence of this claim. Still, the perpetrator was tried, convicted, and hanged for his crime. Meanwhile, the Caldwell's Parsonage in Connecticut Farms was rebuilt in 1782. It was constructed right over the foundation of the original structure, with the hope that even though the Caldwell family was gone, a new family could breathe life into it once again. But no matter how many new lives blossomed under that roof, the old ghosts never left. In fact, the large colonial home is said to be haunted by the spirit of poor Hannah Caldwell. Paranormal investigators have heard bizarre sounds and reported strong electronic voice phenomenon.

Their cameras have captured shadows moving through the rooms, as well as balls of light that have been used as evidence of restless spirits residing within the house. And they have even asked those spirits specific questions that have led them to believe that the largest presence in the house is, in fact, Hannah. Guests who have attended events at the Parsonage have felt rooms suddenly change in temperature without warning. They've also reportedly felt feelings of nausea and dizziness while walking throughout the house, along with the sensation of being pushed as they descend the stairs.

Looking back, it's clear to say that Hannah was dealt an unfair hand. Living through a war, separated from her loving husband, and dying without knowing if her children would all survive. It was all unbelievably traumatic. If her spirit truly is wandering the halls of the Caldwell Parsonage, I don't think anyone could blame her. Perhaps she's searching for her family or maybe just lamenting the home she lost.

But as tragic as the Caldwell's fate turned out to be, they were just one family out of thousands that had to suffer through the war, and their parsonage house is only one of many that still has souls wandering its halls. It seems that no one was safe. Not even those who abstained from fighting were safe from meeting a bloody end. A little over 100 miles south of the Caldwell home is Salem County, just across the Delaware River from Wilmington. And it's there where the Hancocks, a prominent Quaker family, built a home for themselves that has lasted for more than two and a half centuries.

But they made much more than just a house. They also built themselves a legacy, one that has been stained by blood since the Revolution. The home was constructed in 1734 by William Hancock and his wife, Sarah. But during the Revolution, it was owned by their son William Hancock Jr., who served in the Colonial Assembly and as a judge of the County Court for Salem County. And in September of 1776, William Jr. accepted a commission to be a county judge for the newly formed state of New Jersey. Now, as a Quaker, William was a pacifist.

In keeping with his deeply held personal beliefs about violence, he did not enlist in the fight in the revolution. But even though he abstained from the war, it wouldn't matter in the end because the war was coming to his front doorstep. In the winter of 1777 into 1778, George Washington's army and the British troops

were both encamped in snowy Pennsylvania, exposed to the elements and starving without proper food or supplies. George Washington's army and the British troops were both encamped in snowy Pennsylvania, exposed to the elements and starving without proper food or supplies. With no relief in sight, each army set out on foraging missions in search of, well, anything really. They had gone without food for too long, any longer and they'd all be done for. And as we all know, desperate people do terrible things. And so in March of 1778, the British marched on Salem County, New Jersey.

1500 soldiers occupied the town, confiscating cattle, hay, and corn from the people living there. They had found sustenance, but they also found the wrath of the local militia. Local colonists managed to thwart the British plans to overtake Quinton's Bridge, one of several key bridges in the county. This loss angered the Redcoats, and the people of Salem noticed.

They decided the best course of action to protect their town from further attack was to damage the bridge and keep the British at bay. Twenty militiamen took up the task of rendering the bridge uncrossable. When they were done, they were treated to the Hancock House to rest. Meanwhile, on the other side of the creek, a group of loyalist troops decided enough was enough. Joined by 30 British soldiers, they all took boats across the creek and marched under the cover of darkness to the Hancock House. They were told, go, spare no one, put all to death, give no quarter.

On the morning of March 21st of 1778, around five o'clock that morning, the loyalist and British troops surrounded the Hancock house. Bursting in through the front and back doors, they attacked the men in their sleep. The militiamen, caught by surprise, were quickly struck down by bayonets. They didn't manage to get a single shot in before they were all killed. The day after the attack, the massacre was described by Colonel Elijah Hand as a killing, and I quote, "...in the most cruel manner in cold blood, men who were taken by surprise,

in a situation in which they neither could nor did attempt to make any resistance." How many men were slaughtered is up for debate, with a number ranging from 10 to 30, and despite their best efforts to kill them all, a few did survive, but among those who were killed was Judge William Hancock Jr. And considering the Hancock House's tragic history of bloodshed, it's no surprise that it's been named the most haunted house in New Jersey. Apparitions of slain Revolutionary War soldiers have been spotted patrolling the grounds of the property, while blood-curdling screams have been heard by visitors, echoes of the militia men who were brutally slain in the night. The attic is also the site of

significant paranormal activity, no doubt due to the blood-stained floorboards from local soldiers who had been brought upstairs to recuperate. Visitors to the attic have felt the presence of a, quote, very discernible line of energy that they did not want to cross, and some have spotted movement out of the corners of their eyes, right around the section of the attic containing the blood stains. Many people believe this to be the ghost of Sarah Hancock, the house's original mistress. Others have sensed the presence of an elusive male spirit inside the home, which is believed to be Judge Hancock, or possibly one of the men brutally butchered on that fateful night.

War, you see, doesn't discriminate between the peacemakers and the killers. Between Quakers or the Generals. It came for everyone. And in the end, many wound up as little more than tragic players in a brutal moment in our nation's history. It's like something straight out of a James Bond film, if James Bond had lived through the revolution, that is. The Seabrook Wilson House is a solitary home nestled along the Sandy Hook Bay of Middletown,

New Jersey. It was built in 1720 by Daniel Seabrook on the 200 acres or so of land that he purchased from his stepfather in 1696. It started out small, just a one and a half room cabin, but it eventually grew into a multiple story house that sits there today. Over time, the property passed into the hands of Daniel's son Thomas. He held a few different positions within the community, such as the overseer of highways, the overseer of the poor.

But when the American Revolution broke out, Thomas and his son Stephen took up arms against the British. And his house, the house that he and his wife Martha had raised their six children in, well, it became part of the Patriot Spy Network, something that led to its super creative nickname, the Spy House. The real benefit of the Spy House was that it was in the perfect location. You see, during the war, the British had taken over both Sandy Hook, New Jersey and New York City, giving them control of the surrounding waters. So the Seabrook House provided patriots with a great spot from which to watch British ships sailing in and out of New York Harbor.

And whatever information they gleaned from their observations, they gave to General Washington himself. Following Thomas's death in 1805, the property passed through multiple members of the Seabrook family until 1850, when the home was sold to Reverend William V. Wilson and his wife, Martha. From then on, it was referred to as the Seabrook Wilson House. And over the next 100 years,

it went through a number of changes. Between 1900 and 1950 it was used as a boarding house, an inn, a restaurant, and a beachfront resort until it became vacant in the 1950s. Then in 1967, when the house was about to be torn down, the town purchased it and saved it from destruction. The property was restored and converted into the Shoal Harbor Maritime Museum around the time of the US Bicentennial. But for as dead as museums can be, there was one woman there who continuously managed to inject a bit of life into the home. Or shall I say, afterlife. Her name was Gertrude Niedlinger and she would give tours to visitors telling them all about the home's daring history as a spy house.

But Gertrude did more than just tell stories about revolutionary intelligence tactics. She also told everyone about the ghosts. The Hancock House might be the most haunted house in New Jersey, but depending on who you ask, the Seabrook Wilson Spy House is considered by some to be the most haunted house in America. Over the years, a number of paranormal investigations have been conducted on the property, which have led some to believe that there are spirits roaming its halls. Visitors have reported hearing screams or feeling the sensation of being choked while

they visit the basement. Some have seen a rocking chair move on its own, while others have reported seeing children in historical outfits playing in the front yard. Perhaps most odd of all, visitors have seen the specter of a man who enjoys pinching women's rear ends. And, if I'm being honest, that sounds scarier than any of the other ghost stories we've discussed so far. One man said that he saw a woman dressed in colonial-era garb wandering around the house

during his tour, but none of his friends saw her. When he asked Gertrude about any of the employees who might be in costume, she told him that there were none. He had been seeing a spirit. But the house's most famous resident is Abigail. According to one legend, the ghost of a woman named Abigail can be seen looking out the easternmost window of the second floor. Clad in a long black skirt with a red blouse, a cap, and her hair pulled back with a black bow,

she gazes out on the water, looking for her husband, who was allegedly lost at sea. According to one story, a visitor to the house witnessed a ghost that matched Abigail's description standing not inside the home, but on the shore instead, with a troubled look on her face. Upon their approach, this woman did not move, so the visitors turned around and walked back to their car. When they got there, they turned back for one last glance, only to discover that the woman was gone. She had vanished into thin air.

New Jersey was central to it all, geographically and militarily speaking, of course. Tucked right into the heart of the action, it's easy to see how so many families and their homes could become tangled up in the tragic mess the revolution left behind. And of course, generate rumors of ghosts. Stories about hauntings are always a little touchy. They require the listener to suspend their disbelief, and ideally, to trust the storyteller completely. Only then can anyone really give in to that spine-tingling sensation that's brought on by the thought of, what if there's more to this place than meets the eyes? And to be honest, it's a lot easier to believe in ghosts inside old houses where war and

tragedy once came knocking at the front door. But what happens when the historical record contradicts the lore? Well, that's a question that folklorists have been wrestling with for some time now. I doubt I can answer it for you today, but I can give you an example of what I'm talking about. At the Spy House, one of the more famous ghost stories is that of Penelope Stout. Penelope and her husband John traveled from Holland

to America in 1622, but before arriving in New York City, their ship wrecked near Sandy Hook. John sadly was unable to keep going, as he was either too sick or too injured from the accident. So they stayed behind while the rest of their party moved deeper into America. While stranded in Sandy Hook, the couple was discovered by a group of Native Americans

who killed John and wounded Penelope, leaving her to die. In the story, Penelope was injured and left to languish alone until her death. In reality, the Lenape chief nearby took her in and helped her recover from her wounds. She went on to marry a man named Richard Stout and gave birth to at least 10 children. It's an old legend, one that started being passed around in the 1760s, a few decades after Penelope's death. But here's the catch. Neither Penelope nor her deceased husband, John, had anything to do with the Seabrook Wilson House.

They never lived there. Yet oddly, Gertrude, our infamous tour guide, claimed to have seen the spirit of a woman who was gravely injured, she said, who she claimed was Penelope. When you dig deep enough, you'll discover that many of the ghosts that this creative tour guide has claimed to identify never actually lived in that house, or even, as far as we can tell, worked at the spy house. So, are the tales of supernatural sightings true? Are just the work of an imaginative woman trying to make a historic house a little more exciting. We may never know for sure, as Gertrude herself has since passed on,

although perhaps it's worth paying the house a visit to see if her spirit is up for a little chat. The Revolutionary War was easily the most formative event in America's history, but it's left scars on the land that we can still see, and sometimes even hear to this day. So get your fife and drum ready, my friends, because I have one last tale to tell you. Stick around through this brief sponsor break to hear all about it. This episode of Laura was made possible by Quince. It might not surprise you to learn

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Just visit simplysafe.com slash lore. That's simplysafe.com slash lore. There's no safe like Simply Safe. The hardest part of the war was not the battles. It was the cold. In Morristown, New Jersey, there's a 1200-acre plot of land that's now part of Morristown National Historic Park. It's known as Jockey Hollow. But before it was run by the National Park Service,

that land was owned by a man named Henry Wick in the mid 1700s. Now, Wick had a farmhouse there that was surrounded by trees. And during the winter of 1779, George Washington happened upon this hidden farm and realized that it would make a perfect spot for his troops to set up camp. With so much lumber,

they were able to build cabins for themselves and have plenty of wood left over for cooking and keeping warm. That winter, you see, had been particularly brutal. It's believed to have been one of the coldest winters in modern American history, and Washington's troops were out there facing it all with diseased lungs, ragged uniforms, and dwindling morale. By the time the men arrived at Wick's Farm in November of that year, there was already a foot of snow on the ground. Somewhere between 10,000 to 16,000 soldiers took refuge in the woods there and then went

on to chop down more than 600 acres of trees, which they used to build over 200 huts. Over the next several months, the army endured 28 separate snow storms, six of which were blizzards. The worst ones dropped as much as four feet of snow at once, and the snow drifts could get as high as 15 feet. There was only one recorded day during their stay there when the temperatures actually got above freezing. Lieutenant Colonel Ebenezer Huntington wrote that, and I quote,

The men suffered much without shoes and stockings and working half-leg deep in snow. And as you'd imagine, with conditions like this, food was in short supply and many soldiers starved to death if they didn't freeze first. One 19-year-old boy attested, I did not put a single morsel of Vixules into my mouth for four days and as many nights,

except a little black birch bark that I gnawed off a stick of wood, if that can be called victuals. I saw several of the men roast their old shoes and eat them, and I was afterwards informed by one of the officer's waiters that some of the officers killed and ate a favorite little dog that belonged to them.

Then, as if things couldn't get any worse, a smallpox outbreak tore through the camp. Conditions became so bad that hundreds of men deserted and many more threatened mutiny. Honestly, the depth of their suffering cannot be overstated. And even to this day, it's left a mark on the land, because over the years, jockey-hollow visitors have reported a significant amount of paranormal activity. For example, a group of colonial soldiers has been seen marching through the forest, while others have spotted the shadowy outlines of strange, non-human beings lingering near

the huts. And in one prominent story, one night a group of Revolutionary War reenactors stayed overnight in one of the replica huts. These eight members of their troop wanted to see what it was like for the people who actually lived there. And they got lucky too, because their experience came with surround sound. Late in the night, one of the members of the group was on her way back from visiting the facilities when she heard the sound of a fife and drum, as if they were being played right

beside her. And yet there was no one else around, and no one in her group had a fife and drum, as if they were being played right beside her. And yet there was no one else around, and no one in her group had a fife or a drum as part of their gear. Other visitors have reported seeing a woman in a long white colonial-era dress and carrying a lantern. Others have seen the ghost of a little brown dog, the very one, they say, that the soldiers were forced to eat to stay alive through the winter. This ghostly pup has been seen chasing stray cats on the property before vanishing into thin air.

Jockey Hollow is vital to the story of the United States. You could argue that without it, our troops may never have survived long enough to win the war and win our independence. It's almost fitting that late at night when light has faded and the cold sets in, the ghosts of those fallen soldiers reappear, a reminder of the sacrifice they made. This episode of Lore Legends was produced by me, Aaron Manke, with writing by Harry Marks, editing by Alex Robinson, and research by Jamie Vargas. Don't like hearing the ads? I've got a solution for you.

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