BY EMERSON LAYNE

Deep within the cedar trees of the Pine Barrens in New Jersey, past the foggy mists, the winding trails, and the orchids, lives the Jersey Devil. An abomination of all sorts, born from a cursed mother in the early 1700’s as the tale goes, the Jersey Devil has plagued the minds of the locals. Destroying crops, spoiling the milk of cows, boiling rivers, who could birth such a being? 

According to popular urban legend, a Quaker woman living in New Jersey, named Mother Leeds or Jane Leeds, upon learning she was expecting a thirteenth child, cursed it, stating “Let it be the Devil!”. Then on a stormy night in 1735, Leeds gave birth to the Jersey Devil, soon after the creature escaped the household and flew into the local woods, the Pine Barrens. Other legends vary on how Leeds was cursed to birth the Jersey Devil, one having Leeds cursed by a Gypsy or cursed by townsfolk when Leeds was having an affair with a British soldier. In some other accounts, Leeds was thought to be a sorceress or a witch, who was cursed to birth the Devil’s child. But, it remained the same across all legends, Leeds was cursed to birth the Jersey Devil.

While it varies on the size of the Jersey Devil, it is stated that the Jersey Devil has a face of a horse, head of a dog, wings of a bat, horns similar to a goats, a spiked tail, and hooves. While many of the sightings were reported by townsfolk, some were reported by government officials and police officers of New Jersey. In one account, a group of police officers report seeing tracks in the snow to which they claim to be the Jersey Devil. In another legend, Commodore Stephen Decatur, a naval hero in the early 19th century, shot the Jersey Devil while on a visit to the Hanover Mill Works, to which the shot had no effect on the Jersey Devil. 

Over the next two and a half centuries, many droughts, failed crops, and loss of livestock was blamed on the Jersey Devil in the region. It is also believed that the Jersey Devil was a bad omen for war or disaster. The Jersey Devil is reported to have been seen in other states including Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. Scientific professors were sent to New Jersey to investigate the Jersey Devil. Some theories thought the Jersey Devil might have been a prehistoric dinosaur that survived in a local cave or an undiscovered animal on the brink of extinction. Superintendent of the Philadelphia Zoo, Robert D. Carson, set a bounty of $10,000 for the capture of the Jersey Devil. To this day the bounty remains uncollected. 

In the modern day, scientists believe that the Jersey Devil could have been a misidentified sandhill crane or another large bird. Folklorists believe that the Jersey Devil was a legend that represents anti-war messages, since the American Revolution took place during the prime of Jersey Devil sightings, or the Jersey Devil was created to be a scapegoat during hardship, like Pandora releasing evil from Pandora’s Box or Eve from the Bible who was blamed for Adam and Eve being exiled from paradise. Historians state that, most likely, the Jersey Devil was created as a political characterization of Daniel Leeds. Leeds created almanacs, which was caught into controversy with the religious Quaker community Leeds was a part of, due to the astrological elements Leeds incorporated in his almanacs. Leeds and even his son, Titan Leeds, was accused of working with the Devil. After Danial Leeds’ death, Titan Leeds continued creating almanacs, which brandished a wyvern, a dragon-like creature. Historians assumed that the occultist and devil worshipping reputation that the religious Quaker community smeared on the Leeds family created the legend of the Jersey Devil, or what it was originally known as the Leeds Devil. 

The Jersey Devil is commonly known in the paranormal and cryptozoology communities. The Jersey Devil even has its own annual festival in New Jersey. New Jersey’s hockey team, the New Jersey Devils, bases their mascot and name off the Jersey Devil. It’s interesting to see a creature being feared and revered in an early period of the US, to now being celebrated and well liked in the modern day, an icon of sorts.