by Muriel J. Smith
Ah, the Jersey Devil . . . those who dare say it’s simply
a legend, folklore, a made-up story. But there are so
many more who can spin fascinating tales about Mother
Leeds’s thirteenth child!
Mother Leeds lived in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey
in the mid-1700s and had a dozen children. When she
discovered her thirteenth pregnancy, she screamed, cried
and prophesied the child would be the Devil himself. It
was a stormy night when Mother Leeds went into labor,
and it is said the child was born looking normal. But the
infant suddenly changed into a creature, alternatively
described as one with a goat’s head, bat wings, a forked
tail, clawed hands and hooves. The creature reportedly
killed the midwife, then flew up the chimney amid bloodcurdling
screams to live his life in the Pine Barrens and
killing local children who wandered into what is now the
Leeds Point portion of Atlantic County.
Some say Mother Leeds was really a woman named
Deborah, married to Japhet Leeds, who, in a will written
in 1736, left his estate to his twelve children and lived at
Leeds Point.
It was Benjamin Franklin himself who first called the
Jersey Devil a monster. His rival in the almanac publishing
business was none other than Daniel Leeds, a man who
had three wives and nine children in his lifetime. As a
businessman with strong ties and allegiance to the British
crown, Leeds and anything to do with him were indeed
“monsters” to the American patriot Dr. Franklin.
Truth or fiction, many have sworn to the credibility of
the Jersey Devil. He was spotted over the Hanover Mill
34 www.sparkexploreocean.com
Works as a flying creature flapping its wings that even a
cannonball fired directly at him couldn’t stop. Napoleon’s
brother, Joseph Boneparte, attested to the fact he was
hunting on his Bordentown estate when he saw the Devil.
Farmers complained the devil was responsible for killing
livestock; one farmer said an unknown animal with red
eyes tried to steal his chickens. City residents in Haddon
Heights swore a creature attacked a trolley car; police
responded and shot at the creature, but had no effect.
Footprints in the snow have been attributed to the Devil,
and schools closed and factories shut down rather than
risk an encounter with the wild creature that could not be
controlled. As late as the 1960s, stories were so rampant
that merchants in Camden offered a $10,000 reward and
offered to build a private zoo to house the Jersey Devil,
should he be found and captured.
Could the Jersey Devil be real? An undiscovered
creature? There are those who believe that as well. Could
it be possible that a yet unknown species could live and
thrive in the Pine Barrens, an area isolated, uninviting and
spacious? If it does exist, into which classification does it
fall . . . a mammal like a huge bat? An avian like the Blue
Heron? A mammal like the kangaroo it has been reported
to resemble? Perhaps even a dinosaur? Or could it be a
creature unlike anything else . . . part mammalian, part
avian and part reptilian? Are there any who dare venture
into the inhospitable depths of the Pine Barrens to get the
truth? And if they do, will they return to share the news
with the rest of the world? Are there any so bold they
would take the risk for the sake of truth? Or will the threecentury
old Jersey Devil continue to remain New Jersey’s
own mystery?
The Legend of
the Jersey Devil
Photo by Colleen Leslie
/www.sparkexploreocean.com
