Lou’s View

By Lou Bernard

I like writing about local history—The buildings, the people, the cemeteries, the interesting incidents that have happened. But once in a while, I like a dose of genuine weirdness. Something strange and unexplainable.
The Jersey Devil fits that description.

If you’re not familiar with the Jersey Devil, it’s sort of the official New Jersey state cryptid. Stories of this thing go back about three hundred years, and it’s said to look kind of like a kangaroo, with wings, hooves, claws, and fangs. It’s been spotted flying around the Pine Barrens of New Jersey. Even Benjamin Franklin wrote about the Jersey Devil, at certain times implying that it was a relative of his political opponents.

You may now be wondering how it is I’m writing about the Jersey Devil, when my column is preferably about Clinton County, Pennsylvania. As it turns out, I’ve discovered that there’s very little that I can’t relate to Clinton County—Most things seem to have a connection to this place. And this month is a hundred and fifteen years since our connection to the Jersey Devil happened.

In early 1909, the Jersey Devil visited Lock Haven.

It was January 30th when E.W. Rogers, a night watchman at the paper mill, saw the Jersey Devil for the first time. At 12:20 AM, he saw something flying over the mill’s office building, and was able to get a better look as it flew closer. This was exciting enough that the local newspapers were reporting on it almost immediately, first thing in the morning.

“He describes it as having a long neck, large head with fiery eyes; has two legs about three feet in length and a forked tail about five feet long,” the article said. “It appears to be about ten feet long from its head to the tip of its tail and is an unsightly creature that would frighten most any person.”

This was a pretty big statement in a county that was already known for the Giwoggle, a sort of wolf-bird-horse hybrid from Keating Township. In fact, Giwoggle sightings were happening at the same time, on Vesper Street and in Dunnstown. Honestly, I love the idea of a Jersey Devil/Giwoggle team-up.

The same night, Charles Poorman heard a sound on his roof at 316 North Grove Street, and went outside to investigate. He claimed to have seen the Jersey Devil on his roof, and later climbed up a ladder to look at the prints in the snow. Quite a few of his friends and neighbors joined him there, checking the prints that had inexplicably appeared on that rooftop.

The Grove Street sighting was about the most dramatic and well-reported in the community, but there was still more to come. About three AM that Monday, February 1st, a night watchman in Mill Hall spotted the thing in a separate incident. Henry Stricker of the Clinton Fire Brick Works reported a “strange-appearing animal” flying over the main building of the plant. He described it as “having the appearance of a huge bird, with legs like that of an ostrich and hoofs resembling those of a pony.”

The final appearance happened over a week later, on February 10. William Callahan, a trolley conductor, was leaving the power house at dawn when he spotted the Jersey Devil. This was near the paper mill, where, you’ll recall, the first sighting had happened previously. Callahan saw the creature flying over the paper mill, heading east, presumably back toward New Jersey. He said it “had a long neck and a large head and that its wings extended out for about nine feet.”

After that one, no more sightings were reported in Clinton County. The Jersey Devil apparently flew back to New Jersey, where it’s usually sighted. And here in Pennsylvania, we had to go back to our usual selection of cryptids, making do with the Giwoggle, the Susquehanna Seal, and the Sulphur Serpent, which are generally good enough for us.