Jonathan Sims (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
intheeyeofthebeholding) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomhigh2025-11-10 09:30 am
intheeyeofthebeholding) wrote in fandomhigh2025-11-10 09:30 am
Entry tags:
Cryptozoology, Monday period 2
"The Jersey Devil," Jon began. He put up an image. "Said to live in New Jersey, not Jersey the island. I have no idea why it isn't the New Jersey Devil." Look, at least it wasn't Pope Lick.
"To be clear, recently the name has been applied to virtually every cryptid sighted anywhere near the area of New Jersey, but we'll be confining ourselves to the original. Legends of it date to the 1700s, and unlike many cryptids, it has a specific stated origin, even if it is rather fanciful. It's said that around the time of the American Revolutionary War, a woman named Jane Leeds, often called Mother Leeds, fell in love with a British soldier, and was cursed for the temerity. More about that later." He shook his head.
"They had twelve children - which is insane, but to be fair was considered a bit less so in those days - by which point she was unsurprisingly exhausted and ready to stop, but apparently not ready to stop having sex, because she got pregnant again. Angry at this and not willing to take at least partial blame herself, she 'cursed the child in her womb, saying that it would be the devil'. Which, again, is not precisely how Christianity works. In any event, when she gave birth, the child was born normally, but then began to change. It sprouted horns, its face turned into that of a goat or horse, its hands became claws, and its feet turned into hooves. It grew wings, fur, and feathers, and a forked tail and started growing larger very quickly. Its eyes glowed red.
"When the transformation was complete, it killed the midwife and a lot of the family and friends present for the birth. Some accounts say everybody but its parents. Then it flew up the chimney and made its home in the woods, where it still lives today. It is said to have a 'saddening and terrifying' scream."
He couldn't help but think he'd scream, too, if that were how he'd been born.
"One of the earliest actual sightings of the Devil was reported by a man named Stephen Decatur, a war hero of the United States, in 1778. He says he visited the Hanover Iron Works in the area of New Jersey the creature is reputed to frequent, to test cannonballs at a firing range. He saw a creature he couldn't identify flying over the field, so naturally did what any responsible person would and used a cannon to shoot it." Because people were idiots. "He blew a hole in its wing, but it didn't seem to care. Which is very likely the best thing he could have hoped for. Honestly, what was he thinking? He could have killed someone, or made the monster angry enough to kill him, and..." He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"It is confirmed that he was at the ironworks. Other bystanders corroborated his account, which lends some credibility. However, he was known to be friends with a cryptid hunter who was also there, and it is speculated they went there specifically to hunt the creature, and may or may not have made up the encounter."
Which didn't make him less of an idiot for trying to shoot it with a cannon.
"The next account of note comes in 1820 from Joseph Bonaparte, who owned land in New Jersey. He was hunting - either something else or the creature itself - and found it. That's actually all we have of that one. He said he saw it. Likely nobody would even have taken note of it if he hadn't had been the brother of the sometime French emperor. A few decades later, there were reports of horrendous screams in the woods, along with livestock killings that were blamed on the creature. Then nothing until the 1870s, when there were several reported sightings, although no known concurrent livestock deaths. We don't hear much about it for another few decades." He shrugged.
"Then came January 1909, when there were claims of having viewed it all across the state. It was spotted flying over one town, its tracks were found near another, and it was said to have attacked a trolley car and been chased off. Chickens were killed and attributed to it. It was said to have run into electrical wires and been shot and wounded, and to have attacked another person's dog an wounded it.
Naturally all this led to a bit of panic, even closing schools and businesses. In Philadelphia - which is not in New Jersey, but not far away - the zoo offered a reward of ten thousand dollars for dung from the creature."
He shook his head. "Despite them not even asking for the creature itself, this led to quite a few hoaxes, including a kangaroo someone gave wings." What was it with people and kangaroos?
"And that is all the evidence we have of it to date. As far as the story of its beginning, it is worth noting that the Leeds family of the time was strongly at odds with its neighbors, as they were Royalists and the patriarch published an almanac that included astrology, which got him accused of occultism. Said almanac was also at odds with Benjamin Franklin's, which went so far as to predict the death of the Leeds owner, and then, when he protested, say that they couldn't expect better from a ghost. And the Leeds' family crest included a wyvern. Which is a dragon-like creature with claws, wings, and a tail." He spread his hands. "So the entire thing may have started as a dig at the family."
"To be clear, recently the name has been applied to virtually every cryptid sighted anywhere near the area of New Jersey, but we'll be confining ourselves to the original. Legends of it date to the 1700s, and unlike many cryptids, it has a specific stated origin, even if it is rather fanciful. It's said that around the time of the American Revolutionary War, a woman named Jane Leeds, often called Mother Leeds, fell in love with a British soldier, and was cursed for the temerity. More about that later." He shook his head.
"They had twelve children - which is insane, but to be fair was considered a bit less so in those days - by which point she was unsurprisingly exhausted and ready to stop, but apparently not ready to stop having sex, because she got pregnant again. Angry at this and not willing to take at least partial blame herself, she 'cursed the child in her womb, saying that it would be the devil'. Which, again, is not precisely how Christianity works. In any event, when she gave birth, the child was born normally, but then began to change. It sprouted horns, its face turned into that of a goat or horse, its hands became claws, and its feet turned into hooves. It grew wings, fur, and feathers, and a forked tail and started growing larger very quickly. Its eyes glowed red.
"When the transformation was complete, it killed the midwife and a lot of the family and friends present for the birth. Some accounts say everybody but its parents. Then it flew up the chimney and made its home in the woods, where it still lives today. It is said to have a 'saddening and terrifying' scream."
He couldn't help but think he'd scream, too, if that were how he'd been born.
"One of the earliest actual sightings of the Devil was reported by a man named Stephen Decatur, a war hero of the United States, in 1778. He says he visited the Hanover Iron Works in the area of New Jersey the creature is reputed to frequent, to test cannonballs at a firing range. He saw a creature he couldn't identify flying over the field, so naturally did what any responsible person would and used a cannon to shoot it." Because people were idiots. "He blew a hole in its wing, but it didn't seem to care. Which is very likely the best thing he could have hoped for. Honestly, what was he thinking? He could have killed someone, or made the monster angry enough to kill him, and..." He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"It is confirmed that he was at the ironworks. Other bystanders corroborated his account, which lends some credibility. However, he was known to be friends with a cryptid hunter who was also there, and it is speculated they went there specifically to hunt the creature, and may or may not have made up the encounter."
Which didn't make him less of an idiot for trying to shoot it with a cannon.
"The next account of note comes in 1820 from Joseph Bonaparte, who owned land in New Jersey. He was hunting - either something else or the creature itself - and found it. That's actually all we have of that one. He said he saw it. Likely nobody would even have taken note of it if he hadn't had been the brother of the sometime French emperor. A few decades later, there were reports of horrendous screams in the woods, along with livestock killings that were blamed on the creature. Then nothing until the 1870s, when there were several reported sightings, although no known concurrent livestock deaths. We don't hear much about it for another few decades." He shrugged.
"Then came January 1909, when there were claims of having viewed it all across the state. It was spotted flying over one town, its tracks were found near another, and it was said to have attacked a trolley car and been chased off. Chickens were killed and attributed to it. It was said to have run into electrical wires and been shot and wounded, and to have attacked another person's dog an wounded it.
Naturally all this led to a bit of panic, even closing schools and businesses. In Philadelphia - which is not in New Jersey, but not far away - the zoo offered a reward of ten thousand dollars for dung from the creature."
He shook his head. "Despite them not even asking for the creature itself, this led to quite a few hoaxes, including a kangaroo someone gave wings." What was it with people and kangaroos?
"And that is all the evidence we have of it to date. As far as the story of its beginning, it is worth noting that the Leeds family of the time was strongly at odds with its neighbors, as they were Royalists and the patriarch published an almanac that included astrology, which got him accused of occultism. Said almanac was also at odds with Benjamin Franklin's, which went so far as to predict the death of the Leeds owner, and then, when he protested, say that they couldn't expect better from a ghost. And the Leeds' family crest included a wyvern. Which is a dragon-like creature with claws, wings, and a tail." He spread his hands. "So the entire thing may have started as a dig at the family."
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