Jersey Devil
A creature of New Jersey folklore whose supposed hoofprints in the snow set off a scare across three states in the winter of 1909.
Meaning
In January 1909 the Evening Journal of Wilmington, Delaware, reported that stories about the "Jersey Devil", also called the "Jobberwock", were causing a furore in three states; the paper itself thought them as far from the truth as the Jobberwock was from Wilmington. The stories had raised attendance at church revival meetings, it said, and supposed tracks of the creature were seen in the town that morning.
Origin and history
The sightings went on into the spring. On 31 March the same paper printed a report from Seaford, Delaware, where five young men said they had seen a creature about two feet tall, with large hoofed feet and a head like a dog's, which fled into the Nanticoke River. They had seen a play called "The Jersey Devil" at the town's opera house the evening before.
That December a carcass found in the woods near Kinkora was put on show as proof, a paper said, "that the scare was never due to highballs" (The Topeka State Journal, 15 December 1909).
The Leeds story
The New Jersey Historical Society gives several versions of how a Mrs. Leeds came to bear the devil: that on finding she was pregnant with her 13th child she said “may it be a devil”; that a clergyman who had failed to convert her from the Quaker faith told her that her next child would be Satan’s; or that the child was born a monster, cared for until her death, and then flew off into the swamps. The Society suggests she may have had a child with a birth defect, which the superstitions of the 1700s turned into a devil. The creature has also been called the Hoodle-Doodle Bird, the Wozzle Bug and the Leeds Devil.
The 1909 footprints
The best-known sightings, the Society says, began in January 1909, when Councilman E. P. Weeden of Trenton said he was woken by flapping wings outside his bedroom window and found cloven footprints in the snow. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people claimed to have seen the devil within a week or so, in Pennsylvania and Delaware as well as New Jersey.
Read next
- Next in Cryptids and folklore creaturesSnallygasterA part-bird, part-beast monster of Maryland newspaper tall tales, said to live in a cave on Sugar Loaf Mountain.
- The same shape in Taíno symbolsTurtleIn a Taíno story Ramón Pané recorded in the 1490s, a live female turtle came out of a swelling on the back of Caracaracol, one of four brothers born together, and the brothers built their house and cared for her. Turtles are carved on Taíno seats and stones.
See also
Kraken, Sea serpent, Loch Ness Monster, Champ (Lake Champlain monster), Bigfoot (Sasquatch), Yeti (Abominable Snowman).
Sources
- Evening Journal (Wilmington, Del.), 23 January 1909, Evening Journal, 23 January 1909, page 1, Library of Congress, Chronicling America, page 1; page 1 (continued)
- Evening Journal (Wilmington, Del.), 31 March 1909, Evening Journal, 31 March 1909, page 3, Library of Congress, Chronicling America, page 3
- The Topeka State Journal (Topeka, Kan.), 15 December 1909, The Topeka State Journal, 15 December 1909, page 7, Library of Congress, Chronicling America, page 7
- Legend of the New Jersey Devil (New Jersey Historical Society), Grace-Ellen McCrann, 26 October 2000, New Jersey Historical Society
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols formed from curves and waves.
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 9, 2026. How we research
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