newjer

Howell Township

Pine Barrens

The Jersey Devil

Jane Leeds, her husband, and their children in the early 1700s lived in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey. In 1735 when Mother Leeds found she
was pregnant with their 13th child, the news wasn't so much a blessing as it was a curse. Exasperated by the thought of yet another mouth to
feed, Mother Leeds was heard to say, "I wish this child be born a devil!"

Jane Leeds' pregnancy neared an end, and one stormy night a midwife was summoned to the house to deliver the family's 13th child. The birth
appeared to be normal, and Mother Leeds had a new baby boy. But then strange things started to happen. The infant began to change before
their eyes. He grew a serpent's tail and horns on his head. His pudgy round face changed into a grotesque horse's head and his eyes turned red
like hot coals. Bat wings sprouted from his back and he grew thick black fur. The beast drew back one of his razor-sharp claws and cut open the
throat of the midwife. As the woman bled to death, the beast let out a blood-curdling screech and flew up the chimney. The creature disappeared
into the Pine Barrens.

Others say the Jersey Devil was born in Pleasantville, Evesham or another South Jersey town. That story says the Jersey Devil was born after
Mother Leeds was raped by a pirate, or after she had a brief alliance with the devil himself. Descendants of the Leeds family will tell you that the
Jersey Devil was conceived by the Shourds family of Leeds Point. The Shourds will tell you the Leeds did the deed. In the 260-plus years since
his birth, people as far west as Philadelphia and as far north as New York have spotted the Jersey Devil, but the Pine Barrons is the Devil's true
lair. The wooded part of the state roughly south from Freehold to Millville, and east of the Turnpike to old Route 9 have yielded the most frequent
and frightening encounters with the Jersey Devil. He's been blamed for everything from dead cattle, spooked horses, to soured milk and failed
crops. Some say the Jersey Devil has even feasted on sleeping children.

Those who say they've seen the devil will tell you they "saw a

serpentine figure flying across the sky" or "heard a piercing

shriek that made their blood run cold." During a week in

January 1909, the Jersey Devil was spotted in at least 20

different towns. The non-believers say Jane Leeds likely gave

birth to a deformed child, and in those days mothers of

deformed children were thought to be witches. The Leeds

probably locked the child in the attic to keep him from view,

but one day he escaped and was seen by some neighbors

before slipping into the Pine Barrens and likely died. The

gangly, winged creature people mistake for the Jersey Devil

is the sand hill crane, which also has a shrill call. Case closed

skeptics say. Fearing ridicule from outsiders, old-timers from

the Pinelands keep their tales of the Jersey Devil to themselves.

Sighting in the Pine Barrens reached a peak in 1975 to 76.

According to writer Henry Charlton Beck: "Where stunted

pines of burned-over forest are revealed in darksome

pools, the Jersey Devil lerks."

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