Pelham's Ghosts, Goblins and Legends by Blake A. Bell

Pelham's Ghosts, Goblins and Legends
by Blake A. Bell

Prepared by Blake A. Bell
Pelham Manor, NY 10803
©2003 Blake A. Bell, All Rights Reserved

Imagine a cold night with a full moon. The wind groans. Leafless, gnarled trees hulk over the lifeless streets of Pelham. Listen creatively. That high-pitched howl takes on a life of its own. Some say it sounds like the war cries of decapitated Indian warriors who carry their own heads during a frightful war dance in Pelham Manor. In the Village of Pelham, unless the shadows are playing tricks, one can glimpse the apparition of an elegant lady dressed in nineteenth century garb. She looks down from the upper window of a lovely old home, still searching for the gold that some say she hid on the property nearly 150 years ago.

Pelham’s rich, recorded history covers nearly four centuries. If one believes the many published accounts that have touched on the subject in the last 350 years, ghosts, goblins and fabled figures have stalked the streets and woods of Pelham. With Halloween here, this article recounts some of the local ghost stories and legends.

The Headless Apparitions of Haunted Cedar Knoll

For nearly 125 years, the story has been told of The Haunted Cedar Knoll of Pelham Manor. The knoll is near the Priory, a fabulous home begun in 1838 by the Reverend Robert Bolton who founded what is now the Parish of Christ the Redeemer. The Priory is on the National Register of Historic Places. Bricks set into the wall of the home that form the date “1838” are said to have been provided and laid by Rev. Bolton’s friend, Washington Irving, the author of that classic account of another headless apparition -- the headless horseman that haunts the pages of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”.

The Priory still stands near the Parish of Christ the Redeemer. The Haunted Cedar Knoll is opposite the Priory, across what is now known as Shore Road, overlooking the Sound. Noted Westchester County Historian Robert Bolton, Jr. first documented the account in 1881, writing that there was:

a current belief in the neighborhood, that the forms of many headless Indians, might be seen on moonlight nights, in a circle, performing a kind of war dance on its summit, with heads in their hands, and that these apparitions still haunted the cedars and surrounding glens and woods. It is more than probable that a severe and sanguinary battle had taken place here, in early times between the Matinecocks of 'Sewanhacky' and the Siwanoy's of 'Laaphawachking' which resulted in the defeat of the latter and their subsequent decapitation. Hence, the headless apparitions of “Cedar Knoll.”

The Elegant Lady of the Old Stone House

The thought of a Haunted Cedar Knoll may send chills up your spine. What about the thought of a Haunted House? The Village of Pelham supposedly has such a home. It is the Old Stone House located at 463 First Avenue. The legend of that lovely Old Stone House is a tale of romance, robbery and riches.

The home was built in the 1850s in what then, of course, was called Pelhamville. On October 15, 1855, a man named James Parrish purchased the home.

As the story goes, James Parrish had a business in which he employed a truckman named Adams. Parrish and Adams supposedly began an express business “as a sideline”. The business did well. When James Parrish died, his wife supposedly received dividend payments from the business paid in gold.

Masked men reportedly robbed Mrs. Parrish. She began to hide the gold she received as dividends somewhere on the property. According to Lockwood Barr’s popular history of Pelham:

it is said that a million dollars in gold is hidden in the house, or buried in the gardens. Search has been made of the house, and grounds excavated, but without result. However, underneath a hearthstone in the basement kitchen, a hundred small coins of early date were found by one of the owners – but no pot of gold.

Some say the ghost of Mrs. Parrish can be seen about the house, even in daylight, dressed in elegant clothes of the period, searching for misplaced gold. There is also a story that a well-known actor who is a descendant of Mrs. Parrish, Edward Everett Horton, once visited the home, heard the ghost stories and said that the descriptions of the apparition resembled a daguerreotype he had seen of one of his great grandmothers.

The Fire Ship of Long Island Sound

Perhaps no ghosts that have prowled the region around Pelham are as frightening as those who man the phantom Fire Ship that some say cruises the Long Island Sound in the vicinity of New Rochelle and Pelham during storms “of peculiarly terrific violence”.

Tradition says that pirates, perhaps led by the infamous Captain Kidd, took the ship and murdered all on board. The ship was set fire and abandoned. Accounts say that a magnificent white horse aboard the ship was “left near the foremast to perish in the flames”. More than 150 years ago, it was written that “in storms of peculiarly terrific violence” the ship “may be seen, rushing along enveloped in fire, the horse stamping and pawing at the heel of the foremast, her phantom crew assembled at quarters.”

Pelham Unicorns

Not all Pelham legends are so fierce and frightening as the tale of the Fire Ship. Many a youngster has dreamed of the fabled unicorn prancing and pawing, its spiral horn gleaming in the center of its forehead. Few likely know that unicorns, some say, have pranced about and pawed the ground of Pelham and its surrounding area.

Nearly 350 years ago, a Dutchman named Adriaen Van der Donck published an account of his experiences and observations in New Netherland. His account included descriptions of strange creatures from the interior of the country that included some of what we now know as lower Westchester County. According to Van der Donck, this area was the home of the fabled unicorn. He wrote:

I have been frequently told by the Mohawk Indians . . . that far in the interior parts of the country there were animals, which were seldom seen, of the size and form of horses, with cloven hoofs, having one horn in the forehead from a foot and a half to two feet in length, and that because of their fleetness and strength they were seldom caught or ensnared. I have never seen any certain token or sign of such animals, but that such creatures exist in the country is supported by the concurrent declarations of the Indian hunters. There are christians who say that they have seen the skins of this species of animal, but without the horns.

The Warning of the Young Indian Girl

Remembering, of course, that this article recounts legends – not historical facts – one particularly quaint story is told of Pelham’s Native American incarnation of Paul Revere. The subject was a young Indian maiden who purportedly ran for miles in the dark on a narrow trail to warn the Americans that the British were coming shortly before the fateful Battle of Pelham during the Revolutionary War on October 18, 1776.

The tale is associated with Pelham Dale, one of Pelham Manor’s two remaining pre-Revolutionary War homes. Pelham Dale, located at 45 Iden Avenue, is on the National Register of Historic Places and has been granted a New York State Historical Marker. According to the legend, on a “cold October night in 1776” – almost exactly 226 years ago – a young Indian maiden who lived on what was then Hunter Island observed British Troops preparing to land on Pell’s Point and “speeded from her home on Hunter Island”, ran along what was known as the Old Trail until she reached what was then called the Stone House by the Bridge, now known as Pelham Dale.

Some say the young maiden pounded on the door of the house until its owner at the time, David J. Pell, appeared. She warned him that the British were landing at Pell’s Point, prompting him to set off in a boat on the Hutchinson River and row to the village of Eastchester to warn American Troops that the British were marching in their direction.

History may say that Colonel John Glover first observed the British and Hessian troops disembarking from their ships with a spy glass from a hill near present-day Memorial Field in Mount Vernon and that he hurried his troop of Continentals forward for a surprise attack from behind the stone walls that lined Split Rock Road. But, with Halloween upon us it somehow seems right, if not accurate, to accept the Pelham Dale legend and imagine a frantic young girl racing through the dark forest on a cold October night frantically trying to warn the struggling Continentals that the British were coming!

Maybe, just maybe, if you stand in the perfect spot at just the right time in the wee hours of the morning each October 18 and you listen very carefully you might hear frantic footsteps passing you. Unless the howl of October winds masks the sound, you probably will hear those footsteps receding faintly in the direction of Pelham Dale.

Blake Bell and his family live in Pelham Manor. Blake serves as Deputy Historian of the Town of Pelham and has been appointed Village Historian of the Village of Pelham. He and his son, Brett, are avid students of the history of Pelham and its surrounding area.

Read More

Lockwood Barr, A Brief, But Most Complete & True Account of the Settlement of the Ancient Town of Pelham Westchester County, State of New York Known One Time Well & Favourably as The Lordshipp & Manour of Pelham Also the Story of the Three Modern Villages Called The Pelhams, pp.135-36 (The Dietz Press 1946).

Robert Bolton, Jr., A History of the County of Westchester, from Its First Settlement to the Present Time, Vol. I., pp. 434-35 n.a (New York: Alexander S. Gould, 1848).

Robert Bolton, Jr., The History of The Several Towns, Manors, and Patents of the County of Westchester, From Its First Settlement to the Present Time Carefully Revised by its Author, Vol. II, p. 37 (C.W. Bolton ed., Chas. F. Roper pub. 1881).

Elizabeth Cushman, Historic Westchester 1683 - 1933: Glimpses of County History, p. 18 (Westchester County Publishers, Inc. 1933).

Frederic Shonnard and W.W. Spooner, History of Westchester County New York From Its Earliest Settlement to the Year 1900, pp. 110, 112 (The New York History Company 1900, reprinted by Harbor Hill Books 1974).

Village of Pelham ~ Centennial Celebration Walking Tour 1896 - 1996, pp. 19-20 (Village of Pelham 1996) (softcover).

The Pelham Manor Story, p. 61 (James B. Saunders, ed.; Village of Pelham Manor 1991).