Haunted Catskills

Lisa LaMonica

• Publisher: The History Press
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781626190115
• eBook ISBN: 9781625840899
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

Discover the ghosts who wander these upstate New York mountains—includes photos!
 
Washington Irving called the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York a "spellbound region"—and the ghosts that linger from more than four hundred years of history provide proof of Irving's intuition.
 
In Hudson, Maggie Houghtaling's ghost haunts the Register-Star building, where she was hanged in 1817 for murdering her child—a crime for which she was later cleared. The ghost of a young Native American girl haunts Claverack Creek, where she threw herself into the water when her father forbade her to be with the man she loved. In Greenport, Peter Hallenbeck was murdered by his nephews in his home, where his spirit still lingers. Discover these and other eerie tales of hauntings in the Catskill Mountains in this collection of fascinating stories and local lore.

CHAPTER 1

THE REGISTER-STAR BUILDING

The Register-Star building in Hudson, New York, was originally the town’s jail. The first woman to be executed in New York was hanged here, and her ghost is known to haunt the location.

On October 17, 1817, Margaret “Maggie” Houghtaling (aka Houghthling) was hanged in Hudson, Columbia County’s county seat, for murder.

One website states that Houghtaling was convicted of killing her baby but that after the execution, a neighbor confessed to the crime. Women were often executed for the murder of their illegitimate children; it was a great stigma to have a baby outside of marriage, and this was why some of them decided to risk killing these unwanted children. Concealing the birth of a child was also a capital crime at one time, and five women in U.S. history were hanged for the crime. It did not need to be proven that the baby was murdered; the woman could be convicted even if the baby had actually been stillborn or had died of natural causes in the first hours of its life. The website does not explain the basis for that assertion, but the information may have come from an 1887 pamphlet mentioned on two other sites. The publication’s title reads, in part, “MAGGIE HOUGHTALING. AN INNOCENT WOMAN HANGED. THE TRUTH REVEALED AT LAST. A STARTLING CONFESSION.”

And then there’s this story, taken from the UFO-Free Paranormal website (www.ufofreeparanormal.com), about the same building:

Hudson is a small city about 30 miles south of Albany on the Hudson River. It began as a whaling and trading town and as such developed a certain element. For a time, it was, in fact, the red light district for upstate New York.

Map of Columbia County. Courtesy of Ron Toelke.

It was in this context that a young “lady of negotiable affection” was arrested for the murder of one of her clients. She was tried and convicted and spent the last few months of her life in the town jail awaiting execution. After the sentence was carried out, it was discovered that her boyfriend had actually committed the deed. Ever since, the ghost of the woman has haunted the building.

The Register-Star building. Courtesy of Hudson Area Library.

The jail has long since been moved, and the site was occupied by the offices of the local paper, the Register-Star for quite some time. The ghost, however, remains. It takes the form of a small woman with long black hair. She can even be mistaken for a living woman but disappears if approached for a closer look.

Employees at the Register-Star can sometimes hear someone walking around at night in parts of the building after their co-workers have gone home, and over the years, townspeople have claimed to see images of hanging people from inside the windows at night while walking down Warren Street.

CHAPTER 2

THE HALLENBECK HOUSE

Peter Hallenbeck was murdered by his nephews on Christmas Eve 1901. Now uninhabitable, the Hallenbeck home has been the site of unexplained disturbances over the years. In those days, the home was located in what was a hamlet of Greendale within Greenport. Following are excerpts from local newspapers at the time of the murder:

HUDSON, Dec. 27—The coroner’s inquest in the case of Peter A. Hellenbeck [sic] of Greenport, who was murdered at his home last Tuesday, was continued today by Coroner Lisk. The four young men under arrest on suspicion of being implicated in the murder are Willis, Burton and Frederick Van Wormer and Harvey Bruce. Hellenbeck [sic] was shot down in the doorway of his house, about eighteen miles from Kinderhook, where the prisoners reside.

At the inquest this afternoon, Mrs. Van Wormer, stepmother of the Van Wormers; Pearl Louise Van Buren, sweetheart of Willis Van Wormer; George H. Brown, a liveryman; and Mrs. Maria Conner and two daughters testified on behalf of the prisoners, swearing to their being in Kinderhook, eighteen miles from the scene of the murder, between one and two hours after the crime was committed. They were positive in their statements, which were not taken under examination.

Demond Vernon, a notion dealer in Kinderhook, swore that on Monday, two of the prisoners purchased two masks in his store. The masks represented devils’ faces. They wore their coats turned inside out. On Tuesday evening,

he testified, the other prisoners bought two more. The murderers wore masks when Hellenbeck [sic] was killed.

—Columbia County at the End of the Century

Tell-Tale Wagon Wheel Tracks

The wheels of a wagon which the prisoners hired on the day of the murder are said to correspond exactly with the tracks leading from the scene of the crime. The horse driven to the wagon had a peculiar shoe and an impression identical with this peculiarity was also, it is stated, found in the soft earth in the vicinity of the Hallenbeck home. The shoes worn by the prisoners on the day of their capture are said to correspond with the shoe prints left in the snow. Interest in the case is intense. The prosecuting officers declare they are confident the right men have been arrested. So far, however, the evidence is entirely circumstantial, and the defense declare they can establish an alibi.

—Post Standard, Syracuse, New York, December 28, 1901

HUDSON, N.Y., Dec. 30.—The confession of Harvey Bruce, one of the four young men under arrest for the murder of Peter Hallenbeck at Greenport on Christmas Eve, caused an enormous crowd to assemble when the coroner’s inquest was resumed to-day. The courtroom became densely packed, and the coroner announced that owing to the illness of the widow and advanced age of the mother of the murdered man, court would adjourn to the private office of the District Attorney for their testimony. The confession of Bruce has not been made public, being kept secret by the officials.

The testimony of Mrs. Margaret L. Hallenbeck, wife of the murdered man, to-day showed that four men took a hand in the killing, offsetting the previous belief that one held a horse near the barn while three others went to the house. Mrs. Hallenbeck declared she and her mother-in-law were the only persons present in the house with her husband at the time of the murder. Her husband had called her attention to a wagon passing on the highway and two men walking behind. A short time afterward, four men came walking back wearing coats inside out. They passed down the road toward the church. The murdered man, herself and mother-in-law all saw them from the window. Her husband said they must be chicken thieves and watched them ‘til out of sight. Shortly afterward, there was a knock at the kitchen door. Her husband went to open it, and she went to the door with him.

Four Pistols Thrust in His Face

As he opened the door, four pistols were thrust in his face and fired. Her husband jumped back and gave his wife a push out of the way. The four men jumped into the room after him, and all fired again. Mrs. Hallenbeck said her husband turned toward the stairway for his gun, when his assailants fired again. The men were masked and had coats turned inside out. One was tall, two medium size and one short. “I begged them not to kill my husband,” she continued. “Seeing I could not do anything, I ran to the next room and upstairs. The men kept shooting. I met my mother-in-law on the stairs and pushed her back. I could not recognize any of the men. They ran through the house and departed.”

The evidence of Mrs. Aletnina Hallenbeck, mother of the murdered man who is 80 years old, bore out the testimony of her daughter-in-law concerning the happenings of the evening of the tragedy. She confirmed the statement that four men entered the room and that all of them fired.

Sheriff Harry J. Best testified to having visited the Hallenbeck house on the night of the tragedy. He examined the various footprints and wagon tracks in the snow, their location and the directions of the footsteps to and from the house. He told how he and his assistants went to Kinderhook on Christmas Day and arrested the three Van Wormer brothers and Harvey Bruce. The officers searched the house, finding three revolvers, a fourth one being found next day. Three of the weapons were of 32-caliber and one of 36. The prisoners all wore shoes when arrested. These shoes Sheriff Best took down to Hallenbeck’s house on Christmas Day and in the presence of other witnesses fitted them in the prints in the snow near the Hallenbeck house. The four pair of shoes fitted all perfectly, the tracks leading about the kitchen door and from there toward the highway and in the vicinity of the barn. One of the footprints had a peculiar impression as though the shoe had a heel-plate, while the other prints indicated shoes of “bulldog.”

—The Associated Press, 1902

A family feud had existed between the Hallenbecks and Van Wormers for years. Peter Hallenbeck had prospered, but John Van Wormer, his brother-in-law, eked out a precarious living as a river boatman. Before his death, however, Van Wormer managed to buy a cottage across the road from the handsome home of his brother-in-law. It was mortgaged, however, to Hallenbeck. Although the latter frequently aided the Van Wormers, he finally, after John Van Wormer’s death, gradually withdrew all assistance and pressed the family for the interest and principal. The mortgage was finally foreclosed in September last, and the Van Wormers were turned out. They removed to Kinderhook, 16 miles away. This increased the hatred of the brothers for the uncle, and this was the alleged motive for the crime. It is expected that the defense will try to prove an alibi, and the trial promises to prove one of great interest.

—Trenton Times, Trenton, New Jersey, March 31, 1902

BURIAL OF VAN WORMER BOYS

Funeral Will Be Private—Interment in Kinderhook Cemetery

Hudson, N.Y., Oct. 3.—The bodies of Frederick, Willis and Burton Van Wormer, who were electrocuted on Thursday at Dannemora Prison, arrived at their old home in Kinderhook. Undertaker Birchmyer removed the bodies to the rooms of Estella Van Wormer, their step-mother.

The funeral will be held this afternoon and will be private. The coffins will not be opened. The burial will be in the Kinderhook cemetery, where the body of Martin Van Buren rests. The feeling in Kinderhook is strong against the cemetery commission in selling Mrs. Van Wormer a lot for interment there.

—Altoona Mirror, Altoona, Pennsylvania, October 3, 1903

At least one thousand people from around the county viewed the bodies in the Kinderhook home’s parlor. Apparently, after the brothers had been executed and laid out in the autopsy room, a guard saw one of them, Frederick Van Wormer, move a hand and then an eye. The prison doctor was called for. A stethoscope held to the presumed dead man’s heart discovered that it was still beating. Frederick’s heart was bigger than that of anyone executed up to that date, so two full charges of current had failed to kill him. The convict was carried back to the chair and kept there until he was dead beyond the shadow of a doubt. The New York Times, in an October 2, 1902 article, stated that the brothers decided who would be executed first, with all taking fifteen minutes and being carried out in a most humane way. Peter Hallenbeck’s wife and mother passed away shortly after him, and a brother was left “broken in health and nerve by the awful tragedy.”

To see some old photos of Peter Hallenbeck and newspaper articles, visit the Facebook page of Ghost Walk Hudson.

CHAPTER 3

608 COLUMBIA STREET AND THE SANFORD GIFFORD HOUSE

What is now the DMV parking lot on Columbia Street in Hudson was once a majestic family home. Across the street were the “three sisters”—three adjoining houses built for three daughters. In one of these houses, I lived for a period of time and experienced some interesting phenomena.

A few years after a boyfriend had passed away, I sold my house and began staying at one of my brother’s houses on Columbia Street. I lived in the house for three years, and I loved the staircase in the entryway, the downstairs kitchen and scullery area and the overall Victorian feel of the place. But I had experiences there that I know to be otherworldly.

On Halloween day in 2007, some workmen refinishing a house next door were leaving the job. The contractor called and asked if I would move my car, as a dumpster would soon be arriving. On the sidewalk in front of the house, while we were standing next to each other, I felt like I had to keep looking over my shoulder. I felt this sort of breeze—it felt strange, like nothing I had ever experienced before or since. It was like something swirling around, almost watching me. After the roofer left, I went inside to take a nap, but out of the corner of my eye, I saw something amiss. A pumpkin, which had previously been sitting on a wide windowsill, was now on the floor several feet away in front of the fireplace. Next to it was my ChapStick, which had been on the table in the adjoining room. There was just no way these two items could have gotten there. I lived alone, and I was outside for only about ten minutes. It felt like a very long time of me standing there, looking at these items and trying to make sense of everything. The significance of the pumpkin was obvious to me, as Halloween had been my first date with Rob. But the ChapStick didn’t make sense until much later in the day, when I recalled the details of that first date, in that dark movie theater in Hudson. I remembered that after our first kiss, he leaned back, licked his lips and asked me if I was wearing ChapStick—the same kind that was now on the floor nea...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Theories
• 1. The Register-Star Building
• 2. The Hallenbeck House
• 3. 608 Columbia Street and the Sanford Gifford House
• 4. The Weintraub House
• 5. Spook Rock Road
• 6. Dragged to Death; Condemned to the Noose
• 7. The Sutherland Burial Plot: The Vision in the Vault
• 8. Historic Huguenot Street and New Paltz
• 9. The Ghost of Delaware County and Other Tales
• 10. The Van Schaack House and Kinderhook
• 11. The Underground Railroad, Upstate New York and Ghost Stories
• 12. Point Lookout, Windam Mountain
• 13. Hank, the One-Armed Brakeman of Tannersville
• 14. The Dietz House
• 15. The Catskill Witch
• 16. Harper
• 17. The Vanderbilt
• Bibliography
• About the Author