Town Tradition: No Escaping The Jersey Devil Legend In Galloway

GALLOWAY, NJ — If anyone can speak to the legend of the Jersey Devil, it might very well be Norman Goos of the Atlantic County Historical Society.

He is not only the librarian of the society, "I'm also a member of the Leeds family from whom the myth came," Goos says by way of introduction.

Galloway Township in Atlantic County has many pleasures: The Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Area, Stockton University, Historic Smithville and excellent golf courses and wineries. Its 88 square miles are host to a population of nearly 38,000.

It is named for Joseph Galloway, born in 1731, a political leader in the Colonial era and a onetime member of the First Continental Congress.

But the town doesn't seem to mind that it's also linked with the Jersey Devil. When asked about the most defining town tradition, there is consensus: the Jersey Devil.

As Goos says, "It's the home of the Jersey Devil."

The Leeds family came to America from England in the 1600s, he said.

The family first came to Shrewsbury - then a large English land grant in what is now Monmouth County. The family settled in Burlington County, Goos said, in part of the vast area of the Pinelands.

And its proximity to Philadelphia - and Benjamin Franklin - is where the story turns dark, he notes.

He said his ancestor, Titan Leeds, in the 1700s produced an almanac to assist with agriculture in the area. And, as another historian from the area - Bill Sprouse - observed, almanacs loom large in the creation of the Jersey Devil myth.

Goos recommends a book - "The Secret History of the Jersey Devil" - that contains what he considers excellent research on the history of the Jersey Devil story. He has confirmed much of the research himself, he said.

The book is by Brian Regal and Frank J. Esposito, and its full title is "The Secret History of the Jersey Devil: How Quakers, Hucksters, and Benjamin Franklin Created a Monster" (2019). Regal is an associate professor for the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine at Kean University in Union.

Goos said he learned from the research that Philadelphian Benjamin Franklin, who published his own iconic Poor Richard's Almanac, undermined the reputation of an upstart (if more established) publisher from New Jersey, Titan Leeds, Goos's ancestor.

Franklin spread the word of the "demon" from New Jersey - one who happened to print an almanac, Goos said.

Bill Sprouse, another Jersey Devil historian, is also a descendant of the Leeds family. He wrote "The Domestic Life of the Jersey Devil" (2013), which was sparked by his grandmother Helen Leeds' stories to him about the family.

And it also involves the Leeds family almanac.

Sprouse said it was Titan's father, Daniel, a surveyor of western New Jersey, who actually wrote the first almanac in the late 1600s. His youngest son Titan followed in his father's footsteps as the author of an "occult almanac," meaning it examined astronomical and astrological influences on weather conditions that could affect farming, Sprouse said.

Sprouse, a Yale graduate and writer who lives in Atlantic City now, says Galloway has been linked to the Jersey Devil myth for generations, and Leeds family descendants are "thick as thieves" in the area.

He said that for a period of time a few years ago there was a movement by former mayor Harry Leeds (an "arch nemesis" of his grandmother's, Sprouse notes) to make the Jersey Devil the official town logo, but it was ultimately not accepted.

Regarding the almanac, Sprouse said that at the time of the Titan Leeds almanac, Franklin debuted his Poor Richard's Almanac and he satirized Leeds as a way to discredit him. (Sprouse said the subject of "almanac wars" even goes back to England in the late 1600s and author and satirist Jonathan Swift.)

But no matter how the Jersey Devil myth may have started, it has gone through many incarnations, complete with supposed sightings.

In research by Carol Johnson and David Munn found on the Atlantic County Library website, many variations are mentioned.

But the most traditional seems to be that the Jersey Devil was the 13th child of Mother Leeds, born in 1735 in Leeds Point (now in Galloway), and that she cursed her "dire straits."

In various forms, the legend of a winged, cloven-foot creature was born. The Galloway Historical Society includes this research on its own website.

Sprouse seems to take sheer delight in examining the myth and his family connection. He has also lectured on the myth at various venues, such as in a Cape May meeting.

For Goos, the persistence of the Jersey Devil legends doesn't stop him from trying to enlighten people about the mythical, folkloric nature of the story.

A retired cleric of the Wesleyan church, Goos patiently explains rational reasons, for example, for the sightings of the Jersey Devil people have reported.

He said there is an optical phenomenon that can create unreal visions - an entoptic phenomenon. The Pinelands is a likely place to have those visual disturbances, he said. When driving or walking at night, with tired eyes, the shadows of the arched trees could appear like the winged beast, he said.

And it should be kept in mind that the Pinelands itself is more than myth - it has rich ecological and natural significance.

Stockton University will be the site March 11 of the 34th annual Pinelands Short Course, now in its 34th year, that offers day-long programs about the region’s "unique history, ecology, culture, and music."

But for history and legend buffs, New Jersey might again have its neighbor Philadelphia to thank for stoking the myth of the Jersey Devil, Goos said.

In the 1890s, the Arch Street Dime Museum would dress up a kangaroo (later retired to a New York state zoo) and people would pay admission to see the supposed Jersey Devil, he said.

"It's interesting how many people bought the story," Goos said.