Urban Legends, Ghosts, Murder, Nuns gone insane, the Devil, and other horror stories we’ve dug up from Central New Jersey’s past. Maybe urban legends, but they’re OUR stories!
When the leaves start turning and the nights get cooler, ghost tales and horror stories take over the autumn campfires. Volunteering with some friends, a list was gathered and presented during a few walking tours organized in Basking Ridge, as well as for a haunted fright night at the local Ross Farm. There are great ghost stories all around central New Jersey. Are they true? Well, history has a way of validating some, while at other times, they just become great campfire stories. Enjoy.
Mr. Local History Jersey Ghost, Cemeteries, and Urban Legend Posts
Haunted Roots – The Horror Tale of the Devil Tree in Central New Jersey
Views: 10,029💬 Leave a Comment | View 0 Comments Listen in as we welcome award-winning journalist and Walking Dead actor Matt Ryan, along with filmmaker Will Cook, as they share the creation of their film HAUNTED ROOTS, “The Haunt of…
Origins of Cold as Balls and Cold as a Witch’s Teet
The phrase “cold as balls” reportedly comes from the contraction of metal on ship’s cannons, causing the iron balls to fall. The expression “cold as a witch’s tit” originated from the belief that witches, portrayed as cold-blooded in the 1600s,…
The Tale of Jersey’s Devil Tree
Views: 43,975💬 Leave a Comment | View 1 CommentThe Devil Tree of Liberty Corner (Somerset County) Urban Legend 1 Devil Tree – The Tree and the Caretaker Me and my friends were all contemplating going up to the devil tree.…
Taking Jacob’s Ladder to the Devil’s Tomb (Grave)
Views: 29,882💬 Leave a Comment | View 4 CommentsDevil’s Tomb & Jacob’s Ladder –Look what happened when Weird NJ Issue #12 came out. A place that sits quietly in obscurity for hundreds of years comes to an abrupt end when…
Paranormal Oddities at Basking Ridge’s Astor Estate Town Hall
Views: 7,727💬 Leave a Comment | View 0 Comments 👻 The 3rd Floor “Spirit of the Astor Estate” in Basking Ridge. A spirit has haunted owners and workers wandering the third floor causing ghostly havoc at times.Reported by a number…
The Hills Church & Cemetery & Pluckemin’s Pigtail Mountain
Views: 3,914💬 Leave a Comment | View 0 CommentsIn the early 1700s, German Lutherans settled around Pluckemin and established one of the region’s first congregations. By 1715, they had built a small log church on what is the Second Watchung…
Liberty Corner had the REAL Zip the Pinhead – Yow!
Views: 28,033💬 Leave a Comment | View 0 CommentsLiberty Corner’s Most Famous Resident? In a quiet little rural village in New Jersey that’s known more for Memorial Day parades and quiet strolls up and down Church Street, there’s this little…
Fairview Cemetery – Westfield, New Jersey’s Largest Resting Place
Views: 7,401💬 Leave a Comment | View 0 CommentsBeing raised in Westfield was a great experience, and sometimes it goes by so fast you never have time to sit back and reflect. As I look back now, there are so…
St. Bernard’s Cemetery is Bernardsville History
Views: 5,579💬 Leave a Comment | View 0 CommentsHistorical Note: Bernardsville was still part of Bernards Township up until 1924. Cemeteries are one of the best sources for historical research and MLH leverages many burials in cemeteries to understand families…
Bill Beatty and the Hills Haunted Phareloch Castle
Views: 21,479💬 Leave a Comment | View 10 CommentsTucked below the Hills on a quiet cul-de-sac in the Liberty Corner section of Bernards Township, New Jersey, sits a turreted French Norman-style castle known to locals as Pharelock Castle. Very few…
Jersey’s Halloween Candy Lady Will Always Be Jackie Mars
Views: 15,118💬 Leave a Comment | View 2 CommentsUPDATE:The latest reports clarify that M&M’s are not leaving New Jersey entirely. Mars Snacking is leaving its Newark corporate office, while its major Hackettstown M&M’s manufacturing operation is staying. Mars plans to…
Unexplained Disappearance at Warren’s Hofheimer Mausoleum & Grotto
Views: 5,094💬 Leave a Comment | View 3 CommentsMysterious death, lights in the woods at night, strange chemical smells in the air, paranormal activity, and a YouTuber’s missing persons report continue to plague what is felt to be strange paranormal…
Basking Ridge’s Oldest Cemetery
Views: 11,959💬 Leave a Comment | View 1 CommentCemeteries showcase some of history’s greatest reminders of where we came from. Many people new to the area are unaware of the local history until you trace it back to some of…
The World’s Greatest Broadcast in New Jersey History – War of the Worlds
Views: 6,830💬 Leave a Comment | View 1 Commenton Mischief Night, Cabbage Night, Goosey Night, or whatever you call it – October 30th – RE-LIVE the WAR OF THE WORLDS. GO LISTEN WITH YOUR FAMILY The date was October 30,…
Local Horror Tales and Ghost Stories Special Edition Magazine
Views: 25,411💬 Leave a Comment | View 0 Comments Urban Legends, Ghosts, Murder, Nuns gone insane, the Devil and other horror stories we’ve dug up from Central New Jersey’s past. May be urban legends, but they’re OUR stories! When the…
Honoring Civil War Black Soldiers at the Lamington Black Cemetery
Views: 2,563💬 Leave a Comment | View 0 CommentsThe Lamington Black Cemetery is an African American cemetery in the Lamington section of Bedminster Township, New Jersey, located on Cowperthwaite Road. It is also known as the Cowperthwaite African American Cemetery.…
Retrospective: Liberty Corner – History in the Cemetery
Views: 2,821💬 Leave a Comment | View 0 CommentsThe Liberty Corner Presbyterian Church was founded in 1837 to serve the growing rural community in the Liberty Corner section of Bernards Township, New Jersey. Its adjacent cemetery, established shortly after, became…
Blairsden- The Horror, The Nuns and Other Urban Legends
Views: 74,692💬 Leave a Comment | View 11 CommentsWeird New Jersey magazine launched an all-out attack with urban legends about what went terribly wrong inside the Blairsden Estate in Peapack, New Jersey. This article was originally posted on another site…
Haunted Tales From Central New Jersey #3
Views: 4,805💬 Leave a Comment | View 2 CommentsBelieve it or not, the dead are alive in central New Jersey, especially in northern Somerset County. The question is not whether they are real or not, but rather whether they are…
Basking Ridge Evergreen Cemetery is a Living History Lesson
Views: 5,848💬 Leave a Comment | View 1 CommentYou can learn a great deal of history by visiting a cemetery. NOTE: A quick reminder: Warren was part of Bernards Township until the 19th century, while Far Hills and Bernardsville were…
A Unique Bedminster Cemetery-“God’s Acre”
Views: 14,068💬 Leave a Comment | View 0 CommentsSo we’re over at the Bedminster Farmers Market, and while meeting a few locals, one of the patrons mentioned, “Why don’t you research what’s going on over at the slave burial grounds…
10 More Haunted Tales From Central New Jersey
Views: 17,244💬 Leave a Comment | View 0 CommentsBelieve it or not, the dead are alive in central New Jersey, especially in northern Somerset County. The question is not whether they are real or not, but whether they are disturbing…
The History of New Jersey Candy and Our Jersey Candy Hall of Fame
Views: 701💬 Leave a Comment | View 0 Comments At the Mr. Local History Project, our motto is “Jersey history with a social twist,” and nothing brings people together faster than talking about their favorite candy. And with Halloween just…
Local Cemetery History Research
Views: 2,072💬 Leave a Comment | View 0 CommentsThere is a wealth of history to be learned from a cemetery. We have a rich genealogy embedded in many of our stories, and we strive to describe other facts, analytics, and…
1780: The Missing Cemetery at the Basking Ridge Continental Army Hospital
Views: 583💬 Leave a Comment | View 0 CommentsFor decades, visitors to Jockey Hollow believed they were standing beside the burial ground of Continental soldiers who died during the terrible winter of 1779–1780. However, archaeological investigations found no human remains,…
Peapack has a Jacob’s Ladder too!
Views: 13,885💬 Leave a Comment | View 0 CommentsTo expand on an earlier post: The PLOT THICKENS… there’s a 2nd Jacob’s Ladder! So I kept digging about Jacob’s Ladder. Not that I wanted to, but the internet has its way…
