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
The Hills Church & Cemetery & Pluckemin’s Pigtail Mountain
Views: 1,355 In 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 Mountain, known also as Pigtail Mountain,…
Haunted Roots – The Horror Tale of the Devil Tree in Central New Jersey
Views: 6,627 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 New Jersey’s Devil Tree and a…
Legendary Horror Tales and Ghost Stories from Central New Jersey
Views: 16,682 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 leaves start turning and the nights get…
Paranormal Oddities at Basking Ridge’s Astor Estate Town Hall
Views: 4,059 👻 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 of Bernards Township Employees at the Astor…
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: 37,718 The 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. I had been up there one…
Fairview Cemetery – Westfield, New Jersey’s Largest Resting Place
Views: 3,111 Being 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 many great stories; it’s funny how…
St. Bernard’s Cemetery is Bernardsville History
Views: 1,969 Historical 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 and their history. Before St. Bernard’s…
A Unique Bedminster Cemetery-“God’s Acre”
Views: 10,238 So 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 in Bedminster. Here we are. We…
The World’s Greatest Broadcast in New Jersey History – War of the Worlds
Views: 3,459 on 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, 1938, and Jerseyans tuned in to…
10 More Haunted Tales From Central New Jersey
Views: 12,362 Believe 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 or friendly. As we share, the…
Blairsden- The Horror, The Nuns and Other Urban Legends
Views: 65,594 Weird 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 back in 2007. We thought it…
Retrospective: Liberty Corner – History in the Cemetery
Views: 917 The 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 the final resting place for many…
Bill Beatty and the Hills Haunted Phareloch Castle
Views: 15,606 Tucked 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 locals remember the sad story about…
Liberty Corner had the REAL Zip the Pinhead – Yow!
Views: 19,989 Liberty 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 secret about a man who became…
Basking Ridge Evergreen Cemetery is a Living History Lesson
Views: 3,067 You 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 still part of Bernards Township up…
Local Cemetery History Research
Views: 890 There 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 stories about those who make their…
Haunted Tales From Central New Jersey #3
Views: 2,322 Believe 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 disturbing or friendly. As we share,…
Taking Jacob’s Ladder to the Devil’s Tomb (Grave)
Views: 24,017 Devil’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 overzealous devil seekers search to find…
Peapack has a Jacobs Ladder too!
Views: 11,758 To 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 of bringing information right to my…
Unexplained Disappearance at Warren’s Hofheimer Mauseleum & Grotto
Views: 2,536 Mysterious 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 activity at the former Hofheimer woods,…
Basking Ridge’s Oldest Cemetery
Views: 7,497 Cemeteries 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 originating families that chose this…
Honoring Civil War Black Soldiers at the Lamington Black Cemetery
Views: 344 The 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. The cemetery is a contributing property…
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