In the corner next to the Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow, there's a modern stone carved to look like it belongs in the Revolutionary Era.
The Epitaph reads: "Hulda of Bohemia, died c. 1777. Herbalist, Healer, Patriot, Felled by the British while protecting the Militia. Buried here in gratitude for her sacrifice." Like most history, Hulda's story was more complicated than her headstone may suggest. Hulda was an immigrant in the deeply rooted and tight-knit community of Sleepy Hollow in the 1770s. History remembers her as a witch, and while this may have been true, it's important to realize that the accusation of witchcraft during this time period wasn't always a reliable indicator of a person's faith. Sometimes, an accusation of witchcraft was to oust an outsider or stranger, or to silence a woman who operated outside of social norms. I've noticed that in many of the sources about Hulda, she's "declared a witch," by the Dutch, rather than identifying herself as a witch. In my view, the issue of Hulda's faith and whether she was a witch or not complicates the story in a way we should be able to acknowledge, and I'll try and be cognizant of this issue as I discuss her story.
Whatever her faith, Hulda was an outcast living in what is now the Rockefeller State Park, near Spook Rock. She was a figure that wasn't well understood, and so feared that many men in the area were afraid to even pass by her hut. As a foreigner coming to the area alone with no references, Hulda was immediately subject to suspicion. She was a skilled herbalist and frequently traded with Native people nearby, which only deepened the suspicion of the Dutch against her.
As the Revolutionary War began and Sleepy Hollow was caught in the crossfire between the British and the American forces, Hulda stepped up to join her community in a few key ways. According to Jonathan Kruk's book, Legends and Lore of Sleepy Hollow and the Hudson Valley, Dutch villagers who found themselves sick and ill during the hard times that the town was going through would often find bundles of herbs on their porches: remedies for whatever was ailing them. Very often these offerings were publically rejected by the Dutch, who did not want to accept help from the Witch (privately, they probably did accept the help). The occupants of the town benefitted from Hulda's "witchcraft" while still socially shunning her and refusing to acknowledge her.
During the Revolution, Tarrytown was no man's land, neutral ground. This meant that the violence in the area was very real, and Hulda put herself right into the action on the side of the very people who had shunned her and rejected her. Hulda had already tried to fight with the militia and been denied, but in 1777, she took up her weapons and stood with the militia against the British during a stand-off. With her musket in hand, Hulda was on the front lines of the militia and was killed during the conflict.
After her death, she was carried by the militia back to her hut, where a Bible was found with her written will, leaving some gold to the widows of the town whose husbands had died in the war. I find the presence of the Bible in this story to be peculiar for a few reasons. Of course, Hulda may have had a Bible. She may have been Christian, or simply a Witch who owned a Bible. Perhaps she kept the Bible because she knew it would draw the attention of anyone in her hut after her death, and she wanted her gold to find its way to the women of the town. But based on the way this story is told, I wonder whether the Bible was added as an anecdote to "soften the blow" of a rejected Witch showing more "Christian Charity" than the Dutch Christians of Sleepy Hollow.
Whatever the truth, Hulda was given a Christian burial in an unmarked grave at the Old Dutch Church Cemetery. This was presumably as great a sign of respect as the Dutch could give Hulda after her death, and her story was immortalized in oral histories of the area until being written down by Edgar Mayhew Bacon in 1898.
In 2019, Hulda finally received a headstone, carved to look like the work of John Zuricher. Today, the legend of Hulda of Bohemia is being retold and remembered. Many have visited her headstone (which doesn't necessarily mark her physical grave, if she even is truly buried in this cemetery), leaving coins, dollars, gems, and other small trinkets as an offering.
Was Hulda really a Witch? Was she just a shunned stranger who was good with herbs? Was she a Christian? We can't ever really know for sure. One thing we can know is that true to her epitaph, she was a healer, a helper, and a patriot.
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