In the early days of American history there was in New Jersey, as well
as in New England and other parts of the country, a firm belief in the
existence of witches and ghosts. Of course, there were people who knew
enough not to put faith in supernatural apparitions and magical power;
but there were so many who did believe in these things, that it was
often unsafe, or at least unpleasant, to be an ugly old woman, or a
young woman in not very good health, for it was believed that into such
bodies the evil spirits delighted to enter.
Nearly all the older towns had their ghost stories, their witch stories,
and their traditions of hidden treasure, guarded by spirits of persons
who had been murdered, and buried with the gold in order that their
spirits might act as a charm to frighten away anybody who should presume
to dig in those spots. In Burlington were two great trees which were
regarded with admiration and fear by many of the inhabitants. One was a
large willow tree, which was called the Witches' Tree, around which
these horrible spirits were supposed to dance on many a wild night.
Another was the Pirates' Tree, a great walnut, under the roots of which
many of the inhabitants firmly believed that the famous Blackbeard and
his band had buried many pots of gold, silver, and precious stones; and
these pots would have been dug up had it not been for the fear that the
spirit of the savage pirate, who had been buried with the treasure,
would have been the first thing to meet the eyes of the sacrilegious
disturber of the pirate treasure vault.
There are other ghost stories of other places in New Jersey; but
Morristown, some years after the close of the Revolution, took the lead
of all the other Jersey towns as a scene of ghostly performances.
For years back many of the people had been convinced that an occasional
witch had appeared among them, getting into the churns and preventing
the butter from coming, breaking the legs of sheep in jumping over the
fence, causing their horses to become suddenly mysteriously sick, and
making themselves obnoxious in various ways. But it was not until the
year 1788 that New Jersey ghosts determined to go regularly into
business at this place.
Supernatural occurrences of this period attracted a great deal of
attention, not only in the town itself, but in the surrounding country;
and an account of what happened in Morristown during the time that the
spirits were holding their visitations at that place is related in an
old pamphlet published in 1792, written by an anonymous person who had
no faith whatever in ghosts, but who had a firm belief in the efficacy
of long words and complicated phraseology. We will take the story from
this old pamphlet.
For a long time there had been a tradition that a vast treasure was
buried on Schooley's Mountain, or, as it was then spelled, Schooler's
Mountain, which was at that time a wild and desolate region more than
twenty miles from Morristown. It is said that there were two gentlemen
of the place who were particularly strong in their belief in this
treasure, and they felt sure that all that was necessary in order to
obtain it was to find some man who had knowledge of the habits and
customs and requirements of the spirits in regard to treasures. Having
their minds on this subject, it was not long before they heard of such a
man. This was Mr. Ransford Rogers, a schoolmaster in Connecticut, who
knew many things, and who pretended to know many more. He really did
understand something about chemistry, was very ingenious and plausible,
and had been frequently heard to say that he was not afraid of spirits,
and was able to call them up, converse with them, and afterwards cause
them to disappear. This was exactly the man needed by the two gentlemen
of Morristown, and they went to Connecticut to see him.
When the business of the visitors was made known to Rogers, he was
delighted, for here was an opportunity to get into a good business,
which would probably be infinitely more pleasant than teaching. So he
gave up his school and came to Morristown, being under contract to the
two gentlemen to do what he could to induce the spirits to reveal the
place of the concealed treasure in Schooley's Mountain. But as it would
not do for a stranger to come into the town and hang out a sign,
stating that he was a spirit raiser, it was necessary for Rogers to
pretend that he had come on other business, and so he took charge of a
small school outside of the town, but gave the greater part of his time
to investigating the minds of the people of Morristown, in order that he
might find out what he could do in the way of duping them; and in the
words of the old writer, he found that this would be a good place for
the "marvelous exhibitions which he was able to facilitate with the
greatest alacrity."
Of course, he was not at all willing to begin business with the support
of only two persons, and the first thing he did was to gather together
as many men as possible who really wished to be rich, and who were
willing to be governed by him in regard to the way in which they should
go about obtaining the vast hoard buried far away in the mountain. After
a time he succeeded in getting together as many as forty men, who all
thoroughly believed in his honesty and in his ability to take them out
to Schooley's Mountain, to call up the spirits who guarded the treasure,
to induce them to turn it over to them, and then to vanish peaceably,
without offering to molest or harm any one.
But it was a long time before Rogers was ready to lead his company on
the great quest. There were many, many things that had to be done before
they could start, and he soon found that he was not able to work out his
great scheme alone; so he went back to Connecticut and got another
schoolmaster, to whom he divulged his secret, and brought him to
Morristown, and the two together went into the spirit business with
great energy and enterprise. Night after night the company of treasure
seekers met together, sometimes in a dark room, and sometimes out in the
wild, lonely fields, close to black forests, and out of sight and
hearing of human abodes.
Rogers was a chemist; and he frequently went out to one of these lonely
meeting places in the afternoon and prepared a mine, which he exploded
during the midnight meetings, and thus created a great wonder and terror
among his followers. When they were indoors, there would be knockings
and strange voices heard coming through the cracks; these voices
proceeding from the other schoolmaster, who covered his mouth with what
the writer of the pamphlet calls "a superficial machine," probably a bit
of tin with a hole in it, which so disguised his voice that it was not
recognized.
When they were out of doors in the black night, they would sometimes see
a ghost flit about under the trees at the edge of the woods; and the
second schoolmaster, well wrapped up in a sheet, seems to have made as
good a ghost as could have been found anywhere. There were many
supernatural performances, and among them was a great act, in which each
one of the members of the company lay flat on his face in the field with
his eyes shut, holding in one outstretched hand a sheet of paper. This
was done in the hope that the spirits would write their instructions on
the paper. Mr. Rogers knelt down with the others and held his paper; but
it was not a blank sheet like the others. When this performance was
over, all the papers were shaken together, and then they were drawn out
one by one; and judge of the surprise and awe of all present, when one
of them would contain some writing,--generally in a beautiful hand, such
as could only be expected from a supernatural being (or a
schoolmaster),--which would be found to be instructions as to what must
be done.
The most important of these directions ordered that before any march
could be made toward Schooley's Mountain, or any definite directions
given in regard to the whereabouts of the treasure, each member should
pay to the spirits, through Mr. Rogers, who would kindly act as agent,
the sum of twelve pounds. And, moreover, this must not be paid in the
paper money then current in New Jersey, which was called "loan money",
and which would not pass outside of the State, but in gold or silver.
When every member had paid in his twelve pounds, then the party would be
led to the place of the treasure.
When they found out what they had to do, each man went to work to try,
if possible, to raise the twelve pounds; but Rogers soon saw that it
would be impossible for some of them to do this, as specie money was so
hard to get, and he reduced the sum, in some cases, to six or four
pounds. He was a good business manager, and would not try to get out of
a man more than that man could pay.
Not one of the people engaged in this affair had the slightest idea that
Rogers was deceiving them. It is not likely that any of them were people
of much culture or means; and it is said that some of them went so far
as to sell their cattle, and mortgage their farms, in order to get gold
or silver to pay to the good schoolmaster who was generously acting as a
mutual friend to both parties. But what were these sacrifices compared
to the treasure they would obtain when at last they should be permitted
to dig up the buried hoard on Schooley's Mountain!
It was now winter, and of course they could not start on the expedition
in bad weather; but meeting after meeting was held, and it was at last
definitely promised that the expedition should go forth from Morristown
early in May. On the first of that month, they all gathered at midnight
in the lonely field, and there was a terrible scene. There were more
fireworks and explosions than usual, and one of the spirits appeared at
the edge of the wood greatly excited, stamping his feet, and rushing
about under the trees; and when Rogers went to see what was the
matter,--for of course none of the others would dare to speak to a
spirit,--he found that the supernatural beings with whom they had so
long been in communication, and who were now scattered about in all
parts of the woods, were very angry and incensed because they had become
aware that some of the party were unfaithful, and had divulged the
secrets which had been made known to them. They were so thoroughly
indignant, in fact, that they refused to go on with the affair for a
time, and announced that the expedition to Schooley's Mountain would be
postponed until they were positively certain that every man who was to
go there was the sort of man who would never let anybody into the awful,
soul-dazzling secret which would be divulged. So they must all go home,
and wait until this important matter could be satisfactorily arranged.
Strange to say, they all did go home, and waited, and not one of them
suspected Rogers.
The schoolmaster had obtained a good deal of money, but he had not
enough. So, in less than a month, he started another company, this time
a small one, and began to go through his performances with them. But he
soon found he could not make much money out of five men, and he began to
get a little braver, and thought he would try what he could do with the
better class of people in Morristown; and, having discovered that a very
good ghost could be called up by means of a white sheet and a
"superficial machine", he dressed himself up one night, and made a
supernatural call upon a gentleman in good standing in the church. When
he had appeared at the bedside of this good man, he told him all about
the treasure of Schooley's Mountain, and, if he wanted some of it, how
he might obtain it.
The gentleman, having never seen a ghost, supposed, of course, that this
was an authorized apparition, and became greatly interested in what was
told him. The next day, according to directions, he went around among
his friends in the church, and soon formed a considerable company, who
all believed, that, if they did what they were told to do, they could go
to Schooley's Mountain and become immensely wealthy.
They did a great many things that they were told to do: they met in dark
rooms, as the other party had met; they went out into a lonely field at
midnight; they held out papers to be written on; and, more than that,
they conducted their meetings with prayer and other solemnities. And
they all promised to pay twelve pounds in gold as an earnest of their
good faith in the spirits, and to deliver the money to that great
miracle worker, Mr. Rogers, who would remit it to the spirits.
The schoolmaster found it necessary to be more mystical and weird in his
dealings with this second party than with the first. He did a great many
strange things which savored of magic and alchemy. Among other things,
he got some fine bone dust, which he assured his followers was the dust
of the bodies of the spirits who were to lead them to the treasure; and
a little of this, wrapped up in a paper, he gave to each one of them,
which they were to keep secret, and preserve as a magical charm.
One of the company, an old gentleman who was sometimes a little
absent-minded, went to bed one night and left the magical packet in one
of his pockets; and his wife, probably looking for small change, found
it. She could not imagine what it was, but she was afraid it was
something connected with witchcraft, and was greatly troubled about it.
The next day she told her husband of the discovery, and was so very
persistent that he should explain to her what it meant, that at last he
thought it wise to tell her the whole proceeding, and so prevent her
from interfering with the great and important business with which he was
concerned. He made her promise secrecy, and soon she had heard all about
Rogers, the spirits, and the buried gold. She became convinced that it
was all the work of the devil, and she went off among her friends and
began to talk about it.
Now there was a great excitement, not only on the part of the believers,
but among the spirits themselves; and Rogers, who had enlisted two new
men in his scheme, made his ghosts work hard to keep up the delusion
among his followers. All four of them, dressed in sheets, went about
making communications whenever they had a chance, and assuring the
members of the band of treasure hunters that everything would soon be
all right, and that they must not allow their faith to be shaken by
gossipers and scandalmongers.
Rogers himself, in his ghostly costume, went one night to the house of
a gentleman who was his follower, and made some important communications
to him; but as the schoolmaster had been encouraging himself by some
strong drink before setting out on his round of apparitions, he talked
in such a queer way to his disciple, that the latter became suspicious.
The next morning he found horse tracks from his door to Rogers's house,
and so discovered that the ghost had come from that place on horseback.
Further investigations followed, and it was not long before it became
quite plain that Rogers had been playing a well-planned trick upon the
inhabitants of Morristown, and he was arrested.
Every one, however, had not lost faith in him, and there was an old
gentleman--whose name the ancient pamphlet very kindly conceals, calling
him by the name of "Compassion"--who went bail for him, and he was
released; whereupon he and his friends decamped. However, Rogers was
again arrested, and this time he confessed the whole of his share in
raising the ghosts of Morristown.
But, as has been said, he was a man of ability, and able to take care of
himself, and in some way he managed to escape from custody, and was seen
no more in New Jersey. His followers, who had sent their gold and silver
to the spirits by means of his kind offices, never saw their money
again; and the vast treasures buried at Schooley's Mountain still remain
hidden from all men.