The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1889-11-02
THE SIX ROADS GHOST.
1t is a British officer Searching for
Ills Body.

eff you look sharp around here you
may be able to see a very fine article of
ghostl"
The above was the remark made by an
old friend as they drove along, approach
ing the south branch of the Railway
river at the Six Roads.
"Ghost? Whose ghost?" was the nat
ural query.
81 have never seen the unquiet shade
myself, but popular tradition assigns the
specter to a handsome British officer
who had his career summarily adjourn
ed sine die, at this first bridge while he
was busy trying to coerce the revolu-
tionary rebels into love and duty for his
master, King George Ill"
BY the time he had made this explana-
ton we were across the bridge, and our
horse had given a spasmodic jump as
though he had seen the ghost, but it was
only a ruminative COW that breathed a
sigh in the nearby pasture.
"Well, regarding your ghost. What is
its history and who has seen it,"
Several people claim to have seen it,
and it is also fair to say that there are
quite a number more who are willing to
swear that they have not seen it, although
they have looked for it consoientiously.
I belong to the latter class myself. ]
look for that ghost every night that ]
cross that bridge. Not that I particularly
want to see it or that | have any special
business with either British officers or
their unquiet shades, but because it is
very natural that, when a man is told
that a ghost may be seen in a certain
place, he will look forit there, and at the
same time solemnly asseverate that he
don't believe in ghosts in any form.
Nov, as to the history OF this p~articu-
lar ghost, if a ghost can be said to have
a history, which ! claim is open to doubt,
/ will give you the tradition the FOLKLORE
of the vicinity furnishes. Before the
iron horse knocked the business and the
romano out of many a country tavern,
the locality known as the six Roads"
was quite a place. Previous to the build
ing of the turnpike road, in 1910, the
cross roads at that place was the rally
ing center for a large district Of coun-
try. Some of the earliest Fourths of
July the country owned were celebrated
there with great pomp and ceremony,
and the patriotic glories of '~trainin' day
always drew there a crowd who Toasted,
fought, drank and made merry with
great h~eartiness. Even before the Rev
dictionary war there was a blacksmith
shop and several houses, besides the tav-
ern, to give the place importance, and
during the time that tried mems souls
some tragic events transpired near the
old tavern.
1.-THE south branch of the Railway
river runs about four hundred yards
south from where theyold revolutionary
tavern stood, and dividing itself on this
low ground, required then, as now, two
bridges. In the revolutionary days, and
for many years after, the bridge furthest
from the tavern was a single arch stone
structure, several feet higher than the
road leading to it from the south.
Ga Sat the time the British army lay
around New Brunswick and Perth Am
boy, Washington found his force too
weak to risk a battle, and he retired to
the mountains in the rear of where
Bound Brook and Plainfield now flourish.
He could easily defend himself there. and
the British had the rare good sense to
know that to tackle George up among
those hills would be a most unhealthy
and improbable investment of time,
talent and Hessians that cost too much
to be wasted,
''They were anxious, however, to draw
him out, and to that end frequently sent
out troops to make threatening demon
strations in that direction. These 94ove-
ments Gen. Washington could see from
what is now known as 'Washington's
rock back of Plainfield, which has of
late years become very popular as a place
of resort for special picnickers who de.
sire to get rained on.
"Washington viewed these British
demonstrations apparently with exasper-
ating calmness; but he sometimes sent
Gen. Morgan down to interview the in
truders, whereupon the British suddenly
discovered that they had pressing bust
ness at Perth Amboy, and lost no time
in getting there,
"One day a small British command
with two pieces of artillery was out on
one of these raids, and came down from
Woodbridge towards the Six Roads. On
the way they stopped and fired a round
shot over towards the old tavern. What
they did it for, nobody knows, as there
was no one in sight. The ball finding
nothing else to assault, struck a rock out
by the barn and knocked d chunk off it
as big as q flour barrel, and the piece
lies there yet.
can old continental soldier, who passed
away many years ago, has left upon rec
ord that he saw the ball strike the rock,
and that the pieces flew and hummed
like the nation. A few minutes after
he say a young British officer come
down the road riding a very fine horse.
He was a good rider and the horse was
going at a smart trot as he passed the
old tavern; but a few minutes later he
came on the full run and with an empty
saddle. A patriot sentinel stood on the
hill by the school house, near where the
Bramhali house is now, and when the
officer got to the stone bridge and was
obOIlt tn crocc IL that s~nnffOai shot him |