A drowsy, dreamy influence seems to haug over the land, and to pervade the very atmosphere. Some say that the place was bewitched by a high German doctor, during the early days of the settlement ; others, that an old Indian chief, the prophet or wizard of his tribe, held his powwows there before the country was discovered by Master Hcndrick Hudson. Certain it is, the place still continues under the sway of some witching power that holds a spell over the minds of the good

a Reminiscence of Sleepy Hollow. i History of New York.

53^ HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER.

people, causing them to walk in continual reverie. They are given to all kinds of marvellous beliefs ; are subject to trances and visions, and frequently see strange sights, and hear music and voices in the air. The whole neighborhood abounds with local tales, haunted spots, and twilight superstitions ; stars shoot and meteors glare oftener across the valley than in any other part of the country, and the nightmare, with her whole nine fold, seems to make it the favorite scene of her gambols."

The Dutch church at Sleepy Hollow appears to have been first organized in 1697 ; for the ancient books are still extant, containing the names of members at that early date. We have previously shown that the present edifice was erected in 1699.

Prior to the year 1771, this society, (like the rest of the Dutch churches in the colony of New York,) was under the supervision of the Classis of Amsterdam, the latter body being subordinate to the Synod of North Holland. In the contest concerning the substitution of the English for the Dutch preaching cir. 1764, the members of this church took an active part -- some supposing that by the suppression of the last it would necessarily involve in course of time the loss of the doctrines, the mode of worship, the government, nay even the very name of the church itself.