Odell, Jackson
John M. McDonald interview — 1845-10-29
Jackson Odell (1792-1849) was a son of John Odell (1756-1835), one of the Westchester Guides. He notes the location of the capture of Loyalist cavalry under Captain Joshua Barnes and Lieutenant Benjamin Hunt in Yonkers in 1778. He also states that Leah Van Tassel Romer was the child who was rescued by a Hessian soldier and placed in the snow outside the Van Tassel house in Greenburgh when that structure was burned by the British during a raid in 1777. Interestingly, Odell implies that Leah was the heroine of Washington Irving’s “Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” He concludes by stating that a girl was accidently shot by Andreas Emmerich’s Chasseurs near Saw Mill River Church, an incident for which Emmerich expressed regret.
Manuscript page facsimiles
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Transcription
- Hufeland Index Page 229 -
October 29th. Jackson Odell: “It was not on Browne’s Hill that Barnes and Hunt were taken but in the valley below – Barnes made no resistance and lost reputation. He was surrounded and surrendered without striking a blow. He distinguished himself at the taking of Fort Montgomery in 1777, but ravaged the country about Moore’s Patent, where West Point, afterwards stood, plundering and burning. – He married a sister of the Hatfield’s, Abraham and Richard. The child taken out and left in the snow by a soldier at the burning of the Van Tassel houses in 1777 was Leah Van Tassel, [X] afterwards wife of Captain John Romer, and the heroine of Irving’s legend of Sleepy Hollow.
[X] only child of Cornelius Van Tassel and heiress &c. <left margin> Carriage –Sept.11 to October 29 inclsuive –13 times. <left margin >
- Hufeland Index Page 230 -
A young girl was shot by a party under Emmerick, near the present site of the Saw Mill River Church, accidentally. (?) Emmerick expressed great regret, and made many apologies for the occurrence.