Jesse Merwin (April 3, 1783 – November 8, 1852), called the "pattern" or "original" of
Ichabod Crane
Ichabod Crane is a fictional character and the protagonist in Washington Irving's short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." Crane is portrayed, in the original work, as well as in most adaptations, as a tall, lanky individual with a scarecro ...
, was a rural schoolmaster in
Upstate New York
Upstate New York is a geographic region consisting of the area of New York State that lies north and northwest of the New York City metropolitan area. Although the precise boundary is debated, Upstate New York excludes New York City and Long Is ...
, and a friend of
Martin Van Buren
Martin Van Buren ( ; nl, Maarten van Buren; ; December 5, 1782 – July 24, 1862) was an American lawyer and statesman who served as the eighth president of the United States from 1837 to 1841. A primary founder of the Democratic Party (Uni ...
and
Washington Irving
Washington Irving (April 3, 1783 – November 28, 1859) was an American short-story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He is best known for his short stories "Rip Van Winkle" (1819) and " The Legen ...
. He taught school at a
single-room schoolhouse in
Columbia County, New York.
Biography
Jesse Merwin, a 19th-century schoolmaster in
Kinderhook, New York
Kinderhook is a town in the northern part of Columbia County, New York, United States. The population was 8,330 at the 2020 census, making it the most populous municipality in Columbia County. The name of the town means "Children's Corner" in th ...
, was described in a well-known longhand script letter by President
Martin Van Buren
Martin Van Buren ( ; nl, Maarten van Buren; ; December 5, 1782 – July 24, 1862) was an American lawyer and statesman who served as the eighth president of the United States from 1837 to 1841. A primary founder of the Democratic Party (Uni ...
as the "pattern" for author
Washington Irving
Washington Irving (April 3, 1783 – November 28, 1859) was an American short-story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He is best known for his short stories "Rip Van Winkle" (1819) and " The Legen ...
's character of
Ichabod Crane
Ichabod Crane is a fictional character and the protagonist in Washington Irving's short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." Crane is portrayed, in the original work, as well as in most adaptations, as a tall, lanky individual with a scarecro ...
in his story
"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow".
According to a notation by Irving and a certification written in longhand by Martin Van Buren—who was friends with both the author and the schoolteacher—the 'pattern' (Van Buren's words) for the character of Ichabod Crane was based on a
Kinderhook schoolmaster named Jesse Merwin, whom Irving became friends with in
Kinderhook, New York
Kinderhook is a town in the northern part of Columbia County, New York, United States. The population was 8,330 at the 2020 census, making it the most populous municipality in Columbia County. The name of the town means "Children's Corner" in th ...
, in 1809.
The two friends continued a pen-pal correspondence for thirty years. The
Columbia County Historical Society Founded in 1916, the Columbia County Historical Society and CCHS Museum & Library collects, preserves, interprets, and presents the history, heritage, and culture of Columbia County, New York, and serves residents of all eighteen Columbia County tow ...
(New York) owns the original Kinderhook Schoolhouse named after the Irving character based on Jesse Merwin, the town's first schoolteacher. The Kinderhook town school district (
Ichabod Crane Central School District
Kinderhook (Ichabod Crane) Central School District is located in between the Catskill and Berkshire mountains and serves a population of 8,296 residents in northern Columbia and southern Rensselaer counties in New York. The district is in a rura ...
) is also named for the Irving character. Because a member of the
Van Tassel family was a lieutenant alongside another man in Tarrytown, Samuel Youngs, according to an 1894 article in ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', "it
asclaimed by many in that town (Tarrytown) that
Samuel Youngs
Samuel Youngs (December 4, 1760 – September 12, 1839) was an American school teacher. He was a friend of Washington Irving and elements of his life may be included in the character Ichabod Crane in Irving's story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" ...
was the original from whom Irving drew his character of Ichabod Crane".
Author Gary Denis asserts that while the character of Ichabod Crane is loosely based on Kinderhook Schoolmaster, Jesse Merwin, it ''may possibly... include elements'' from Samuel Youngs' life.
In 1809 Irving resided for a while in the
Van Ness Mansion in the
Town of Kinderhook, and was a close friend with neighboring Schoolteacher Jesse Merwin during that time.
Stanley Thomas Williams Stanley Thomas Williams (25 October 1888 – 5 February 1956) was a scholar who helped to establish the study of American literature as an academic field during his teaching career at Yale University. In 1935 he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowsh ...
, Professor of English at
Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
, an early Irving biographer best known for his interpretation of
Herman Melville
Herman Melville (Name change, born Melvill; August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American people, American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance (literature), American Renaissance period. Among his bes ...
as well as his two-volume biography on Irving, also refers to
Martin Van Buren
Martin Van Buren ( ; nl, Maarten van Buren; ; December 5, 1782 – July 24, 1862) was an American lawyer and statesman who served as the eighth president of the United States from 1837 to 1841. A primary founder of the Democratic Party (Uni ...
's certificate, stating in his two-volume work on Irving, "...Ichabod Crane, Irving drew from the schoolmaster whom he knew in 1809."
[
]
Early years
By 1809 Merwin was teaching at a District School in Kinderhook, where he boarded at the home of Judge William Peter Van Ness. There he met another boarder, a twenty-six year old tutor and aspiring author named Washington Irving
Washington Irving (April 3, 1783 – November 28, 1859) was an American short-story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He is best known for his short stories "Rip Van Winkle" (1819) and " The Legen ...
. Irving and Merwin went fishing and hunting together during that period and became lifelong friends.
Personal life
Merwin married Jane Van Dyke, the daughter of a wealthy Kinderhook farmer in 1808, and together they had eight sons and three daughters. In 1834, Merwin named one of his sons Washington Irving Merwin after his friend the author.
Merwin died in Kinderhook on November 8, 1852.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Merwin, Jesse
Schoolteachers from New York (state)
1780s births
1852 deaths
People of the Province of New York
People from Kinderhook, New York
People from Milford, Connecticut
People from Connecticut
Characters in short stories
Literary characters introduced in 1820
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
American folklore
American educators
Upstate New York
it:Ichabod Crane
pl:Ichabod Crane