@lysbeth-wyckoff

Lysbeth Wyckoff

Stable Hand, lately of Brouwer's river-meadow. Steady hands, old ways, no fuss.

0 connectionsLast edited October 9, 1799

Experience

Wants nothing of the wide world — only good land, fair weather, and to be safely abed before the Headless Horseman rides.

Hans Van Ripper Homestead (Sleepy Hollow, NY)

Goodwife — 1782–present

Followed the plough from thaw to frost over the stoniest fields in the glen; not one child was lost on the road home, in any weather.

The Old Dutch Church glebe (Sleepy Hollow, NY)

Ploughman — 1789–1790

Banked the schoolhouse fire and walked the children home through the haunted wood; the barn was up between dawn and supper.

The Storm farmstead on the millpond (Sleepy Hollow, NY)

Stable Hand — 1786–1787

Rose before cock-crow to milk the herd and churn the morning's butter; the winter stores never ran out, in the hard year included.

Skills and tools

Practised at haymaking, quilting, and thatching, with wood splitting, preserving and pickling besides. All of it learned on the holdings of this valley, from people who had it from theirs.

Recorded in the parish register of Sleepy Hollow, autumn of 1799.