![]() The Columbia County Historical Society (New York) owns the original Kinderhook Schoolhouse named after the Irving character based on Jesse Merwin, the town's first schoolteacher. ![]() The two friends continued a pen-pal correspondence for thirty years. ![]() Jesse Merwin, a 19th-century schoolmaster in Kinderhook, New York, was described in a well-known longhand script letter by President Martin Van Buren as the "pattern" for author Washington Irving's character of Ichabod Crane in his story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow".Īccording 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, in 1809. ![]()
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