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Best of Haunted History
The
hookerman
Ghost Lights and Ghastly Tales
of Death and Peril on the Rails
By C.G. Wolfe l Photos by Erin Kiernan
The Hookerman reportedly haunted the railroad bed off of North Four
Bridges Road, in Flanders (above and right), which is now part of the Columbia Trail.
A railroad night watchman
c.1900 (Washington State Historical Society).
night watchman, armed with his
brass lantern and punch clock,
was reportedly walking the
Bartley/Flanders spur of the CNJ Railroad when he fell into the path of an
unlit freight and was knocked unconscious. He came to long enough to see
that the train had shorn off his left
arm, and despite desperate attempts by
witnesses to try and stop the bleeding,
he went into shock and died. But according to legend his amputated spirit
rose up from the tracks as the Hookerman 3 a traumatized ghost trapped in
local lore who wanders the defunct railroad beds with his lantern searching for
his severed arm or in one variation of
the story, a wedding ring that is still on
his dead hand.
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The hookerman9s light has been described variously as a dull yellow or
green glow, measuring from one, to as much as four feet in diameter. Some witnesses
have seen the orb bouncing down the tracks, changing colors as well as direction, or
zipping overhead. But traditional sightings describe the blaze of an old oil lamp
swinging gently from side to side.
He9s been spotted in Chester, Flanders, Bartley, and Long Valley, but the Hookerman has also been seen at sites in Somerset and Warren counties. A favorite haunt
was a spot off of North Four Bridges Road in Flanders that was reportedly so popular among teens and thrill-seekers in the 1970s, that officials tore up the tracks in
an effort to discourage trespassers.
Chester isn9t alone when it comes to mysterious lights along railroad tracks. Towns
and communities near railroads are familiar with their perils and tales of those who
were killed, maimed, or lost a limb to a train accident have spawned Hookerman
type yarns in scores of communities throughout the United States. In the Chester
vicinity, however, no record of a railroad worker dying from an amputated arm has
been found yet, although there were several tragic events. One of these incidents,
which occurred in 1875, vividly described what a speeding train could do to the
human body. James Haines, a construction worker on the Longwood Valley Railroad
near Naughright, in Washington Township, was reportedly drunk when he stumbled
out onto the tracks at Chester Depot and stepped into the path of an oncoming
freight train. Haines was killed instantly and a reporter on the scene described the
results in graphic detail.
