Tag Archives: Washington Irving

A Crane of Truth

Colonel Ichabod Bennet Crane (July 18, 1787 – October 5, 1857) was a career military officer for 48 years and the probable namesake of the protagonist in Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

ichabod-b-crane

While Washington Irving did not expressly admit that the character is named after Colonel Crane, the two men had met in 1814 at Fort Pike located on Lake Ontario in Sackets Harbor, New York.  Irving was an aide-de-camp to New York Govenor Daniel D Tompkins, who was inspecting defenses in the Sackets Harbor area. Crane’s somewhat unusual and memorable first name Ichabod comes from the biblical name of the grandson of Eli the High Priest and son of Phinehas

here lies Ichabod – not in Sleepy Hollow, but in Staten Island! 

here-lies-ichabod-crane

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