Folklore and media · Hanover Furnace, Burlington County
The Decatur cannonball legend at Hanover Furnace
Folklore · Undated event · Printed by 1905
A Pine Barrens legend has naval hero Stephen Decatur firing a cannonball at the Jersey Devil during a visit to the Hanover ironworks; a 1905 newspaper story now documents the tale, though no account from Decatur’s lifetime has been found.
The story as told
Several famous visitors turn up in Jersey Devil lore, and one is Commodore Stephen Decatur, known for his 1804 raid on Tripoli harbor. The earliest version inspected here appears in an article attributed to John Elfreth Watkins in the September 2, 1905 Evening Star, “Demon of the Pines”. The article says Decatur came to the Hanover foundry to test cannonballs and fired one through the creature without stopping it. The same article says Joseph Bonaparte encountered the Devil while hunting in the Pines. The article identifies Francis B. Lee of Trenton as the person who put him on the monster’s trail; the article does not establish that Lee witnessed either alleged historical event. A 2021 Naval Historical Foundation essay retells both stories and says their origin remains unclear.
What can and cannot be checked
Hanover Furnace was a real ironworks. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (reference number 74001155), in Burlington County near Browns Mills. The legend has no event date or named contemporary witness. The inspected 1905 article establishes that the cannonball story circulated in print then; it does not authenticate a meeting between Decatur and a creature. Watkins’s version also predates the celebrated January 1909 newspaper wave.
The Wikipedia article on the Pine Barrens adds a more specific claim. It says the 24-pound cannons Decatur took to Algiers had been cast at Hanover in 1814, and it cites John McPhee’s The Pine Barrens as its source. That claim is not independently confirmed here. McPhee’s book was not examined, and no record from the War of 1812 or the Navy was found to back it. If the claim holds up, it could explain why Decatur’s name became attached to Hanover in folklore. Until then, that connection is a guess, not a documented fact.
Sources and research limits
- “Demon of the Pines,” attributed to John Elfreth Watkins, Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), September 2, 1905, p. 23 — Original page and Library of Congress text inspected October 7, 2026. It prints both the Decatur and Bonaparte traditions without a contemporary event record.
- Tyler Robinson, “Seapower, Satire, and Superstition: Stephen Decatur and the Hunt for the Jersey Devil,” Naval Historical Foundation, October 28, 2021 — Read October 7, 2026. Its 2021 version repeats the cannonball story and the Joseph Bonaparte parallel; the 1905 article now supplies an earlier printed source. It does not date the story or discuss a date of 1778.
- National Park Service, National Register listing, “Hanover Furnace” (NRIS 74001155) — Read for the listing and its location in Burlington County, near Browns Mills. The full nomination text has not been digitized.
- “New Jersey Pine Barrens,” Wikipedia — Read only to identify the claim about Hanover cannon and its citation to McPhee. Wikipedia is not relied on for any fact in this entry.