Unidentified animals · Greenwich, Cumberland County
The Greenwich “Jersey Devil” that fed on William Hyman’s chickens (1925)
One contemporary local newspaper report · Animal not identified
A December 1925 newspaper reported that a Greenwich farmer shot an unidentified animal that hopped like a kangaroo, after it killed a number of his chickens.
A kangaroo-hopping raider
On December 17, 1925, the Monitor-Register of Woodstown, in Salem County, published a short item headed “Another ‘Jersey Devil’ Is Found at Greenwich.” It reported that “Wm. Hyman, Greenwich farmer,” had shot an animal the previous week after it killed a number of his chickens. The paper said the animal, by Hyman’s account, “hops like a kangaroo.” It described the creature as about the size of an Airedale, with dark tawny fur, forequarters higher than its rear, and four webbed toes on its hind feet. It also noted that the long teeth in the upper jaw met the fangs in the lower jaw exactly. The paper offered no identification, calling the animal “as puzzling as the strange beasts found previously.”
Not the only puzzling animal that season
The same item recalled an earlier specimen found near the Harding Highway at Franklinville and nicknamed the “‘Prehistoric’ Jersey Devil.” The paper had described that specimen in October: Morrell Langley found it in a pine tree, and its front appendages were called jointed paddles. An October 29 follow-up said Henry Finger had sent it to the University of Pennsylvania. The December comparison does not establish a third distinct animal at Franklinville. No final identification of either the Franklinville specimen or the separate Greenwich animal was located.
What the record does and does not show
This is one brief item in a small-town weekly, not a scientific report. It describes an animal that was shot and examined rather than glimpsed in flight, which sets it apart from the winged Jersey Devil of the January 1909 newspaper wave. The paper does not say what became of the carcass, whether anyone else examined it, or where in Greenwich the shooting happened.
Sources and research limits
- The Monitor-Register (Woodstown, Salem Co., N.J.), December 17, 1925, page 1, “Another ‘Jersey Devil’ Is Found at Greenwich” — The page's OCR text was retrieved from the Library of Congress Chronicling America full-text service and read on September 11, 2026. It is the only account located. The item does not name a more specific location within Greenwich, does not say how many people saw the animal, and gives no date for the earlier Franklinville find.