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The Ghostly Cyclist in Brooklyn's Prospect Park

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Despite her cycling costume, the young woman raced the phantom...

Every state seems to have a version of the phantom bicyclist story. According to the Brooklyn Eagle, this young woman rider met her phantom cyclist in the summer of 1896.

The Brooklyn Eagle version of the phantom cyclist story begins one balmy spring night in June 1896. According to the Eagle, the young woman stood on the veranda of her Brooklyn home and decided to take a spin through Prospect Park on her bicycle. The Eagle story follows her through her ride and her encounter with the phantom bicycle rider.

The Complete Bicycling Costume

It took the young woman several minutes to put on her bike cycle riding costume. The Godey’s Lady’s Book recommended that the female cyclist of 1896 wear a straight, side pleated skirt of serge over one underskirt, and full trousers lined with flannel and made of material to match the dress. A warm jersey and jacket trimmed with fur with a matching cap completed the outfit.

In Bicycling for Ladies, published in 1896, Maria Ward recommended a lightly boned blouse without a corset, a serge skirt, low shoes with spats to keep out the gravel, and a walking hat. Mrs. M. Cooke favored a cycling costume known as the “Londonderry.” It was made of gray green hopsack which was a coarse, loosely woven cotton or wool fabric. The coat had long, full sides and it was worn over full knickerbockers with either a shirt or a double breasted cloth, wool or leather vest.

The Cyclist Dressed and Gathered Up Her Bicycle Gear

The well-dressed woman cyclist also wore leggings, a hat, doeskin gloves and a pair of the rubber soled cycling shoes that had first appeared on the market in 1891. She also wore a bicycle belt, complete with a small leather purse.

Mrs. Ward urged women taking a bicycling trip or expedition — any trip over an hour — to outfit her bicycle with a lamp and to carry matches, tools, a repair kit, a sewing kit and a first aid kit.

The Young Woman Cyclist Entered Prospect Park

Eventually, the young woman cyclist finished dressing and wheeled her bicycle down Flatbush Avenue, turned into Fort Hamilton Avenue and entered Prospect Park through the Ocean Avenue gates. The balmy night had enticed hundreds of other female and male cyclists to take a spin and the main drive in the park that ran parallel with Fort Hamilton Avenue was crowded with cyclists.

The female cyclist hadn’t anticipated such a crowd and she steered her cycle to the west drive which led to the more secluded parts of the park. She soon found the privacy that she sought in the more secluded section of the park and breathed a sigh of relief as she cycled down deserted roads and paths.

She Chose a Secluded Path and Regretted Her Choice

By this time, the moon had climbed high in the sky. The Brooklyn Eagle story sets a sinister mood when it describes the female cyclist spinning along the road to the top of the hill. She glanced to each side where the inky blackness of the woods pressed against the road. Her heart fluttered and she speculated that anyone could be lurking in those inky woods and jump out to ambush her. As she considered the possible phantoms lurking in the woods, she pedaled faster so she could get back quickly to the more crowded paths.

She turned into a road leading south that she thought would lead her out of the park. Quite matter-of-factly the Brooklyn Eagle account continues. Suddenly she noticed a bike and a rider bent over it like a racer draw alongside her. The cyclist’s heart gave a leap of joy. She felt quite relieved to see another person on the lonely trail.

The Young Woman Met the Phantom Cyclist

Then the young woman took a second look at the bicyclist and almost fell off of her bicycle. The Brooklyn Eagle story described the phantom cyclist as wearing a flowing white transparent robe that plainly revealed the skeleton underneath. The phantom bent over in a double curve and the place in the skull where the nose had been almost touched the handle bars. The skeleton’s bony hands held the handlebars with a firm grip. The phantom’s bones rattled as it approached and shot past the female cyclist. Then the phantom rider slowed down as if to show the shivering female cyclist that she couldn’t escape by fast riding.

The Brooklyn Eagle story graphically describes the terror of the female cyclist. She felt her blood freezing in her veins, but she pedaled as she had never pedaled before. She would escape by fast riding if she could! The phantom rider effortlessly kept pace alongside her. The female cyclist closed her eyes so she wouldn’t have to look at the phantom rider, but she felt a mixture of terror and fascination. She peered through her lashes at intervals to see if the phantom rider still kept pace with her.

The Phantom Cyclist Led the Way, Won the Race, and Vanished

According to the Brooklyn Eagle story, the phantom rider led the young woman in a ride around the park as if she had no will of her own. Utterly exhausted, she finally found the Prospect Park gate where she had entered what seemed like a lifetime earlier. The female cyclist peered at the phantom rider through her lashes one more time and discovered that it had vanished. The female cyclist stopped for a moment and leaned on her handle bars. She couldn’t be sure whether or not she had imagined the phantom rider, but then a horrible thought occurred to her. What if the phantom rider returned for another race? She lost no time in speeding her bicycle home through the dark streets of Brooklyn, peering over her shoulder all of the way home.

References:

Brooklyn Eagle, June 14, 1896.

Frances Willard, Wheel Within a Wheel, Applewood Books, 1997.





 

 


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  • Home
  • Women's Rooms
    • Womens Rooms-Anne
    • Womens Rooms-Abigail
    • The Dead Baby in a Blue Blanket: The
    • Rena Rides the Raindrops
  • Women at Work-Blog
  • E Books and Print Books for Sale
  • Women of Historical Complexion
  • Rachel and Elizabeth Knaggs
  • Elizabeth Stiles, President Lincoln's Spy
  • Loyalist Lucy Flucker Meets Patriot Henry Knox at a Boston Parade
  • Queen Maria Amelia, the Last Queen of Portugal, Stood Her Ground
  • The Lady and the Patriot: Theodosia Burr Alston's Fateful Voyage
  • Margaret Agnew Blennerhassett - More Character Than Riches
  • Florence Nightingale- Nurse, Feminist, Statistician, Author
  • Mary Todd Lincoln Considered April Her "Season of Sadness"
  • Mrs. Santa Claus - A Strong and Supportive Woman for All Seasons
  • Elizabeth Turner McCormick, Woman Voyager
  • Frances Ellen Watkins Harper Fought for Human Rights
  • Mary Fields, Stage Coach Mail Driver, Sharp Shooter, Faithful Friend
  • Lucy Parsons, "More Dangerous Than A Thousand Rioters"
  • Lydia Maria Francis Child Travels 'Over the River and Through the Wood'
  • Anti-Suffragists Believed Women Didn't Need the Right to Vote
  • Finland's Alexandra Gripenberg Sought Universal Women's Rights
  • From Frances Slocum to Little Bear Woman and Back Again
  • Madame Elisabeth Thible is the First Woman to Ride in a Free Floating Balloon
  • Veronica Kerler Frank Pined for Germany, But Made Milwaukee Her Home
  • Mary Humphreys Stamps, Undefeated Rebel with An Educational Cause
  • Sister Monica Is One of Milwaukee, Wisconsin's Early Pioneers
  • A Love Story for St. Valentine's Day - Marie Antoinette and Count Axel von Fersen
  • Three Wisconsin Women of the Waves
  • Margaret Fox Kane and her Victorian Love Story
  • Francoise Marie Jacquelin, Lioness of La Tour, Lioness of Acadia, Woman in Her Own Right
  • Mary Breckinridge, Circuit Riding Nurse and Founder of the Frontier Nursing Service
  • Women Bicyclists Break Their Glass Cages and Ride into Liberation
  • Maria Mitchell, America's First Woman Astronomer Demonstrated Female Scientific Aptitude
  • Queen Alexandra of Great Britain-Queen Victoria's Daughter-in-Law, Bertie's Patient Wife, and Her Own Person!
  • Chicagoan Kate Kellogg Meets a Ghost on a Train
  • Isobel Lillian Steele Went to a Party and Ended Up in a Nazi Jail
  • Madam Sophie Blanchard - "Official Aeronaut of the Restoration"
  • Women of Their Time and Place
    • Nadine Turchin Fights Alongside Her Husband in the Civil War
    • War Stories Along Lake Erie: Ordinary Women Experience the War of 1812
    • Katie Walker Tends Robbins Reef Light Near the Statue of Liberty
    • Maria Gulovich Joined the Czech Resistance
    • Pirate Fanny Campbell Freed Her Fiance and Fought the British
    • SOE Agent Andree Borrel Lived Several Lifetimes in Her 24 Years
    • Lydia Latrobe Roosevelt and the First Mississippi River Steamboat
    • Sophie Kwiatkowski Served as a New Guinea Nurse in World War II
    • Clara Zetkin Spoke Against Hitler in the German Reichstag
    • Gertrud Scholtz-Klink, Female Fuhrer, Breathed Her Nazi Beliefs
    • Nancy Leo , the Only Woman Buried in Luxembourg American Cemetery
    • Dickey Chapelle, Journalist and War Correspondent
    • Lucena Brockway Adapts to Life in the Keweenaw Copper Mining Country of Lake Superior
    • Does Mary Surrat's Ghost Haunt the Senate Chambers Seeking Justice?
    • The Ghostly Cyclist in Brooklyn's Prospect Park
  • Women of Contemporary 20th and 21st Century Complexion
    • Clara Ward Chimay, Gilded Age Princess
    • Ruth Becker's Faith Helps Her Survive the Titanic and Beyond
    • Mildred Beltmann , Wartime Wife
    • The Courage of their Cultural Convictions - Women Missionaries in China
    • Light and Radiance - Laurence Owen and Her Sabena Fellow Travelers
    • Edna St. Vincent Millay, Passionate Poet, Candle-Lit Feminist
    • Fascinating Footnote: The Goose Down Divorce
    • Olive Higgins Prouty Juggles to Balance Home and Career
    • Mother and Daughter Journalists Agnes Meyer and Katharine Graham Shaped Journalism
    • Rose Friedman and the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
    • Katharine Meyer Graham Leaves Her Mark on the Washington Post
    • Ida M. Tarbell, "Bachelor Soul," Transitional Woman, or Both?
    • Nurse Edith Cavell, the Courage to Die for Her Country
    • Sigrid Schultz Outsmarted Hermann Goering
    • Martha Dickie Sharp Saves Jewish Refugees from the Nazi Death Machine
    • Virginia Graham Pioneered in Early Television and Survived Cancer
    • Rose Conway, President Harry Truman's Secret Weapon
    • Nancy Green, Talented Entrepreneur, Transitional Symbol
    • "Surrender on Demand:" The Friendship of Mary Jayne Gold and Miriam Ebel
    • Julia K. Tibbitts - Closet Environmentalist
    • Lee Lawrence Ansberry Reconquers the World and Reshapes Her Life
  • Christmas Cheer