Hulda's Glen

Water has a way of remembering its course.

Long after roads are laid, boundaries drawn, and names changed, a spring continues to find its way through the earth.

In the wooded hollows near Spook Rock, beneath the dense green canopy of the hemlocks, water emerges among old stones and follows the natural descent of the land.

The air here is noticeably cooler than on the surrounding carriage roads. Even in autumn, when the hardwoods have begun surrendering their leaves, the hemlocks remain dark and green. Their branches shelter the forest floor, where moss grows thickly and the smell of damp earth mingles with the sharper scent of resin.

The spring is easily overlooked.

Those who travel the established trails may hear the water without ever seeing its source.

Yet this quiet stretch of woodland has long been associated with one of the Hollow's most intriguing figures.

A woman remembered as Hulda of Bohemia.

The Woman in the Woods

According to local tradition, Hulda arrived in the valley during the years preceding the American Revolution.

She lived apart from the Dutch settlement, in a small dwelling believed to have stood somewhere below Spook Rock.

Her knowledge of plants and their medicinal uses earned her a reputation as a healer.

It also made her an object of suspicion.

Accounts describe a woman who maintained relationships beyond the boundaries of the colonial community, including with the Indigenous people whose knowledge of the valley long preceded European settlement.

For this, and for her independence, she was called a witch.

Yet the same traditions that preserve this accusation also remember acts of generosity.

Herbs left at the doors of the sick.

Remedies provided to those who would not openly seek her help.

Assistance given without expectation of gratitude.

It is difficult to reconcile these accounts with the frightening figure that later retellings sometimes suggest.

Perhaps the contradiction belongs not to Hulda, but to the people who described her.

The question of her death

Hulda is said to have died during the Revolutionary War while aiding Patriot forces against the British.

Her memorial at the Old Dutch Church places her death around 1777.

The historical record, however, is less certain than the familiar telling suggests.

Much of her story survives through accounts recorded long after the events they describe. Dates differ. Details have been repeated without clear documentation. The precise location of her dwelling remains uncertain.

There is another difficulty.

References to a woman associated with the Hollow appear in later records, including accounts that would place her activities beyond the traditionally accepted date of Hulda's death.

These references are insufficient to establish that the woman was Hulda.

They are equally insufficient to establish that she was not.

It is possible that the date is wrong.

It is possible that more than one woman carried the knowledge attributed to her.

It is possible that a name became attached to a tradition much older than any single life.

The available evidence does not permit a conclusion.

The spring

The association between Hulda and the surrounding woodland raises questions that have received comparatively little attention.

Why this particular hollow?

Why the spring?

A person knowledgeable in medicinal plants would have had practical reasons to remain near fresh water, sheltered ground, and the varied vegetation of the surrounding slopes.

The location offers all three.

No supernatural explanation is required.

And yet, the stories have endured.

The spring continues its quiet passage over stone. The hemlocks shelter the path. Beyond them, the old carriage roads curve through a landscape that has been known, named, and renamed by successive generations.

Whatever knowledge Hulda possessed, the woods in which she lived have outlasted nearly everyone who spoke of her.

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Related records: The Old Dutch Church · Raven Rock · Margriet's Journal

End of available record.