Samuel Youngs

Who was Samuel Youngs?

Samuel Youngs was an American school teacher. He was a friend of Washington Irving and may have served as inspiration for the character Ichabod Crane in Irving's story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow".

He served as a lieutenant in the American Revolutionary War, and was honoured, along with other residents of Tarrytown who fought in that war, with a monument erected in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. Following the war, he became a member of the Assembly and Surrogate of Westchester County. He was buried in the yard of the Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow in Sleepy Hollow, New York. In 1851 Youngs' remains were removed to the Dale Cemetery in Ossining, New York, becoming the first interment at that cemetery.