Program

Legends & Lore®

Subject

Folklore, Legend, People

Location

32 River Rd, Hyde Park, NY 12538, USA

Lat/Long

41.787266, -73.946294

Grant Recipient

Hudson Valley Railroad Society

After the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865, preparations were made to transport the president’s remains, along with the body of his young son Willie who had passed away in 1862, from Washington, D.C. to Springfield, Illinois. The president’s funeral train began its long journey on April 21, 1865. By April 25, the train was traveling along the Hudson River Railroad between New York City and Albany. It had departed the city at 4pm and arrived that night in the hamlet of East Albany. The train had the right of the track over all other trains and ran at a slow rate of speed through the towns and villages it passed, giving mourners a moment to pay their respects to the president.

Shortly before 8pm on April 25, the president’s funeral train passed through the town of Hyde Park. Ever since this momentous occasion, a story has been told of an eerie event that occurs along the tracks in Hyde Park each night on April 25. If the moon is out, clouds are said to obscure it. A black carpet seems to roll down the tracks and deadens all sound. Then, Lincoln’s funeral train, adorned in black crepe is seen slowing inching its way north to Albany. This is not the only story told of sightings of the ghost of Lincoln’s funeral train. One will hear of similar stories that have been passed along in communities located along the train’s path that still resonate with locals to this day.