Washington Irving 
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Rip Van Winkle, The Spectre Bridegroom.Three Fabulous Ghost Stories from the ‘Sketch Book’ [EPUB ebook] 
With Numerous Contemporary Illustrations

Along with ‘Rip Van Winkle’, ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’ is among the earliest examples of American fiction with enduring popularity, especially because of a character known as the Headless Horseman believed to be a Hessian soldier who was decapitated by a cannonball in battle.
‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’ relates the tale of Ichabod Crane, a lean, lanky and extremely superstitious schoolmaster from Connecticut, who competes with Abraham ‘Brom Bones’ Van Brunt, the town rowdy, for the hand of 18-year-old Katrina Van Tassel, the daughter and sole child of wealthy farmer Baltus Van Tassel. Ichabod Crane, a Yankee and an outsider, sees marriage to Katrina as a means of procuring Van Tassel’s extravagant wealth …