Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow tells the story of Ichabod Crane, a hapless schoolteacher haunted by a headless horseman, and the character was inspired by Irving's friendship with Jesse Merwin, a Kinderhook one-room schoolhouse teacher whom Irving befriended during a visit in 1809. The two young intellectuals bonded over fishing trips and long discussions of politics, and their friendship lasted for the rest of their lives. Ten years later, Irving published The Legend of Sleepy Hollow in The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., a critical and commercial success that became one of America's first bestsellers. Jesse Merwin came to be remembered as the inspiration for Ichabod Crane, with Martin Van Buren writing in 1846 that Merwin was the "pattern" for the character, and Irving later inscribing a letter from Merwin, "From Jesse Merwin, the original Ichabod Crane." Like the fictional character, Merwin was a native of Connecticut who taught the children of Dutch settlers at a rural Hudson Valley schoolhouse, and in 1834 he named one of his sons Washington Irving Merwin. Irving also encountered the name Ichabod Crane elsewhere in his life when, during the War of 1812, he met Colonel Ichabod Crane, the commanding officer of the fortifications at Sackets Harbor, New York.