Washington Irving wrote the famous legends, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle. Both of these legends are set in the Upper New York state area. Irving had visited the hamlet of Sleepy Hollow in his youth and his estate, Sunnyside, was once owned by the Van Tassel family. Therefore, Irving incorporated this setting and this family into the framework of Germanic legends to write The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle. Also, Irving created the old gentleman, Diedrich Knickerbocker, as the source of these tales.