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 -^^;^H^H^^^f^:^e5?^e^«^sv<^ 
 
 HISTORY OF 
 
 Suffolk County, 
 
 -^ COMPRISING THE-^ 
 
 ADDRESSES DELIVERED AJ YHE CELEBRATION OF THE 
 
 BI-CENTENNIAL OF SUFFOLK COUNTY, N. Y., 
 
 IN RIVERHEAD, NOVEMBER 15, 1883. 
 
 BABYLON, N. Y., 
 
 BUDGET STEAM PRINT, 
 
 1885. 
 
-Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1885, 
 By STEPHEN A. TITUS, U 
 
 In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY:— page. 
 "The growth of Suffolk county in Population, Wealth and 
 
 Comfort, " by EPHER WHITAKER, D. D. , 9 
 
 "The Formation of the Civil Government of Suflfolk county," by 
 
 Hon, HENRY J. SCUDDEK, 19 
 
 "Religious Progress and Christian Culture of Suffolk county," by 
 
 SAMUEL E. HERRICK, D,D., 29 
 
 "Development of Agriculture in Suffolk county," by Hon. HENRY 
 
 P. HEDGES, 39 
 
 ' The Commerce, Navigation and Fisheries of Suffolk county," by 
 
 Hon. HENRY A. REEVES, 55 
 
 "Literary Culture in Suffolk county,' by Hon. JOHN R. REID, 79 
 
 "Evacuation by the British," by Hon. CHAKLES R. STREET, 85 
 
 APPENDIX:— 
 
 Letter and Statistics, by JOSEPH NIMMO, Jr. , 93 
 
 Menhaden Fishery 98 
 
 Incidents of the Fishery 103 
 
 Ship Building and Tonnage 106 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 PATRIOTIC citizens of the county of Suffolk conceived the idea of 
 celebrating the Bi-Centennial of the birth of the County, which was 
 organized on November i, 1683. The initiative steps were taken by Mr. 
 B. Van Dusen, editor of the Southold Traveler, who addre^ed to prom- 
 inent citizens of the different towns forming the county, the following 
 letter: 
 
 Southold, Sept. 7, 1883. 
 
 Dear Sir: — The matter of celebrating the Bi-Centennial of our 
 County has attracted some attention during the past few months. All, so 
 far as I am aware, who have expressed an opinion on the subject, assert 
 that a suitable observance of the event would be not only becoming, 
 but an advantage to the present dwellers in our venerable County; 
 inasmuch as it would attract more attention to it from the outside world 
 and, in addition, afford an opportunity such as it would obtain in no other 
 way, to disprove the too common opinion abroad that Suffolk County is 
 but little better than a "howling wilderness," and that its inhabitants are 
 from fifty to one hundred years behind the times. 
 
 As I have said, all agree that the event should not be allowed to pass 
 unobserved, but as yet no one has taken the initiative steps necessary for 
 its consummation. Therefore, on the suggestion of another — not from 
 choice — I take the trouble and responsibility of sending out this circular- 
 letter, and ask that the following named persiDus be a committee to take 
 the matter in charge, and meet to make the necessary arrangements, in the 
 Supervisors' Room, in the Court House, at Riverhead, on Tuesday, Sept. 
 1 8th (Court week), immediately on the arrival of the mail train from the 
 west, about 1 1 :30 a. m. : 
 
 East Hampton, — Brinley D. Sleight, Supervisor Baker. 
 
 Southampton, — Henry P. Hedges, Supervisor Pierson. 
 
 Brookhaven, — Richard M. Bayles, Supervisor Floyd. 
 
 IsLiP, — Seth R. Clock, Supervisor Vail. 
 
 Babylon — James B. Cooper, Supervisor Titus. 
 
 Huntington — ^Thomas Young, Supervisor Street. 
 
 Smithtown — ^J. Lawrence Smith, Supervisor Bryant. 
 
 Riverhead — ^James H. Tuthill, Supervisor Perkins. 
 
 Southold — Rev. Epher Whitaker, D.D., Supervisor Reeves. 
 
 Shelter Island— Dr. Nicoll, Supervisor Cartwright. 
 
 This letter was accompanied by a sketch from the pen of Rev. Dr. 
 Epher Whitaker, giving a short outline of the formation and growth of 
 the County. 
 
 In response to the foregoing letter the committee met at Riverhead 
 on the day named and perfected plans for the celebration. 
 
O INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 Mr. John R. Perkins, Chairman of the Board of Supervisors was 
 elected chairman of the committee, and Mr. Chas. R. Street, Secretary. 
 
 It was agreed that the Bi-Centennial should be celebrated at the 
 County seat on Nov. 15, 1883, and a programme proposed by Rev. Dr. 
 Whittaker was slightly amended and unanimously adopted. It contem- 
 plated several addresses, which would present the chief features of the life 
 and growth of the County during the last two centuries. The topics were 
 arranged in a logical order as follows: First, the growth of the popula- 
 tion and of their wealth and comfort; secondly, the improvement of civil 
 government, jurisprudence and the administration of justice; thirdly, the 
 increase of education, Uteraiy culture and literary productions; fourthly, 
 the progress of religion, Christian culture, and the spread of the various 
 branches of the Christian Church; fifthly, the cultivation of the soil and 
 the increase of its products; sixthly, the commerce, navigation and fisheries, 
 including the whaling and the menhaden industries. To these subjects 
 was added, seventhly, the evacuation of the county by the British forces in 
 
 1783. 
 
 To carry out this plan an executive committee of five persons was ap- 
 pointed, viz: JohnR. Perkins, Esq., Hon. Henry A. Reeves, Hon. Brinley 
 D. Sleight, Hon. James H. Tuthill and Hon. Nathan D. Petty. 
 
 By this committee the topics to be presented were assigned to the 
 following persons: The first to Rev. Epher Whittaker, D. D., of Southold, 
 second, to Hon. Henry J. Scudder, of New York; third, to Judge John 
 R. Reid, of Babylon; fourth, to Rev. Samuel E. Herrick, D. D., of 
 Boston; fifth, to Judge Henry P. Hedges, of Bridgehampton; sixth, to 
 Hon. Henry A. Reeves, of Greenport; and seventh, to Hon. Charles R. 
 Street, of Huntington. 
 
 At a subsequent meeting of the committee the following persons were 
 appointed committees for their respective localities. 
 
 East Hampton — ^Jos. S .Osbom, A. S. French, James M. Strong, J. 
 Mason Schellinger, J. Henry Barnes, David H. Huntting, Geo. A. Miller, 
 Wm. B. Barley, Jacob O. Hopping, Hiram Sherrill. 
 
 Shelter Island — H. H. Preston, B. C. Cartwright, Jr., E. H. 
 Payne, N. P. Dickerson, C. H. Smith, Jr. 
 
 Southampton — Hon. E. A. Carpenter, Benjamin Huntting, Wm. W. 
 Tooker, Charles A, Parks, Samuel Thompson, Henry Squires, N. Hal- 
 lock, E. H. Foster, Oscar Howell, Henry Gardiner, M. D. Howell. 
 
 Brookhaven — George T. Osbom, Chas. S. Havens, Henry W. Car- 
 man, Wilmot M. Smith, Chas. E. Rose, Roswell Davis, Gilbert H. Ray- 
 nor, A. R. Norton, Selah B. Strong, Thos. H. Saxton, Jas. E. Bayles. 
 
 Smithtowk — Hon. J. Lawrence Smith, Jacob B. Conklin, Coe. D. 
 Smith, Herman T. Smith, Wm. Henry Mills, Theo. W. Smith, Elias S. 
 Piatt, Robert B. Smith, Edmund N. Smith, Wallace Donaldson. 
 
 IsLiF— W. R. Suydam, John Wood, Wilson J. Terry, Chas. Z. Gil- 
 lette, Hon. Wm. H. Ludlow, Wm. Nicoll, Dr. A. G. Thompson, James 
 H. Doxsee, H. Duncan Wood, W. W. Hulse, Dr. E. S. Moore, Peny 
 Wicks, Arthur Dominy, John M. Rogers. 
 
 Babylon — D. S. S. Sammis, Elbert Carll, John Robbins, Benj. P. 
 Field, Hon. John R. Reid, Ferdinand Beschott, Geo. A. Hooper, Stephen 
 R. Williams, Jesse Purdy, Henry A. Brown. 
 
 Huntington — ^Thomas Atkin, Hon. Thomas Young, Edmund Jones, 
 David Carll, Jesse Carll, Edward Carll, Douglass Conklin, W. Sanford 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 7 
 
 Hudson, Carll Burr, Henry G. Scudder, Walter J. Hewlett, John F. 
 Wood, Isaac Rogers, W. H. Skidmore. 
 
 The people of Riverhead had determined to add several popular fea- 
 tures to the celebration; a parade of the county Posts of the Grand Army 
 of the Republic, the fire companies, and various other organizations of a 
 benevolent and social kind, as well as a grand display of fireworks and a 
 general illumination of the village. To carry out this part of the pro- 
 gramme, the following persons were appointed a committee of arrange- 
 ments: J. Henry Perkins, Gilbert H. Ketcham, George W. Cooper, Nat. 
 W. Foster, Hubbard Corwin, George H. Skidmore, Clifford B. Ackerly, 
 Horace H. Benjamin, Charles Hallett, Geo. F. Stackpole, Oliver A. Terry, 
 Walter E. Gerard, Geo. Raynor, Timothy M. Griffing, Ahaz Bradley, 
 Nathan D. Petty, James H. Tuthill, John R. Perkins, Simeon S. Hawkins, 
 J. Edward Wells, Charles M. Blydenburgh, David F. Vail, Rev. W, I. 
 Chalmers. 
 
 The weather on the appointed day was perfect and ifi view of the 
 shortness of the time for preparation, these popular features of the celebra- 
 tion were remarkably successful, and eminently honorable to all engaged 
 therein. The parade was orderly and beautiful. The decorations were 
 appropriate and tastefiil. The fireworks were splendid. The illumina- 
 tions were brilliant, and marked by a charming variety and originality. 
 
 The meetings afternoon and evening were held in the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church, Hon. William NicoU, of Islip, presiding. 
 
 The musical part of the programme was assigned to the efficient di- 
 rection and leadership of Prof D. P. Horton, of Southold. He was 
 specially aided by a quartette of gentlemen from Greenport. The selec- 
 tions were judicious and the singing praiseworthy. One of the pieces was 
 a grand choral, printed in the appendix to the Horton family Bible, which 
 was brought to Southold about 1640, and which is now in the possession 
 of ex-Sheriff" Hon. Silas Horton, who is in his 90th year. Another of the 
 pieces, the Pilgrims' Planting, is one of Professor Horton's many and ex- 
 cellent compositions. It was rendered by the choir with much skill and 
 spirit. 
 
 It was deemed advisable to preserve the speeches delivered on the oc- 
 casion as they contained matter of historical interest compiled carefully 
 and for the first time collected together for the public. 
 
 Everything that experience could suggest has been done to secure the 
 greatest accuracy so that the publisher feels confident in presenting this book 
 to the public, he is placing before them a complete and authentic history of 
 the County of Suffolk. 
 
 Babylon, Dec. i, 1884. 
 
THE GEOWTH OF SWFOLK COtJNTY 
 
 IN 
 
 POPULATION, WEALTH AND COMFORT. 
 
 — BY — 
 
 PHKR •^HITAKEH, 
 
 THERE is very generally a dose relation between the character and 
 condition of men and the soil on which they dwell, which they culti- 
 vate; and whose products afford them food and sustenance. 
 
 The climate in which they live, the air which they breathe, whether 
 cold or hot, dry or moist, rare or d«nse, must also greatly afiiect their in- 
 crease in number, as well as their health, longevity, thrift and comfort. 
 
 It would be vain to seek among the grand and lofty mountains for 
 men of softness. and delicate sensibilities. Mountaineers are generally 
 courageous, resolute, often harsh and stern. It is the dwellers upon 
 broad, fertile, sunny plains, who have feeble frames, smooth features, in- 
 ert habits, and subtle and sensuous dispositions. Those who live neigh- 
 bors to the sea, may feel the attractions of its grandeur and vastness, and 
 be as venturesome and daring as ^those who dwell amid the sublime 
 heights of the mountains. They may be even more enterprising. But 
 there is, none the less, a difference between the highlanders and those 
 whose home is upon the level slope :by the shore of the ocean. 
 
 Considerations of this kind may be kept in mind in regarding the 
 character and consequent growth of the population of our county for the 
 last two hundred years. 
 
 In all the higher forms of life upon the earth, much also depends 
 upon race and blood. No sportsman attempts to train a St. Bernard to 
 point birds, nor a greyhound to recover game from the water; and just as 
 little does a horseman undertake to train a Shetland pony to distance all 
 racers on the course. Blood is not only thicker than water; it is also 
 stronger than training. 
 
 Man's connection with the inferior creatures that serve him, is inti- 
 mate enough for him to show, in unlike races, the same difference of apt- 
 itudes and abilities for various employments and ends, which characterize 
 them. "One touch of Nature makes the whole world kin." But it is 
 Nature herself that makes men differ, in form, size, strength and quickness; 
 in language, and alertness of body arid mind; in all those manifold dis- 
 parities and unlikenesses among races which afford not the sameness and 
 unison, but the diversity and harmony of tones in the universal anthem of 
 mankind. The one blood, of which all men are made, shows its richness 
 in producing that vailcty in unity which is thQ ess^p^id (jondJtiOJl, <?T f(% 
 
 the i9W9« an4 goql Pt t)§awt}', ' "'■' '■ '"'"'" ' ■"■ ' 
 
lO POPULATION AND GROWTH. 
 
 Look at the countries which have been the homes of the world- 
 shaping peoples, the great historic nations, to which mankind must own 
 indebtedness for all those efficient means and mighty agencies which pro- 
 mote the beneficent increase in the number, wealth and comfort of the 
 earth's population. It is plainly seen, that it was the character of the 
 people, to a greater degree than the nature of the land of theii; birth and 
 abode, which determined their course and history. The mountains of 
 Judea rise tinder the same stars that beheld them when they werei traversed 
 by the feet of our Lord and His apostles. The Greeks, in the days of 
 .(Eschylus and Plato, breathed the same air which now maintains the life 
 of the inhabitants of Athens.- The Rome of Caesar stood on the same hills 
 that support the Rome of Humbert. The founders of Venice may have 
 been driven into the sea and compelled to make their home on a group of 
 low and^ marshy islands; but it was the Venetians, and not the islands, that 
 created the Queen City of the Adriatic, won for it the richest commerce of 
 the world, and made it, in many features, until this day, the sanctuary of 
 the finest art upon the face of the earth. 'But why call upon the records 
 of the past to show man's superiority to his environments ? It is Holland, 
 the free and the rich, that discloses how men turn the bottom of the ocean 
 into a land of firuitfulness, and built "the freshest and sweetest institutions 
 of humanity where once flowed the tides of the briny, bitter and boisterous 
 sea! And England, the mother country of most of us, the daughter of the 
 fatherland' of others here — England^ may have the waters for her defense; 
 but, even more, her ramparts have been the wooden and the iron walls of 
 her ships, and the strong minds and stout hearts of her shipmen. , It is 
 generally and mainly the virtue, courage, knowledge, industiy and justice 
 of England, that make the realm of Victoria, God bless her! the head of 
 the grandest, widest, mightest empire that ever spread the sacred protec- 
 tion and immense benefits of civil government over hundreds of millions 
 of people. 
 
 And what is true of an empire whose territories are so vastithat the 
 sun forever shines upon its possessions, is also true of much smaller re- 
 gions. 
 
 The soil of Suffolk county generally has excellent qualities; and this 
 has tended to increase the population. Much of it has been submitted to 
 the plough, and now yields the richest products of the earth for human 
 sustenance. ]\f uch more of the same fine soil will hereafter be possessed 
 by the hand of culture, and thus promote the growth of the popu^tion. 
 Doubtless the increase of both culture and population will advance with 
 swifter speed in coming years. 
 
 Suffolk county has a climate unsurpassed for health and comfort by 
 that of any place between the Lakes and the Gulf— the Kennebec and the 
 Kansas. 
 
 But it is the character of the people, more than the nature of the place, 
 that has determined the growth of the population, wealth and comfort of 
 the county during the last two hundred years. 
 
 Three centuries ago the soil here was naturally as fertile, the waters 
 as productive, and the salubrity as great, as they were two centuries ago. 
 The same heavens bent over the savage inhabitants then, that nOw smile 
 upon a people of virtue, intelligence and refinement. The same waters 
 surrounded our island. The same healthful air gave vitality and vigor to 
 its inhabitants. Its bays and shores swarmed with the same forms of fishes 
 
POPULATION AND GROWTH. II 
 
 and were frequented by the same kind of birds. The natural means of 
 human support and comfort were not less abundant in the days of the red 
 men than they are to-day. But the heathen people themselves were in- 
 ferior to their successors, to the Christian Englishmen who supplanted 
 them. They lacked virtue, knowledge, spiritual culture, industry. And 
 
 " Nature lives by toil; 
 Beast, bird, air, fire, the heavens and rolling world 
 All live by action." * * * "Hence utility 
 Through all conditions; hence the joys of health; 
 Hence strength of arm, and clear judicious thought; 
 Hence com and wine and oil, and all in life 
 Delectable. What simple Nature yields 
 (And Nature does her part), are only rude 
 Materials, cumbers on the thorny ground. 
 'Tis toil that makes them wealth." 
 
 " Industry alone is wealth; 
 What we do is Ours." 
 
 The people, whose new civil organization, two hundred years ago, 
 formed the county of SufFolk. were mainly English Puritans. A few of 
 them were Welsh, like the Griffing, the Llovd, and the Havens families. 
 A good specimen of this race may be seen in the Wines family, of South- 
 old, to which family belong Gen. Wines of our Revolutionary period; the 
 Rev. Abijah Wines, D. D. , a native of Southold, the founder of the Con- 
 gregational Theological Seminarv which is now at Bangor in Maine: and 
 the Rev. Enoch Cook Wines, D.D., LL.D., formerly the pastor of East- 
 Hampton, eminent as a philosophic and religious author and college 
 President, and especially famous with an international reputation as a 
 philanthropist in his official relations to the Prison Associations of the 
 State of New York and of the United States. The founder of the promi- 
 nent family of the Floyds, who have taken such an active and responsible 
 part, not in our county only, but also in the State and the Nation, was a 
 Welshman. Perhaps the most distinguished family of Welsh descent con- 
 nected with our early Suffolk county people are the Sewards, including 
 the Hon. William H. Seward, who became in his young manhood the 
 Governor of our Commonwealth, and at a later date a member of the 
 United States Senate, and the Secretary of State of the United States, the 
 chief member of the Cabinet of President Lincoln throughout the great 
 civil war. 
 
 Among the people of our county two centuries since were some Hu- 
 guenot families of great excellence. Here belong the Gerards, the Sal- 
 liers, the Boisseaus^ the Pelletreaus, the Fithians, the Perrins, the Dia- 
 ments, and others. The most notable family of this superior French stock 
 are the L'Hommedfeus; and we must regard the Hon. Ezra L'Homme- 
 dieu as the chief man of the race in Suffolk county. The founder 
 of the family, Benjamin L'Hommedieu, settled in Southold soon after Jhe 
 formation of the county. It is believed that he came from Rochelle im- 
 mediately after the renewal of the persecution of the French Protestants 
 under Louis XIV in 1685. He was a merchant, who beeame prominent 
 in the place of his American home. He doubtless came to Southold 
 through acquaintanceship with Captain Nathaniel Sylvester, ihe owner and 
 occupant of Shelter Island, which was then called Sylvester's Island. 
 Capt. Sylvester was a man of wealth and enterprise, great intelligence; ex- 
 tensive correspondence, generous disposition and boundless hospitality. 
 Quakers and foreigners, Frenchmen and Dutchmen^ as well as* his owri 
 
12' POPULATION AND GROWTH. 
 
 countrymen, i found delightful entertainment in his affluent and protecting 
 home. Here Benjamin L'Hommedieu met, woqed, won and married 
 Capt. Sylvester's daughter Patience. They had a large family, and he 
 lived to be iiiiiety-two years of age. Their eldest son, who bore his 
 father's name, married for his second wife Martha 'Bourne, of Sandwich, 
 Mass. These were the parents of Ezra L'Hommedieu, who wais born in 
 Southold, August 30, 1 734, graduated at Yale College in 1 754, and was 
 soon active in his profession as a lawyer. In 1765, he married Charity 
 Floyd. She was a daughter of Nicoll Floyd, and a> great-grand-daughter 
 of Richard Floyd, one of the first settlers of the coumty and the founder of 
 the Floyd fariiily in America. Her brother William became the celebrated 
 General Floyd,, a member of the United States Congress during the Revo- 
 lutionary war, a signer of the Declaration of Indefendence, a Senator of 
 the United States, a Presidential Elector, and very active and prominent 
 in the service of his coiintry in many offices and relations for half a cen- 
 tury. He was born in the same year as his brother-in-law, Mr.- L'Hom- 
 medieu, and they were several years together in Congress at the sarne time, 
 and also together at the same time in other important civil bfBces. For 
 example, they; were both in the State Senate from 1784 to 1788, in which 
 Gen. Floyd had been a member from its formation in 1777. They were 
 also both members of the Council of Appointments and of the Constitu- 
 tional convention of 1 80 1, as they had been at an 'earlier period in the 
 Provincial Contention. They were admirable representatives 6f the Welsh 
 and the French elements in the early population of Our county. After the 
 death, of the HOn. Ezra L'Hommedieu's wife. Charity Floyd, in- 1785, he 
 married, in 1 803, Catharine, daughter ot Nicoll Havens of Shelter Island; 
 They had no sons — three daughters. One of these, torn in 1806, became 
 the wife of Samuel S. Gardiner, Esq., of Shelter Island, whose children in- 
 herited the Sylvester Manor. Mr. L'Hommedieu die'd in 181 1. 
 
 There were also, in the formative period of our history, worthy rep- 
 resentatives of the Dutch people, and among thes^ may be mentioned 
 those who bore the family names of Schellenger, Vor^fch, Klaus, Albertson, 
 and others. 
 
 It would have been marvelous had there been here not even a few 
 representatives of the intelligent and enterprising country to which the 
 royal house of the Stuarts' properly belonged, as did also William Alexan- 
 der, Earl of Sterling, to whom was issued the first patent for the whole 
 territory of Long Island. Accordingly we find at, an early date such 
 Scotch names as Ramsey, Simpson, Muirson, and otl^ers. 
 
 But the people very generally were English Puritans and their de- 
 scendants, who had been settling and increasing here,' both by immigra- 
 tion and birth, for a period of forty to fifty years before the formation of 
 the county. A few of them preferred the Episcopal Establishment of the 
 n^ive country of themselves or their fathers; but far the greater part were 
 Presbyterians and Independents. If all did not desire the union of Church 
 and State as closely and fully as Christendom generally then desired it 
 nearly all desired at least, the union of Church and Town. They brought 
 with them the wonderful genius of the Anglo-Saxon race for organization; 
 much of the spirit and not a few of the customs of the ancient German 
 village community and co-operation; and the priceless inheritance of the 
 English common law. But they brought with them also a full determina- 
 
 \m 19 m\m\^ }i?fe ^ jpwrq mw} r^ ^^]ipw life, pc^ fr^g ^^^ n^^j-^ 
 
POPULATION AND GROWTH. 1 3 
 
 equitable civil institutions, than men had ever before possessed and en- 
 joyed on earth. They were resolved on the establishment and maintenance 
 of the supremacy of law, in both religious and civil government; and they 
 were equally resolute to be themselves the interpreter's of the law in both 
 Church and State; and this was a new departure m the organization of hu- 
 man society. In their feebleness, they found it necessary to exclude from 
 their own scattered and struggling settlements all those who were hostile 
 to their purpose of maihtainmg the new order in Church and State which 
 they had come to found and to enjoy. In the meetings of the people for 
 the enactment of laws aiid rules tor the government and welfare of the 
 community, they entrusted the right of voting to those only who were 
 friendly to their comprehensive and main objects — the enjoyment of the 
 gospel in purity and peace. They were determined that their lives, their 
 liberties, tneir possessions should be under the control of such persons as 
 were fleeing from England to avoid the persecution and injifry there in- 
 flicted upon those who, were intent upon more liberty and satety in the 
 kingdom, and more freedom and purity in the church than they possessed. 
 In 1639, the freemen ofjfhe several towns of Connecticut associated and 
 conjomed themselves to .be as one public State or commonwealth, "well 
 knowing, " as they said, "where a people are gathered together the word 
 of God requires, that to maintain the peace and union of such a people, 
 there should be an orderly and decent government established according 
 to God, to order and dispose of the affairs of the people at all seasons as 
 occasion shalf require.". ^On this ground, they formed a permanent or- 
 ganization, ' ' to maintain and preserve the liberty and purity of the gospel 
 of pur Lord Jesus which we now profess, and also tne discipline of the 
 churchiis, which, accordiiig to the truth of the said gospel, is now prac- 
 tised among usj as also in our civil affairs to be guided and governed ac- 
 cording to such laws, rules, orders and decrees as shall be made, ordered 
 and dcicrejd." ^In the same year, 1039, the government of the Colony of 
 Ndw Havjn was organized on essentially the same principles and for the 
 same purposes. The following year, in 1640, our towns or Southold and 
 Southampton were settled, the rirst under the New Haven jurisdiction from 
 its origin, and. the second soon after united itself to Connecticut. In 
 1643, the Puritan colonics of New England formed their Union, and said 
 in tne Pr>;ainble to their Constitution: " We all came into these parts of 
 America with one and the same end and aim, namely, to advance the 
 kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to enjoy the liberties of the gospel 
 in purity and peace. " 
 
 Men of this character, with these principles and aims, could not fail 
 to be sober, industrious, thrifty and virtuous. Planted on such a soil as 
 Long Island's, in this genial climate, with the rich advantages of the land 
 and seas which they have possessed, they were bound to grow and pros- 
 per. They were generally intelligent people for those times, most ot the 
 tuU grown men being able to reaa and write, and some of them possessing 
 scholarly attainments. Not a few were venturesome and restless, and 
 nearly ail desired to increase their worldly estates and mase provision for 
 their children, on earth, as well as lay up their treasures in heaven. 'I'heir 
 style of living was simply and inexpensive. But the hardships pf their 
 condition did not chill their love of home, nor hinder the rapid increase 
 of their descendants. The families were generally large and healthy, 
 though suffering from the wants of medical sKill. (riad there been a phy- 
 
k4 ropuLAiioN and groWt^. 
 
 sician in any of the towns before the orgaaization of the county ?) Parents 
 often lived to see their descendants number scores and sometimes hun- 
 dreds. They were fit. in mind and body to make sure of a rapid increase 
 of population, wealth and comfort 
 
 When the act of 1683 organized the county, it recognized six towns. 
 Southold, the oldest, was settled in 1640, and Southampton in the same 
 year; East-Hampton in 1649; Huntington, a few years later; Brookhaven 
 in 1655; and Smithfield, now Smithtown, soon afterwards, though its or- 
 ganization as a town seems to date from the formation of the county. 
 
 The population of the county, at that time, may have been two thou- 
 sand persons. Fifteen years later, in 1698, it was 2,679; ^^^ of this num- 
 ber 2,121 were white people. Five years later, in 1703, the whole number 
 was 3,346. Twenty years" thereafter, in 1723, it had. nearly doubled, and 
 was 6,241. Only eight years later, in 1731, it was 7,675, and without 
 abatement in the growth; for, six years later, in 1737, it had become 7,923, 
 when there were 328 freeholders in the county. The causes of this rapid 
 enlargement continued; and, in 1746, it had risen to 9,254. Thus, in the 
 previous forty-eight years, the resident population had increased 360 per 
 cent. In 1749, it was 9,387. Of these, 8,098 were whites, and 1,289 
 were closed' as blacks — the percentage of increase on the part of the 
 whites, in the previous half century, outstripping that of the blacks. In 
 1756, the numbers were, whites, 9, 245; blacks, 1,045. The enumeration 
 of 1771, the last census previous to the war of Independence, shows that 
 the number of the people had become 11.676 whites and 1,452 blacks, 
 making a total population at that time of 13, 128. 
 
 Thus the increase of that part of the population which remained- in 
 the county had been such as to cause the number of the people to advance 
 five-fold in seventy-three years. The increase of the people, born in the 
 county, who had removed to other parts of our country, may have been 
 far greater in number than those who. remained here; for our county, from 
 the first generation of its christian people, has never ceased to be a busy, 
 fruitful, swarming hive. Such towns as Chester, New Jersey, and Palmy- 
 ra, New York, were almost wholly founded by Suffolk county people. 
 
 Among the men who removed from the county, or their ancestors be- 
 fore them, may be named John Ledyard, the Traveler; Samuel L. South- 
 ard, Mahlon Dickerson, Thomas Corwin, William, H. Seward, members of 
 the National Cabinet under Presidents Monroe, Jackson, Filmore and 
 Lincoln. 
 
 United State Senators Hobart, Smith, Southard, Dickinson, Sanford, 
 Corwin, Seward and Gonkling also belong by residence, birth or ancestry 
 to our county. 
 
 Governors of States, Ogden, Southard, Corwin, Seward, Young, 
 Dickerson, Stratton, Hoadley, have the same connections here. 
 
 Among the great Judges, one may name WiUiam Smith, John Sloss 
 Hobart, Topping Reeve, Nathan Sanford and Selah B. Strong as repre- 
 sentative men ef Suffolk county growth. 
 
 Who knows how many Representatives in Congress can be traced to 
 a Suffolk county ancestry ? 
 
 Four of the ten Presidents of Yale College were themselves or their 
 ancestors citizens and Christian pastors of our county. Perhaps half a 
 score of other college presidents have been as closely connected with us, 
 like Storrs and Wines. 
 
^FUtATlON Aid) CKOWTH. t^ 
 
 Of the Ministers of the Gos^l who^ave attained-the degree of Doc- 
 tor of Divinity, perhap)s not fewer than one hundred- (in Soiithold town 
 alone not fewer |han thirty), could, be na^ed who were or are themselves 
 natives or residents, or the descendants of natives or residents of our 
 county. More than one of thes@ were severally the first Professors of Di- 
 vinity in the -great theological -setoinaries of our country, like Henry White, 
 of the Union. Theological, Seminary of New York city, and Abijah Wines, 
 of the Bangor Theological Seminary, Maine. 
 
 What a multitude of great merchants has Suflfolk county produced, 
 like Christopher, R. Robert, born near Moriches, the founder of Robert' 
 College near Constantindple in Turkey! 
 
 What sea or port of the^lobe bears not witness to the science, skill 
 and courage of our eminent shipmasters ? 
 
 It is the growth of population in our county that has been effective 
 in producing these men and hundreds upon hundreds more^f great emi- 
 nence and worth. 
 
 It is the fharacter of the population that Suffolk county has possessed 
 and JiaS' freely gi-^en to our whole country and to the. world of mankind, 
 that is the greatest honor of the east end of Long Island. 
 
 A popuktion af virtue, industry and piety grows in number as well as 
 in wealth anS comfort; for "godliness is profitable unto all things." The 
 increase, as shown by the United States census from 179010 1880 inclu- 
 sive, ranges in our county from some two thousand to seven thousand in 
 each ten years. Thus the population in 1790 was equal to 16,440 per- 
 sons; in 1800, 19,735; in 1810, 21,113; ii* 1820, 23,930; in 1830, 26,780; 
 in 1840, 32,469; in 1850, 36,922; in i860, 43,275; in 1870, 46,924; in 
 1880, 53,888. 
 
 It is proper at this point gratefully to acknowledge the courtesy of 
 the Hon. C. W. Beaton, the Superintendent of the United States census, 
 for the foregoing, figures of each census from 1790 to 1880. 
 
 To James H. Wardle, Esq., a native of Suffolk county, a citizen of 
 the village of Riverhead, who is the Superintendent of the Agricultural De- 
 partment of the United States census,; I am very greatly indebted for an 
 elaborate and valuable table, showing the population of the county by its 
 several towns, according to every United States census from 1790 to 1880 
 in decades, and also in half decades partly from other sources from 1820 
 to 1880. This table is as follows: 
 
i6 
 
 POPULATION AND GROWTH. 
 
toPULATlON AND GkoiH-H. 1? 
 
 "fhe value of the property in the county two hundred years ago in- 
 cluded, of course, th5 worth of all the acreage of to-day. 1 he price of the 
 land was then low; but for many reasons the price of horses, cattle, sheep 
 and other useful animals was high. The assessed value at that time was 
 less than two hundred thousand dollars, it was nearly an hundred dol- 
 lars for each inhabitant; but who knows how many persons there' are in 
 the founty now who have each more than the value of the whole county 
 in 1683? The property in the county was then in the, several towns as 
 follows : 
 
 Southold, ;^io,8i9 00 00 
 
 Southampton, 16,328 06 08 
 
 East- Hampton, 9.075 06 08 
 
 Huntington, 0,8ii 10 00 
 
 Brookhaven, 5>o36 00 00 
 
 Smithtown, 1,340 00 00 
 
 There is no doubt that the true value of the property ^n the county 
 
 now is not less than $500 to each inhabitant, even aeeming the present 
 
 population to be sixty thousand. It is safe to say, that the population has 
 
 grown thirty fold in the two centuries, and the wealth live times thjrty 
 
 fold. The assessment made by the several towns this year amounts to 
 
 $14,567,521. The equalized valuation for the present year is $15,654,564. 
 
 iJut this sum doubtless needs to be doubled to approximate the true vaiue. 
 
 It may therefore be deemed that while the population has increased thirty 
 
 fold, the wealth has increased one hundred and lifly fold in the last two 
 
 centuries. 
 
 It is not so easy to measure the progress in the comfort of the people. 
 It is difficult even to understand the rudeness of that age. 
 
 Their lowly dwellings contained tables, chairs, desKs, drawers, chests, 
 bedsteads, beds, bedding, shovels, tongs, andirons, trammels, pothooks, 
 pots, pans, knives, wooaen ware, pewter ware, especially plates and spoons; 
 sometimes a little earthenware, and perhaps a few pieces of silverware, as 
 a tankard or a cup. Nearly every man had a gun, and a few had swords 
 and books. But stoves, tin ware, plated ware of every kind, china, porce- 
 lain, queens ware, and all kinds of fine pottery were almost or altogether 
 unknown among them. They used no table cloths, . and the first genera- 
 tion, at least, no table forks. Their log cabins or low houses were covered 
 with roofs of grass or straw. These aboaes were furnished in the plainest and 
 cheapest manner. The wills and inventories of that date show the prop- 
 erty of the people and their style of living. They had land, houses, barns, 
 fences, horses, cattle, sheep, swine and fowls. 'I'hey used a few rude uten- 
 sils to cultivate the soil — carts, ploughs, .harrows, hoes, forks, rakes, 
 scythes, sickles, axes. A few mechanics and artisans had tfie tools of their 
 respective trades — carpenters, blacksmiths, weavers, shoemakers. The peo- 
 ple generally wrought directly upon the land or the water. They had no 
 carpets. Few had any pictures, clocks, watches, musical instruments, or 
 works of art of any kind to adorn their homes. Some had candlesticks — 
 very few, lamps. There were simple implements for the manufacture of 
 flax and wool into cloth, and tne families generally had scissors and 
 needles to make and mend the homely garments -which they wore. 
 
 Almost no articles of food, nor even condiments, were brought from be- 
 yond the county — no coffee nor tea, little sugar. They had little more 
 fruit than a scanty supply of wild berries. Ihe mortar and pestle we;-e 
 in daily use to prepare their grain for cooking. They had no line flour. 
 
1 8 POPULATION AND GROWTtf. 
 
 They had nets and boats for fishing and other putposes; but how un- 
 like those of the present day! Their highways were mainly water. There 
 were few roads and no bridges. The se^, the sound and the bays were 
 Jhe paths of their meagre trade and small social intercourse. They had 
 few books and no printed newspapers. 
 
 The destitution and want of the early inhabitants of our county can- 
 not be understood, so greatly did their means of comfort differ from our 
 own. 
 
 But though their hardships were so severe, they made us »■*''•■'■ im- 
 measurable debtors. Their virtues and piety opened for us the ing 
 
 fountains of liberty, prosperity and benign influences of mar.^ ds, 
 
 which so -greatly enrich and comfort us to-day, and which will continue to 
 afford intelligence; wealth and gladness to our descendants for ages to 
 come. There is no exact measure for the growth of comfort sinct? their 
 day. Biit it is safe to say, that there are now more and better means for 
 it in hundreds of dwellings in Suffolk county than could be found- two 
 hundred years ago in any ducal or royal palace. 
 
 In the narrow conditions and sharp privations of their time, our an- 
 cestors here did their work faithfully and well. It becomes us to com- 
 memorate their deeds, and to celebrate their worth, not only; but also to 
 emulate their devotion to the welfare of posterity, and to increase the pop- 
 ulation, wealth and comfort of our countrymen through all future genera- 
 tions. 
 
TITE FORMATION 
 
 OF THE 
 
 OlVn. GOVERNMENT OF SUFFOLK COUNTY. 
 
 -BY 
 
 ^ON. MeNRY ■^. ^CUDEEH. 
 
 THE perfection of human government is the assurance of the largest 
 personal liberty with the most thorough protection of every personal 
 right. To achieve such a government has engaged the thought of 
 the philanthropist and philosopher. Possibly it will not be given to man 
 to consummate his hopes in this direction, but certainly it is given him to 
 hope arid labor for their fulfillment. We hail with rapture every struggle 
 that advances us toward this form of government and deplore the errors 
 and calamities that hinder our progress or reverse our steps. 
 
 Slow as the development of ruling systems has heretofore been, en- 
 couragement is yet derivable from its study. That study illustrates the 
 complexity of human wants and the necessity of new provisions for new 
 conditions constantly arising. 
 
 The beneficial improvement of an existing political power, the intro- 
 duction of a new principle into a code of laws may be, and often is, the 
 achievement of a century of struggle and, when embodied and promul- 
 gated seems so far the consummation of all reasonable ambition that the 
 citizen rests upon it, and ceases further toil. 
 
 New exigencies will soon disturb his repose, and demand greater ex- 
 ertions. Thus in the grand scheme of perfecting human government, se- 
 ries of measures (and not single and disconnected movements), are ob- 
 servable. We have to deal with one of these. We celebrate an occasion 
 when out of prolonged, persistent and weary labor of many generations 
 there came the birth of a great political principle, a new and grand politi- 
 cal dispensation, in whose being, constitutional liberty of the person and 
 assured protection of his rights were advanced beyond any limits to which 
 they had before been pushed. 
 
 The establishment of a town, county or State, is always memorable; 
 but the foundation of a benevolent charter for the ruling of a community 
 infinitely more memorable. In celebrating the formation of Suffolk coun- 
 ty, we render appropriate homage to those who inhabited its confines and 
 administered its public affairs at that juncture; but if we reduced our com- 
 memoration to the simple consideration of the territorial jurisdiction of a 
 county; if we overlooked or failed to recall and dwell upon the character 
 of the government it secured, we would fall short of celebrating that which 
 
iO CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 
 
 gave to its inhabitants the blessings of peaceful liberty, social and political 
 eminence, and grandest of all, freedom of conscience m religious belief and 
 worship. 
 
 Suffolk County as established by the Act of the General Assembfy of 
 the Province of New York, on the ist of November, 1683, diflfered in no 
 essential of geographical area from the East Riding of Yorkshire, as that 
 was constituted at the convention held in Hempstead, Queens county,, in 
 1665, and apart from the assignment to it of a high Sheritt instead of a 
 Deputy, its municipal character would have remained unchanged by the 
 act, and the mere gift of a name exhausted all that act con erred upon it. 
 Far more serious purposes than the affixing names to portions of the Prov- 
 ince animated the Assembly of 1683, and these purposes, their- origip, sup- 
 port and final triunjph command our attention m this season of commem- 
 oration. A full review of the steady progress of the organic law of the 
 county from its settlement to the year it took position as a county, is for- 
 bidden by the circumstances of the present hour, cjimple references to im- 
 portant events, and controlling : characteristics of its people, their deter- 
 mination to frame ^ government upon the generous ana stable foundations 
 of personal liberty and protection of property, must suffice for this paper. 
 
 The settlers of Suffolk Courjty were Puritans. Few of the Church of 
 England were found here during 20 years after Farret's small colony >¥as 
 expelled from Cow Bay by the l^utch, and found security and permanent 
 homes at Southampton; and the, few so adventuring impressed upon the 
 public affairs of the communities little that is traceable through the ob- 
 scure annals Of those early days. These founders of Suffolk were already 
 inured to the new life of the wilderness. At Lynn, in Massachusetts, and 
 Hartford and New Haven, in Connecticut, they had learned the hardships 
 of pioneer adventure, iand were ready for the sacrifices their new settlement 
 in Long Island exacted. They were intelligent and some even learned, 
 resolute in purpose and fearless of difficulties. . There were those arriohg ' 
 fhem who could recall the infamous decree of James I., that every minis- 
 ter in Scotland should declare from his pulpit ' ' that those who attend 
 church on Sundays should not be disturbed or discouraged from dancing, 
 archery, leaping, vaulting, having Whitsun ales, Morris dances, setting up 
 May poles ana other sports therewith used on Sundays afler divine ser- 
 vice," a nd the punishment of those earnest ministers who refused to read 
 such declaration as an impious breach of the command to keep holy the 
 Sabbath day. 
 
 Thfey could testify to the flight of the Elect from a realm where the 
 true Word was thus perverted, and the stormy passage to Holland in 
 search of a refuge for conscience. 
 
 Others had witnessed the accumulating power of the people of En- 
 gland in its struggle with a monarch whose chief doctrine of government 
 was his faith in the divine right of kings. And others yet had participated 
 in the great uprising against this divine right, and had seen it and its vota- 
 ries swept from existence by Cromwell and his Ironsides on the plains of 
 Naseby. 
 
 I'here were those, too, who had gathered from the Pilgrims the rich 
 experiences and conclusions gained during the twelve years residence in 
 Holland, and the study of the free, genial, and hearty systems of the 
 Dutch. I'hese could understand the benefits of a Representative Govern- 
 ment, and the value of the principle of taxation through representation 
 only, established among the Dutch for a century and more. 
 
6IVI1. GOVERNMENT. 21 
 
 The t'uritans, however, were disinclined to imitation, original in de- 
 vice, they were obstinate in adhesion. Theirs was not a disposition will- 
 ingly yielding to contentment. Indulged beyond ordinary generosity by 
 the kind-hearted Dutch, they were unable to resist the opportunity for 
 gloomy criticism upon the usage of the Sabbath by their gentle hosts. 
 
 They came to the New World self-poised, indomitable, fearing God, 
 but fearless of man, to hew their path to fortune, and hew out of that path 
 all who stood in their way. k was no worldly fortune they sought, but 
 the fortune of grace in the Church, and freedom in the State. 
 
 They were here on Long Island to lay the foundations of a govern- 
 ment that should unite freedom with protection, and through years of la- 
 bor, misfortune, trial and oppressioft, they laid those foundations, and on 
 them, this day, rest our prosperity and happiness. 
 
 They brought the common Law of England as their system of juris- 
 prudence rather to draw from its powerful and rich prin|:iples whatever 
 might suit occasions, than to establish it as the law of their new land. 
 The disposition of our Puritan ancestors necessarily inclined them to codes. 
 They found in the laws of Moses a system of compensatory penalties that 
 fitted their stem and solemn views of individual relations, and borrowed 
 from its smggestive principles in framing their temporary government. 
 
 With such a people you may conceive that morality in the State would 
 be inflexibly administered, and the early history of our county assured us 
 that no indulgence was granted to the vicious or indolent. Virtue and in- 
 dustry were compelled by the authority of the communities. 
 
 Upon what did any authority during the 43 years following the settle- 
 ment of the county and preceding its legal formation rest ? Could any 
 man show a commission as Justice under the Broad Seal ? Could any 
 man in arresting an ill-doer point to his warrant and justify his act by its 
 teste in the name of a magistrate deriving power from the Crown; or from 
 any gbv^rnment acknowledged among nations .' 
 
 "Will you know," writes the brilliant and elegant Bancroft, "will 
 you know with .how little government a community of husbandmen may 
 be safe, " and he points to East Jersey in its comparative infancy as a prac- 
 tical answer to hi^ question. 
 
 Far more striking, as an instance of a well-ordered community, exist- 
 ing without other government or laws than such as originate from the exi- 
 gency of the hour, and the wisdom and purity of character of a handful of 
 colonists, firm in religious feith and devotion to civil liberty, is presented 
 by the scattered English settlements within the limits of this county fo^ 
 forty-three years- succeeding their first establishment at Southampton. These 
 early societies formed distinct political bodies upon the geographical bases 
 of their respective purch>ises from the Indian owners. Habit suggested the 
 townsjiip as a form of municipal organization. No statute determined its 
 limits* or regulated the duties and obligations of its citizens Society, in 
 some respects, was returned to its original elpments. In New England, 
 Royal charters were the source of authority. Direct communication with 
 England enabled the colonists of Plymouth — the Bay — -and those as well on 
 the Connecticut river, to maintain a relation of legitimate dependence and 
 avail of protection from the powerful Home Government, yet enter upon 
 undertakings that government sharply disapproved. Thus the New En- 
 gland gettleiji^nt^ Wer? ^Yfifed, f{o ^hm^J e^'^te^ {^^f^i T^e opposi^^ 
 
,ZZ CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 
 
 condition was visited upon our ancestors. Anxiety respectinpr the Indian 
 led to treaties with. Connecticut, and an alliance for military aid that bor- 
 dered upon .subordination, but never centered in it. 
 
 Here, if ever, was witnessed for a generation and a half a system of 
 petty governments resting for their existence and power solely upon the 
 consent of the governed. Townships erected upon the area of a grant from 
 Indian Sachems found their inhabitants compacted in a small locality as well 
 for protection and assistance as for the gra,tification of social tastes; Great 
 distances intervened between these settlements, and these distances forbade 
 general communication. Thus the laws of townships, framed by no com- 
 mon body of representative legislators, lacked harmony, and presented 
 differences in penalties and observances. 
 
 The common law is sustained by the foundations of prudence, wisdom, 
 and precedent Its wholesome principles were imbedded in the tastes, 
 habits and personal rights of the colonists, but they had faith in a better 
 Idw. The abuses suffered in England were under the administration of the 
 common law, and their recollection brought along with no agreeable taste 
 the system of jurisprudence that allowed their perpetration. Our fore- 
 fathers therefore set to the task of framing laws upon principles that should 
 preveat sharp definitions, arid dispose by adequate punishment of all 
 offences toward individual or community. They modified the laws of 
 property as well as of person. The feudal characteristics of the common 
 law disappeared from a field where everv State was acquired upon one basis 
 of purchase and vvithout pure entailments. If the ordinances regulating 
 personal rights and obUgations were harsh, they pointed to the Pentateuch, 
 and silenced their opponents by the provisions of Jewish Statutes, having 
 .Moses for their founder. True to the Decalogue, they imposed death for 
 violation of manv of its decrees. In enforcing obedience to parents they 
 visited with capital- punishment any thild who after sixteen years of life 
 should curse or strike its father or mother. They ended the complaints of 
 nervous women by sharp bodily inflictions. " You have brought me," said 
 a weary, homesick wife, " to a land without Church or Magistrate. " The 
 moaning utterance was true, the penalty inevitable. " For this unseemly 
 speech," say the magistrates, " you shall pav £^, or stand in public with a 
 split stick upon your tongue." And thra latter barbarism was applied, for 
 the jCs cannot be raised. 
 
 But these laws have come from the people, they are all enacted at gen- 
 eral assemblies of the freeholders of the different colonies or towns. His- 
 tory presents no purer democracy than that . governing the English settle- 
 ments here from 1640 to the Convention at Hempstead, in 1665, and the 
 institution of the Duke's Laws. If its enactments move us, in more liberal 
 times, with indignation, if we view with sentiments akin to honor an order 
 of civilization that strangely combined learning and religious enthusiasm 
 with vindictive and barbarous dispensations in matters of personal obliga,- 
 tion, we are to reflect that our fathers framed their systems as best for their 
 times, and their vindication is asserted in the blessings that crown their 
 posterity. The organization of the town meeting, that simple, effectiv* 
 political power that ensure;, civil liberty, was an institution peculiar to the 
 colonial period. Necessity was its source, but its virtues soon embedded 
 it in the structure of government. From it sprang the determination to 
 repre;sentative power in the State. Had the colonists been controlled by 
 the cjurect flow of power from the Throne or Protectorate of Great Britain, 
 
CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 23 
 
 the town meeting would never have been inaugurated. With a free and 
 more kindly government in Holland, the Dutch of New Netherlands were 
 denied any personal participation in the administration of their public 
 affairs. The West India' Company vested Jthe Dutch directors with abso- 
 lute power. Appeals from their decisions lay to the States General, but 
 who d*red make them. " If I was persuaded," thundered truculent old 
 Stuyvesant to thp accusers of Krift, his njercenary predecessor, "that you 
 would • coniplain of my sentences or divulge them, I would have you 
 hange4 on tj)e highest tree in New Netherlands." The colonial annals of 
 Suffolk County reveal no such assumption of tyrannical authority. If our 
 magistratg^ desalt severely with their subjects, they dealt openly and in con- 
 forpiity with the law to which the subject had assented, and in framing 
 which he had his free voice. He had discussed the merits of the rule in 
 the town pieeting, aijd if it fell harshly upon him later because of his in- 
 firactipJi he .could assert neither ignorance nor inability to protest against 
 its adoption, as reasons in mitigation of its eflfect upon hims^. 
 
 To ijie town meetings of these tinies we clearly trace and owe the firm 
 establishment in our organic law of the principle of civil liberty in the 
 people, !m(i the inaugu,i;a,tipn of their right to participate in legislation 
 through representation. From these local asseniblies sprang the great Re- 
 publican principle of government, and upon them it still reposes in- confi- 
 dence and honor. Increase of wealth and power begets respect, and Con- 
 necticut. fi;om its attitude of fi;iendiy ally, began to measure the advantage 
 of permanent absorption of the Long Wland.settlenienbs into, its body pol- 
 itic. The advantages, of political consolidation were reciprocal. T-he 
 habits, tastes, religious belief and laws of the two establishments were in 
 common. As our ancestors encountered the Dutch at Qyster Bay and ex- 
 perienceci the E^ntagonisms - of characteristics, they sought for strength in 
 closer attachment to a powerful colony with which they were in syippathy. 
 Had Charles II. ^eferie.d his Royal- Grant of 1664 to his brother James for 
 a few years, there ■ is probability that this good County of Suffolk would 
 have formed part of the State of Connecticut, tp-d«^y. 
 
 In 1664 the elements of liberal government vrere fully developed in 
 Eastern Long, Island. The people had become accustomed to the exer- 
 cise of power. .Their magistrates and officers were selected at their general 
 town meetings. At thege assemblip.s new laws were enacted, The Church 
 rece(ved its support from their decisions, ancj.such taxes as were necessary 
 were here levied. Here, tt)o, applications for admission as citizens into ' 
 the. little community, were heard. The sirnple, but effective machinery of 
 government was thus in full operation. A pure democracy is fitted only to 
 small societies. It, can never satisfy the needs of a large pqpvila,tion-or 
 scattered collections of indiyiduals, (The- experiment that failed centuries 
 ago on the banks of the Vistula had taught this l.esspn to the political 
 thinker). Representative forms of government approximate neai:est to 
 pure democracy and alone answer- the demai^ds of popular government. 
 Twenty-four years after thj ssttlement of Southampton and Southold the 
 hec'essity fpr a, rnor^ central power than the town meeting, had become 
 fiill'y apparent. Tjje diversity of interest among the towns swelled with 
 their growing population. . A central and regulating administration ha,d 
 forced itself upon the thoughts of the wise and patriotic as a necessity no 
 longer to be deferreJ, and, union with Connecticut seemed the- only solu- 
 tion of an embarrassnient fr«m which popular interests were sadly suffer- 
 in^r 
 
24 cnntL GOVERNMENt. 
 
 The Royal Letters Patent under which James, Duke of York and 
 Albany, acquired tithe to Long- Island empowered the Duke to establish a 
 j^overnment. and clothed him with powers of well nigh regal extent. The 
 condition of Long- Island was represented at Whitehall as surpassingly ex- 
 cellent. Among the aims of the Duke the supremacy of this ' portion of 
 the possessions arranted him by his brother seems paramount. John Scott 
 had moved his, cupidity by tales of wealth that were founded wholly upon 
 imagination. Careful in the selection of subordinates, James found in 
 Richard Nicholls an incomparable agent for his financial work. "You 
 may inform all men that a great end of your design is the possessing of 
 Long Island, and reducing that people to us and our government, now 
 vested in our brother,' the Duke of York, " wrote Clarendon in his commis- 
 sion of instructions to Nicolls, and the other Commissioners dispatched by 
 the Duke to res^late the affairs of the provinces. Winthrop, Governor of 
 Cpnnecticut, attends upon Nicolls at Gravesend before the surrender of 
 New Amsterdam, examines his Commission and the letters patent, and 
 yields all claim on behalf of his colony to jurisdiction over Long Island, 
 and declares it " in view of His Majesty's pleasure to have ceased and be- 
 come null." And thus in August, 1664, the various towns of this County 
 passed fr6m a state of independence and elementary government into one 
 of rigor, method and oppression. However great the difficulties attending 
 their separation from other colonies in the parent State the inestimable boon 
 of freedom and self-dependence was an ample requital. We shall witness 
 its frnits in the Assemblv, whose acts we reverence now. 
 
 The intervention of Nicolls was marked by the Convention of Depu- 
 ties from Long Island. Staten Island and Westchester, at Hempstead in 
 t66|?. Here a bodv of Laws was submitted b-y- Nicolls and approved by 
 the delegates. This code, well known as the "Duke's Laws," wa,s fami- 
 liar to our eastern towns. It simply embodied resrulations in forre in New 
 England, but in its application to the tenure and institution of office in the 
 towns, it wrought a radical change and was bitterly offensive. No states- 
 man needs to be taught the elementary lesson that a neople once pos- 
 sessed of power never vields it without resistance. The Duke's Laws sub- 
 stituted appointment of magistrates and other officers by the Governor for 
 the old usage of election. To the remonstrances of the delegates upon 
 this measure, Nicolls candidly responded that the election of magistrates 
 was entirely unknown to the laws of England, and a Parliament of En- 
 gland could neither maVe a Judge nor Justice of the Peace. All legisla- 
 tion was vested in the Governor and Council and Court of ''Assize, whose 
 officers were"of the Governor's appointn'ent. Petty -town tribunals were 
 suffered, the overseers of which were subjects of popular choice, but the 
 free voice of the people in the^selection of their other officers was now 
 silenced by despotic power. 
 
 The propagation of the Duke's Laws and the flreneral labors of the 
 Assembly stirred the Puritan population of the East-Ridintr of Yorkshire 
 as this County was styled by Act of this Assembly. The Deputies return- 
 ing to their homes met no such cordial welcome as they had chosen to 
 convey to His Royal Highness in an address that followed the end of their 
 legislative labors. Exactions attended in the train of the new govern- 
 ment. Titles were questioned and confirmation refused, except upon 
 payment of excessive charges. Perhaps none of 'the 'colonial Governors 
 
 gi^rpas^Qcl NiC9l}f JR intep^, prudence, or fiaelity to trept ^ilrepg^jj^^^ 
 
CIVIL GOVERNJiENT. J 5 
 
 tive of tHe Duke and of the Crown. Perhaps no successor strove to 
 Hghten the task imposed by a mercenary master upon his subjects with 
 greater zeal or more generous humanity. Under James there could be 
 no popular government. His largest inheritance was stubborn resistance 
 to popular rights. Exile taught him no lesson, and experience as a. 
 Ruler, no wisdom. 
 
 The period of eighteen years from the establishment of the Colonial 
 power of England over our County, and the establishment of the County, 
 is marked by the exercise of despotism and the violation of faith. Love- 
 lace, succeeding Nicolls, bore with him instructions to make no altera- 
 tions in the laws of the government settled before his arrival. He was of 
 a "generous mind and nOble," and there are not wanting instances of the 
 exercise upon his part of an enlightened understanding of popular needs. 
 His letter to a minister will stand as an example of excellent|intent to in- 
 troduce liberality in the Church. Upon the other hand he reflected the 
 policy of the colonial Governors in his letter to Sir Robert Carr, Governor 
 of New Jersey, advising that the best method to keep the people in order 
 was, "to lay such taxes on them as may not give them liberty to enter- 
 tain any other thoughts, but how to discharge them." We have seen that 
 the Court of Assize sitting in New York combined the powers of the Ju- 
 diciary and Legislature. The mischief sure to develop from committing 
 to Judges the power to legislate is so obvious that argument will not in- 
 crease the force of the proposition. If, added to this anomalous lodg- 
 ment of power, the Judges are appointees of the Governor and removable 
 at his will, you find a form of government in which liberality is the merest 
 pretence, and tyranny the sure principle. The Duke's Laws were endur- 
 able in all that pertained to personal rights and obligations, and were 
 broad in their favor of the institutions of Religion, and the local Church 
 establishments. While the structure of these laws and their tendency 
 were illy adapted to the improvement of a community, yet they could be 
 tolerated and the growth of society not seriously retarded by their opera- 
 tion. ■ But in stripping the people of their power to choose their leaders 
 and to participate in general legislation,' and particularly in all questions 
 of taxation, the government instituted by Col. Nicolls gave birth to a 
 spirit of discontent and revolt that no force in its possession could allay 
 or quell. Lovelace's policy in this behalf, to stifle complaint by taxation 
 so heavy that the citizen could think of nothing but how to pay, was the 
 reproduction of the oppressive system encouraged in the Palace of White- 
 hall, biit sure of defeat when aimed at a hasty, zealous, resolute people 
 who for more than a quarter of a century had bowed the knee to no mas- 
 ter save the Almighty. The administration of justice in localities was ac- 
 ceptable when the cases submitted concerned such trifling interests aS 
 afforded jurisdiction to the elective courts. As the deterjnination to re- 
 sist a rule that allowed no popular voice becanie settled, the inevitable 
 consequence was developed. The citizen refused to pay taxes under the 
 resolution adopted by a general meeting of his Town, ministers joined in 
 denunciation of the authorities, arrests, fines and imprisonments upon the 
 part of the Colonial Government were sweet morsels to a body of Puritans 
 who hailed martyrdom as aii assured election, and who wielded the Sword 
 with the devout, conviction that it was an instrument of biblical invention,, 
 and ,With the skill that years of steady use had imparted. These heated 
 disturbances airfeste'd' productive labofj and im,i5dvenshment set in wherd 
 
26 CIVIL GOVERNMENV. 
 
 abundance should have prevailed. The eastern towns made overtures to 
 Connecticut. Huntington flatly refused to pay a levy for the repairs ot 
 Fort James because ' ' they were deprived of the liberties of Englishmen. " 
 The brief period of Dutch conquest and rule increased the sufferings of 
 . the colonists. Col. Andros, not yet knighted, brought to his post of gov- 
 ernment the most odious qualities. Extravagance, injustice, oppression, 
 relentless cruelty were characteristics of most of the colonial Governors, 
 and specially of this one. The towns were forced to accept new charters 
 and submit to onerous exactions. Taxes were levied without semblance 
 of authority and upon the personal dictation of the Governor alone, and 
 all protests of the people were treated with scorn. The Duke was hum- 
 bly petitioned for a popular legislative assembly. He replied to Andros 
 that popular assemblies were dangerous to the government and he saw 
 no use for them. Meantime, disappointed in the revenue he had confi- 
 dently expected from his American possessions, he was assailed by peti- 
 tions for redress of grievances, and by representations of the evil lot of his 
 subjects. That lot was indeed evil, and mitigated by only a single so- 
 lace. The consolations of religious faith present their greatest value in 
 the deepest affliction, and brighten most as the hours darken. The un- 
 believer is tossed upon an uncertain and stormy sea. No light assures 
 him of a haven, for there is no haven for him. Above is the blackness of 
 darkness, below the fury of the tempest, on every side the lurid flash of 
 Heaven's thunderbolt. The Christian discerns light through the clouds, 
 and knows that in the severest peril there is safety in the ' ' Rock of Ages 
 cleft for him." Through the dark ,days of oppression under the Duke of 
 York, the pure religious sentiments of the colonists sustained and cheered 
 them. Their welfare and the cause of civil liberty demanded resistance, 
 and they made it under prayer, and sought Divine aid in its behalf. 
 
 The Court of Assize joined in the supplication for a new form of gov- 
 ernment, arid through brave John Young, of Southold, High Sheriff of 
 Yorkshire, addressed the Duke "representing the great pressure and la- 
 mentable condition of his Majesty's subjects in your Royal Highness' 
 colony," and submissively praying that "for the redressing of the griev- 
 ances the government of this your colony may, for the future, be settled 
 and established, ruled and governed by a Governor, Council and Assem- 
 bly, which Assembly to be duly elected and chosen by the freeholders of 
 the colony. It may be well questioned if the Duke would have yielded 
 to any petition or representation from people,or Court. He had recalled 
 Andros and subjected him to examination for misgovernment. -Two in- 
 fluences now operated from diverse sources to procure the end desired by 
 the colonists. 
 
 New Amsterdam had been a charge upon the West India Company, 
 and its example stood as a constant menace to the Duke's scanty purse. 
 He was in ill favor with Parliament as well as people, and could hope 
 for no relief from either. 
 
 % Thus. his dread that the settlements in the New World would be an 
 expense, inclined him to their surrender to the Crown. At this juncture 
 of critical moment to the colonies, he took counsel of one of the most 
 extraordinary men of the times. The instruments appointed to accom- 
 plish important results are frequently as unexpected as they are successful. 
 William Penn, accomplished in the learning of the Universities and of 
 Lincoln's Inn, polished by foreign travel and courtly society, ro^iter of 
 
CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 2/ 
 
 the sword, and of such manly exercises as became the son of an Admiral 
 of England, had experienced the conviction that God dwells in the inner 
 conscience, and come to believe all men equal before Jehovah's throne. 
 He was in high favor with the King and Duke. His renunciation of 
 proffered honors, coupled with sincere humility, as well as the accept- 
 ance of a tract of wilderness peopled b)' Savages in discharge of a Royal 
 debt, won for him such love as Charles was capable of bearing toward any 
 subject. His absolute sincerity and non-resistance equally commended 
 him to James, who was as true to his word plighted to men as he was 
 shameless in its breach toward the opposite sex. Penn believed in pop- 
 ular governments. "You shall be governed by laws of your own mak- 
 ing," he wrote to the settlers in his new territory of Pennsylvania. He 
 resisted the temptation to exercise the great powers of a Ruler abundant- 
 ly conferred by the Court with the noble resolution, ' ' I purpose for the 
 matters of liberty that which is extraordinary, to leave myself and my 
 successors no power of doing mischief." 
 
 Under the great elm on the .banks of the Delaware he entered into 
 indissoluble treaty with the Indians, saying: "I will not call you chil- 
 dren,, for parents sometimes chide their children too severely, nor brothers, 
 for brothers differ. We are all one flesh and blood." And the red men, 
 deeply touched by the testimony of equality, pledged themselves, "We 
 will live in love with William Penn and his children as long as the sun 
 and moon shall endure." 
 
 No act proved of greater value than this of the Duke's calling Penn 
 into private consultation upon the course to be pursued with the colonies. 
 The advice could be easily anticipated. The Duke adopted Penn's coun- 
 sel, and the Colonies were now to have liberty acknowledged if not yet 
 practiced. Dongan appointed to inaugurate the new policy called a Gen- 
 eral Assembly, composed of delegates chosen by the freeholders, and on 
 the 17th of October, 1683, its sessions began. On the 30th of October 
 the Great Charter of liberties and privileges received the approval of the 
 Governor and Council. On the ist of November, among the twelve 
 Counties created by the Assembly, this of Suffolk came into being. This 
 great Charter of liberties and privileges consummated the hopes and 
 prayers of our forefathers. It recognized the People as the power in leg- 
 islation. It opened with the grand avowal, " For the better establishing 
 the government of this Province of New York, and that justice and right 
 may be equally done to all persons within the same, " and then declared, 
 "Be it enacted. That the Supreme legislative authority under His Majes- 
 ty and His Royal Highness, James, Duke of York and Albany, Lord Pro- 
 prietor of the said Province, shall forever be and reside in 'a Govenlor, 
 Council, and the People met in General Assembly." 
 
 Thus was constituted a Representative body to which the people could 
 forever appeal for redress of wrongs and administering of right. Through 
 all the vicissitudes of authority the recognition of the people as the great 
 power in legislation, has never been lost in this State from that time. It 
 has been embodied in our Constitutions and borne down through these 
 two centuries in entire integrity, and to-day the enacting clause of every 
 statute of our Legislature presents it in the form — 
 
 "The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and As- 
 sembly, do enact — " 
 
 TTie Duke ascendin,^ the throne refused to confirm the charter, assert- 
 
28 CrVIL GOVERNMENT. 
 
 ing that the use of the phrase, "the people," was unknown in any charter. 
 The concession, however, had been granted, and it remained until a cen- 
 tury later, when the evacuation of our shores by the Royal armies left us 
 to perfect the sentiment and power in the Great Federal Charter that en- 
 sures liberty and protection. The careful student of history will never re- 
 gard this concession of a Representative Assembly as voluntary on the part 
 of the Duke. It was forced from him against his inclinations by the per- 
 sistent eflForts of the colonists in this County. That the resistance of the 
 settlers, and their constant demand for representation, wrought upon the 
 fears of the Duke, and that he acquiesced in their solicitations, detracts 
 nothing from the merit of the liberal movement here, and in no respect 
 creates any claim to generous recognition on his behalf 
 
 The strong qualities of character displayed by our forefathers are dis- 
 cernible in their descendants throughout the two hundred years succeeding 
 the event we commemorate. No County in the State surpassed this in its 
 bold utterances for freedom from the Mother country at the outset of the 
 Revolution, and ntone suffered more severely for its patriotism during that 
 period. 
 
 The administration of justice has blended mercy with vigor. The 
 laws have received their proper enforcement, but freed from the manifesta- 
 tion of personal prejudice or power. The peaceful disposition of the 
 population has afforded few opportunities for violence, and small inclina- 
 tion to personal disputes. In 1820 Dr. Dwight assures us that no lawyer 
 had been able to support himself in this County upon the fruits of his pro- 
 fession. Instances exist of sessions of the Court with no litigation to en- 
 gage its judicial functions. 
 
 The temple of justice has been maintained in purity and order. Let 
 us not overlook those who have presided at its altars or ministered in its 
 sacred rites. Silas Wood, historian, scholar and statesman, who from long 
 and efficient labors in the National Councils won the affection and esteem 
 of the leaders of the day, was at the head of the bar in my youth. Strong, 
 tenacious of memory, replete with law learning, adorned the Bench. 
 Floyd, chivalrous and genial, was here. Rose, brilliant and fascinating; 
 Buffet, keen, logical and sagacious; Wickham, deliberate and laborious; 
 and he, over whose new made grave the cold November winds sweep the 
 falling leaves; he whose heart was in this celebration, and who through a 
 life-time of physical suffering did his work without murmur, was also here. 
 Were it decorous to touch upon the living, bright examples of professional 
 merit and 'distinction could be freely gathered, but of these we are not at 
 this hour to speak. 
 
 • We have traced the formation of the County to its sources, and have 
 found it consecrated by sacrifices and ennobled by devotion. Let us here, 
 in commemorating its origin, enter into a sacred pledge that we will trans- 
 mit it to our descendants undiminished in its confines, enlarged in its civ- 
 ihzation, more memorable than ever in the honor of its sons and the vir- 
 tues of its daughters. 
 
fieli^ioTi^ f^i'O^i'e^^ kqd dli^^tikq dtiltiu*e 
 
 OF- 
 
 SXJiF'iK'OnLjI^ OOXJISTT-Y'. 
 
 bAMUel m. Merrick, 
 
 I AM invited to address you upon the Religious Progress and Christian 
 Culture of Suffolk County for the last two hundred years. My theme 
 has thus been stated very definitely and very happily, as it seems to me, 
 by the committee which have done me the honor to extend to me this in- 
 vitation. 
 
 Religious progress has Christian culture for its end. The one is the 
 path, the other the goal of the traveler; the one the growth of the tree, the 
 other the ripened fruit which the tree produces. The one relates to the 
 various processes of breaking up the soil, and applying to it the methods 
 of tillage, the selection and sowing of the seed, the attention and care be- 
 stowed upon the growing crops, the fostering which they get from the 
 brooding skies, the suns which shine, and the storms which beat upon 
 them, as well as the cultivation of human skill. The other signifies the 
 yellow fields of ripening grain, the wealth of sheaves which the reaper gath- 
 ers in his bosom and garners in his barns. I am to say something to you 
 of the though^;, and toil, and ahxieties of the fathers, and the abounding 
 joy and con>J(ort and prosperity"bf the children resultant thereupon. ' ' Day 
 unto day uttereth speech." The days of old are speaking to this day of 
 ours. I am to tell you what these old days seem to be saying into our 
 ears, and what response these daj's of ours are gratefully or ungratefully 
 returning to the past. 
 
 But progress of any sort involves not only a goal, but a point of de- 
 parture. There must be, as the philosophers say, a terminus a qtio as well 
 as a terminus ad quern. ^ To find the beginnings of our county's progress for 
 . the period assigned therefore, we shall be obliged to go back of its politi- 
 cal formation; Our religious institutions are of venerable origin. They 
 are rooted in that great movement which brought the Pilgrims to Plymouth, 
 and the Puritans to Massachusetts Bay. To-day our fathers share the 
 honors, as two hundred and fifty years ago they shared the privations and 
 the sufferings, of the men of whom James the First declared that he would 
 make them conform or he would ' 'harry them out of the land. " That Suffolk 
 County is, peopled as it is to-day, is due to the fact that the royal tyrant 
 was as good, or rather as bad, as his word. 
 
30 RELIGIOUS PROGRESS AND CHRISTIAN CULTURE. 
 
 Two hundred years! As one stands under the shadow of the pyramids 
 which looked down upon the exodus of Israel, or even under the English 
 Cathedral roofs which sheltered the followers of the Conqueror, two hun- 
 dred years seem but a little time; as yesterday when it is passed. But in 
 a country like ours, where everything is new, this story of the exodus of 
 our fathers is a venerable and sacred possession. And we do well to 
 cherish it, not only because it is the most venerable possession we have, 
 but because in its principle and its motive, it appeals to that which is best 
 and truest, and most permanent in the universal human heart. It was from 
 no impulse of momentary pique, or of disappointed selfishness, nor from 
 any greed of gain, or passion of adventure, or ambition of discovery, that 
 these men left the old for the new, the known for the unknown. There 
 was in truth a divine call, pressing its authority upon them, summoning 
 them, as, ingenuous and true men have been called in every age — as Abra- 
 ham himself was called' — to go out not knowing' whither they went, relin-' 
 quishing country, and kindred, and father's house, the graves of their sires, 
 and the precious traditions of many generations. They felt the weight of 
 human tyranny; there was doubtlfess in many a heart the spring and im- 
 pulse of repressed indignation. But after all, they felt like one of old who 
 could look up and say: 
 
 " When men of spite against me join 
 They are the sword, the hand is Thine." 
 
 They felt the sword, but they recognized more the hand that was behind 
 it. It was for God that they came. A deep reverence for religion, and a 
 desire to divorce it from all accretions of superstition and to cleanse it from 
 all the profanations of licentiousness, a profound regard for public morals, 
 a love for the Sabbath, the sanctuary, the family, and a determination to 
 uphold the authority and the sanctity of each by safeguards of just law, 
 and pure government, these motives overtopped the feeling of indignation 
 and the sense of injuries received at the hands of any human authority. 
 
 In one of the public squares of Boston there stands a statue, recently 
 erected to the memory of John Winthrop. It represents the old first Gov- 
 ernor of Massachusetts as stepping from a gang-plank to the shore, hold- 
 ing in one hand the charter of the newly formed colony, and pressing to 
 his heart with the other the Word of God^;, the latter copied carefully from 
 the old family Bible, which the Governor himself brought oyer with the 
 charter, and which is now in the possession of his honored descendant, 
 the Hon. Robert C. Winthrop. The sentiment of the statue is true to fact. 
 With all respect for human laws the fathers loved the divine. They would 
 have faith with freedom, religion with liberty; a liberty as Governor Win- 
 throp himself defined it, "to do that only which is good and just and 
 honest. 
 
 The founders of our religious institutions in Suffolk County were of 
 these New England puritans. There are no honors belonging to Massa- 
 chusetts or Connecticut which we may not equally claim for our own an- 
 cestors. North Sea was another Shawmut, Southold a repetition of Quin- 
 nipiac. Even when in 1664, Charles II., by letters patent to the Duke of 
 York, cut off these eastern towns from their political connection with New 
 England, the ties of religious and ecclesiastical sympathy refused to be 
 severed. Their brethren were on the northern main. To them they looked 
 for counsel, and when they needed it for material help, and did not look 
 in vain. And to this day Long Island is essentially a part of New En- 
 
RKLIGIOUS PROGRESS AND CHRISTIAN CULTURE. 3 1 
 
 gland in feeling, in moral character, in intelligence, in social customs, in 
 speech, in family surnames, as it ought to be, in the speaker's humble 
 opinion, in geographical and political allotment. 
 
 Such having been the point of departure, and such the motives and in- 
 fluences under which progress was begun, we turn now to view the process 
 of moral and religious development. The chief formative influence with- 
 out doubt, at that time was the pulpit. The ministry was not subordinate 
 to, so much as it was co-ordinate with, the magistracy. Indeed, in some 
 respects the latter was subordinate. All civil regulations being based upon 
 the Mosaic code, and the minister being the authorized interpreter of that 
 code, to him the magistrate often looked for judicial direction. The func- 
 tion of the pulpit in those days was large. The minister had to read and 
 think for the entire community. He was the fountain not only of Theol- 
 ogy, but of Philosophy, moral, political, social, natural. No review or 
 newspaper invaded his province. The pews had never read in advance of 
 the Sunday's sermon. The pulpit was the type of that mocfern invention, 
 the phonograph, which gathers into its ear whatever voices may be stir- 
 ring in the air, and grinds them out again with an intonation of its own, 
 for the benefit of the curious bystanders. What the ministers were think- 
 ing about in those days, what were the subjects which enlisted religious 
 and speculative thought, is a question which it would be interesting to fol- 
 low out. It was not Evolution. It was settled more firmly in their 
 minds, than the everlasting hills upon their foundations, that the universe 
 visible and invisible was created out of absolute non-entity in six literal 
 days of twenty-four hours each. ' It was not Inspiration. The Book as 
 they held it in their hands was the immediate product of the breath of 
 God, blowing through human lips and tremulous in the penman's stylus. 
 The Hebrew of the Old Testament was, by that fact, acknowledged the 
 Holy tongue once spoken in the Earthly Paradise and to be spoken again 
 by all redeemed souls as the one dialect of Heaven. It was not Eschatol- 
 ogy. The last things to be, revealed were as fixed and palpable to their 
 anticipations, as were the unchangeable facts of the .past to their memory. 
 What then were they thinking about ? If anyone shall wish two hundred 
 years hence to know what themes engaged the thoughtful-men of this year 
 of grace 1883, I leave for him now this piece of advice: that he go to the 
 libraries of our Colleges and Theological Seminaries and hunt up, if they 
 are then in existence, the Commencement programmes containing the 
 themes of our graduates. Your Commencement orator prides himself in 
 wrestling with the problems of the time. 
 
 Now during the first century of our country's history there was a suc- 
 cession of remarkable men filling the pulpits of these churches who were 
 graduates of Harvard College. These were: 
 
 I. Nathaniel Brewster, in Brookhaven, 1665 — '90. 
 
 2. "Joshua Hobart, in Sbuthold, 1674 — 1717. 
 
 3. Joseph Whiting, in Southampton, 1680 — 1723. Of whom Cotton 
 Mather writes in the Magnalia: "Joseph is at this day a worthy and pain- 
 ful minister of the Gospel, at Southampton, on Long Island. " 
 
 4. John Harriman, in Southampton, 1675 — '79. 
 
 5. Joseph Taylor, in Southampton, 1680 — '82. 
 
 6. Georgfe Phillips, in Brookhaven, 1697 — 1739. 
 
 7. Ebenezer White, in Bridge-Hampton, 1695 — 1748. 
 
 . 8. Nathanief Huntting, in East-Hampton, 1696 — 1746. 
 
32 RELIGIOUS PROGRESS AKD CHRISTAIN CULTURE. 
 
 9. Timothy Symmes, in Aquebogue, 1738 — 1750. 
 10. Sylvanus White, in Southampton, 1727 — 1782. 
 
 These men, whose pastorates averaged 32. 9 years, or, if we make no 
 account of two brief pastorates, of four and two years, respectively, more 
 than 40 years, were leavening the thought and directing the morals, and in- 
 ■'spiring the piety of their time. Our fathers learned from these men sobri- 
 ety of thought, accuracy of judgment, reverence for life. They filled the 
 civilization of their day with fine forces which perpetuated their influence 
 to these later times. 
 
 K now you look at the Commencement programmes of Harvard Col- 
 lege* for this period, you will learn something about the questions politi- 
 cal, theological, speculative, social and scientific, that were filing the minds 
 of thoughtful men and so percolating downwards from them into the 
 thought of the community. You will find that, while they were still under 
 the fiinges of the cloud of mediaeval superstition in some respects, they 
 were fast emerging into the clearer light of modem time. While they were 
 still maintaining great respect for constituted authority, they were already 
 claiming the right to investigate its foundations, and criticise its action and, 
 if need be, revolutionize its methods. You can hardly fail to detect the 
 germs of our revolutionary movements when you read from the pro- 
 grammes of the middle of the seventeenth centur)' such questions as these: 
 
 " Is a monarchical government the best .' " Affirmed in 1698. 
 
 " Is the royal power absolutely by divine right V Denied in 1723. 
 
 "Is civil government originally founded in the consent of the people?" 
 Affirmed in 1725. 
 
 " Is unlimited obedience to rulers taught by Christ and His apostles .'"' 
 Denied in 1729. 
 
 " Is the voice of the people the voice of God.'" Affirmed in 1733. 
 
 "Are we bound to observe the mandates of Kings, unless they them- 
 selves keep their agreements with their subjects .'" Denied in 1 738. 
 
 " Is it lawful to resist thfe Supreme magistrate if the commonwealth 
 can not otherwise be preserved .'" Affirmed in 1743, by Sam. Adams. 
 
 Thought was progressing and ripening very evidently. There is gp-eat 
 advance here upon that first proposiaon, "that monarchical government 
 is best " in 1698. The culmination comes in 1770, when these two ques- 
 tions are discussed, and the affirmative maintained: 
 
 " Is a government tyrannical, in which the rulers consult their own in- 
 terest more than that of their subjects .«'" 
 
 "Is a government despotic, in which the people have no check upon 
 the legislative power 1" 
 
 The farmers were about ready for Lexington and Concord then. 
 Among these questions here and there appear hints also of that conflict 
 which was then in the far fiiture, which we have now passed, and which 
 may well be called our countr3S second Revolution. " Is it lawful to sell 
 Africans Y' No ! was the respoi'se from the Commencement boards of 
 1724. "Is it lawful to subject Africans to perpetual bondage .'" No ! in 
 1761. Mark the ominous date ! " Are the offspring of slaves bom slaves i"''' 
 " No!' said these men of Suffolk in Massachusetts, and of Suffolk on Long 
 
 *For the questions which follow, I am indebted to an exceedingly interesting paper, 
 read before the Mass. Historical Society in June, 1880, by the Re*. Edward J. Young, 
 late Professor of Hebrew in Harvard College. ' 
 
RELIGIOUS PROGR^S AXB CHRISTIAN CiJLTl'RE. 33 
 
 Island, in 1766 — the responses which their sons in i866, had reasserted, 
 and vindicated, and forever established, with their blood. 
 
 Contemporaneous with this activity of thought in politics were other 
 discussions which would sound strangely enough to us. .Science had not 
 yet passed out of .\lchemy into Chemistry, or out of Astrology into Astron- 
 omy. Men still believed in an Elixir of Life, a universal solvent, and the 
 possibility of converting all metals into gold. They still believed in the 
 possibility of squaring the circle, and that the earth was the centre of the 
 Starr)- sphere. In 1674 it was maintained that the starn' heaven was made 
 of fire; in 1687, that there is a stone that makes gold; in 1703, that metals 
 can be changed into one another alternately; in 1762, that the heavenly 
 bodies produce certain change in the bodies of animals; in 1767, that 
 all bodies, not even exceptin.<>; metals and stones, are produced from seed. 
 The question was still mooted in 1699, whether there is a circulation of 
 the blood, and whether there is a universal remedy. And f©r many years 
 after it was believed that a certain powder existed which would infallibly 
 cure all wounds by being sprinkled upon the weapon that produced them. 
 
 Then turning to questions more immediately related to our subject of 
 Religious Progress, we find that during the same period, while much of 
 their thinking was characterized by discussion and hairsplitting, such as 
 ths school-men would have delighted in, much of it also was really in ad- 
 vance of the time and touched upon themes that are \ital even now. They 
 seemed to delight in chopp'ng logic as though immortal interests de- 
 pended upon the argument, and yet they did frequently come down to 
 matters intimately related to the conduct of life. Three times, at least, 
 during this penod the question was discussed with more solemnity than 
 such a question would admit of to-day before the highest court of our 
 land, whether, if Lazarus, by a will made before his death, had given away 
 his property, he could leg illy have claimsd it after his resurrection." " fc 
 the soul transmitted by generation, or is it in every case an immediate 
 creation U God?" " Do angels have matter and form.'" "Is the Pope 
 or the Turk to be regardel as Anti-Christ.'" "If a man is bom deficient 
 in one limb, will he oe deficient in the same limb on the day of Resurrec- 
 t on. " " Will the blessed in thj fiiture world after the last judgment make 
 US3 of articulate speech, and will that be Hebrew .'" But notwithstanding 
 all this which se3ms very childish to us, they were making real progress in 
 many ways. You cannot withhold your profoundest respect for men who 
 were maintaining in the sime public way, a hundred and fifty years ago, 
 that charity and mutual tolerance among the professors of Christianity are 
 most conducive to the promotion of true religion; that a &ithftil inquirer 
 into the truth of the sacred Scriptures, even though he should &11 into 
 error, may not be called a heretic; that the limits of church fellowship 
 should not be narrower than those of eternal salvation; that disputes re- 
 lating to theology are generally injurious f religion; and that the toler- 
 ation of every religion tends to promote true religion. 
 
 I have dwelt thus at len;;th upon these questions because they show 
 better than any other indices accessible to me what our representative men 
 and religious leaders were thinking about during our fiist century, what 
 they deemed important and vital. They reflect the spirit and temper of 
 the century. They show us that while doctrine remained substantially 
 unchanged, theological asperities were even then softening. They ex- 
 hibit, also, the operation of a principle that is ever true, that as men of 
 
34 RELIGIOUS PROGRESS AND CHRISTAIN CULTURE, 
 
 diverse theories draw near to a crisis of common danger, as our Colonies 
 did towards the close of their first centiiry, they begin to grow charitable 
 and mutually lenient. 
 
 In 1764 Whitefield passed through Suffolk County on his way through 
 the provinces, awakening generally a degree of enthusiasm such as had 
 never been vexperienced before in America, and such as, perhips, uiider the 
 changed conditions, would be impossible now. He preached in Southold, 
 Bridge-Hampton and East-Hampton, but for some reason, but little is 
 known of these labors or of their results. From the silence with which in 
 some narratives of the time his work is passed over, , and from a few well- 
 ascertained facts, the great proto-evangelist of America seems not to have 
 been received with any great favor. , Dr. Buell's " Narrative of the remark- 
 able revival in East-Hampton in the year 1764," a book which holds in the 
 religious literature of Long Island k place like Jonathan Edward's " Narra- 
 tive of the surprising work of God in Northampton in 1735," in the reli- 
 gious history of New England, does not deign to notice the fact of White- 
 field's visit to that church in the very year of which it treats. Mr. White 01 
 Southampton, positively refused to recognize him as the messenger of God 
 and closed his pulpit door against him. His action has seemed to some 
 invidious and unchristian. But in view of the spirit that was abroad in the 
 air at the time, I am not ready to take a place with those who charge the 
 cautious minister of Southampton with any lack of charity or of fidelity. 
 For twenty years previous to this there had been abroad a spirit of discord 
 and of disorganization in the churches both upon the Island and on the 
 main-land of New England. And this had been in no small degree owing 
 to Whitefield's own injudicious conduct and unwarrantable inuendoes con- 
 cerning the ministry of our churches. Coming from a country in which 
 the clergy were proverbially perfunctory in the discharge of their oifice and 
 lacking in the spiritual graces to be looked for in their profession; where 
 the shepherd's principal business seemed in many cases to be only to shear 
 the flock and eat the mutton; it was natural, perhaps, for Whitefield to take 
 it for granted that the same conditions existed in America. In entire sin- 
 cerity doubtless, but ignorant of facts, he started the cry of wolf where no 
 wolf was, and caused a panic of apprehension and suspicion in many a 
 hitherto peaceful flock. He raised the charge of an unconverted ministry 
 in a somewhat indefinite way, and without intending it, caused wide-spread 
 and measureless disaster. Suffolk County had no small share in spreading 
 and intensifying the pest. The Rev. James Davenport, of Southold, was a 
 good man doubtless in the ground of his character, but he lacked the good 
 sense and intellectual balance so characteristic of his earliest predecessor 
 and of his latest successor in that pastorate. Carried away by an enthusi- 
 astic impulse he aspired to be an imitator if not a rival of Whitefield. He 
 succeeded in imitating what was objectionable in his pattei-n without at- 
 taining to its excellencies. He became an itinerant and went up and down 
 among the churches like a baleful, flaming torch. He claimed to know 
 the secret things of God. He could discriminate as by intuition between 
 true and false professors. He dared to be precise in his charges where 
 Whitefield had 6nly been indefinite. He called upon churches to boycott 
 the ministers who had been their spiritual leaders for a generation, and as 
 they valued their soul's salvation, to no longer attend upon their ministra- 
 tions. And as all this was mixed up with some doctrinal truth which was 
 like the weight of the axe-head to drive home the divisive edge of error, he 
 
RELIGIOUS PROGRESS AND CHRISTIAN CULTURE. 35 
 
 succeeded in doing damage which was never repaired from that day to 
 this. Added to the personal virulence of his tirades he made use of a 
 noisy declamation, of sensuous appeals, of shoutings and groanings and 
 stampings, of picturesque descriptions of the joys of heaven and the tor- 
 ments of hell, which tended to wound the sense of true religion in the 
 house of its friends, and to bring it into contempt with its foes. And as 
 he affected to be an imitator of Whitefield, so he also had his satellites, and 
 the baleful contagion spread. There is extant a letter addressed to this 
 disturber of the peace and purity of the churches, written by the Rev. 
 Theophilus Pickering of Ipswich, Mass. , which after reciting the facts that 
 Davenport had been expelled from the colony of Connecticut, and that the 
 associated pastors of Boston and Charlestown had closed their pulpits 
 against him, closes with this incisive language: 
 
 "I add no more but my earnest prayer that your "heart may be kept 
 from secret workings of spiritual pride, and your head from^illusive imagi- 
 nations; and that (if the Lord will) you may have a safe and speedy re- 
 turn to your pastoral charge at Southold, on Long Island. " 
 
 It is no wonder then that after he had kindled this lire brand, however 
 unintentionally, Whitefield himself should have been received with cold- 
 ness in some places, and in others not received at all. I think, without 
 doubt, Minister White had the piety and the prudence of his people on his 
 side. I do not think his conduct, under the circumstances, is open to the 
 charge of uncharitableness or a mere self-protecting timidity. And all the 
 more when I find that a few years later, in those same commencement 
 theses at Harvard, it was affirmed (1769), that "enthusiasm brings more 
 injury to the cause of Christ than open inipiety;" and, (1770), that "the 
 Christian Religion has received more injury from its friends than from its 
 enemies. " 
 
 ■ Nevertheless that spiritual movement known as the ' ' Great Awaken- 
 ing," which was felt in both hemispheres, and which was a blessed renova- 
 tion of society, accomplished for the East end of Long Island as great 
 things, perhaps, as for any other part of the land. The churches were 
 purified and strengthened. The old half-way covenant system which had 
 long been in very general use, ahd which had introduced into the churches 
 a great number of quasi members who made no pretensions to anything 
 more than a formal piety, weakened and finally came to an end. Multi- 
 tudes were brought out of a religion of formalism into a religion of reality. ■ 
 The facts are so abundantly recorded in the pages of Buell and Beecher and 
 Prime, as to need no recapitulation here. The " Great Awakening " came 
 none too soon to fortify the graces of courage and of faith against the ex- 
 traordinary demands which were soon to be made upon them. The long 
 and trying years of the Revolution were drawing on. One measure .after 
 another was being attempted for the entire subjugation of the colonies to 
 the Crown or to the Parliament. The time was just upon our fathers, when 
 the forcible seizure of their homes, the spoliation of their farms, the rapac- 
 ity of their enemies, the treachery of their neighbors, their long isolation 
 fi-om their fellow countrymen on the mainland, the compulsory mainte- 
 nance of an invading army, and the remorseless brutality of an inhuman 
 soldiery for seven weary years, would make? the peaceful farms of Suffolk 
 the most unenviable abodes in the land. Let us thank God that he sent 
 them the baptism of faith and hope and heaven-born courage, and gave 
 them the bright visions of a better country, even an heavenly, before the 
 
36 RELIGIOUS tkOGRESS AJID CHRISl'U^f CULTURE. 
 
 fearful baptism of war. And after the war, and consequent upon the inev- 
 itable letting down of mora.s which war brings with it, there came in that 
 Worse than pestilence of French infidelity. Infected by the poisonous 
 vapors that steamed up and floated over the sea from the Cauldrons heated 
 by Montesquieu, Voltaire and Rousseau, little knots of men in East- 
 Hampton, Soutiiampton and Southold, formed themselves into infidel 
 clubs, and both spurned the name, and threw off the restraints of Christ- 
 ianity. But thanks to that same ' ' Great Awakening, " the infection di I not 
 spread far or take deeply. Than at the close of its first century. Religion 
 in Suffolk courity never presented an aspect more fair, more hopeful, more 
 radiant, since the days of the first settlement. 
 
 The religious character of our second century may be broadly and 
 generally distinguished from that of the first, by saying in a word that rcr 
 ligious thought was now brought into more intimate relations to practical 
 life. And this may be fearlessly said in view of facts, notwithstanding that 
 the men of a hundred and fifty years ago if they were to visit us now, would 
 probably think that the children had become sadly recreant to the princi- 
 ples and example of their fathers. The world at large has been growing 
 better for two hundred years, and we believe that Suffolk county has not 
 been an exception to the general rule. As we look about us now from the 
 height of this Bi-centennial year, notwithstanding all that we see of poHti- 
 cal trickery and self-seeking, of intemperance and Sabbath breaking, of al- 
 leged tyranny of capital and unreasonable and mutinous temper of labor, 
 of profanity of speech, and what is worse, profanation of the most sacred 
 relationships of life, the words of the wise men are nevertheless emphati- 
 cally appropriate, "Say not thou what is the cause that the former days 
 were better than these, for thou dost not inquire wis6ly concerning this. " 
 
 It does not come within my province to speak of the growth of wealth, 
 the developemtnt of agriculture and commerce, the advance of society in 
 the amenities of civilization and the refinements of living, the immense 
 progress of the arts and sciences of invention and discovery, the means of 
 rapid transit and of more rapid communication of thought, which have 
 made our once insulated borders to be as closely knitted to the rest of the 
 continent as any inland county. But there are greater, brighter, better 
 things than these to be chronicled, without which, all these would be but 
 an increasing and burdensome curse. With all this there has been a pro- 
 portionate and even-stepping advance in those virtues and graces which 
 constitute the Christian Culture, which, as I said in the beginning, is the 
 true outcome of Religious Progress. 
 
 There is the fruit of Charity in greater abundance and of finer quality 
 than our fathers ever dreamed of producing, from the stock of their relig- 
 ious institutions. A hundred years ago a single denomination had things 
 all its own way. The Congregational Order, or as it had then become 
 in Suffolk county, the Presbyterian church, was virtually the established 
 church of the Northern arid Eastern colonies. And if it did not imitate 
 the established church of old England in actual persecution of dissenters, 
 it did imitate it in the feeling of contempt for those who refused to ac- 
 knowledge its exclusive right. There are those in this assembly who can- 
 not forget how, as one after another little knots of Christian believers, de- 
 sirous of a freer expression, and a more elastic method of worship, and a 
 more exalted enthusiasm th^n the old forms seemed to permit, separated 
 themselves from the ancient folds, they were looked at with suspicion, or 
 
RELIGIOUS PROGRESS AND CHRISTIAN CULTURE. 37 
 
 even called by opprobrious names. We are certainly nearer to the age of 
 gold to-day. This century is not so theological as the last, butit is'more 
 religious. Men have learned to allow each other the sftme liberty in re- 
 ligious theory and modes of vvorship as in politics and methods of farming. 
 They have learned that neither a neighbor's judgment, nor piety is to be 
 impuigned because he sees certain facts at a different angle from their own 
 and draws his inferences accordingly. To no part of our land probably, 
 has greater blessing come tirom the great Wesleyan movement than to Suf- 
 folk county. Seen in advance, it was looked upon with apprehension as a 
 division, and consequently a weakening of the fagot. It was really a pro- 
 cess of multiplication and enlargement. It gave us two regiments for one 
 in every town; not crossing each other's line of march, but enlisted in the 
 same cause and fighting the same enemy. They came into the field — these 
 Methodists — light-armed, with lively music, making rapid charges, going 
 where the old-fashioned heavy artillery could not, and with*heir swift and 
 rattling fire doing no slight execution. How much have they done to break 
 ap a fatalism, which was almost Mahommedan in its grasp upon the hearts 
 of good men, and which often furnished lazy and bad men their best excuse 
 for continuing in their ways of sin and listlessness. 
 
 I have not been able to learn that any Sunday school was started in 
 this county earlier than that which was instituted in Southampton by Rev. 
 ■ Peter H. Shaw, in 182 1. It seems strange to us now that such a' move- 
 ment should ever havs been regarded as an innovation of very doubtful ex- 
 pediency. And yet goOvl people opposed it. on various grounds They 
 said that it was a novelty. They and their fathers had got along well 
 enough without it. It was enough if the district school-teacher on every 
 Saturday morning made his scholars say the catechism. A school, too, on 
 Sunday was an- infringement on the sanctity of the Sabbath. It was the en- 
 tering wedge. It required the performance of labor which would soOn ob- 
 literate all distinction between common and holy time. As if children 
 were, not to be lifted out of the pit of ignorance, or it were not lawful to do 
 good evr-n on the Sabbath day! But how has wisdom been jusdfied of her 
 children ! The church has learned the lesson how much better it is to go 
 quietly into the orchard and gather the delicate fruit by hand than it is to 
 wait for some gale to come and shake it bruised and broken to the ground. 
 
 Suffolk county has had an honorable part in the institution of great re- 
 forms. No man probably had more to do with the inception of the tem- 
 perance movement throughout the land than Dr. Lyman Beecher. And it 
 was during his East-Hampton pastorate that the fire was kindled which in 
 a few years swept through the county and burnt the wretched side-board 
 social tippling habit out of multitudes of Christian households. Ministers 
 and people had been pretty much alike. The jug and the decanter held a 
 place almost as respectable and were regarded about as indispensable as the 
 Bible and the catechism. It is quite customary now to have a calendar of 
 Scripture that shall furnish a text for every day in the year. It was far more 
 common at the beginning of this' cehtury to fortify against every day's de- 
 mands by a morning dram. "My spirit was greatly stirred," says Dr. 
 Beecher, "at the treatment of the Indians by unprincipled persons who 
 sold them rum. One man would go down with his barrel of whiskey in a 
 wagon to the Indians and get them tipsy and bring them in debt. He 
 would'get all their corn and bring it back in his wagon. In fact he 
 stripped themi Then in winter they must eome up twenty miles, buy their 
 
38 ' RELIGIOUS PROGRESS AND CHRISTIAN CULTURE. 
 
 own corn and pack it home on their shoulders or starve. Oh, it was hor 
 rible! horrible! It burned and burned in my mind, and I swore a deep 
 oath to God that it should not be so. I didn't set up for a reformer, bul 
 J saw a rattlesnake in my path and I smote it. " 
 
 And the same lusty hand smote down another rattlesnake. The mui- 
 der of Alexander Hamilton at the hand of Aaron Burr aroused his wrath, 
 and in its white heat he forged there at East-Hampton those discourses 
 which needed no repetition, but swept out forever from the Northern mind 
 that false standard of honor which demanded^ blood-atonement for read or 
 fancied insult. 
 
 In no respect, perhaps, is the contrast between this century and the 
 last so great as in the systematic and unceasing benevolence which charac- 
 terizes our religious life. It would seem as if every form of huma-ii want 
 material and spiritual had now its own organized charity. Pipes are laid 
 from the reservoir of the churches' wealth to almost every species of neces- 
 sity. They are not kept as full as they ought to be, nor as full as they will 
 be when men shall have come under the full pressure of the constraining 
 love of Christ. But the brotherhood of all men, irrespective of race or 
 color, or language, or condition, is asserting itself.' A want pressing with- 
 in the polar circles announces itself almost instantaneousily in the tropics. 
 The whole earth has become sentient. Nervous cords cover it as it ■Were 
 some mighty organism quick with tender feeling. Suffolk is not a frag- 
 ment of Long Island, but a member of the world. It has felt the throb- 
 bings of most distant pain. It has responded with generous aid. To the 
 ends of the earth have gone its money, its bread, its Bibles; yea, its living 
 teachers — its own life blood. Through agencies our fathers never dreamed 
 of, but for which they nevertheless faithfully prepared the way, and for 
 which the honor is due more to them than to their children, through Bible, 
 and tract, and missionary, and Sunday-school, and temperance societies, 
 the old Puritan faith is spreading like leaven in the meal. That same old 
 faith is getting into the world's secular life. Dropping its hardness it has 
 become facile and fusile, using the sunbeam rather than the blast to work 
 its way. It runs along the lines of good neighborhood. It asserts itself 
 in wholesome law. , It makes itself felt in the elevation of social customs. 
 It rises in the increasing intolerance of untruth and unrighteousness. It 
 glows in the charitable fellowship of men who think . diversely in non- 
 essentials. It compels more and more the assent of men to the supreme 
 excellence and beauty of Christly character. This, sons and daughters of 
 Suffolk, is your best inheritance — the faith of your Puritan ancestry. It 
 made them brave. It has made you prosperous. It will make your chil- 
 dren what you wish them most to be, high-minded, pure, and safe. 
 
Development of Agriculture 
 
 -IN- 
 
 SXJI^I^OI_.I^ OOTJUSTT^-, 
 
 60K. fflKNEY W.- ffiEDGKS, 
 
 IN these centennial exercises the subject assigned to me was "The Devel- 
 opment of Agriculture." Agriculture, new and old, what it was two 
 hundred years gone by, and what it is now in Suffolk county. 
 From 1639, when Lyon Gardiner made the first English settlement in 
 the county of Suffolk, and within the present bounds of the State of New 
 York, other colonies were founded at Southampton and Southold in 1640; 
 in East-Hampton in 1649, ^.nd extending to Shelter Island, Setauket, 
 Smithtown and Huntington, soon thereafter covered by charter the terri- 
 tory of the county pf Suffolk. At the organization of the county in 1683, 
 forty-four years had passed since Gardiner came to his island. This coun- 
 ty comprised about two-thirds of the territory of Long Island. The census 
 pf 1875 gives the area thus: 
 
 Improved, woodland, other, ■ total. 
 
 Kings county, acres, 9, no 600. 1,174 11,090 
 
 Queens county, " 117,686 29,736 24,561 171,983 
 
 Suffolk county, " 156,760 102,550 129,135 388,445 
 
 Total area, 571,518 
 
 One-third is 190,506 
 
 Area of Kings and Queens is 183,073 
 
 Area of Suffolk over one-third is — acres 7j433 
 
 The precise population of the State or county in 1683, I have not as- 
 certained. There was a partial statement in 1693, and the apportionment 
 of militia to each county, thus: 
 
 City and county of New York, 477 
 
 Queens county, 580 
 
 Suffolk " 533 
 
 Kings " 319 
 
 Albany " 359 
 
 Ulster county and Dutchess, 277 
 
 Westchester county, , 283 
 
 Richmond " 104 
 
 Total, 2,932 
 
40 DEVELOPMENT 07 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 Suffolk was the third county in the colony in the Quotas. In 1698, 
 1703 and 1723, the population is thus given; ■ 
 
 1698. 1703. 1723, 
 
 New York, 
 iQueeris county, 
 Suffolk " 
 Kings 
 Albany 
 
 Ulster " ) 
 ■'Dutchess " I 
 Richmond, 
 Orange, 
 Westchester, 
 
 4,937, 
 
 4,436, 
 
 7,24«. 
 
 3,565. 
 
 ■ 4,392, 
 
 7,191. 
 
 2,679, 
 
 3-346, 
 
 6,241. 
 
 2,017, 
 
 1,915. 
 
 2,218. 
 
 1,476, 
 
 2,273, 
 
 6,501. 
 2,923 
 
 1,384, 
 
 1,669, 
 
 1,083. 
 
 727, 
 
 504, 
 
 1,506. 
 
 
 
 268, 
 
 1,244. 
 
 1,063, 
 
 1,946, 
 
 4,409. 
 
 Total, 17,848 20,749 40,564 
 
 . These results show that Suffolk County in population w.is the third in 
 the State in i693and 1703, and the fourth county in 1723. Asimilar com- 
 parison will show that by the census in 1731 and 1737 this county held the 
 same rank. In 1746 and 1749 it was the third; in 1756 the fifth, and in 
 1 771 the sixth county of the State in numbers. In these periods reachini? 
 over almost one hundred and forty years, when the State was largely agri- 
 cultural, the population of this county, chiefly so sustained, was nearly 
 one-sixth of that in the entire State. In 1790 it was the eighth county, and 
 contained 16,440 out of 340, 120 in the State — n little under one-twentieth 
 of the whole amount. On the 17th day of May, 1683, the tax of the 
 province of New York rt-as fi;3d at £2^^() 4S. od., and was apportioned 
 thus; 
 
 The city and county of New York to pay 
 County of Westchester, " 
 
 ■City and county of Albany, ' ' 
 
 County of Riohmond, " 
 
 County of Ulster, " 
 
 Kings County, " 
 
 Queens County, " 
 
 County of Suffolk, 
 
 *Dukes County, " 
 
 County of Orange 
 
 Thus at the organization of the county its farmers wei'e taxed to pay 
 over one-sixth part of all the taxes paid in the then ten counties of the 
 province ol New York, and as much as the city and county of New York, 
 an 1 more than any other county that alone excepted. Unless the county 
 of Suffolk was then a productive territory, agriculturally, the tax was un- 
 equal, oppressive and unjust. Assuming its equality, it is given as an evi- 
 dence that even then agriculture had so far progressed that in we.ilth, in 
 substantial comfort, in ministry to the necessities of mankind, this county 
 as an agricultural county stood even with the then commercial metropolis 
 of the province, and second to none in the province. In 169.3 Queens 
 
 £ 
 
 s. 
 
 d. 
 
 434 
 
 10 
 
 00 
 
 185 
 
 15 
 
 00 
 
 240 
 
 00 
 
 00 
 
 185 
 
 15 
 
 00 
 
 408 
 
 00 
 
 00 
 
 308 
 
 08 
 
 00 
 
 308 
 
 08 
 
 00 
 
 434 
 
 10 
 
 00 
 
 40 
 
 00 
 
 00 
 
 10 
 
 00 
 
 00 
 
 Note The County of Dukes comprised Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard and the Eliza' 
 
 Ijrth Islands 
 
DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 41 
 
 County furnished the highest number of militia men by 47, SuiTolk County 
 the next highest number by fifty-six over the number assigned to New York, 
 which latter county came then third on the list of Quotas. 
 
 In the Journal of the Legislative Council of New York, under date of 
 September 28, 1691, I find a memoradum of the Address of the House of 
 Representatives, setting forth their sense of the displeasure of Almighty 
 God for their manifold sins "by the blasting of their corn," etc., and an 
 order that the first Wednesday of every month, until the month of June 
 following, be observed and kept a fast day, and that proclamation be is- 
 sued through the government to enjoin the strict observation thereof, 1 and 
 that all persons be inhibited any servile labor on the said; days. Thus 
 the uncertainties of unfavorable seasons, sometimes occurring now, clearly 
 prevailed widely at that early day. 
 
 In the Journals of the same Council, under date of October 16, 1738, 
 among the bills read before the Council is one entitled ' ' An act to en- 
 courage the destroying of wild cats in Kings County, Queens County and 
 Suffolk County." By an act of February 16, 1771, a like provision ap- 
 plied to Suffolk County, and later, up to the first constitution of the State, 
 and acts passed under it, similar provision was made, until the matter was, 
 after the Revolution, devolved, by statute passed March 7th, 1788, upon 
 the several towns in the State. Thus, for ixearly one hundred and fifty 
 years, the agriculture of the county, from its infancy, contended against 
 the depredations of wild animals, as well as the blights and mildews of ad- 
 verse seasons. 
 
 Through all this period it encountered a greater obstruction in the 
 method of conducting it. In all early settlements, when the axe clears the 
 forest and the plow inverts the virgin soil, where ages of repose have stored 
 up treasures of fertility, those treasures appear for years unexhausted and 
 inexhaustible. It so seemed to the first settlers on the Mohawk Flats, in 
 the Genesee Valley, in the vales of Ohio, on the prairies of the far West — 
 and it so seemed to our ancestors on the shores of Long Island. They 
 cropped field after field with little, and oftener no manure; they fenced large 
 farms; they plowed, and raising more oats, and little wheat, and more rye, 
 left the land unseeded with grass for eight, ten or fifteen years,, hoping that 
 rest would restore the exhaustion of cropping. Up to the time, and long 
 after the Revolution this skinning process went on all over this county 
 and Island. What manure was made, and that was small in quantity and 
 poorly cared for, was applied on the few acres of mow land, and was 
 thought to be wasted if put on pasture. The vast old pasture' lot, com- 
 prising often one-half the area of the whole" farm, impoverished and skinned, 
 produced U few old bayberry bushes, such few weeds as worn out land 
 could grow, and the everlasting five-fingers and briers. Nine pasture lots 
 in ten were blackberry lots in my early days. This skinning process, that 
 run down the averages of rfheat per acre on the Mohawk flats, in the Gen- 
 esee Valley, and through Ohio, to twelve' or thirteen bushels,' was per- 
 petuated here for nearly two hundred' years. The pasture where I, when 
 a child, was sent to bring home the cows, was such a vast waste that often 
 in 'a fog I was lost for a time and could find neither cows nor the way to 
 them or to my home. With all the abundance of fish in thewat^rs, I find 
 no evidence that they were caughH andrapplied as a fertilizer to' any notice- 
 able extent. until after the Revolution. ' The appBeation of fifeh, ashes, 
 bone dust and other fertilizers, to any consid2rable extent, upon the farms 
 
42 DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
 
 of this county, with few exceptions, dates within the last sixty , years. 
 Within that time the production of grass, grain and root crops in the coun- 
 ty, I thinl?, must have been more than doubled by the increased and in- 
 creasing application of fertilizers. 
 
 So little change occurred in the modes of farming and farm life that 
 the farm and farmer of 1683 might well stand as a picture for those of 1783 — 
 the same tools, the same riiethods, the same surroundings. Grass was cut 
 with the scythe, raked by a hand-rake, pitched by the old heavy iron fork; 
 grain was reaped with the sickle, threshed with the flail and winnowed with 
 a riddle; land was plowed with a heavy wooden framed plough, pointed 
 with wrought iron, whose mole board was protected by odd bits of old 
 cart wheel tire; harrows were mostly with wooden teeth; corn hills were 
 dug with the hoe; the manure for the hill was dropped in heaps, carried 
 by hand in a basket and separately put in each hill. The farmer raised 
 flax and generally a few sheep. Threshing lasted well into the winter, and 
 then out came the crackle and swingle, knife and board. The flax was 
 dressed, wool carded, and the wheel sung its song to the linen and woolen 
 spun in every house. The looms dreary pound gave evidence that home 
 manufacture clad the household. From his feet to his head the farmer 
 stood in vestment produced on his own farm. The leather of his shoes 
 came from the hides of his own cattle. The linen and woolen that he wore 
 were products that he raised. The farmer's wife oir daughter braided and 
 sewed the straw-hat on his head. His fur cap was made from the skin of 
 a fox he shot. The feathers of wild fowl in the bed whereon he rested his 
 weary frame by night, were the results acquired in his shooting. The pil- 
 low-cases, sheets and blankets, the comfortables, quilts and counterpanes, 
 the towels and table cloth, were home made. His harness and lines he 
 cut from hides grown on his farm. Everything about his ox yoke except 
 staple and ring he made. His whip, his ox gad, his flail, axe, hoe and 
 fork-handle, were his own work. How little he bought, and how much 
 he contrived to supply his wants by home manufacture would astonish this 
 generation. 
 
 The typical farm house of 1683 and 1783, were much alike. It was 
 a single house unpainted, the front two, and the sloping rear roof made 
 that one story. Four Lombardy poplars, tall, slim and prim, its sole orna- 
 ment in front. The well pole, a few feet in the rear of the kitchen, pointed 
 45 degrees towards mid heaven — underneath swung the bucket, 
 
 " The old oaken bucket," 
 immortal in song. Two small windows, of 6x8 glass; dimly lighted his 
 front room. ' A large beam ran across its upper wall. Houses then were 
 built to st^y. The floor was uncarpeted. The chimney and fire-places 
 were capacious masses of masonry, looking with contempt upon the Lilli- 
 putian proportions of like structures of these modern times. The mass of 
 chimney and oven and fire-places contracted into an entry what would 
 otherwise be I a hafl. The front stairs zig-zagged and turned, and wound 
 and squirmed towards the upper rooms. Over the fire-place hung the old 
 King's Arm, with flint-lock wherewith he had brought down deer and wild 
 ducks, and brant, and geese in no small numbers. Outside hung his eel 
 spear, clam and oyster torigs. Close at hand was the upright hollow log 
 that was his samp mortar. The barn-yard was near, and in view of the 
 kitchen, andiDii the farther side his small barn. One roof sloped down low 
 in the yard, and on that in the cold winter's day he spread his sheaves of flax 
 
Development of agriculture. 
 
 43 
 
 to dry for crackling. All day he labored in the fields. In the long autumn 
 and winter evenings he husked corn and shelled the ears over the edge of 
 his spade. No horse-rake; no corn sheller; no horse pitch-fork; no horse- 
 mower or reaper — the life of the farmer was literally a battle against the 
 forces of nature for little more than the actual necessities of subsistence, and 
 with the most rude and unwieldy supply of weapons for the war. The mo- 
 notony of his life was relieved by hunting and fishing in their season. The 
 farmer raised rye and corn, rarely wheat, for bread. He ate fresh pork 
 while it lasted, and salt pork while that lasted. Corn was pounded into 
 samp; ground into hominy and meal; baked or boiled into johnny-cake, 
 Indian bread, griddle-cakes, pudding, or what the Dutch called "sup- 
 pawn" and the Yankee "hasty pudding;" and in a variety of ways eaten 
 with or without milk. In some shape corn was a chief article of diet. Rye 
 bread, the chief bread, and wheat bread a rare luxury. Oysters, clams, 
 eels and other fish, with game of the forest or fowl of the air, he%)ed out the 
 supply of food in the olden time. The statistics of ancient agriculture, if to 
 be found at all, is not accessible to me. I turn to the State census reports 
 of 1865 and find: 
 Improved acres in New York State, 14,827,437 
 
 " " " Suffolk County, 148,661 
 
 Unimproved acres in New York State, 10,411,863 
 
 " " " Suffolk County, 230,5561-2 
 
 Showing that Suffolk County contains a trifle less than one-hundredth part 
 of all the improved lands in the State, and over one-fiftieth of all its unim- 
 proved lands. The extensive beaches and woodlands of the county consti- 
 tute its unimproved lands. 
 The same census reports thus: 
 
 New York State, acres plowed, 
 Suffolk County, " 
 
 N. Y. State, 
 Suffolk County, " 
 
 N. Y. State, 
 Suffolk County, " 
 
 N. Y. State, 
 Suffolk County, " 
 
 N. Y. State, 
 Suffolk County, " 
 
 N. Y. State, 
 Suffolk County, " 
 
 N. Y. State, 
 Suffolk Count}', 
 
 N. Y. State, 
 
 Suffolk County, 
 
 New York State, neat cattle, 
 
 Suffolk County, 
 
 Acres of grass cut 
 4,237,0853-4 
 34,577 3-4 
 
 Corn. 
 
 Bushels Bushels 
 
 
 harvested. average. 
 
 632,213 1-4 
 
 17,987,763 1-4 28 
 
 16,460 1-4 
 
 580,015 35 
 
 Wheat. 
 
 
 399,918 3-4 
 
 5,432,282 1-2 14 
 
 10,563 1-4 
 
 199,941 1-4 short 19 
 
 Oats. 
 
 
 109,910 
 
 19,052,833 1-4 over 17 
 
 10,945 
 
 289,575 over 26 
 
 Rye. 
 
 
 234,689 
 
 2,575.3483-4 short II 
 
 5,353 
 
 61,555 1-2 over 17 
 
 Barley. 
 
 
 189,029 3-4 
 
 3,075,052 3-4 over 16 
 
 498 
 
 14,095 over 28 
 
 Turnips. 
 
 
 8.123 7-8 
 
 1,282,338 over 157 
 
 689 1-4 
 
 160,457 232 
 
 Potatoes., 
 
 
 235,058 1-4 
 
 23,236,6873-4 over 98 
 
 3,439 1-2 
 
 292,738 over 85 
 
 Tons cut. 
 
 3,897 
 
 ,914 1-8 short I ton. 
 
 34 
 
 ,758 over " 
 
 
 1,824,221 
 
 
 18,792 
 
44 DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICtTLTURfi. 
 
 Hogs slaughtered. lis. Average. 
 
 New York State, 706,716 128,462,487 181 
 
 Suffolk County, 13,942 3,060,602 219 
 
 Cattle slaughtered for beef. 
 New York State, 221,481 1-4. Suffolk County, 2,447 
 
 Value of farm implements and machinery. 
 New York State, $21,189,099.75. Suffolk County, $407,257. 
 
 Fertilizers purchased. 
 New York State, $838,907.52. Suffolk County, $294,429.40 
 
 The value of poultry owned in 1865, and of poultry and eggs sold in 
 1864, in twelve counties, is thus: 
 
 Value. Poultry sold Eggs sold 
 
 ■ in J(g64, in 1864. 
 
 Albany, #52,466 30 31.016.40 34,957-6i 
 
 Cayuga, 52.911 75 41,696.50 44,772.00 
 
 Columbia, 59,816 00 3i,i95-05 33, i25-i4 
 
 Dutchess, 77,194 00 76,326.50 52,059,50 
 
 Monroe, 53,977 33 38,706.05 33,743-98 
 
 Onon^tega, 49,251 05 34,607.28 45,978-84 
 
 Orang?, 63,410 00 32,101.24 36,858.36 
 
 Queens, 79,597 00 80,035.00 45,960.00 
 
 Siaratoga, 52,576 53 36,500.81 45,082.91 
 
 Ulster, 55,292 12 29,277.20 36,601.30 
 
 Westchester, 75,643 75 45,068.46 41,346.53 
 
 Suffolk, 47,708 75 47,120.00 57,003.13 
 
 The results of these figures make this showing a fraction less than one- 
 hundredth part of all the improved lands in the State lie in the county of 
 Suffolk. If that county produces one-hundredth part of all the aggregate 
 product of the crops in the State that shows, other things being equal, that 
 the farmers of Suffolk County understand their business at least as well as 
 the average farmer. If the land of our county be reckoned poorer than the 
 average in the State, that fact will not lessen the force of the figures, or de- 
 tract firom the greater credit due to Suffolk County farming, provided that 
 production comes up to the average State production. At the outset it 
 appears that of all the tools and machinery used in farming in the' State, 
 Suffolk County held in value about one-fiftieth part — showing that the Suf- 
 folk County farmer was up to the average twice over in the value of me- 
 chanical applitoces in his busi'ness. 
 
 Suffolk County purchased over one-third of all the fertilizers in the 
 State, and more than any other ten counties. Suffolk County kept over 
 one-hundredth of all the neat cattle in the State, and slaughtered over that 
 proportion of all the cattle slaughtered therein, showing that her system of 
 agriculture returned to the soil very largely the products, and was no skin- 
 ning process; that the corn, oats, roots and grass were fed to domestic 
 animals, and thereby the elements of fertihty were restored to the soil. 
 
 Although these figures show an average for the county per acre of 13 
 bushels of potatoes less than the State average, they show more on all other 
 productions. The average of the county over the State is, per acre in com. 
 7 bushels; wheat, 5 ; oats, 9; rye, 8 ; barley, 12 ; and turnips 75 bushels. 
 This county raised nearly one-thirtieth of all the corn raised in the State; 
 more than one-thirtieth of all the wheat, over one-seventieth of all the oats, 
 nearly one-fortieth of all the rye, over one-eighth of all the turnips, and 
 
DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTUKE. 45 
 
 nearly one-eightieth of all the potatoes. It produced nearly one-fortieth of 
 the total pork, and our average weight of hogs exceeded that of the State 
 by 38 pounds. Suffolk County is credited with less poultry in 1865 than 
 any of the twelve counties I have named, but sold more in 1 864 than any 
 counties in the State except Queens and Dutchess. Suffolk County beat 
 all other counties in the State on . eggs, .and sold nearly #5,000 more than 
 Dutchess County, which is the next highest on the list. 
 
 The census of 1875 gives these figures ; 
 Improved lands in the State, acres, '5)875,552 
 
 Unimproved lands in the State, acres, 91783,714 
 
 Suffolk County, improved lands, 156,760 
 
 " " unimproved lands, 332,685 
 
 The relative proportion of lands in the State and c6unty remained 
 nearly as in 1865: 
 
 Value of all stock in the State, 1146,497, 154 
 
 " " " " Suffolk County, . 1,879,073 
 
 " " tools and implements in the State, 44,2383263 
 
 " " " " Suffolk County, 541,158 
 
 Value of all farm buildings other than dwellings. 
 
 In the State, $148,715,775. In Suffolk County, 12,161,675 
 
 Value of all fertihzers purchased in the State, $1,767,352 
 
 " Suffolk County, 316,737 
 
 Area mown in the State — acres, 4,796,739 
 
 " " " Suffolk County, 38,744 
 
 Hay produced in the State, tons 5,440,612 
 
 " " Suffolk County 41,980 
 
 Corn. — The State produced 20, 294,800 bushels; Suffolk County pro- 
 duced 582,690. 
 
 Oats. — The State produced 37,968,429 bushels; Suffolk County pro- 
 duced 280,566. ' 
 
 Winter Wheat. — The State produced 9,017,737 bushels; Suffolk 
 County produced 182,867. 
 
 Potatoes. — The State produced 36,639,601 bushels; Suffolk County 
 produced 405, 237. 
 
 Number of cattle slaughtered in the State, 85,571 
 
 " t' " " Suffolk County, 889 
 
 " " hogs " in the State, 521,490 
 
 " " " " " Suffolk County, 11,585 
 
 Pork made in the State, lbs., 121,184,622 
 
 " " " Suffolk County, lbs. 2,708,759 
 
 Gross sales of ferm produce in the State, |S 12 1,187,467 
 
 " " " " Suffolk County, 1,019,617 
 
 Apples produced in the State, bushels 23, 118, 230 
 
 , .. " ' " " Suffolk County, bushels 308,315 
 
 Poultry sold in the State, value 5^1,772,084 
 
 " '■' Suffolk County, value 65,572 
 
 Eggs sold in the State, value 2,513,144 
 
 " " " Suffolk County; value 118,049- 
 
 Two counties sold more poultry, and two only, viz. : 
 Dutchess County sold $77,188; Queens County sold $88,403. 
 Onondaga sold eggs in value next to Suffolk, and to the amount of 
 $91,818. 
 

 Bushels 
 
 Suffolk County, 
 
 per acre. 
 35- 
 25- 
 
 28. 
 
 
 I2«> 
 96. 
 
 I ton. 
 
 
 233 lbs. 
 
 46 DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
 
 A careful comparison of these tables show results not unfavorable to 
 the agriculture of Suffolk County, and the averages of crops of the State 
 and county are these: 
 
 AVERAGES OF STATE AND COUNTY PRODUCTION COMPARED. 
 Bushels 
 per acre. 
 Corn, New York State, 32. 
 
 Barley, " " 22. 
 
 Oats, " " 28. 
 
 Rye, " " II. 
 
 Potatoes, " " 102. 
 
 Hay, " " I ton. 
 
 Hogs, " " 223 lbs. 
 
 All fractions are rejected in the foregoing figures. 
 
 Suffolk County contained in value one-seventieth of all the farm build- 
 ings, exclusive of dwellings in the State of New York. Its farmers owned 
 in round numbers one-eightieth of all the farm tools and machinery in the 
 State. They purchased one-sixth of all the fertilizers purchased in the 
 State. The value of the stock in the county was over one-eightieth part of 
 all owned in this State. ' The acres mown to feed that stock was less than 
 one-hilndredth of all mown in the State, and the average cut of hay was 
 within a fraction of the State average per acre. The number of cattle 
 slaughtered in the county was over one-hundredth of all slaughtered in the 
 State. The pork made in the county was over one-fiftieth of all made in 
 the State, and the average weight of hogs in the county beat the State 
 average ten pounds. Of all the corn raised in this State, Suffolk County 
 produced over one-fortieth; of winter wheat over one-fiftieth, and of pota- 
 toes about one-ninetieth. The proportion of oats raised in the county was 
 about one hundred and thirty-fifth of the State production. It was thought 
 Suffolk County would be. a poor county for the production of fruit, and 
 yet the apple crop of the county was'over one-eightieth of the whole State 
 production. In the amount of poultry sold Suffolk County stands third 
 in the list of counties in New York State. In the value of eggs sold this 
 county stands first, beating every county, and beating Onondaga by over 
 126,000. 
 
 The results of the oat crop of the county as reported in the tables were 
 a disappointment to me. I knew that in 1865 our average and aggregate 
 product put this county among the 'foremost. Why in 1875 it was among 
 the hindmost seemed unaccountable. The census of 1875 reports the pro- 
 duct of 1874. Consulting my record of 1874, I found that I had ten acres 
 in oats. I remembered that the crop never promised better for from 50 to 
 60 bushels per acre than then. I threshed 50 bushels, and the army worm 
 threshed the rest. That clears the mystery. The loss on oats that year in 
 the best oat region of the county on the south shore was ten times more 
 than the amount harvested. Generally in my section none were threshed. 
 In round numbers 10,000 acres were sown in the county. I estimate the 
 loss by the army worm to be not less than 100,000 bushels, of the value of 
 55 cents per bushel, and in the aggregate $55,000. This loss should be 
 credited to the county in any fair calculation of averages with other coun- 
 ties not so ravaged. This is pre-eminently the age of criticism. Moses 
 and the Pentateuch are questioned. ■ All the old foundations are pried up 
 to see if they have goqd corner-stones. Men build capitols, and monu- 
 ments, and bridges, and hotels by the job, covering up vast frauds. Prac- 
 
DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 47 
 
 tical men, and literary men, and mechanics, and the professions, believe 
 nothing until it is demonstrated. The whole earth is a war of question and 
 denial and call for proof. I anticipate this question: If Suffolk County is 
 the purchaser of one-third of all the fertilizers sold in the State in 1865, and 
 onvsixth in 1875, i* must be a poor county; if not, why not? Other 
 counties purchase little or none, while Suffolk is so poor it must purchase 
 to produce, and unless the production is increased so as to pay the cost of 
 fertilizers, Suffolk County is still in arrears. All that may be said regard- 
 ing the necessity of restoring fertilizers to a soil long abused by the skin- 
 ning process in this old count)' and the like necessity that will come to 
 other counties will avail nothing. All that may be said showing that feed- 
 ing produce to animals on the form while in the main good farming lessens 
 the amount of sales and apparent profit, will avail nothing. More largely 
 than in other counties Suffolk fed on the farm the hay, corn, oats and 
 rsots, and sold proportionately nr.ore meat, lessening not really but appar- 
 ently her farming profits. All this is apparent, but still the demand comes 
 and must be met or avoided. 
 
 The excess and value of county over State avei ages may be thus stated 
 for 1865: 
 
 Acres. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Price per bush. 
 
 Value. 
 
 Com, 7 bushels, 16,460 1-4 
 
 115,221 3-4 |i 00 
 
 #115,221 75 
 
 Wheat, 5 " 10,563 1-4 
 
 52,816 ] 
 
 [-4 2 60 
 
 137.322 25 
 
 Oats, 9 " 10,945 
 
 98,505 
 
 80 
 
 78,804 00 
 
 Rye, 8 •' 5,353 
 
 42,824 
 
 I 10 
 
 47,106 40 
 
 Barley, 12 " 498 
 
 5.976 
 
 I 10 
 
 6,573 60 
 
 Turnips, 75 " 689 
 
 51.675 
 
 40 
 
 20,670 00 
 
 Theflike 
 
 excess for i 
 
 875. 
 
 
 Acres. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Price per bush. 
 
 
 Com, 3 bushels, 16,304 
 
 48,932 
 
 $1 00 
 
 148,932 00 
 
 Wheat, 3 " 9,388 
 
 28,164 
 
 I 25 
 
 35,205 00 
 
 Barley, 3 " 186 
 
 568 
 
 I 00 
 
 568 00 
 
 Rye, I " 4,333 
 
 4,333 
 
 I 00 
 
 4,333 00 
 
 Apples I " trees 130,406 
 
 130,406 
 
 50 
 
 65,203 00 
 
 Loss on oat crop by army worm, 
 
 cess. 
 
 ■ 
 
 55,000 00 
 
 Total value of county exi 
 
 #614,939 00 
 
 Add for permanent improvement < 
 
 Df land by fertilizers. 
 
 100,000 00 
 
 Total, 
 
 $714,939 00 
 
 Deduct for less county average. 
 
 
 Acres. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Price. 
 
 
 1865. Potatoes 13 bu. 3,439 1-2 
 
 44,713 
 
 1-2 $0 80 
 
 135,770 80 
 
 1875. " 6 " 4,208 
 
 25,248 
 t. 
 
 50 
 
 12,624 00 
 
 Total to deduc 
 
 $48,394 80 
 
 Balance of county over State production. 
 
 
 $666,545 20 
 
 Cost of fertilizers in 
 
 1865, 
 
 1294,429 40 
 
 
 (( tt ic tc 
 
 1875. 
 
 316,737 00 
 
 
 Amounting to 
 
 
 611,266 40 
 
 Balance credit to the county over the State averagejafter 
 
 deducting cost of all fertilizers, . . $55,27880 
 
 In. this calculation I have disregarded the item of fertilizers purchased 
 
48 
 
 DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
 
 by Other counties and have under-estimated the amount of permanent im- 
 provement which I believe the land derived from the large application of 
 fertilizers. No account is made of any extra straw or stalks thereby grown, 
 and none of the extra market value of Long Island potatoes. All these 
 items in the statement would make it still more favorable to the county, 
 and would add force to the demonstration that Suffolk County can afford 
 to purchase, and actually profits by the large application of fertilizers. It 
 is usually the farmer who purchases judiciously the most manure who 
 makes the most profit. 
 
 J. H. Wardle, Esq., has kindly sent in advance sheets of the census of 
 1880, from which I give these figures: 
 
 No. of farms in the State of New York, 241,058 
 
 " " Suffolk County, 3,379 
 
 acres improved in the State, 17,717,862 
 
 " " County, 156,223 
 
 " unimproved in the State, 6,062)892 
 
 " " County, 152,694 
 
 " woodland in the State, 5>i95!795 
 
 " " County, 134,836 
 
 Value of farms in the State, $1,056,176,741 
 
 " " " " " County, 17,079,652 
 
 " " farm tools and machinery in the State, 42,592,741 
 
 " " " " " " " " County, 563,225 
 
 " " live stock in State, 1 1 7, 868, 2 83 
 
 " " " " " County, 1,359,047 
 
 " " fertilizers purchased in State, 2,715,477 
 
 " " " " "County, 272,134 
 
 " " farm productions in State, 178,025,695 
 
 " " " " " Countjf, 2,198,079 
 
 Bushels. Acres. 
 
 7,792,062 356,629 
 
 5,459 199 
 
 Acres. Bushels. 
 
 779,272 25,690,156 
 
 18,097 624,407 
 
 i>26i,i7i 37,575.506 
 
 9,556 311,581 
 
 244,923 2,634,690 
 
 3,931 47,471 
 
 736,611 11,587,766 
 
 5,660 182,537 
 
 Area mown acres. crop, tons. 
 
 4,644,452 5,255,642 
 
 . 33,197 40,111 
 
 Barley, in the State, 
 
 " " County, 
 
 Indian com, in the State, 
 
 " " " County, 
 Oats, in the State, 
 
 " " County, 
 
 Rye, in the State, 
 
 " County, 
 Wheat, in the State, 
 " " County, 
 
 Hay, State, 
 
 ' ' County, 
 Numbers 
 poultry. 
 
 6,448,886, Eggs produced, in the State, 
 
 dozens 
 
 160,173, 
 214,595, 
 194,950, 
 183,395, 
 204,295, 
 
 "Suffolk County, 
 
 " Erie 
 
 "Cayuga " 
 
 "Oneida 
 
 " Ojiondaga " 
 
 31,958,739 
 
 910,848 
 
 1,116,191 
 
 932,947 
 
 i,oq8,33o 
 
 9.73, 206 
 
199,840, Eggs. produced in St. Lawrence Co. jdoz. 1,073,385 
 
 .21.7,826, " " ■ " SteiibenCo. ' '"" 1,037,509 
 
 • Acres. Busjbels. 
 
 Irish potatoes. State 340,536 33> ^A+^Soy 
 
 County, 3,796 . 493,078 
 
 Orchard products value, State $8,409,794 
 
 " County 17,24)8 
 
 Market^ garden products sold, Sl^te value 4,211,64,2 
 
 " Co. '' 118,293 
 
 Amount of cord-wood cut. 
 State, 4,187,942. County, 34,228. 
 
 Value of fruit products sold. 
 State, $8,759,901. CoHjity, $1.27,960. 
 
 The results of the figures of the census of 1880, are these* 
 The area of farms in the State averages over acres, 73 
 
 " " " " " " County '■' " " 45 
 
 , measured by_the acres of improved lands.. 
 Less than one-hundredth of all the improv.ed lands in the State lie in 
 Suffolk County, yet the county has nearly one-seventieth in number of all 
 the farms, showing thereby a more general distribijtiQn of .land E|.mong the 
 masses of people. Suffolk County contains .about oiie-fijrti.eth part of all 
 the unimproved lands in the State, and a fraction over that proportion ql all 
 the woodlands. The farms of this county in value aggregate over one 
 ^t^ty-s^cond part of the wkole State valuation. 
 
 .Suffolk County owns over one-eightieth part of the farm tools and ma- 
 chinery in the State, and over one-eightieth in value of -all Ijye stock in the 
 St^te. Suffolk County purchased over one-tenth of ^11 the fertilizers pur- 
 chased in the State. The aggregate farm production of the county was 
 over one-eightieth of all produced in the State. 'This county raised over 
 one-fortieth of all the corn raised in the State, nearly one-tijuidreth part of 
 all thjE o^ts; over one-sixtieth of all the rye, and over one sixty-fourth, of 
 all thje wheat. Suffolk County mowed . less than one-hundred and fortieth 
 of all the acres mown in the State. It produced nearly the one-hundred ^nji 
 thirty-first of all the hay crpp cut. The State average per acre was a little 
 pver one and pne-:tenth ,tpns, and the county average per acre a little over 
 one and, tjvo-tenljis tons. Suffolk County produced nearly one-thirty-fifth 
 of all the eiggs in the State, fipm less than one-fortieth of all the poultry, rank- 
 ing the seventh ip product -pf eggs, and (holding in number of poultry by 
 over tw!?nty .thpuKin(i less than any of the six counties which produced more 
 eggs. In acreage Suffolk County had of potatoes a fraction less than one- 
 ningtiethi,contained Jnithe State, and, produced therefrom a fraction over one- 
 seventieth pf all the bushels proidjiced. In value of orchard product the 
 county, compared with the State, fails to come up to anything which might 
 in ifprmer results have been reported. 
 
 ;In value of market garden products-sold, the county sales were over one 
 thirty-tfifth of all sales made in the State. Suffolk County cut less than the 
 one hundred and •t^yenty-second part of all the wood cut in cords in the 
 State, but sold in products of the forest over one-seventieth of all sold in the 
 State, 
 
50 DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
 
 The State and county averages compare thus per acre: 
 
 Bushels. Bushels. 
 
 Barley, State, 21.85 County, 273-10 
 
 Indian corn, " 32-97 " 34 4-io 
 
 bats, " 20.79 " 32 ^"lo 
 
 Rye, " 10.76 " . 12 
 
 Wheat, " 15.73 " 188-10 
 
 Potatoes, " 986-10 " 1298-10 
 
 In all these products the county, rejecting fractions, exceeded the State 
 averages thus: Per acre, on barley,' 6 bushels; on corn, oats and rye, two 
 bushels each; on wheat, three; and potatoes, • twenty-one bushels. The 
 deficiency of the county in potatoes in the years 1865 and 1875, is more 
 than offset by its surplus per acre in i'88o. The former surplus reported 
 for the State in oats, in 1875, when our county suffered by the army worm, 
 do.es not continue in 1880. In the great staples of com and winter wheat 
 the surplus average of this county continues through all these years, to the 
 credit of the county. It will be observed that while Suffolk County pur- 
 chased in 1865 one-third, in 1875 one-sixth, and in 1880 one-tenth of all 
 the fertilizers purchased in the State, other counties were incfeasirig their 
 proportion of fertilizers after her example, and following more closely her 
 methods. I introduce this account to show that such purchase pays: 
 The whole farm products of the State in value are $178,025,695 
 
 " County, " " 2,198,079 
 
 The county owns, less than i-ioo of all the improved lands 
 of the State, and measured thereby, i-ioo of the pro- 
 duct is, ...... 1,780,256' 
 
 Credit of surplus product to the county is $417,823 
 
 Cost of fertilizers purchased in " " 272,134 
 
 Excess product, $145,689 
 
 These figures add force to all former statements favorable to the qual- 
 ity of land or purchase of fertilizers to make farming pay in the county or 
 State. The variety of soil in Suffolk County is seldom found elsewhere. 
 For corn, no land on the contirient is better suited. Midway between the 
 cold blasts of a northern climate and the extreme heat of a southern, it is 
 peculiarly adapted to the growth of that crop. In the production of wheat 
 its conditions are favorable. The low, moist lands of the southern sea 
 coast are well suited to raise oats. For vegetable growth and root crops, 
 both the variety of its soil and temperature of its climate are favorable. The 
 hardier frmits, like apples and pears, flourish here. The cauliflower and 
 strawberry are so extensively cultivated that for the transportation of both 
 crops extra railroad trains are specially run; and for the latter steamers from 
 Greenport to Boston. The tables of the census demonstrate much of these 
 remarks. But those of 1875 were compiled before the culture of these 
 crops had reached their present very large proportions, or become a largely 
 developed industry and been proved to be so profitable in pecuniary re- 
 sults. ' It is a matter of» regret that no records exist whereby the precise ex- 
 tent of production in these crops can be ascertained. Yet it is significant 
 that as New York city has judged the flavor of Long Island potatoes to be 
 so superior as to command a premium in her markets, so Boston seeks in 
 preference the strawberry that grew in Suffolk County. How this old 
 
DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 5 1 
 
 county from the acorn grew in wealth and comfort to the solid ojk; what 
 changes occurred from its primitive government, jurisprudence and the ad- 
 ministration of justice; how the Ught of education, intelligence and literary 
 culture shone from its early dawn to the brightness of the present day; what 
 progress it has made reaching for the wisdom that comes from above; how 
 its commerce, navigation and fisheries were pursued by its adventurous 
 citizens. All these are subjects assigned to other speakers and prohibited 
 to me. Of that glad acclaim which echoed from the shores of this county 
 m exultation to Heaven, when in 1783 the last British soldier evacuated 
 .orever its soil — even to speak of this is to tread on ground dedicated to 
 another. But in all these historic events the farmer of Suffolk County was 
 the central figure, and the tillers of the soil the prominent actors. The first 
 settlers derived their subsistence chiefly from the farms they cleared in the 
 wilderness. The early primeval government organized was instituted, and 
 perpetuated, and developed by farmers. The diffusion of the light of edu- 
 cation, intelligence and literary culture was mainly due to the farmer. If 
 true devotion spoke anywhere to the power on high, it spoke at the hearth- 
 stone and fireside of the farmer. If commerce and navigation carried ad- 
 venturous enterprise to the remotest sea, the sons of the farmer manned and 
 sailed the ship. If fisheries were followed on stream or bay, on harbor, or 
 sound, through strait or ocean, his hardy sons cast the net, threw the line 
 or harpoon with the foremost pioneers. In colonial conflicts with the In- 
 dians or with the French, or both, the yeomanry of this county contended 
 side by side with their compeers of other counties. The numbers they 
 armed and the tax they paid were often among the largest contributed by 
 any county in the State. In the long Revolutionary war, from the first, the 
 farmers of Suffolk County were solid in resisting the oppressions of the 
 Crown. In the disastrous battle of Long Island her sons bled in defence 
 of the country. The seven dark years of captivity and desolation that fol- 
 lowed, what historian can record ! what pencil can paint ! Abandoned by 
 countrymen, oppressed by foe, plundered and derided by both, this county 
 suffered, its long hours of agony, upheld by the hope that the power that 
 rules the universe would bring deliverance to them. From its household 
 altars ascended in devotion the thought in a later day beautifully embodied 
 
 thus: 
 
 " If for the age to come, this hour 
 Of trial hath vicarious power; 
 And blest by thee our present pain 
 Be Liberty's eternal gain — 
 Thy will be done ! 
 
 Strike; Thou the Master, we thy keys. 
 The anthem of the destinies ! 
 The union of thy loftier strain; 
 Our hearts shall breathe the old refrain. 
 Thy will be done !" 
 
 In every line of the record of the historic past; in every great crisis of 
 the colony or State, the farmers of Suffolk County have imperishably re- 
 corded their names with the illustrious dead. Go to the Declaration of In- 
 dependence, and with the signers to that indestructible landmark of the 
 Nation is written the name of William Floyd, a farmer of Suffolk County ! 
 Look for the consecrated dust of those who fell martyrs in the Revolution- 
 ary struggle, and within the limits of this county find buried one of her 
 jarmers over whose memory broods unceasing regret, and over whose 
 
5* riEVEI,P?M»ST QF 4eRICyLXUJR», . 
 
 najne bums 1;lie ujidyjng fire of patriotism. ■Monuments may jperish;- age 
 m^y pbscure; yet after monuments have vanished, after ages have passed 
 tlje name and memory of General Nathaniel Woodhull will remain in the 
 in,inds of his countrymen linked forever with the remembrance of that great 
 cojitestin which he fell. 
 
 For the farmers of Suffolk County I might and J must .say more. But 
 for tjiem tljere had been no Suffolk County as it now is. The bed rock of 
 Agriculture underlies all other occupations; is the mother of all arts, of all 
 manufactures, pf all navigation, subsisting on the products of the> prolific 
 earth, all these may flourish. Thereby manufactures may expand ; ,tbfi 
 mechanic arts make progress, and commerce be carried, for exchange of 
 products over every ocean. But for Agriculture there had been no plant- 
 ing of colonies on these shores; no commerce over her waters; no United 
 gtates on this Continent. The farmer mad.e ^all this possible. Mainly ;by 
 his strong arm; the feeble colonies grew in numbers and power, into States, 
 and fpught successfully the great Revoljitjon that made them free and in- 
 dependent of all other nations. All honor to the farmer! all praise to ag- 
 riciilture! Not least of all to the agriculture and the farmer of Suffolk 
 Cojinty. The mariners who from this county traversed , every sea; the 
 mechanics who wrought in all the arts of industry; the .professions which 
 shone as lights in theology, in medicine,, in jurisprudence; the Legislators 
 who sat in the halls of ,tbe. State or Nation, were born and reared on^the 
 farms of Suffolk County. Therefrom came her.Senators inboth. Thence- 
 forth marched that woundrous tide of emigration from .colonial days to 
 other, counties of this ^reat .State, north and west, and to east and west 
 Jerseys, as then known; and through after ages ,to the expanding West and 
 the remotest Pacific coast. That mi,Q;hty tide, enlarging, enriching, aug- 
 mentingithe population and power of other counties and States and terri- 
 tories, . diniinished the gro_wth of this county whjle it enlarged theirs. 
 
 The proximity of Suffolk County to die large cities of the continent 
 attracted visitors. from the earliest days. The ipvalid and wayworn found 
 il5 ocean breeze iradng in summer and mild in winter. The sportsman 
 found game running in, its forests, swimming in its abounding waters, and 
 flying jp its air. The .lover of quiet and repose found it here. The good 
 cheer and substantial comfort of its old taverns and farm houses were wide-v 
 ly and well known. From .the tip ends of Orient and Montauk Points to 
 its western limits, in early, and increasing in later ,d£^ys, Suffolk County 
 was the resort of hundreds now grown to thronging thousands. Dominy's 
 and Sammis' hotels were almost as well known as the Astor House and 
 Delmonico's; yet Fire Island aijid Bay Shore were bi^t two, out of scores of 
 other resorts where, on both shores of the county, and extending eastward, 
 then and now the interior and the cities pour their residents on the sea 
 coast of this county. The products of its sqil were largely consumed by 
 boarders in farm houses, and hence the returns of those products foot up 
 relatively, less for .this than other counties jn the census repoiits. 
 
 Jf elsewhere the farmer communes- with nature and comes nearer her 
 gates than other industrial classes; if elsewhere the contest to overcome 
 the obstacles nature interposes to impejie the fruition of his desire, is wag- 
 ing; if elsewhere the study of her laws and mysteries awakes close obser- 
 vation, minute search and absorbing thought; if elsewhere conformity to 
 her laws be the requirement of success in dje battle of wrestlipg from the 
 soil its products; i.f elsewhere the vastness of her range, the uniftjrmity of 
 
DEVliLOPMEN* OV AGRldULftR^. 53 
 
 her constitutions, the precision of her nlethods, the ' inexorable power of 
 her elements, the evidences of design in her arranG;enlents, reveal the hand 
 and mind of a mighty' Maker. lii all th'fese surroundings the Suffolk Coun- 
 ty farmer lives within a field' as vast, as varied, as full of all that animates 
 observation, impels to study, excites to wonder or elfevates to devotion as 
 his brother farmer in other locations, here the fields of' green grass or wav- 
 ing grain are varied with the growth of the forest. Here the parching 
 drouths of summer's long day are relieved by the munificent dews of the 
 evening. Here the oppressive heat of winds from north and west is over- 
 come by the breeze of ocean. The glimmer of stream and creek, of harbor 
 and bay and Sound, add to the charm of rural landscape — and over all the 
 sound of ocean's wave. 
 
 Since 1683, when under Governor Thomas Dongan, Suffolk County 
 as a county was organized; six generations of its farmers have passed away. 
 The simple funeral rites of those times strangely contrast with the pomp, 
 display and pageantry of the present. 
 
 " The Power incens'd the pageant will desert." On the bier on the 
 shoulders of the living the dead were reverently carried to their final rest. 
 The stars of heaven shine upon their graves as they shone then; the blue 
 vault that o'er arches us, hung over them;, the anthem of ocean that sung 
 their funeral dirge, age after age, rolls on, and will sound in our expiring 
 breath and over our crumbling dust;' 
 
 "Celebrating this day that great event that two hundred years gone by 
 organized the then living generation iii one compact body as a county; pay- ' 
 ing our tribute to them and their descendants; honoring their virtues and 
 their patriotism; blessed with the results of their toils, their fortitude and 
 their courage, as if standing beside their opened graves, we bear our un- 
 worthy offering to their memory and their solid worth. They built this 
 time-honored county and made it what it is; sire and son, after each other, 
 transmitted to coming posterity the fruits of their industry, the immunities 
 they gained, the free institutions they formed possessing this fair inheritance 
 from them, let our thanks be given from age to age, constant as the lights 
 or the voices that Nature gives. In this let us not fail, as these never fail. 
 
 " The harp, at Nature's advent strung, 
 
 Has never ceased to play; 
 
 The song the stars of mourning sung 
 
 Has never died away; 
 
 And prayer is made, and praise is given 
 
 By all things near and far; 
 
 The ocean looketh up to heaven 
 
 And mirrors every star. 
 
 Its waves are kneeling on the strand 
 
 As kneels the human knee; 
 
 Their white locks bowing to the sand. 
 
 The Priesthood of the sea. 
 
 The winds with hymns of praise are loud. 
 
 Or low with sobs of pain; 
 
 The thunder organ of the cloud. 
 
 The dropping tears of rain. 
 
 The blue sky is the temple's arch; 
 
 Its transept earth and air; 
 
54 UKVeLOPMEN* op AGRlCWLTtJRfi. 
 
 The music of its stapy, March j^.^ 
 
 The chorus of a pray€ri 
 
 So Nature keeps her reverent frame 
 
 With which her years began. 
 
 And all her signs and voices shame 
 
 The prayerless heart of man." 
 
•HE "lOMMERCE, MAYIGATIOH 
 
 AND 
 
 -7^ I^ I S 13: El I=L I E] s ^V^ 
 
 -OF- 
 
 SXJir«:F^OI_.I^ afOTJlSTTT. 
 
 — s-zr — 
 
 THERE is a French saying, whose age not less than its manifest merit 
 entitles it to respect, that whoever essays to excuse himself thereby 
 becomes his own accuser. I recognize the full force of this truth, yet 
 I am constrained to incur the risk and accept the condemnation it implies. 
 Indeed, I freely confess that no one of this audience, even while the dis- 
 appointment that doubtless awaits them is fresh in mind, can be more swift 
 or less sparing in sentence than is the culprit who stands before them, while 
 I realize the rashness and improvidence of which I was guilty when, at the 
 instance of your committee, I weakly consented to stand in the gap of 
 some better man- and to undertake a task of which I then had but a dim and 
 distant appreciation. I yielded to importunity and fell a victim to my own 
 complaisance, mainly because I then supposed that, whatever anticipated 
 obstacles might arise from the lack of suitable preparation, by reason of 
 any adequate previous familiarity with the topics to be treated, and from 
 want of time in the midst of other engrossing cares and duties, to bestow 
 the proper deliberation and thought upon those topics, there would be no 
 serious difficulty in gathering the material of facts and figures out of which 
 to construct a sufficient framework for future elaboration — the foundation 
 stones on which to build, if not a palace to be admired in the daylight, at 
 least a modest dwelling in which to be comfortably housed and entertained 
 for a single evening. But on proceeding to act upon this idea and to 
 search out the necessary data and statistics which I had thought to be 
 readily available, I was, to my great surprise as well as discomfiture, forced 
 to the unwelcome conclusion that they do not exist in any actual or ac- 
 cessible form. Many hours of unfruitful labor have been devoted to this 
 search, many barren inquiries have been made in quarters where inform- 
 
56 COMMERCE, NAVIGAtlOM ANt) FISHEfelEg. 
 
 ation seemed likely to be had, many letters have been written which yield- 
 ed little or no valuable return. The Commerce, Navigation and Fisheries 
 of Suffolk County are almost wholly a sealed book, or, rather, the book 
 has not been written that even assumes to record their origin, growth, past 
 development or present condition. None of the histories or historical 
 documents relating to Long Island, so far as I have been able to discover, 
 treafsgpafately and" with eitlier any considerable fullneSs of detail or eJJact- 
 ness of stafeiheiil, th"e subjects which go to make up the several' top'ics cov- 
 ered by my theme. In attempting to do it even the scant justice which 
 such an occasion permits, I am left tc grope in the dark, with no clear and 
 fixed illumination to guide my steps in any direction. Instead of the de- 
 scriptive accounts from' which some definite and trustworthy generaliza- 
 tions might be^ dr'aWh, there afe but the bafesf and briefest references,- 
 which neither satisfy inquiry, nor supply information; instead of precise 
 data, which are essential to historical' accuracy, there are loose assertions, 
 unverified conjectures and random" remarks. Even the statistics which 
 appertain to certain branches of the~ general subject, thougir gathered in 
 recent years wlth'painstakiiig fidelity by officials or agenis assigned to the 
 work, are comprehended in the figures of other and larger districts, and 
 thus fail to shed light on the particular section to which attention is nec- 
 essarily confined. It would seem even easier to discuss with some degree 
 of satisfaction the Coninierce, Navigation aiid FishfefieS 'of the State of New 
 York or of the United States, than to sift frOm numberless bushels of chaff 
 the grains of truth which may give in meagre outline some idea of what 
 ought to be said of the Commerce, Navigation and Fisheries of Suffolk 
 County, to which, by the mistaken indulgence of your committee, I have 
 been'restiicted'. Arriid sonie physical disabilities ahd' rriaily pressing en- 
 gagsni^nts I have tried' faithfully and arduously to collect and combine the 
 elements from which' might be coriippsed a worthy testimonial to the last- 
 ing influences, the large results and the wide bearings of these tbpics in 
 their manifold relations to the development, material, moral, mental afid 
 spiritual, of tHe people who inhabit our good couiity. My own concep- 
 tion of the scope' and character of such a contribution to this bi-centennial 
 celebratidii^as' ought to be aftd as could be made from a proper treatttient 
 of the theime ass'igned me, is a far higher one than, as I am deeply con- 
 scious, has' been' attaiined or perhaps approached in performance. In 
 truth, I have been compelled to be content with some general and doubt- 
 less crude observations more or less pertinent to the two first topics, and 
 after considering the last in a similar incomplete way to add some facts 
 which have been secured by dint of diligent research in a field where 
 neither landmarks nor mile posts were ever erected and where one must do 
 his own digging to unearth even small fragments of that full knowledge 
 which probably will never come to the surface. As prOof that I am not 
 exaggerating the diffitulty attending this inquiry in order to shield myself 
 fi-om yoiir displ'easUre at n6t receiving such an exposition of the thenie as 
 you may have be6n led to expect, I maybe allowed to quote the conclud- 
 ing sentence of a lettef fi-Om Joseph Nimmo, jr. , the accomplished and 
 indefetigable Chief of the Bureau of Statistics in the Treasury Department 
 at Washington, himself a loving son of Old Suffolk, written in answier to 
 my applfcation for aid from his Biireau. After reciting various insupera- 
 ble drawbacks to tH6 proper preparation of a paper on this theme, he says: 
 " If yOu should fail td meet the ex^ecfitiods'of your atidiende yOu will 
 
Commerce, navigation and fisheries. 57 
 
 certainly be entitled to plead in defence the fact that you were asked to do 
 me impossible thing, and you may, if you choose, summon me as witness 
 in your defense. "* 
 
 The two first topics of my theme, Commerce and Navigation, are so 
 far connected, in the limited sense in which the former word is ordinarily 
 used and in which I have used it, that they may properly be taken together. 
 Commerce, in its widest sigfnification, means intercourse between diflferent 
 individuals or communities for the purpose of exchanging commodities. 
 Practically it' is synonymous with trade or traffic, but its use is preferred 
 where the trade i^' carried on upon an extensive scale, the^ distinction being 
 one of degrefe"and not of kind. Of course, in this sense, it matters not 
 hoW it^ opef afidris be conducted-^ — whether in vessels upon open waters; in 
 boats upon canals or rivers or lakes; in wagons upon public roads; in 
 railway" carS or whatever other conveyances. To commerce between 
 different plices within the same country the qualifying terms internal or 
 domestic are applied; to describe the commerce between different coun- 
 tries the word forelgii is used. In' the United States the commerce between 
 ports in the sahae or different States on the seaboard is called the coasting 
 trade, while the conimerce with other countries is called foreign trade. 
 Though' properly speaking, as before noted, commerce takes no account 
 of the 'means or agencies by which its work is done, yet in common usage 
 wie' ifnderStand by it that kirid of trade which is carried on upon the water 
 by jrieatis of vessels propelled by sails or steam power. It is in this latter 
 sbnse that I have chiefly considered the word as it concerns the present 
 .occasion, and in this sense I have felt justified in treating it and its cog- 
 riaie title Navigation' as parts of one whole. Certainly this conjunction 
 must fairly be held to be allowable, if not an absolute necessity, during 
 more than four-fifths of the period over which we are called to cast a. re- 
 trospective eye. Until after the, extension of the Long Island Railroad 
 through the county, which was completed in 1844, arid for a considerable 
 time afterwards, by far the largest part of the commerce of Suffolk Cpunty, 
 both dOnlestic and foreign, was carried on in vessels engaged either in 
 coasting or in foreign trade. It is true that some intercourse was had by 
 stages runnirigfi-orii different points to Brooklyn and New York, and an 
 eithange of sonde home-grown' or home-made commodities was effected 
 between the north and south sides of the island by wagons, or rather by 
 ox-carts diiven laboriously over the long and lonely forest roads; but the 
 stages seldom carried anything beside passengers and their personal lug- 
 gagfe, and it was rare iriaeed that any of the products of fields or woods 
 were carted to the cities or that goods arid merchandize were brought baCk 
 from the cities to the then relatively distant wilds of Suffolk. For all this 
 tiiile, embracing fully 1 60 years, the main part, almost the whole, of the, 
 ■rade be'tween the people iri this county and New York was done in ves- 
 sels, as likewise, by a natural necessity, was all trade with their northern 
 neighibors of New England to whoin they were continuously drawn by the 
 closest ties of an unbroken commiinity of sympathies, sentiments and in- 
 terests. 
 
 ♦Beside its intrinsic value the letter here referred to may serve sufiScienfly to set forth 
 some pflases of the generalsubject which, in order not to unduly extend the limits of this 
 paper ^nd, because of the recognized impossibility to give precise or even approximate 
 data I deemed it best to omit from the reding altogether. It has therefore been thought 
 pibvit to print it 'in full as an appraidix," an3 r^ers will find 'it of interest. 
 
S8 COMMERCE, NAVIGATION AND FISHERIES. 
 
 Even to this day, substantially all the trade of the county with New 
 York not done by the railroad is done by vessels. The railway traffic 
 within recent years has had an immense expansion, and its volume swells 
 visibly from year to year; in its course it bears away enormous amounts of 
 the products of the soil, the forest and the water, and it brings back vast 
 burdens of fertilizers, lumber, brick, coal, manufactured goods, groceries 
 and even of breadstuifs which, under changed agricultural conditions are 
 no longer grown at home in quantities anywhere near large enough to feed 
 our resident population, to say nothing of the many thousands of tempo- 
 rary sojourners who come among us for some months of summer recrea- 
 tion. I have sought to procure from its officials some details that would 
 show authentically the progress made in this species of domestic commerce 
 during the last quarter of a century, but I have not been able to procure 
 any. It is stated that the early records were destroyed. Could the exact 
 figures be given they would, I am sure, prove startling in their magnitude 
 as well as conclusive as a demonstration of the activity, the energy and 
 the skill with which, the people in this so-called "slow and easy," con- 
 servative old county of Suffolk are subduing to their needs the earth and 
 the sea within their bounds. Yet, great and swift as has been the growth 
 of our railway traffic, it may be doubted if the commerce by sea from and 
 to the several ports that line the north side and the eastern end of the 
 county and the shores of the Great South Bay, does not exceed it in ex- 
 tent, in variety and in value. It seems to me proper, then, to consider the 
 Commerce and Navigation of our county as practically one subject and to 
 treat them from the same point of view. 
 
 A single word as to the nature and high function of this branch of the 
 theme may be pardoned. If it be true, as has been aptly said, that Com- 
 merce is the handmaid of civilization, is it not equally true that she is the 
 foster-sister of agriculture and the industrial arts ? While the former might 
 supply mankind with the simple necessaries of existence, and while* the 
 latter might enable them to grasp a fuller measure of comfort and conve- 
 nience than they could otherwise hope to enjoy, or even to acquire some 
 of the luxuries of life, yet the kindly offices of commerce are needed to 
 diifuse the blessings derived from each of the other two, and without her 
 beneficent interposition neither could attain unto its complete develop- 
 ment. 
 
 ■ We assemble to-day to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the forma- 
 
 tion of Suffiilk County as a distinct civil division of this State. On Nov. 
 I, 1683, an act was passed by the Governor, Council and General Assem- 
 bly of the Colony, to divide the province of New York into counties; and 
 Sufiblk was described as containing the towns of Huntington (from which 
 Babylon has since been set off), Smithfield (now Smithtown), Brookhaven 
 (first known as Setalcott or Setauket), Southampton, Southold, East- 
 Hampton to Montauk Point, Shelter Island, the Isle of Wight (another 
 name for Gardiner's Island), Fisher's Island and Plum Island. These isl- 
 ands .subsequently became integral parts of the towns of East-Hampton 
 and Southold. This, then, is the area within which my theme limits me 
 to a consideration of the commerce, navigation and fisheries during the 
 past two centuries. 
 
 The founders of the first settlements in this county, and many of those 
 who during the first century followed them to its shores, were from Suffolk 
 county in the Southeast part of England, a sea-coast county whose allu- 
 
COMMERCE, JfATHGATlON AND FISHERIES. 59 
 
 vial meailows and marshes fronted the turbulent North Sea. Manyjof 
 them had been mariners and fishermen by occupation, as their fathers had 
 been. before them; and from generations of descent not less than by per- 
 sonal habitudes, they had inherited or acquired m«ich of the sturdy self- 
 reliance, the dauntless courage, the unshrinking fortitude, the bold spirit 
 of restless enterprise, the physical vigor and the strong, stout, active man- 
 hood, which characterized the British sailor at his best estate. How large 
 a shi^re of these sterling elements of moral and physical stamina were add- 
 ed to and immovably embedded in the character of the present population 
 of this county, no man can accurately estimate; but the indelible impress 
 of these gr9.nd qualities has always been and still is plainly discernible in 
 the lives and careers of every generation that has succeeded the first settlers. 
 From their prolific loins have gone out multitudes to blaze the way Of 
 coming civilization in all the spreading wilderness that has since been sub_ 
 dued and made to blossom as the rose, westward, northward . ajjd south- 
 ward from the Mohawk Valley toward the setting sun. Everywhere, as 
 one travels over the vast area which comprehends our Uncle Samuel's wide 
 domain, he either meets or hears of descendants from Suffolk county fam- 
 ilies,' some of them foremost in the ranks of workers and thinkers. The 
 spirit which impelled them to face known and unknown perils, to endure 
 years of grievous privation and toil, and to encounter, sometimes single- 
 handed, all the hazards and the hardships of frontier life, was largely re- 
 cruited from the sailors and the fishermen who at some period of a more 
 or less remote antiquity had crossed their blood with the less swift but not 
 less healthy and pure stream that flowed in the veins of the landsmen of 
 Suffolk County. We owe to those hardy and chaste and manly seamen 
 who came over from the Suffolk of England to the Yennacook of the Long 
 Island Indians and brought to it across the sea the name beloved at home, 
 some of the noblest elements which go to make up human character. 
 Naturally, Long Island, with its extended shore line, indented 
 with its numerous bays and creeks, its abundant waters pop- 
 ulous with the finny tribes, its smiling valleys and wooded head- 
 lands green to the depth, of verdure and radiant under the sunlight of 
 skies more bright than those which bend over the famed land of poesy 
 and song, had an irresistible attraction to those dwellers by the low-lying 
 shores of the distant English sea. In skirting Long Island Sound they en- 
 tered Pecbnic Bay and at Town Harbor found the first "fair haven" of 
 their desires, where they laid the foundation of the town of Southold. Al- 
 most or. quite coeval with this landing at Town Harbor, settlers from 
 other parts of New England, all of them emigrants from the old England, 
 commenced the settlement of Southampton.. While no definite records 
 exist to put the facts beyond question, there seems to be good reason to 
 believe tha^arly in the infancy of these eastern towns, and of the other 
 settlements which developed into the present towns of East-Hampton, 
 Brookhaven, Smithtown and Huntington, small open boats and canoes, 
 with a few of larger size and decked over, sloop-rigged though called 
 ketches and pinnaces, were built from the native woods, with sails and 
 rigging made stoutly though to modern eyes uncouthly, by men who had 
 but slight acquaintance with the arts of either sail or rope making; but 
 zeal and perseverance overcame all obstacles and they put together sub- 
 stantial and staunch craft, however clumsy or slow, and in them they 
 voyaged to New York, New Hayen, Hartford, and even as far as to Bos- 
 
6b ccHnsfSKce, NiAvrcA^pmir aod Ftiitejutus. 
 
 ton Bay — cariyirlgnwithiithfeniSiilltle'begi'de sucb occasional surplus of' com 
 as might have been grown above the needs of the setters;' the skins^and 
 furs of wild animals procured from the chase or by traffic with the Indians, 
 arad the oilatid bone of' whales drifted on shore or captured by theit'own 
 strong' arms; and bringing" back modest stocks of goods from the mother 
 country adapted to their most urgent wants; Sometimes these' voyages 
 were made wholly or Hlainlly' for pleasure, to visit Relatives and friends from 
 whom they had long been parted. To us, who are brought by daily steam 
 communication so near to the places named, it may not be easy 'to eSti'- 
 mate the serious nature of such an undertaking as ■a;ttiiip at that: time from 
 Eastern Long Island to the Dutch settlesaent of New Netherlands or to 
 the New England ports with which their commercial, like their political 
 and; civil intercourse, was more intimate and frequent. Except for the 
 compass to guide their course, no aids to navigation ' then existed. No 
 buoys marked !tbe channels and shoalS'of' water ways; no beacons or light- 
 houses 'shed friendly instruction by day or night over the dariget'ous pas- 
 sages or the shores and rocks to be avoided. By the compass aldne, when 
 not close in with the land, they steered through the day, and by the 
 light of moon' or stars thi^' sometiines sailed at night, but' often when the 
 weather was not fair they sought the shelter of somfe bay or' cove and caSt 
 anchor or direw their'boats' to lafid till morning. It may not havebeen a 
 display of such sublime faith andisuch calm courage as were shown by the 
 heroes who a century before turned the prows of ' their frail barges from the 
 old world toward the unknown newand boldly pressed on into the welter- 
 ing; waste of Atlantic ■waters; but it was a great enterprt-ise and an actual 
 achievement, into which the same elements of faith and courage and skilled 
 seamanship 'according to the conditions under which it was then exercised, 
 may be' said 'with no less truth-, thbugh in less degree, to have entered. 
 
 Coincident with the first settlement of' Southold in 1640, Thomas 
 Weatherby (appropriately named) is mentioned as a mariner and as having 
 bought a house and ' lot at Town Harbor for;^r5, on October 25, 1604" 
 In BookiAof the Town Records is entered the sale of a ketch of 44 tons. 
 Though, thisi word 'is I usually given to vessels of 100 to 200 tons or over, 
 having main and mizzeni masts and decked over, it is probable the vessel 
 referred to was a sloop whose tonnage rated by the measurement now in 
 vogue would perhaps not exceed 12 to 15 tons. . Pinnaces were also men.^ 
 tioned in the old records, and were small open boats navigated with oars 
 or sails; if With the latter they generally had two masts but were sloop- 
 rigged! 
 
 As the colonies slowly grew in numbers and increased the products of 
 their industries, this conlmerce, especially with New England, to whom 
 the affections and the alliances of our ancestors went out with espedal 
 force, kept equal or more than equal pace in the ejctent, variety and vol- 
 ume of its operations. The size of the vessels was enlarged' and thdr 
 equipments improved; Sloops of 10 to 20 or 30 tons were built and used 
 in' carrying produce, whale oil and bone, peltry, etc., and passengers,' 
 across the Sound or to Massachusetts' ports, returning with such wares as 
 were fitted 'to the few and simple wants of a Puritan people. While there 
 were no Custom Houses and no records before the latter part of the last 
 century, we have reason to believe that'the coasting trade along the shores 
 of New England and Long Island was already active and considerable, 
 thought conducted insmall craftv It is. evidence of .Long Island's having 
 
COHHERCE, NAVIGATION AND IISHEKIES. 6l 
 
 even tnen shown masked advances toward that commercial development 
 which its natural conditions invited and which the enterprise df its people 
 made necessary, that by an act of Congfress in 1788 Sag Harbor was con- 
 stituted aiPort of Entry and U. S. Collection District, being named first in 
 the act, which also erected the port of New York. It was then and for 
 some time afterward relatively the more important port of the two. It has 
 continued a port of entry and a collection district ever since,' though under- 
 going great variations in the amounts of tonnage regfistered and business done 
 within its jurisdiction. David Grardiner, of East-Hampton, wrote and pub- 
 lished in die Sag Harbor Corrector about the year 1840, a series of " Chron- 
 icles of the town of East-Hampton, " which were afterwards revised, gathered 
 into book form, and printed in New York in 1871. In this work, on page 
 71, he says, what the historiai) Prime had already said in almost the same 
 words, apparently adopting them from the Corrector's print, that "As early, 
 as 1760, when yet the commerce of New York was carried on principally 
 with schooners and sloops, a small trade was had from this port (meaning 
 Sag Harbor) with the West Indies. Col. Gardiner owned" two brigs en- 
 gaged in' that trade, and there were several sloops employed in the 'fisheries 
 and coasting business partially owned by the inhabitants of this town. On 
 the conclusion of the war Dr. N. Gardiner and his brother purchased a ship 
 called the Hope and sent her upon a whaling voyage under command of 
 Capt. Ripley, she being the first ship that sailed from Sag Harbor. About 
 the same time they dispatched a brig of the first class upon a like voyage. 
 These voyages were unsuccessful. " 
 
 John Gelston, of N. Y. City, a native of Bridge-Hampton, was the 
 first Collector of customs, having been appointed under ' Wa^ington. He 
 served about a year and was succeeded by Henry P. Dering who held the 
 oflSce for 31 years until 1821, when his son, Henry Thomas Dering, was 
 appointed, and for many years he, too, served in that office to the great 
 satis&ction of all who had to do with it 
 
 On page 91 of Gardiner's Chronicles it is recorded that " The princi- 
 pal commercial intercourse was had with Boston, and several sloops were 
 employed in the trade ; among others as early as 1765, the sloop Endeavor, 
 Abraham Schelling master. CaiAt, horses, sheep, goats and dil were 'bar- 
 tered for lumber, the produce of the West India islands, and such articles 
 as merchants deal in." The trade with the Indians which began with flie 
 first settlement and continued throughout on a basis of practically uninter- 
 rupted fiiendship and good will, consisted mainly in an exchange of rum,, 
 ammunition and guns for pelts and furs.* 
 
 The boundary line between the English and Dutch was established at 
 Hartford by commissioners, who fixed it at the westernmost line of Oyster- 
 bay southerly to the sea. From 1640 to 1664, the settlers were virtually 
 their own masters and owned allegiance to no one lower in authority than 
 the British Crown itself. The first individual English settler in this county 
 and State was Lyon Gardiner, on Gardiner's Island, in 1^3^. The dates 
 
 *A brief extract from the introduction to the excellent HiStoiy of New Ixindon Tjy Miss 
 Frances Manwaring C^ulkjiis may not be out of placeihere : 
 
 " Here lies Connecticut and Long Inland forever looking at eagh other from &ai 
 white shores with loving eyes, linked as they are by the ties" of a common origin, congen- 
 ial character and similar institutions; and guarding with watchful care that inland sea which, 
 won from the ocean, lies like a noble qaptive between them,, subdued to Uieir service ai;4 
 ^dgsed ,by their.protecting arms-" 
 
62 COMMEKCE, NAVIGATION AND FISHERIES. 
 
 of settlement of the towns were : Southold and Southampton, 1640 : East- 
 Hampton, 1648; Shelter Island, 1652; Huntington, 1653; Brookhaven, 
 1655; Smithtown, 1663. On Nov. 30, 1664, commissioners appointed by 
 Governor Nichols decided L. I. Sound to be the boundary, and for the 
 first time all Long Island came under English rule. 
 
 During later years there has been a great expansion of the trade and ton- 
 nage of the county. Larger vessels came into play, and longer voyages 
 became common. The extensive forests of pine and oak that covered the 
 larger part of the county furnished and continue to furnish great quanti- 
 ties of wood for fuel or for the dunnage of ships bound, on foreign voyages, 
 and its transportation to market gave and still gives employment to many 
 vessels. The surplus of farm produce and the products of the whale and 
 other fisheries, with brick and fire clays, sands, gravel and other materials 
 for use or consumption in other places, served to swell the volume of out- 
 going commodities for which the goods and merchaindize of the cities 
 and the products of labor or art were exchanged. In 1794 the Sag 
 Harbor Custom House had on its books 472 tons of registered and 
 473 tons of enrolled and licensed vessels ; in 1800 it bad 805 of the former 
 and 1,449 of the latter; in 1805, 1,916 and 2,228; in 1810, 1,185 ^^'^ 
 3,223 ; in 1815, 808 and 2,719 (this decline being caused by the war) ; in 
 1820, 2, 263 and 3,416 — a total for the last named year of 5,67$ tons 
 From that time on it showed a steady and rapid advance until the Califor- 
 nia exodus, the great fire, and other causes that co-operated to depress the 
 whale fishery, began to cut down its large proportions. 
 
 In the Great South Bay, that remarkable and noble body of water 
 which forms the chief natural feature of the southern border of the coilnty 
 for its greater length, and at the same time is the main source of subsistence 
 for the people inhabiting its northern shores, the early settlers quickly be- 
 gan to navigate its shallow waters in canoes, flat-bottomed boats and 
 scows, and in later years small sloops and schooners of light draft T Were 
 built to ply from place to place or, by way of the inlets from the outer ocean, 
 to make trips to New York and other ports.- As early as 1760 to '70 a few 
 sloops traded through the Bay, carrying wood and produce. This trade, 
 feeble as it had been, was closed by the war of the Revolution. It re- 
 vived with renewed vigor and by 1785 there were 12 sloops and pirogues 
 (or canoes) trading on the East Bay. By 1800 the number had increased 
 to 30, among them being the sloop Woodcock built and owned by Hon. 
 John Smith, at that time United States senator, which vessel was burned 
 off Fire Island in 18 14 by the British sloop-of-war Nimrod. In 1830 there 
 were 50 vessels ranging from 25 to 50 tons engaged in carrying wood and 
 farm produce. Since then, with some fluctuations; the business has devel- 
 oped into great importance, employing many vessels and many persons to 
 man them, though the building of the railroad along the shore of the bay 
 has materially modified this business there, as railway competition has done 
 elsewhere in the county. In 1806 three gun boats were built at Smith's 
 Point, on the East Bay, for use in the Tripolitan war, and went out with 
 Decatur, under whom they were put to good service. In all, 1 2 of these 
 vessels were built. Many vessels of larger dimensions, from 100 to 400 
 tons, including some splendid specimens of marine architecture, have been 
 built on the bay shore and launched into its placid waters. From 1825 to 
 1860, one informant states, was the palmy period of this business on that 
 bay. Some of the finest and fleetest vessels, as is claimed, built anywhere 
 
COMMERCE, NAVIGATION AND FISHERIES. 63 
 
 during that period, were built by Boss Hiram Gerard and afterward by 
 Boss O. Perry Smith at Patchogue, by Post Brothers, at Bellport, and one 
 or two other builders — vessels of 1 50 to 300 tons, owned principally or 
 wholly by Brookhaven or Islip men and employed in regular lines between 
 Savannah, Charleston, Wilmington) Newbern, Richmond and other south- 
 ern ports. Trade was active for most of the time, freights were well sus- 
 tained, and the owners got a fair percentage on their investments. With 
 the introduction of steamers in those lines of coastwise trade the old mode 
 of transportation must needs give way to the new, and the larger and better 
 class of schooners were put into foreign trade. By the partial cessation of 
 demand for that class of vessels, as well as by the death of the old build- 
 ers, the business of ship-building on the Bay has been restricted to the smal- 
 ler craft, cat-rigged and sloop-rigged boats, with a few schooners, which are 
 employed in the oyster or other fisheries. Those that are left in the coast- 
 ing trade are confined to coal or other coarser freights whick the steamers 
 do not care to handle, and are "paid rates below what they used to get, so 
 that the business is now less profitable. At present the vessels in which 
 South Bay people are owners and which are engaged in foreign trade, are 
 of 400 to 1,000 tons burden, are commanded by experienced men from 
 Brookhaven and Islip towns, and by frugal and careful management pay a 
 moderate profit. On the whole it may be said that both the foreign and 
 the coasting trade as carried on by south side men and vessels is in a fairly 
 prosperous state. 
 
 These f emarks, with the proper changes of names and places, may ap- 
 ply to the north side of Brookhaven, Smithtown and Huntington towns, 
 and also to ports on Peconic and Gardiner's Bays. On Port Jefferson and 
 Conscience Bays, Setauket and Stony Brook harbors, and the waters of 
 Smithtown, Northport bay and harbor, Centreport, Huntington, Lloyd's 
 and Cold Spring harbors, more or less of ship-building and ship-owning 
 grew up with the growth of the communities on their shores, and, especial- 
 ly at the first named place, ran far beyond the proportional development of 
 the village itself A number of conscientious, careful and skillful builders, 
 taking a just pride in the work of their hands and laudably ambitious to 
 excel in their chosen art, turned out of their small and poorly equipped yards 
 some Of the handsomest, swiftest and best constructed vessels of their class 
 ever put afloat — vessels that gave renown to American ship-building and that 
 made the name of Brookhaven (by which general term, in the absence of 
 any separate port from which to hail, they were designated on the marine 
 papers), known throughout the maritime world. A race of bold, active, 
 hardy, energetic and intelligent seamen and masters grew up to man and to 
 command these vessels, and they brought to their quiet homes on the 
 wooded slopes or amid the grassy vallies of the beautiful North Side, tro- 
 phies of peaceful conquest over the forces of nature or the combined power 
 of time and space. To all the main marts of trade on all sea coasts they 
 resorted, and from the least accessible and most distant markets they 
 wrested something of the gain which is the soul of commercial activity. 
 Time would fail me to speak in detail of the several places at which this 
 industry of building and owning vessels to engage in fishing, in coasting, or 
 in foreign trade, has been prosecuted by the enterprising dejcendants of 
 those stout hearted and brawny-limbed settlers from the Suffolk of Old 
 England which looked out upon the restless North Sea. At Sag Harbor, 
 a Stirling and at Green Hill (a;fterwards Greenport), at East Marion and 
 
6a- commerce, navigation and fisheries. 
 
 Orient, at fhe places previously i;iamed on bath the north and sou^. side of 
 the county, ni,kriy thousands of tons of shipping^ comprisirig _ the smallest 
 class of boats and yachts ind rising to thte majesty of one "^big ship" that 
 never floated, but actually including a ship bf over 2,000 tons, have been 
 added to the mercantile marine of our Country. In the construction pf 
 these vessels large quantities of Long Island grown oak, chestnut and lo- 
 cust timber have been used. There are now on the'bpoks of ,fhe' survey- 
 or's office at Greenport 235 steam g.nd saijirtg vessels ag^rega,tihg 15,268,- 
 82 tons engaged in actual and active commerce; at Sa^ .Harbor 20 'vessels 
 with an aggregate tonnage of 1,063.44 ; at' Patchogiie there has been a 
 Steady increase from 57' vessels and 934 tons in 1875 to .203 vessels and 
 2,611.53 tons in 1883 ; at Poirt JefFersoil there are 114 vessels and i4,'858 
 tons; at Cold [Spring 99 vessels and 4,574.82 tons. This makes an 
 aggregate of 671 vess'fels and 39,376.61 tons of shipping owned postly in 
 this county arid engaged actively in commerce or' the fisheries, manned by 
 several thousands' of ■Suffolk County's hardy seamen. The number pf these 
 seafaring men who are residents of our cpUrity is hot definitely knowh, but 1 
 estimate it to be close^upon 3,600, or aboui one-third of the active malp 
 inhabitants. . < ; 
 
 A few words ought to be given to the specific matter pf aids to navi- 
 gation through the Waters in ind about tliis coiinty.' It was not till near 
 'the close of the last century that tHe general gqvernment, to which the con- 
 stitution entrusts exclusive jurisdiction over the coastwise cpmrnerce and 
 navigation-of tl(e country, began to provide light-nouses, beacoris and 
 buoys for lighting and marking^the coasts arid chaririels of the waters pf 
 this county. ' iPreyiously, for over a hundred years ,from the first settle- 
 ■irient, the^daring arid adventurpus men who went down to. the sea oh ships 
 from our ports made their voyages without any of these aids to navigation. 
 Long Island Sound, not less than the northern seaboard and t^e eastern 
 bays, ky in darkness and in uncharteci obscurity' so far as can rtow be 
 learned. Mariners upohjits broad bosom had to steer, their courses and 
 note their distances unhelped by any other resources thaii their own quick 
 eye and ready memory. IVrariy^year later, when jHiuch had bpen done in 
 the directipn pf supplying this need, Daniel Webster remarked in substance 
 that L. I. Spund pught tp be lighted as brilliantly as a ball rppm. This 
 was said in view pf the large growth to which its cpmmerce had then at- 
 tained, Ipng befpre Hell Gate imprpvements had been begun. Cpuld he.have 
 ■lived tP see the immense expansion which hi^s gone on since that day and 
 to note how vast the tide of tonnage that constantly flows J^up and down 
 this noble arm of the sea, how much more of emphasis and weight might.npt 
 have been added to his notable saying. The federal goverriment has ' from 
 time tp time expended considerable sums in providmg 'light-houses arid 
 light-vessels for points of prominent exposure on or off" the coasts of Long 
 Island, and it has been liberal in placing buoys to mark the chanriels of its 
 bays, and creeks, but there are other places that still need attention, and the 
 necessity of one or more harbors pf refu<?e pn the Ipng stretch pf coast be- 
 tween Orient Point and Port Jefferson Bay grows yearly greater. It has 
 done an excellent vvork in improving the entrance to the last named 
 bay and it is now building a breakwater to preserve part 
 of the harbor at Greenport. Other points present claims tp like 
 imprpvements — claims which sopi;er or later will be heeded. Tije first 
 lig'-'-^-use within the limits ofJthe. county was at Montauk, lighted jfor the 
 
COMMERCE, NAVIGATION AND FISHERIES. 65 
 
 first time in 1795 ; the latest is one in Cold Spring Harbor not yet com- 
 pleted, and a light-ship is to be placed on Cerberus Shoal off Gardiner's 
 Island. Long Island forms part of the Third Light-House District, which 
 extends from Gooseberry Point, Mass. , to include Squan Inlet, New Jersey, 
 with its headquarters at Tompkinsville, Staten Island. The following is a 
 list of Ifght-houses, 14 in number, now in actual operation within this 
 county, made up in the order of their establishment. 1 have the list here, 
 but omit its reading ; it will be found in a footnote.* 
 
 I come now to the Fisheries of Suffolk County. References made 
 in the previous pages point out the facts that the early settlers were from a 
 section of England largely engaged in fishing, and that they were attracted 
 to this island by the fecilities it ofiered for commerce and for fishing. To 
 their experienced eyes it was as evident then as it is to their descendants 
 now, that a large, a wholesome, and a nutritious part of their subsistence 
 might be obtained from the waters that enclose and interlaca the land in 
 loving embrace. Swimming and shell fish abounded and were easily taken 
 in quantities to supply their wants. Should other resources fail, should 
 nature frown upon their agriculture and the earth refuse its fruits, should 
 the wild game desert its haunts and the untended flocks of the air omit to 
 make their annual migrations, they yet had a sure reliance in the teeming 
 storehouse that always lay open to their industry. With hooks and rude 
 nets they came provided, and beds of fat oysters and succulent clams, of 
 meaty mussels and prodigious periwinkles, spread invitingly before them. 
 No fear of famine need oppress their thoughts as with busy axes they at- 
 tacked the wilderness and let in the sunlight upon their little clearings. 
 The advantages afforded by the nearness of water to all parts of the eastern 
 section of the county were appreciated as soon as seen, and account for its 
 priority of settlement. The same advantage led originally to the settlement 
 and cultivation of the lands along the north and south sides of the county, 
 
 *UGHT-HOUSBS AND I.IGHT-VESSELS IN SUFFOLK COUNTY WATERS. 
 Name. First Lighted. Remarks. 
 
 Montauk 1795 DaboU's Trumpet. 
 
 Eaton's Neck 1798 
 
 LitUe Gull Island 1806 Steam siren; south side of entrance to L. 
 
 I. Sound. 
 Old Field Pomt 1823 North of Setauket. 
 
 Fire Island 1826 East side of Fire Island Inlet. ' 
 
 Cedar Lsland 1839 Bell; entrance to Sag Harbor. 
 
 North Dumpling 1848 " Fisher's Island Sound. 
 
 Gardiner's Island 1855 North point of Gardiner's Island. 
 
 Lloyd's Harbor 1857 Huntington Bay; S. E. point of Lloyd's 
 
 Neck. 
 Horton's Point 1857 Horton's Point, north of Southold vil- 
 
 lage. 
 Shinnecock 1857 Pondquogue Point. 
 
 Long Beach Bar 1 871 Entrance irom Gardiner's Bay to Orient 
 
 and Greenport harbors and Peconic 
 
 Bay; beU. 
 Stratford Shoal 1877 Middle Ground, L. I. Sound, trumpet 
 
 and bell. 
 Race Rock 1878 Off Fisher's Island Point, to mark 
 
 north side of entrance to L. I. 
 
 Sound. 
 Plum Island '827 Bell, west end of Plum Island to marl^ 
 
 Cold Spring Harbor — ^not yet built. 
 
 Perberus Shoal— light-ship to be placed thereon. 
 
 ent^rance to Plum Gut. 
 
66 COMMERCE, NAVIGATION AND FISHERIES. 
 
 to the comparative neglect of the central portions, though irtuch of the lat- 
 ter is arable and sufficiently fertile. - It is of course known to all that the 
 bulk of the population of the towns of Brookhaven,' Smithtown, and Hunt- 
 ington on the north, and Babylon, Islip and Brookhaven on the south, in- 
 habit the regions lying within a few miles from' the shores respectively of 
 the Sound and Bay, while large tracts in the middle section are still given 
 up to pine forests or scrub-oak plains. This peculiarity of the topographir 
 cal distribution' of Suffolk County's population may be attributed, 
 primarily, to the fact that its early settlers were fishermen 
 and were naturally drawn to the water side in preference 
 to the interior.- That they began the catching of fish for their own 
 tables as soon as they landed may be said to be past doubt. While for 
 many years no records exist to show what progress was made in this indus- 
 try, it is reasonably certain that from the first they took out of the waters 
 by their doors not only enough of food for present needs but also quant ties 
 to be salted, smoked or dried for winter use. This would be likely enough 
 in the nature of things, but its probability is increased toward certainty 
 when we find from the records that with the first yearofthdr settlement the 
 Southampton people commenced the pursuit of whales in boats flFom the 
 shore. How great a degree of hardihood and courage, of pluck and per- 
 sistence, was needed to prosecute this conquest of : Leviathan, with such 
 rough boats or canoes and such inadequate gear as was then at hand, bold- 
 ly chasing him out to sea, striking him with their rude ha;rpoons and lances, 
 holding tenaciously to their warps as he dragged them over the boiling 
 surges for miles on miles, watching warily his death flurries, and then toil- 
 somely towing his huge bulk to the shore, only those can estimate who, as 
 I have done, have seen this mightiest game whicTi any nimrod of land or 
 sea pursues, stretched upon the sand and rolling grandly in the surf. 
 
 As early as 1644 the male inhabitants of that town were divided into four 
 squadrons, each having a ward or division of the beach to watch. Starbuck, 
 the author of the only complete and comprehensive History of the American 
 Whale Fishery, in a private note to myself, says: " I look upon the set- 
 tlers of Southampton and vicinity as among the first, if not the first, in our 
 country, to pursue the art of whaling as an organized industry, as will ap- 
 pear in my own work — pp. 9, i-o, 11, etc. He there records this tact, con- 
 clusive of both the antiquity and the importance of the business, that " In 
 1672 the towns of Southampton, East-Hampton and Southold presented a 
 memorial to the court at Whitehall, in which, as the ground for an appeal 
 from Dutch oppression, they set forth that they have spent much linie and 
 pains, and the greater part of their estates, in settling the trade of whale 
 fishing in the adjacent seas, having endeavored it above these 20 years but 
 could not bring it to any perfection till within these 2 or 3 years last past." 
 This shows that prior to 1652 the whale fishery along the south shore of 
 the Island had become a settled and a diligently prosecuted industry. Mr. 
 Egbert T. Smith informs mg that in 1700' Martha Tunstall Smith, wife of 
 his ancestor Gol. Smith, owned a whaling station at Smith's Point, manned 
 by a crew of Indians who on an average killed 20 whales of a winter, and 
 sent their oil and bone to England. In 1850 he himself established a sta- 
 tion at which the crew had good success. In 1703, Lord Cornbury. Gov 
 ernor of the Province, moved thereto by the fact that no whale oil was sent 
 to New York from eastern Long Island, whence, as he says, "the 
 greater quantity" of it then came, wrote to the Lords of Trade in England 
 
COMMENCE, NAVIGATION AND FISHERIES. ft'J 
 
 complaining that Connecticut fills the island with European goods cheaper 
 than New York can, and that the people here, being full of New England 
 principles, would rather trade with Boston, Rhode Island and Connecticut 
 than with New York. " In another letter he says that in 1 707 Long Island 
 made 4,000 barrels of train oil,' adding that "about the middle of October 
 they began to look out for fish ; the season lasts all November, Decem- 
 ber, January, February and a part of March ; a yearling will make about 
 40 barrels of oil, a stunt or whale will make sometimes 50, sometimes 60 
 barrels of oil, and the largest whale that I heard of in these parts yielded 
 110 barrels of oil and 1,200 weight of bone. " In i678aBoston merchant, 
 named Alfred, had permission fi-om the Dutch authorities to clear a vessel 
 from Southampton direct for England with oil bought at that place. I cite 
 these scattered facts in illustration of the extent and value to which the 
 whale fishing in boats from the shore had grown in the first century after 
 the settlement, not only because of their intrinsic interest, but because they 
 are attested by undoubted records and may be accepted without hesitation. 
 From them, in the absence of definite proof, it may safely be inferred that 
 men who could with such rare skill and success prosecute the highest 
 branch of fishing, would be equally skillful and successful in pursuit of the 
 lesser fisheries. 
 
 Beside the moss bunker or bony fish, which, then as now, came in 
 countless numbers, and, while very palatable as food, were, then as now, 
 overshadowed by the superior toothsomeness of other species and were 
 thrown aside when caught or used merely as manure, the better sorts of 
 fish riiost common in these waters were the sea and striped bass, black fish- 
 cod, chequet, eels, flounders, flat-fish, fi-ost fish, mackerel, perch, porgies, 
 shad, sheepshead, tom-cod, etc., while of shell fish the most abundant and 
 important were oysters, clams, crabs, lobsters, escalops, mussels and 
 winkles. 
 
 When the taking of these various swimming and shell fish in quantities 
 beyond the needs of the local markets, and the sending them across the 
 sound or to New York for sale, began to be a regular branch of trade, it is not 
 possibletosay,but it is probable that it did not become a business of much 
 magnitude till long after the' Revolution. Smacks, or vessels provided with 
 wells in which to carry live fish, or with apartments for preserving them in 
 ice, were not built till after the present century began. Neither were the 
 modes of fishing at an earlier date such as to admit of keeping the fish any 
 great length of time. They were caught with hook and line, with seines, 
 or with g^ll nets, and were dead when brought to land. As late as 1825 or 
 '30, it is stated thar there was no demand in N. Y. market for dead fish. 
 Using ice in which to box and ship dead fish is a modern invention and has 
 grown up mostly within the past 20 or 25 years ; it was perhaps suggested 
 and made possible by the putting on of steam packets, with the old propell- 
 er Albany as one of the pioneers, to ply between our eastern bays and New 
 York, and w.as promoted by the facilities afforded to fishermen by the L. I. 
 R. R. Co. , which has derived and does still derive a large revenue from 
 the transportation of boxed fish — how large, I could not ascertain. The 
 earUest knowledge I have had of building fishing smacks in th^ county goes 
 back to about 18 10, when, anci, during succeeding years, several were built 
 at Rocky Point (now East Marion), a few miles east of Stirling (as Green- 
 port was then called), by Boss Jeny Brown, whose old shipyard was where 
 
68 
 
 COMMERCE, NAVIGATION AND FISHERIES. 
 
 the elegant country seat of Thomas A. Howell, Esq. , now is. * In i 8 1 8, as I 
 havefrom the pen of a venerable friend, Mr. William O. Winters, of Brooklyn, 
 formerly of East Marion, and long engaged in the business, there were ii 
 smacks belonging at Rocky Point, Orient and Stirling, but hailing from i:'ag 
 Harbor. As an item of local it not general interest I mention their names 
 and the narnes of their Masters. These were ; — rthe Rover, Capt. Robert 
 Clark^; the Independence, Capt. Warren Griffin ; the Fame, Capt. James 
 Beebe ; the Comet, Capt. William Roberts ; the Rose, Capt. Warren 
 Youngs; the Charlotte, Capt. James Griifing ; the Jane, G.ipt. Noah Rack - 
 ett ; the Wasp, Capt. S. Rackett ; the Java, Capt. Gilson Vail; the Echo, 
 Capt. E. Beebe ; the Dolphin, Capt. Daniel Harris. The) were not clink- 
 er built, as were the smacks first built at Mystic, Ct., which were soon con- 
 demned because of their tendency to leak, but were deep keel boats, with 
 bluff bows ; the lines of their models were not so sharp and graceful as 
 those built now, but they were strongly put together and were excellent 
 sea-boats, riding like ducks over the highest ,waves and sometimes safely 
 encountering the fury of the severest stomjs in which larger ' craft went to 
 the bottom or were helplessly disabled by the violence of the sea. They 
 ranged in size firom 15 to 22 tons, were sloop-rigged and had wells in which 
 
 *After the forgoing had been written and this paper completed, I received from another 
 venerable friend, Capt. John A.. Rackett, of Orient, in answer to an application a letter giv- 
 ing some fresh information and going a few years further back in point of time. The let- 
 ter is of so readable a character that it has been thought proper to print it in full, as follows: 
 
 Orient, January 16, 1884. 
 
 Hon. Henry A. Reeves — Dear Sir: After an exhaustive investigation, from such 
 dates as we have, we find that in 1795 there were a number of men from the village oj 
 Oysterpcnds (now Orient) engaged in the cod-fishery at the Straits of Bellisle on the coast of 
 New Foundland. A few years afterward, so 1800, some of the young 
 men of our own and . the adjacent village of Rocky Point (now East 
 Manon) were employed as fiphermen m '.'well smacks" owned at New London and 
 Mystic. A little anterior to the last date a number of families, emigrated from the places 
 last named to Rocky Point. They were directly or indirectly engaged in smack-fishing be- 
 fore leaving those Connecticut towns. Induced doubtless by their description of the business 
 as well as a desire to share in its profits, a number of young men from Oysterponds, Rocky 
 Pomt and Sterling engaged in the business in smacks owned at New London and Mystic, 
 some as fishermen, others as marketmen. Amnng the new comers was Capt. Amos Ryan, 
 who settled at Rocky Point and built the house now occupied by Capt.' Maxon Tuthill. The 
 name of his smack we have not been able to ascertain. Capt. Ryan was an active, energet- 
 ic man. On his way to Charleston, on one occasion, he fell in with an abandoned ship 
 near the western edge of the gulf stream. With his small craft he succi:ede<l in towing the 
 ship to Charleston bar, where he had to anchor her, the wind preventing his getting her 
 into harbor. During the night an easterly gale came up and forced the ship 4shore. 
 Next morning the beach was strewn with cases and bales of dry goods. It seems hard that 
 with a fortune so near his reach he was not permitted to enjoy it. 
 
 Next we find the smack Patriot, Capt. Elisha Rackett. The transfer papers of this 
 vessel are in our possession. 'ITiey bear the date 1813'. Whether or not this was the first 
 smack built in our town we have not been able definitely to determine. The next was the 
 Jupiter, Capt. Eliphelet Beebe. She was burned by the British in the war of 1812-14, and her 
 remains lie embedded in the sand not far from the Long Beach phosphate works. The next 
 the Little Jay, was commanded by Capt. Henry Beebe, • ot Sterling. The fifth was the 
 Jefferson, Capt. Grant B. Rackett. The sixth, and last we have been able-to find out about, 
 is the Sylph, Capt. Barzellius Beebe'. 
 
 The above we believe to have been the pioneers of the smack-fishing industry in I ie 
 three villages or hamlets of Oysterponds, Rocky Point and Sterling. The names of the 
 smacks immediately succeeding those named above, we believe you have. The date of the 
 commencement of building and navigating the fishing smacks by the people cf this town, 
 we^believeto have been about 1800. Kespectfuliy yours, 
 
 JOHN. A. RACKETT, 
 
COMMENCE, NAVlGATtOJJ ANb FISHERIES. 69 
 
 •over 1,000 average codfish could be kept. About 1820 Boss Brown built 
 . three others, viz : the Mary, Capt. Moses Griffin ; the Emeline, Capt. 
 Gamaliel King ; the Mars, Capt. Sylvester Rackett. After 1825, within a 
 few years, 10 or 15 other'smacks were built, and new fishing grounds ex- 
 tending from Florida to New Foundlahd w6re occupied, while several new 
 varieties offish were found. From 1836 to 1840 a larger size of smacks 
 began to be built, and some were rigged as schooners. The first smacks' 
 crews consisted, beSide the masters, of two and sometimes three men and a 
 boy who acted as cook. They started about the middle of March for cod- 
 fish, cruising off Montauk, Block Island and No Man's Land. An aver- 
 age catch would be 800 to 1,000 fish, taken with the hook from the vessels 
 deck. They carried their cargo to the old Fly Market in Burling Slip, N. 
 Y., where fish were retailed by a man assigned to each smack and receiving 
 an average share with the crew ; the vessel paid 2-5ths of the ^xpense and 
 took 2-5ths of the proceeds, and the remainder was dividecf among the 
 crew equally. About May 1 they began fishing for mackerel at Sandy Hook, 
 using trolling lines, each man looking alter two lines — a slow mode of 
 taking this nimble fish. About the middle of June they went to their for- 
 mer ground and also to Vineyard Sound for sea bass. , This was kept up 
 till Oct. 1st, when, on the same grounds, they resumed codfishing until 
 December or January. A fair catch of sea bass would be from 1,500 to 
 1,800. For this fish a new ground was discovered about 1823, off the 
 Capes of the Delaware, where fish were plenty but small, seldom exceeding 
 a pound in weight, and in 2 or 25^- days they would catch from 2,000 to 
 2, 500. The season there lasted from May to August. 
 
 On June 4, 1825, in violent storm, two smacks were lost with all on 
 board, viz ; the Fame, Capt. James Beebe with his son Stafford and Joseph 
 and Benjamin Griffin, brothers ; and the Emeline, Capt. Daniel Griffin, his 
 brother David, Joel King and Horace Clark. These are names that occur 
 to-day in the Imsiness of smack fishing from East Marion, which has long 
 been and now is more distinctively a community of fishermen than any oth- 
 er in the county or perhaps the State. At tlie present time there are hail- 
 ing from the port of Greenport, which includes East Marion and Orient, 21 
 schooner and 4 sloop smacks, of an» aggregate tonnage of 937.36 tons; 
 same of them areas handsome craft, with as- fine lines, shapely models, clean 
 run, and complete outfit of rigging, sails and all needed equipments, as it 
 they had been designed for pleasure yachts. In those little smacks of 15 
 or 18 tons, with no chronometer clock, no binocular glass, no marine ii,.- 
 strument other than a compass and a quadrant, and with no further aid to 
 safety than the imperfect charts of those days, four or five bold, self-reliant 
 mariners bravely threw themselves upon the broad ocean and made trips as 
 tar south^s Charleston, Savannah, or even Key West ; sometimes passing 
 months in fishing in those waters and finding markets for their catch in the 
 cities named, aijd going and returning not by any inside canal route but out 
 on the open sea, past the stormy Hatteras and down the inhospitable 
 beaches of the Carolinas. Taking in about $150 worth of provisions in N. 
 Y., with 5 gallops of rum at a shilling a quart to last the cruise, they made 
 harbors if occasion required but if caught in a gale would lay to under a 
 trysail and ride it out like a petrel of the storm, when a frigate might have 
 foundered. When fishing they were in 12 to 20 fathom water, and 
 when loaded with bass would run into port;, in this business they would 
 occupy 6 to 9 months, generally from October to July, but sometimes 
 
would go down to JacksoBville to gtet'steepshead'for Charleston or t6 Key 
 West to get groupers for Cub.a. - One of the first sniacks built, the Ven-iis, 
 Gapt. Simeon Price, with a crew of four foundered in Charleston Hairbor, 
 inside of Sullivan's Island, and was n^ver seen afterw&rds: 
 
 Blue-fish, now so prominent ais a food fish, were nbt much thought of 
 tilibabout 1852. [In the coufseof the inquiry 'before the U. S. Senate 
 Committee investigating' the causes of the alleged scarcitj of food fishes, in 
 1882, Samuel B. Miller; a Brooklytt dealer iil'.fish for 49 years, testified that 
 he could remember when 2,000 pounds of blue-fish could not be sold in 
 Niew'York in One day, at 2 cents per pound; and Caleb Haley, a veteran 
 fish dealer in Fulton Market, testified that it wa.s only within ten years pre- 
 vibus'to that date' that blue>-flsh" had- become a desiralble rhairket fish. 
 Striped bass were abundant alorig the south shore ; itnmense 
 hauls, somfelimes amounting to many wagon loads, were taken in 
 seins and often sold for 2 ' or 3 cents per pound ; they ranged in weight' 
 firom I to 80 poundSj and tradition, tells of one' one-hundred pounder. * 
 Sometimes better prices prevailed and gOod profits rewarded the fishernlen's 
 labors; At-;and near Smith's^ Point, for the use of the shor&'to low water 
 mark as a; landing plaoefor-theuse^of their nets, bass 'fishermen have paid the 
 owner as high as^ I500 in a year. The privilege at that place is still paid 
 for. In early times there were three inlets into Great South Bay east of 
 Patchogue, the last one of which did not close till 1820. In consequence 
 the water was salt and all the better sorts offish abounded, as did oysters 
 and clams. The fisheries were productive and valuable ; they were held 
 under the Smith patent and the patent to Brbokhaveh to%n^ — the latter in 
 its agreement with William Smith assuming a penal obligation of $20,000 to 
 dulyattend to the fisheries. About the years 1825 to 1840 bass fishing in 
 the bays and ocean was extensively carried on during the Fall and Winter. 
 Large quantities were conveyed to New York in wagons. It is estimated 
 that the quantity sold would net at least $5,000 yearly, though at times the 
 price was only lor i}4 cents per pound. Eels were also plenty and many 
 thousands of dollars' worth were annually sold ; eeling is still a large in- 
 dustry, though less than at that time. Sheepshead werfe sometimes abun- 
 dant, but were not the high-priced luxury they have since become. In 
 1828) the East Bay being full of bass, there came on a- hard storm early in 
 the winter and drove all the bass into Quantuck Bay, a body of water cov- 
 ering some 200 acres. During that winter, by a count kept by a resident 
 of Quogue, 75,000 bass were .taken out of that bay, all the barns and out- 
 houses being filled with them through the winter. When |;ray-beards of 50 
 or 60 years were'boys, eels were so numerous that, even at 7 or 8 cents per 
 dozen, any industrious man could earn $100 with his spear in a winter. 
 Of recent years large quantities of perch have been taken in the East Bay, 
 and in the winter of 1882 over $10,000 worth was sold. Crabs in the 
 same bay have also become an important item, as many as 200 barrels hav- 
 ing been shipped in a day from one station. 
 
 Within a few years the taking of codfish in the ocean firom Quogue to 
 Moriches has grown to large proportions, about 150 men being engaged 
 last winter and from West-Hampton depot 285,000 pounds of cod were 
 
 ♦Subsequent to this writing the largest cod fish on record — a fish weighing over 100 
 pounds, wh6sfe dressed weight wasS^ pounds — was caught in the ocean off Montauk by N,, 
 Pominyi's company of East-Hampton' fishermen, 
 
C6listERCE, NAVIGATION AND FISHERIES. fl 
 
 Bent by rail, besides large quantities from Quogue and other stations. Of 
 the oyster fishery in the Great Sotith Bay and the bays on the north side of 
 the county, I shall not attempt to speak in any detail. The facts are too 
 many a,nd the ideas they suggest are too extensive, to be compressed into 
 such an article as this. Its growth, its present extent, and its prospective 
 greatness are all themes that might occupy attention for hours. Enough to 
 say tljat several hundreds of boats, thousands of persons,, and large 
 am,ounts of capital are engaged. in its prosecution, and in the South and 
 East Bays alone it has been computed that the value of the boats, scows, 
 and apparatus used in the fishery is fully half a million dollars, -while the 
 niiinber of familjiss supported wholly or in part from this source is from 
 909 to 1,000, besides 200 to 300 unmarried men earning wages. Its yearly 
 products count up into the hundreds of thousands of bushels. The taking 
 of clams for the market from Peconic and Shinnecock bays, and in the 
 waters, of the north shore, especially Smithtown harbor, has grown to be 
 a large business, but does not date back much, if any, further than 40 or 
 50 years ago. The Connecticut niarkets have long been supplied from the 
 east, end and the bays along the north side have sent quantities of both the 
 long and round varieties lo New York. 
 
 Escalops are of still later introduction as an item of commercial fish- 
 ingj— -comparatively fe«i'. being taken 15 years ago. Of recent winters large 
 quantities have been taken by boats from New Suffolk, Greenport and other 
 places on Peconic Bay, and to a lesser extent in Northport and Hunting- 
 top Bays. Lobsters were found many years ago near the rocks alonf the 
 north shore of Southold town, and at Montauk ; also near Plum Gull and 
 Fisher's Island and in some years cimsiderable quantities have been caught 
 at thosi places. 
 
 The fishe y that might havq the greatest popular attractiveness for the 
 romance and picturesqueness attaching to many of its incidents; for the 
 striking illustrations of personal heroism it' developed; for the extent to 
 which, it was carried and the wide scope of its operation, covering the acces- 
 sible waters of every ocean ; for the number of ,persons and amount of capi- 
 tal engaged and the values of its products; and for the general prominence 
 before the country and before the world which it gave to Long Island 
 mariners, vessels and ports, is now e3i;tinct within our county, where once 
 it flourished to a degree not easily appreciated, at this remove of time. Of 
 course I refer now to the whale fishery as it was carried on at Sag Harbor, 
 Greenport, New Suffolk, Jainesport arvd Gold Spring. I have here a mass 
 of notes and memoranda relating to this fishery, drawn from all the sources 
 to which I could gain access, including every historical document or works 
 available to my examination, and many traditionary and individual remi- 
 niscences, with espe-jial stress to be laid on a manuscript sketch of the 
 whaling business at the port of Sig' Harbor prepared by the late Luther D. 
 Cook, of that place, and most kindly placed at my service by his son, Ben- 
 jamin A. Cook, of New York, and which I have found a storehouse replete 
 with recitals of the utmiost interest to all descendants of the whalemen 
 whose voyages fornied so large a part in the past prosperity of my native 
 village. But, with great reluctance, I am constrained to lay them all aside 
 as their reading would tax too severely your jsatience, perhaps already 
 weirled with this neCessaily discursive and ill-digested paper. 
 
 I will, however, detain you a moment longer on this head to group 
 a few prominent facts in illustration of the magnitude and value of this 
 
72 COMMERCE, NAVIGATION AND FISHERIES. 
 
 now vanished trade. 
 
 Starting in 1790 with one brig of 150 tons, it grew slowly 'till 1820, 
 when six vessels brought to port 531 barrels of sperm and 7,850 barrels of 
 whale oil. In the 30 years from 1820, to 1850, for which period Mr. 
 Cook has full records of arrivals at the port of Sag Harbor, with their car- 
 goes, the aggregates are 490 vessels bringing in 83, loi 1-2 barrels of 
 sperm and 812,595 1-2 barrels of whale oil and 6,728,809 pounds of whale- 
 bone, worth at very low average prices nearly $15,006,000. In i847there 
 were 32 arrivals, bringing 3,919 barrels, of sperm and 63, 712 barrels of 
 whale oil and 605,340 pounds of whalebone, worthj ■ Mr. Cook, says, at 
 then current rates, $996,413. In that year Sag Harbor owned 63 whale 
 ships, with an aggregate of 22,233 'oiis. The whaling business at that 
 port was then at its highest level, and from that year may be dated the be- 
 ginning of its decline. 
 
 I must ask your attention for but a short time longer to what is now 
 the most important fishery interest in our county — an interest that has 
 grown up with the life time of one generation, and yet overtops all other 
 interests of the sort within this State, except, perhaps, . the oyster fishery. 
 When first our ancestors began to Utilize that branch of the herring family 
 which is now known as the menhaden by using them to fertilize their fields, 
 cannot be precisely stated. The earliest mention, so far as I have learned, 
 is in Spofford's Gazetteer, where it is stated that about the year 1797 a seine- 
 at Town Harbor, Southold, drew to land at one haul 250,000 moss bunk- 
 ers. The knowledge of this fact was derived by the compiler of the Ga- 
 zetteer %:ora a paper entitled " Observations on Manures" read in 1795 before 
 the Society (State) for the Promotion of Agriculture by Hon. Ezra L'Hom- 
 medieu, of Southold village, one of the foremost men in the long period of 
 his active career and one of the brightest intellects to which Southold Town 
 ever gave birth. In this paper he says: " This year I saw 250, 000 taken 
 at one draught, which must have been much more than 100 tons;" and 
 he adds: " One seine near me (faught more than one million the last sea- 
 son, which season lasts about one month. " As this paper was read in 
 March, before menhaden ordinarily visit these waters, it is fair to presume 
 that the paper was prepared during the previous Fall or Winter, and that 
 the words " this year" must have referred to the season of 1794. How 
 much earlier than this latter date the industry of taking menhaden for ma- 
 nure had become established as an important adjunct to the agriculture of 
 the eastern towns, it is impossible to say, but doubtless it had been prose- 
 cuted more or less for forty or fifty years — perhaps longer. [See note 3, 
 page 77. 
 
 Both in Peconic Bay and Long Island Sound, and on the ocean shore 
 in the Hamptons, seines were psed from an early period in the history of 
 the eastern towns to take bunkers for ma,nure. Regular organizations were 
 formed, seines and boats adapted to the work were procured, and fish 
 houses for storage and for dwelling, were put up at suitable points on the 
 bay or beach shores, and for several weeks of the Spring and Fall the crews 
 made a business of fishing whenever the weather served and fish were to be 
 seen — the catch being shared among themselves and the owners of the 
 outfit. This practice, while superseded or mainly forced to give way by 
 later improved methods, is still maintained to some limited extent, at a few 
 points. 
 
 But the use of Menhaden as a material for the manufacture of oil for 
 
COMMERCE, >fAVIGATlON AND FISHERIES. 73 
 
 tanning and dressing leather, for rope making, for painting, and for various 
 other uses, while it was known that those fish contained oil and the process 
 of extracting it had been actually applied many years before in some 
 scattered and inconsequential way, may be said to be not yet forty years 
 old. The late Judge Osborn, of Jessup's Neck, on Pecohic Bay, was the 
 first to put up try works for rendering menhaden by boiling the fish in 
 water in large iron pots set in masonry, and skimming off the oil that rose 
 to the surface. Those pot works, as such establishments were called, were 
 put up in a lot near his house and not tar from the shore, where the fish 
 could be conveniently landed from the seine and carted to the works. 
 
 This was in the year 1847 or 1848. The gil made in this way was 
 heavy, black and rank, and was used, by the Judge, for coarse painting 
 and other purposes on his premises, an:l some small amounts were sold to 
 other parties. Some years later he pat up steam works on jessup's Point. 
 On July 4, 1850, thirty-three years ago, the first steam factoijy in Suffolk 
 County, for making oil and guano from menhaden, was begun at Chequet 
 Point, Shelter Islan'd, directly opposite Greenport, by Daniel D. Wells and 
 his oldest son '.ienry E. Wells, both then residents of Greenport, the 
 former since deceased, the latter yet living and one of its foremost citizens, 
 from whose lips I have received entertaining information concerning this 
 pioneer undertaking which led the way for the great enterprise that now 
 lifts itself into the fore-frOnt of thi nation's marine activities. They had 
 visited and inspected the works of Judge Osborn, and being acute practical 
 observers and shrewd men of business, they had poted its possibilities and 
 needs. They procured a steam boiler, which not proving powerful enough 
 was exchanged for a larger and that again for a still larger. The fish were 
 procured from shore seines at Orient and East Marion. The Yaphank 
 seine, in the latter harbor, on one occasion enclosed a vast school of fish 
 and 1,000.000 were landed .from it; an equally large haul was made by a 
 seine in the upper bay; and I believe that on Short Beach a seine once 
 landed nearly or quite i 1-4 millions of fish. Usually at first they had 
 some two million fish in a season, afterwards three millions, and within a 
 few years t^e supply largely increased. ' The very first year of the business 
 they dried some of the scrap or refuse, as an experiment, on a small plat- 
 form, and then ground it, in a large coffee mill — this being the first dried 
 and grotmd scrap ever exhibited. After continuing in the business for two 
 years at Chequet Point they bought land at White fiill, a little ways west of 
 Prospect, Shelter Island, and moved the factory there in the spring of 1853, 
 but before the work of rebuilding had been completed they sold the estab- 
 lishment to Colonel Morgan, of Poquannock, near Groton, Conn., where 
 it was removed and erected, being the first fectory of the sort in that State. 
 
 The same fall they built another factory at White Hill, in connection 
 with Harmon and Maxon Tuthill and the latter 's brother-in-law, Mr. 
 Strong, all of East Marion. They bought their first purse-net of Capt. 
 Benj.'rallman, of Portsmouth, R. I., who originated this mode of catch- 
 ing menhaden in deep water — an invention, not patented, but which has 
 been relatively of as great utility to this fishery as Whitney's invention was 
 to the production of cotton. The first purse-net used in Peconic Bay was 
 bought a year or two previous by Capt. .David Smith arid others. The 
 Wellses bought out the Tuthills' and Strongs' interest, and from 1854 till 
 now the business has been conducted under the same firm name of D. D. 
 Wells & Sons. At one time they had one seine fishing in Orient Harbor 
 
74 COjiMEfeCE, NAVIGATION AND' FISHEklfiS. 
 
 and two purse-net gangs fishing in the bays; afterwards a third. At first 
 cat-rigged boats were used both for the seines aiid for carryaways to convey 
 the fish to the factory; sloop yachts, after handsome and finely equipped 
 vessels costing several thousand dollars, were introduced about 1 868, and 
 being built chiefly for speed, they made, until steam supplanted them a few 
 years ago, a most picturesque els well as novel fe3.ture of a busin.ss strictly 
 utilitarian — perhaps the only business which ever did or fairly could warrant 
 the employment of vessels fitted by model, rig, finish, and sailing qualities 
 to rank with pleasure yachts. In iSyoa small steamer designed for towing 
 the carryaway boats— in which manhaden are carried from the place where 
 a haul or "set" of the purse-net may be made to the factories — about the 
 Bays, with a view to saving time in delivery of the fish, was built at the ship- 
 yard of Boss Oliver H. Bishopi in Greenport; but she was not adapted to 
 the work in all respects, and did not develop spied enough to make her 
 profitably serviceable, and so after full trial she was sold to the Greenport 
 and Shelter Island Ferry Company to be converted to its use ad a ferry boat 
 between the two places In 1872 Messrs. Wells & Co. had* built for their 
 Maine factory the steamer Wm. A. Wells, modeled, constructed and 
 engined with special referenct; to the business of following menhaden into 
 deep water olf the coast of Maine, towing or following the purse-boats to 
 the fish, hoisting their catch by steain scoops into the hold, and after steam- 
 ing back to the factory discharging them in the same way into cars that 
 carry them on inclined railways to the rendering tanks. In the following 
 year the Ranger Oil Co., of Greenport, of which Thomas F. Price was 
 (and is) managing agent, built at South Bristol, Maine, the steamer E. F. 
 Price, for Cap. Elijah Tallman, of Rhode Island, who has remained in 
 the service of the same company ever since, arid is now '"commodore" of 
 its fleet; this was the first menhaden steamer actually employed in fishing 
 on Peconic and Gardiner's Bays. The first steamer ever built for this 
 fishery was the Seven Brothers, built, and I believe still owned, by the 
 enterprising firm of Church Bros., of I'iverton, Rhode Island. Hawkips 
 Bros., of Jamespcjrt. in 1874, brought their first steamer into the Bay. 
 Wells & Sons, after carrying on the business at White Hill for hearly 20 
 years, with varying fortune but with a preponderance on the right side of 
 the account, were led by the growing opposition of their new neighbors at 
 Prospect to pull up stakes in 1871 and remove to North West, in East- 
 Hampton town, where they now have their factory in active operation, its 
 cash products for the past season exceeding $53,000. Their largest sea- 
 son's catch was in 1879, when 18,000,000 fish, caught by two gangs and 
 averaging 4 gallons of oil to the thousand fish, were rendered. On another 
 year, from 6,200,000 fish they made 62,000 gallons, or a full average of 10 
 gallons to the thousand. That year, from one particular boat load of fish, 
 which was kept separate and accurately measured, an average yield of 24 
 gallons to the thousand was got. The fattest fish and largest yield of oil 
 ever known, is reported from Shinnecock Bay, where some menhaden that 
 had; been shut up in brackish water grew to such size and fatness that they 
 yielded at the rate of 48 gallons to the thousand. 
 
 Wells & Co., a firm with D. D. and H. E. Wells holding one-third interest 
 were the first to build a steam factory in the State of Maine, having put up 
 one at South Bristol in 1864, two years before any others in that State. 
 Five years later they removed to Virginia, at Farmer's Creek, it being also 
 the first factory in that State; not succeeding there they removed it back to 
 
CdltltERCE, NAVKJaTIOS AND FISltERies. 75 
 
 the same place in Maine, where they still own it but it is not now in opera- 
 tion, the tish having deserted that coast for four years past, until late in the 
 present season. Capt B. C. Cartwright, of Shelter Island, one of the 
 veterans of this fishery, beg^n with a steam factory at Ram Head in i860, 
 and in 1872 removed it to Bunker City, where he now carries itonsuccess- 
 fiiily. I have not time to enumerate the various fiictories and pot works 
 that have been started on Shelter Island and describe their several vicissi- 
 tudes. Of the 15 or 16 that have had longer or shorter careers on that 
 island, only that of CapL Cartwright, known as the Peconic Oil Co., and 
 of Hawkins Bros., near the same place, remain. On Gardiner's and Pe- 
 conic Bays, beside 8 or lo now closed or dismanded, there are iz fectories 
 in active operation, viz: at Promised Land, Abbe & Co., George F. 
 Tuthill & Co., Dixon, Jonas Smith, T. F. Price & Co., Elsworth Tuthill & 
 Co., O. H. Bishop and the pot works of William M. Tuthill & Sons; at 
 North West, D. D. Wells & Sons and Sterling Oil Co.; at*Bunker City, 
 Peconic Oil Co. and Hawkins Bros. ; at Long Beach, Orient, the Atlantic 
 & Virginia Fertilizer Co. During the season just about to close, these 
 &ctories empioyed 7 double and 20 single gang steamers costing 
 $10,000 to $25,000 each and averaging 29 men for 
 the former and 16 for the latter, or a total of 528 
 men on the steamers, beside 6 sailing gangs averaging 13 men, or 78 in 
 all, while the factories employ an everage of 30 men; or 360 in all, making 
 an aggregate of nearly 1,000 men employed in this industry on the two 
 bays. A careful approximate estimate of the past season's catch, by which 
 is meant the fish brought and rendered at the factories on those bays is 
 145,000,000, of which about 134,000,000 were taken in steamers, averaging 
 something over 5,000,000 to a steamer; while the sailing gangs have 
 averaged about 2,000,000. Wells & Co., have made 894 barrels of oil and 
 1,100 tons of scrap, and have consumed about |S5,ooo worth or 1,000 tons 
 of coal. The carrying of coal and salt to the factories and taking oil and 
 scrap from them to market, makes freight lor many vessels. In 1 880 the 
 total value of products of the menhaden fishery in the State of New York, 
 as tabulated for the U. S. Census of that year, was §1, 114, 158, of which all 
 but the products of lour &ctories on Barren Island, one of them owned by 
 Hawkins Bros. , of Jamesport, and all of them mainly or wholly supplied 
 with fish by fishermen from this county, was a result of the combination of 
 capital, labor and skill by residents of Suffolk County in a manufacture of 
 which the raw material had no value until taken out of the teeming sea and 
 applied to the uses of mankind. Certainly, than this no branch ot human 
 industry could be more intrinsically worthy of commendation and encour- 
 agement 
 
 Mr. Louis C. d'Homergue, Secretary of the U. S. Menhaden Oil and 
 Guano Association, which was organized in January 1874, was the first to 
 make a business ol drying scraps and shipping it to Europe; he had a fac- 
 tory for this purpose at Hay Beach, Shelter Island, previous to 1876. He 
 has kindly furnished me with many useful data respecting the work of the 
 Association and the statistics of the business in the United States for every 
 year since its organization, but I regret to find my time will not allow rne 
 to make use of tnem. In 1882, writing to U. S. Senator Lapham, he esti- 
 mated that the business then employed about $4,000,000 of capital, over 
 ■90 steam aifd 250 sailing vessels, and 3,000 men; that the 71,000 tons of 
 dry scrap manufactured that year was used as the basis in the composition 
 
76 COM«£ECfe, KAVlGAtloS AND FiSfeERlJES. 
 
 of 284,000 tons of commercial fertilizers, applied in tbe South at the rate of 
 250 pounds per acre to raise one bale of cotton, and that thus the scrap or 
 guano made from menhaden after the oil has been expressed becomes the 
 active ammonial agent in raising 2, 272,000 bales of cotton, besides corn, 
 sugar cane, and other products. 
 
 A few words more and I am done. Many of this audience may have 
 but an inadequate idea of the actual extent to which the fisheries of our 
 County are carried, and it is certain that by the world at large they are 
 quite generally underestimated, if, indeed, they are known at all. For 
 information of those who care to know something of this topic, I read from 
 an official statement kindly sent me by Mr. Nimmo, some figures respecting 
 only the products of the fisheries (menhadtn and edible swimming and shell 
 fish) brought into the U. S. Customs District of Sag Harbor — which 
 includes the Surveyor's District of Greenport — from 1872 to 1883, inclu- 
 sive, the fiscal year being meant in each case and ending June 30. It will 
 be noted that this leaves out of computation the products of the 
 oyster, clam and other fisheries in L I. Sound, in the ocean, and in the 
 bays on the south and north sides of the county, and relates only to the 
 towns bordering on Peconic and Gardiner's bays. During tho."^e twelve 
 years the total reported value, brought in from the sea at those ports was 
 $7,822,928. In the one year of 1882 the valueso reported was $1,400,850. 
 While, in the absence of authentic figures returned from any other portion 
 of the county, it is impossible to give accurate results as to the products of 
 fisheries in the large ar;a unreported, it may, I think safely be reckoned 
 that their value would range each year from $400,000 to $600,000, and 
 that a low average would be half a million dollars — making for the twelve 
 years referred :0, an aggregate af at least $6,000,000. Indeed, with every 
 disposition to be moderate in th's estmate, I deem it entirely within bounds 
 to believe that the fisheries of Suffolk county during the past twelve years 
 have yielded to those engaged in them fully $ 15,000,000, or the larje yearly 
 average of $1,250,000. In this estimate account is made only of commer- 
 cial values, omitting altogether the large quantities of fish taken from the 
 waters of the county and con-umed by its inhabitants, the cash value o; 
 which it is obviously impossible to state. [See note C, page 78!. 
 
 Note A. — ^The following should have appeared as a foot note on page 
 64, but through an oversight was omitted: 
 
 It is perhaps proper, as a passing tribute to one of the foremost men 
 to whom Suffolk County ever gave birth, to refer to the eminent services 
 rendered to his country by Nathan Sanford, who was bom at Bridgehamp- 
 ton 1777, became a Senator of the United States, succeeded the immortal 
 Kent as Chancellor of this Stats, was again a Senator and the colleague of 
 Van Bur en, and in 1825 was defeated by John C. Calhoun as a candidate 
 for the Vice Presidency. In 18 15, at the close of the unequal but glorious 
 struggle which this country had maintained for three years against all the 
 naval powerof Great Britain to assert and deLnd "jailors' Rights and the 
 Freedom of the Seas," Mr. Sanford devoted, the full energy of his powerful 
 intellect to a restoration of American commerce, prostrated by the war, 
 and aided largely in bringing about that restoration on a sound and healthy 
 bas s. This much seems due to a Suffolk County statesman, who remem- 
 bered the ancestors from whom he sprung, and the toilers by the Sea among 
 whom his early years had been spent 
 
COKMERCE, NAVIGATION AKD FISHERIES. 77 
 
 Note B. — As showing the extent to -which the business of taking men- 
 haden in shore seines for manure had been carried in the waters of Southold 
 town during the first half of the present centur), . I quote from the Repub- 
 lican Wakhman, of July 4. 1835, the following "statement of fish (called 
 bunkers) that have been taken in the waters of the town of Southold the 
 present season," and append theret" the proof of its authenticity in the 
 shape of a certificate fi-om the assessors of the town: 
 
 \\'e, the undersignad, do certify that the foregoing is a correct state- 
 ment of fish taken in the toivn of Southold, the present season, being 
 drawn up under our supervision. That the length of seine employing ten 
 men is about 1 50 rods, exclusive of line, which is generally double that 
 length. That those seines employing a greater or less number of men are 
 in the same proportion in regard to length. That the average time 
 employed in fishing has been about five weeks. That the number of fish 
 requisite for manuring an acre of land sufficient for any crops is 15,000. 
 Tlw,t the prices of fish have ranged fi'om 50 to 75 cents pCT thousand, and 
 consequently the expense of manuring an acre will range from seven dollars 
 fifty cents to eleven dollars twenty-five cents. That the number of porgies, 
 or skippaugs, taken in Southold bay by fi:>hing smacks and carried through 
 Helgate to New Yorkmarket, at a single tide, on or about the 18th inst, 
 has exceeded 100,000; the average weight of the same is one pound each, 
 and the proceeds of the sale 3, 500 dollars. 
 
 John Clark, ] 
 
 Oliver Corey, Assessors of the 
 
 Henry H. Terry. \ 
 
 Joshua Hallock, | Town of Southold. 
 
 Barnabas Wines, J 
 
 Southold, June 30th, 1835. 
 
 It is further stated that about 12,000,000 menhaden were taken in the 
 town of Riverhead, the same season. 
 
 Name of Seine. Number of Fish. Number of Men on Each. 
 
 Weazle 540 000 9 
 
 Dragon i 300 000 10 
 
 Cove 2 900 OOP 20 
 
 Coots I 340 000 10 
 
 Crow 850 000 8 
 
 Shunks i 500 000 10 
 
 Munfudgeon i 440 000 8 
 
 Wolf I 416 500 10 
 
 Sea Serpent i 750 000 10 
 
 Turks 3 320 000 20 
 
 Hawks I 70c 000 10 
 
 Greek i 650 000 10 
 
 Owl 200 000 8 
 
 Water Witch' 400 000 8 
 
 )ohn Gamer 480 000 8 
 
 Jackson 2 833 000 10 
 
 Union 2 450 000 iz 
 
 Opposition 574 000 7 
 
 Night Hawk i 100 000 7 
 
 Indian Chief i 000 opo 10 
 
yB COMMERCE, NAVIGATION AND FISH;ERIES. 
 
 Name of Seine, Mumber of Fish. Number of Men on Each. 
 
 Little Jackson 500 000 5 
 
 Little States 515 000 5 
 
 Pipe's Neck 550 000 5 
 
 *Two seines not heard from. 
 
 31.218,500 220 
 
 Note C. — In partial acknowledgement of thew kind help I have had 
 from various quarters toward the preparation of material for this paper, it is 
 due that I should mention those to whom I am under obligation for some 
 of the more important information it contains. These are: Joseph Nimmo, 
 Jr., Treasury Department, Washington; James H. Wardle, Census Bureau, 
 Washington; Hon. Perry Belmont, House of Representatives, Washington; 
 Geo. R. Howell, State Library, Albany; Alex. Starbuck. Waltham, Mass,; 
 Benj. A. Cook, New York;' Charles P. Cook, Sag Harbor; L. C. 
 d'Homergue, Broo%n; Wm. Q. Winters, Brooklyn; James E. Bayles-, 
 Port Jefferson; Jesse Carjl, Northport; Jesse Jarvis, Northport; E. M. 
 Jones, Cold Spring; Charles R. Street, Huntington; O. Perry Smith, 
 Patchogue; W. J. Terry, Sayville; Egbert T. Smith, Mastic; Dan'l B. 
 Cook, West-Hampton; James H. Pierson, Southampton; B. D. Sleight, 
 Sag Harbor; John H. Hunt, Sag Harbor; Gilbert H. Cooper, Sag Har- 
 bor; Wm. Lowen, Collector, Sag Harbor; B. C. Cartwright, Shelter 
 Island; N. Hubbard Cleveland, Southold; Rev. Dr. Epher Whi«aker, 
 Southold; W. Z. King, Surveyor of Customs, Greenport; Dan'l. T. Vail, 
 East Marion; John A. Rackett, Orient; Edwin P. Brown, Orient; Iia B. 
 Tuthill, Jr., New Suffolk; Wm. E. Parrotte, Northport 
 
^LITER]1RY+CULTURE> 
 
 — IN- 
 
 SXJIF^IF'OXjI^ ooxjistt^ 
 
 ;0N. "^OHN W- mEID. 
 
 To attempt a formal or extended address at this late hour would be an 
 inexcusable trespass upon your patient forbearance. In listening to 
 the elaborate, scholarly discourses which have occupied the day and 
 evening, you have faintly realized the ordeal to which the fathers were sub- 
 jected fifty-two times each year. Instead of our suggestive seven, their 
 sermons were divided into two parts. When audience and preacher were 
 exhausted, a brief respite was permitted for a frugal dinner; and then, re- 
 freshed and strengthened for their work, the afternoon would be occupied 
 incompleting the masterpiece and enforcing its precepts. 
 
 The gentlemen who have for many hours entertained, instructed and, 
 I trust, not wearied you by their sermons, allow me the clerkly office of 
 saying "amen" to their local offerings— hence my talk must be passing 
 brief, even though it be discursive and obscure. I fully realize that even 
 a hurried glance at the topics consigned to my tendeir mercy, must be, to 
 adopt a Motleyism, a kind of Barmecide's feast in which my hearers have 
 to play the part of Shacabac and believe in the excellence of the lamb 
 stuflfed with pistachio nuts, the flavor of the wines, and the perfume of the 
 roses, upon my prejudiced assertion and without assistance from their own 
 perceptions. 
 
 The people of this county were so engrossed in subduing a wilderness 
 and substituting civilization for barbarism that during the early years of 
 their advent but few memorials of their progress have given joy to the his- 
 toriin. They evidently deemed their acts ' hostages for worldly 6ime and 
 failed to exhibit the egotism of making a written commendation of their 
 personal achievements. Indeed, we find this reticence one of the pecu- 
 liarities of our colonists, and they neither became their own trumpeters 
 nor paid a professional flatterer to make them — on paper — the grandest 
 gentlemen the world e'er saw. Fortunately their children have outgrown 
 this inexcusable modesty, and the would-be great and good of the Nine- 
 
8o LITERARY CULTURE. 
 
 teenth Century will not die and make no sign concerning the Unequalled 
 merits which they are unable to conceal. By careful groping, we occa- 
 sionally find a land-mark in the dusty dells of departed years; and by con- 
 trasting these with the history we are making, we may ascertain whether 
 the precepts of the past have brought guerdons to the practical prosaic, 
 present. 
 
 ■ The sponsors of our county organization were strong men — bold, in- 
 dependent, intelligent. While few could boast a classical education, there 
 were less who were profoundly ignorant. The Bible, Milton and Shake- 
 speare, could be found in many homes of every neighborhood, and they 
 were earnestly studied not pedantically displayed. They had left a world 
 of statesmen, philosophers and poets whose works have, immortalized their 
 authors. Algernon, Sydney, Cromwell, Newton, Bacon, Locke, Milton 
 and Dryden — intellectual kings who would be the pride and glory of any 
 age — were to our progenitors as familiar as household words. Their at- 
 tainments, though limited, were solid and substantial, not flippant and 
 fanciful. Thought preceded action, and wisdom brought its own exceed- 
 ing great reward. They regarded a great book as a ship deep freighted 
 with immortal treasures, breaking the sea of life into fadeless beauty as it 
 sails; carrying to every shore seeds of truth, goodness, piety, love, to flow- 
 er and fruit perennially in the soil of the heart and mind. 
 
 Their methods of education blended literature and religion. Having 
 no public schools, the clergyman of each parish devoted five and a half 
 days in each week- during the winter, for the summer was given to man- 
 ual labor — to instructing the children in " the three R's," ending in a Sun- 
 day sermon whose length was only exceeded by its breadth and brimstone. 
 That was the orthodox era, and earthly . threatenings and contemplated 
 punishments in the world to come made the Day of Doom a continued 
 guest and fireside companion. At that time our county comprised about 
 eighteen hundred souls — the entire province numbered but ten thousand — 
 and less than forty preacher-pedagogues moulded the minds of the young 
 and strengthened the faith of the mature. This method was varied but 
 little during Suffolk's first century; and it seems to have been akin to that 
 adopted by its sister counties. About this time, William Smith, the histo- 
 rian, wrote of the educational condition of our^people: "Our schools are 
 " of the lowest order — ^the instructors want instruction; and through along 
 "and shameful neglect of all the arts and sciences, our common speech is 
 "extremely corrupt; and the evidences of bad taste, both as to thought and 
 "language, are visible in all our proceedings, public and private." Yet 
 the people were striving for something better, anticipating the coming day 
 when generous culture should make men little less than gods.. While they 
 were hampered by iron fortune, they held a kinship with those grand spirits 
 of whom Lowell wrote that the country grew 
 
 "Strong thro' shifts, an' wants, an' pains, 
 Nuss?d by stem men with empires in their brains," 
 
 At the time our county was organized, there was not a newspaper on 
 this continent; now we claim fifteen, and in the United States there are 
 more than six thousand. In the entire world there were not so many as 
 are now published on Long Island alone. Our first newspaper was pub- 
 lished at Sag Harbor in 1791. 
 
 Public Ubraries seemed then as far removed as the stars; now we can 
 boast of one in every school district, with extra ones of thousands of vpl^ 
 
LITERARY CULTURE. 8l 
 
 umes in Greenport, Bridge-Hampton, Patchogue and Huntington. The 
 private collections in the homes of our county are extensive in numbers and 
 of rare value; and L doubt if it would be extravagant to say that our people 
 haVe at least one million dollars invested in books, comprising more than 
 three hundred thousand volumes. 
 
 We have now »42 public schools with 223 trained teachers; our 
 school property is valued at $240,000; and the public money allotted to 
 our schools, this year, was $32,386.95. 
 
 These figures, like Gadgrind's facts, cannot lie; and they tell of ad- 
 vancement in the cultivation of mind which exceeds the wildest dreams of 
 the patriarchs of our county who saw in Harvard the only college which 
 this continent could boast 
 
 This is the culmination of the good work commenced long ago and 
 continued unremittingly. Indeed, we had so far progress^ in 1840, that 
 N. S. Prime, the historian, said there were then but fourteen individuals in 
 Sufiblk County who could not read and write. According to the average 
 of white people in the balance of the United States, we should have had 
 more, than 1,250. And this reminds me of the envy of our sister county 
 which was displayed by one of its magnates, afterwards Governor of the 
 State, in announcing with ja«^yr(«i/, that he "contemplated a missionary 
 expedition into the dark and benighted regions of Suffolk." And the 
 speaker deemed himself a King in his own right. 
 
 The great landmark in the Educational history of our County was the 
 establishment of a Teachers' Association, through which those who con- 
 trolled our common schools might meet for counsel, advice and guidance. 
 Thought had been awakened concerning the great problems entrusted to 
 our educators and the importance of unity in action realized. In 1852, 
 Hon. James H. Tuthill, now our Surrogate, was the President of the 
 County Association. He brought to his high oflBce, ripe scholarship, rare 
 culture, and practical experience in the school room. He appreciated the 
 high calling of those who moulded mind, and strove to make them magnify 
 their offices. He valued the teacher's occupation as one of the most exalted 
 known to man — vivifying and self-sustaining in its nature, to struggle with 
 igrnorance, and discover to the inquiring minds of the masses the clear 
 cerulean blue of heavenly trilth. To him this vocation was the most widely- 
 extended survey of the actual advancement of the human race in general, 
 and the steadfast promotion of that advancement. He respected men arid 
 women fitted for their chosen task as instructors, and bestowed but little 
 sympathy upon the educational shams who made their schools simply 
 stepping stones to other callings or the advertising mediums of advantage- 
 ous marriages. He wished teachers who were wordiy and well-qualified, 
 who loved their profession, and had scholarship equal to the demands of 
 the age. Like Virgil, he loved not those superficial scholars who 
 
 "Lightly skim. 
 And gentlvsip the dimply river's brim." 
 With Horace Mann he believed that the education already given to the 
 people created the necessity of giving them more. What has been done 
 has awakened new and unparalleled energies; and the merital and moral forces 
 which have been roused into activity, are now to be regulated. These 
 forcesjare not mechanical, which expend their activity afid stibside to rest; 
 they are spiritual forces, endued with an inextinguishable principle of life 
 
82 LITERARY CULTURE. 
 
 and prdgression. The coiled sprins; of the machine loses power as it 
 unwinds: but the living soul of man, one? conscious of its power, cannot 
 be quelled: it multiplies its energy, and accelerates its speed, in an upward 
 or downward direction, forever. For our teachers to form a County- 
 Association under the leadership of a President imbued with such ideas, 
 was to ensure the success which soon made them the recognized leaders in 
 public schools throughout the state. Doubtless much also was due to the 
 earnestness and wise co-operation of the School Commissioners of our 
 county. One of them (the Chairman of this Meeting) made himself con- 
 spicuous for his zeal, his wide knowledge of the requirements of the schools 
 under his immediate supervision, and his devotion to the most advanced 
 methods of education. I remember well his sympathy with the teachers, 
 his miagnetisra in the school room, his sunshine which made teachers and 
 pupils alike rejoice whenever he visited their schools. Aiding and strength- 
 ening the County Association, insisting upon a high standard of scholar- 
 ship, bringing the brightest minds in contact with each other in discussing 
 the peiplexing questions of the school-room, he did a work for our schools 
 which wiH keep his memory green forever. Alter a few years of such 
 guidance, we could boast of better schools and better teachers in Suffolk 
 County, than in any other County of the State. Our educational torch- 
 bearers did not hide their light, and scores of them became missionaries in 
 school work in other fields where the educational wants were greater and 
 their golden calls more winning. Cruikshank, Higgins, Merwin, Davis, 
 Funnel, were our avant couriers; and through those we sent abroad, the 
 citizens of Brooklyn and other cities of our state gained practical knowl- 
 edge of our advancemcRt in the best methods of moulding immortal 
 minds. How poor was the gift of Midas, fabled to possess the power, of 
 turning whatever he touched into gold, comparedwith the power of turning 
 gold into knowledge, and wisdom and virtue ! And to-day, Suffolk 
 remains a recognized leading County in educational matters. When any 
 of our sister Counties desire a teacher of marked superiority, attention is 
 given to our County and its school exemplars. We have yielded many of 
 our brightest and best, and still we point with pride to the little army that 
 remains, each fitted to command, all worthy to be termed teachers in fact 
 as well as in name. With Principals Hall, Gordon, Shaw, Hallock and 
 their compeers, Suffolk may well feel proud of her educators. And I must 
 not forget that in Prof Stackpole, who has but so recently surrendered his 
 throne in your village, our County possessed a teacher equal to any who 
 ever held the master's sway in any school of our State; and hundreds of 
 his pupils will rise up to call him blessed. 
 
 If we look at the subjects taught in our common schools; the facilities 
 for illustration; the mechanical conveniences; the improvement in every 
 externa] aid, including admirably lighted, well ventilated and cozily con- 
 structed school-houses, and contrast them with the inconveniences to which 
 our ancestors were subjected, we need no longer wonder at the marvelous 
 advancement of our children compared with the children of a century ago. 
 Especially is this mere common-place to us, when we see that now the 
 teachers' office is not so much to impart knowledge as to show his pupils 
 how to get it; to give strong impulses to their minds and lead them, in 
 conscious self-reliance, to put forth their utmost enera:ies. To thus inspire 
 them, with a love of study and delight in mastering difficulties, till they feel 
 all the incitements of victory and are encouraged to go on fi-om conquest 
 
LITERARY CULTURE. 83 
 
 to conquest Many subjects which were matters of speculation to our pro- 
 genitors have become established truths under the guidance of the discov- 
 ering minds of the nineteenth century; and it has been well said that our 
 children have more correct notions of nature and natural phenomena than 
 had Plato. And this is but the legitimate outcome of our common schools 
 — ^tHe people's colleges — the perfection of which is the grandest tribute to 
 man's wise ambition. They are, indeed, the glory of our nation, and 
 when they cease to be its glory, this nation will cease to be the glory of the 
 world. 
 
 To secure so g'-and a result has cost not only infinite labor but vast 
 treasures. The fethers recognized education as our only political safety; 
 that outside of this ark all was deluge. That the people must spend 
 money to educate their children, or they must pay taxes to build prisons to 
 punish crime. That good government means the acts of \|ise and good 
 men organized for the general good. That honesty and intelligence must 
 go hand in hand. It is said that when President Lincoln was urged to 
 appoint an ignorant ofl5ce-seeker because he was "honest," remarked "I 
 don't see any difference between an honest blank fool and any other blank 
 fool," and he refused to make the appointment. It is sometimes suggested 
 that if our intelligence were measured by our votes, we might not be 
 pleased with the standard which justice would designate. Yet it is no less 
 true, that suffrage should practically exemplify our knowledge and justify 
 our claim to be the most enlightened people under heaven. 
 
 And this reminds me that once many of the worthy followers of the 
 Wesleys, thought to interpret the Bible demanded inspiration and no 
 worldly knowledge. It is said that a local preacher, speaking in the pres- 
 ence of Bishop Simpson, thanked God for his ignorance. To which the 
 Bishop remarked, ' 'you have a great deal to thank God for. " Now in 
 every hamlet, we find a church spire pointing to heaven; and in each temple 
 of the Father there is a clergyman whose pure and holy life is adorned by 
 the learning of the schools and the culture which exemplifies the highest 
 evidences of education. 
 
 Turning from our schools to their graduates and to the people of our 
 County, we "find fitting illustrations of that progress which marks the English 
 speaking race in its highest attainments. In Art, our country will not 
 forget Suffolk's sons, William S. Mount and Shepard A. Mount — men of 
 genius whose works made them known throughout the civilized world. 
 In History, Wood, Prime and Thompson form a trio who will not be 
 forgotten. In Poetry, Terry, Gardiner and Tooker, hold no mean place; 
 and in Journalism, the editors of the couniy are the peers of their brethren 
 throughout the State. In the Law, Buffett, Strong, Wickham, Sanford, 
 stand lijte stars in the night — the lesson of their lives being their best 
 monuments. In forensic oratory. Judge Rose is remembered with pride 
 while recalling the Hoffmans, Emmetts, Grahams, VauBui-en, Jordan, and 
 equal celebrities, who charmed jurors and delighted audiences in other 
 parts of the State — our Orator not suffering by the comparison. In our 
 churches, the eminent divines are legion. 
 
 With this passing glance at the select few, let us remember the thous- 
 ands who are the sons and daughters of Suffolk. It will be conceded that 
 we are a urispemus people, and Macauley has well said that the. progress 
 of elegant lit-;rature and the drie arts is proportionate to that of the public 
 prosperity'; We cannot be intelligent, happy or useful/ if we lack the 
 
54 LITERARY CULTURE. 
 
 culture and. discipline of education. It is this that unlocks the prison-house 
 of the mind and releases the captive. Carlyle calls literature " the thought 
 of thinking souls". It is that part of thought that is wrought out in the 
 name of the beautiful. A poem like that of Homer, or an essay upon 
 Milton, or Dante, or Caesar from a Macauley, a Taine, or a Froude, is 
 created in the name of beauty, and is a fragment in literature, just as a 
 Corinthian capital is a fragment of art. When truth, in its outward flow, 
 joins beauty, the two rivers make a new flood called ' ' letters". It is an 
 Amazon of broad bosom resembling the sea. The advantage in literature, 
 as in life, is of keeping the best society, reading the best books, and wisely 
 admiring the best thin|^. 
 
 In the words of De Quincey, There is first the literature of knowledge; 
 and secondly the literature of power. The function of the first is to teach, 
 of the second, to move ; the first is a rudder, the second an oar or sail. 
 The first speaks to the mere discursive understanding; the second speaks 
 ultimately, it may happen, to the higher understanding or reason, but 
 always through affections of pleasure and sympathy. If we consider how 
 much literature enlarges the mind, and how much it multiplies, adjusts, 
 rectifies and arranges the ideas, it may well be reckoned equivalent to an 
 additional sense; it affords pleasure which wealth cannot procure, and 
 which poverty cannot entirely take away. It is indeed the garden of wis- 
 dom ; and if we wish to gather its choicest flowers, we must enter its divine 
 precincts through the gate of learning. Nevertheless it is so common a 
 luxury that the age has grown fastidious. The moralist is expected to 
 allure men to virtue by his beautiful rhetoric; philosophy must be illus- 
 trated by charming metaphors of captivating fiction; and history, casting 
 aside the odious garb of formal narrative, is required to assume a scenic 
 costume, and teem with the connected interest of a facinating tale, Edward 
 Everett pronounced it the voice of the age and the state. The character, 
 energy and resources of the country are reflected and imaged forth in the 
 conception of its great minds; they are organs of the time; they speak their 
 own though s'; but under an impulse like the prophetic enthusiasm of old, 
 they must feel and utter the sentiments which society inspires. There is no 
 reason why the brown hand of labor should not hold Bryant or Longfel- 
 low as well as the plow. Ornamental reading shelters Mid even 
 strengthens the growth of what is merely usefiil. A cornfield never returns 
 a poorer crop because a few wild-flowers bloom in the hedge-row. The 
 r^nement ofthe poor is the triumph of Christian civilization. In our 
 County, we have few who are immensely rich in land or gold. But we 
 have not a dozen families so poor that they have no books, nor so ignorant 
 that they cannot profit by them. And the character of the books read by 
 our people shows their literary culture in a practical manner. As we deter- 
 mine a man's condition by the company he keeps, so we judge the culture 
 of our people by the authors they study. In almost every house, a selection 
 of the classics may be found. Works in science, literature and art; 
 philosophy, history, poetry; the leading writers of Europe; and those of 
 our real sovereigns, Bancroft, Prescott, Motley, Emerson, Channing, 
 Franklin, Adams, Hamilton, Jefferson; Cooper, Irving, Hawthorne, 
 Mitchell, Aldrich, Mowells, James, Curtis; Doane, Simpson, Durbin, 
 Bascoffi, King, Chapin; Longfellow, firyatit, Whittier, Lowell, Holmes, 
 Saxe — ^these and the offerings of scores of others, are as familiar to our 
 people as the surging^ of the mighty ocean that kisses our shores. And 
 
while the cheapness of books have added largely to their ownership, to the 
 credit of our people's morals, to their refined taste and literary culture, we 
 find but few copies of questionable books in any part of our County. 
 French Novels and Poetry of the Byron and Swineburne schools are as 
 effectually banished as if they were tire-brands arrows and death to all we 
 hold dear. Dime-novels and demorahzing journals find few patrons in our 
 County, and the best Reviews, the choicest Magazines, the most scholarly 
 edited journals, are as plentiful as leaves in Valambrosa. Our people 
 aim^to enrich themselves with the spoils of all pure literature, knowing that 
 he who would make a favorite of a bad book, simply because it contams a 
 few beautiful passages, might as well caress the hand of an assassin because 
 of the jewelry which sparkles on his fingers. Our people generally can 
 earnestly respond to the apostrophe of Doctor Channmg: No matter how 
 poor, I am; no matter though the prosperous of my own time wiH not 
 enter my obscure dwelling; if the sacred writers will entei and take up 
 their abode under my roof; if Milton will cross my threshold to sing to me 
 of Paradise, and Shakespeare to open to nie the worlds of imagination and 
 the workings of the human heart, and Franklin to enrich me with his 
 practical wisdom, I shall not pine for want of intellectual companionship, 
 and I may" become a cultivated man though excluded from what is called 
 the best society in the place where I live. 
 
 Having organized our County politically and developed in a marvel- 
 ous degrree its material resources, we should make longer strides toward 
 literary culture and eminence. We must not ignore the progress already 
 made, nor fail to profit by it. The most celebrated historical models of 
 antiquity have been surpassed; Gibbon, Grote and Macauley, are decidedly 
 superior in general merit to Herodotus, Thucydides, and Tacitus; and, 
 besides, our historians have opened. up a wider field of study, and have 
 found new methods of ascertaining the truth. Historical criticism has 
 taught us how to separate the mystical from the historical in ancient story, 
 and linguistic ethnology and archaeological and .philological research have 
 opened up vast realms of knowledge. We have learned to distinguish be- 
 tween the history of our race and that of a few individuals who happened to 
 hold officfe, and our historical composition is changing from a personal to 
 a philosophical character. Let us with the new light beaming upon us add 
 largely to that culture which has given us so prominent a place in the history 
 of counties throughout the State. And to make my leaden discourse not 
 worthless by reason of the gold wedded to it, I cannot better conclude my 
 rambling remarks than by giving you a few pearls from the matchless 
 casket of Emerson. Culture is the suggestion Irom certain best thoughts, 
 that a man has a range of affinities, through which he can modulate the 
 violence of any master-^tone that have a droning preponderance in his 
 scale, and succor him against himself Culture redresses his balance, puts 
 him among his equals and superiors, revives the delicious sense of sympa- 
 thy, and warns him of the dangers of solitude and repulsion. Bo®ks, as 
 containing the finest records of human wit, must always enter into our 
 notions of culture. 'I'he best heads that ever existed, Pericles, Plato, 
 Julius Caesar, Shakespeare, Goethe, Milton, were well-read, universally 
 educated men, and quite too wise to undervalue letters. Their opinion 
 has weight, because they had means of knowing the opposite opinion. We 
 look that a great man should be a good reader, or, in proportion to the 
 spontaneous power should be the assimilating power. Good criticism is 
 
8(5 f-JTPRARy etlLTURB, 
 
 very rare and always precious. I am always happy to meet persons who 
 perceive the transcendent superiority of Shakespeare over all other writers. 
 I like people who like Plato. Because this love does not consist with self- 
 conceit. 
 
 Let me say here, that culture cannot begin too early. In talking with 
 scholars, I observe that they lost on ruder companions those years ot boy- 
 hood which alone could give imaginative literature a religious and infinite 
 quality in their esteem. I find, too, that the chance for appreciation is 
 much iiicreased by being the son of an appreciator, and that these boys 
 wljio now grow up are caught not only years too late, but two or three birthK 
 too late, to make the, best scholars of. And I think it a presumable mo- 
 tive to a scholar, that, as, in an old community, a well-born proprietor is 
 usually found, after the first heats of youth, to be a careful husband, and to 
 feel a habitual desire that the estate shall suffer no harm by his administra- 
 tion, but shall be delivered down to the next heir in as good condition as 
 he received it; — so, a considerate man will reckon himself a subject of that 
 secular melioration by which mankind is mollified, cured, and refmed, 
 and will shun every expenditure of his forces on pleasure or gain, which 
 will jeopardize this social and secular accumulation. 
 
 The fossil strata show us that Nature began with rudimental forms, and 
 rose to the more complex, as fast as the earth was fit for t eir dwelling 
 place; and that the lower perish, as the higher appear. Very few of our 
 race can be said to be yet finished men. We still carry sticking to us, 
 some remains of the preceding inferior quadruped organization. We call 
 these millions men; but they are not yet meii. Half engaged in the soil, 
 pawing to get free, man needs all the music that can be brought to disen- 
 gage tiim. If Love, red Love, with tears and joy; if Want with his scourge; 
 if War with his cannonade; if Christianity with its charity; if Trade with its 
 money; if Art with its portfolios; if Science with her telegraphs through the 
 deeps of space and time; can set his dull nerves throbbing, and by loud 
 taps on the tough chrysalis, can break its walls, and let the new creature 
 emerge erect and free, — make way, and sing paean ! The age of the quad- 
 ruped is to get out, — the age of the brain and the heart is to come in. 
 
 The time will come when the evil forms we have known can no more 
 be organized. Man's culture can spare nothing, wants all the material. 
 He is to convert all impediments into instruments, all enemies into power. 
 The formidable mischief will only make the more useful slave. And if 
 one shall read the future of the race hinted in the organic effort of Nature 
 to mount and meliorate, and the corresponding impulse to the Better, in 
 the human being, we shall dare afl5rm that there is nothing he will not 
 overcome and convert, until at last culture shall absorb the chaos and 
 gehenna. He will convert the Furies into Muses, and the hells into 
 benefit. 
 
 [It is but proper to state that Ex-Judge Reid's address was made ex- 
 tempore, after ten o'clock at night, and with great rapidity. Having 
 taken but few notes, the foregoing may be termed the intended rather than 
 the real address — although it embodies most of the topics discussed by the 
 speaker. — Ed. J 
 
lYACUATION BY THE BRITISH. 
 
 ;0N. fjpHARLES mi. '^THEET. 
 
 BY a remarkable coincidence the two hundreth year since the fonnation 
 of Suffolk County happens to be the one hundreth year since the 
 triumph of the American Colonies over British oppression and the 
 departure of the British troops from Suffolk County. I am assigned to 
 speak to you concerning the memorable events which cluster around this, 
 as it were, " half way house" in the history of our country; events which 
 always stand out in bold relief and the memory of which always stir the 
 hearts of all patriotic citizens with the deepest emotion. The few minutes 
 only given me in which to deal with this topic will only enable me to pre- 
 sent a "bird's eye" view of the subject. 
 
 You are all familiar with the story of the Old Revolution and how one 
 hundred years ago, out of the terrible sufferings, the gloomy apprehensions 
 and the desolation of seven years of war, the patriots suddenly emerged 
 Victorious: How Suffolk County, desecrated with the tramp of invading 
 armies and environed with hostile fleets, was in 17S3, one hundred years 
 ago, liberated, and freedom and indepejldence established. 
 
 Some of you who are about my age will remember how in our youth 
 the gray haired men of the Revolution were seen on the platforms at all 
 Fourth of July Celebrations, and how we then listened to the story of the 
 war as it fell from the lips of our grandfathers and grandmothers. Now 
 they have gone to their graves and our children only read in books a his- 
 tory of these events. The old time honored custom of celebrating Inde- 
 pendence Day by popular assemblages of the people, by music and oratory 
 has largely fallen into disuse, but we may well, at least in this centennary 
 of the triumph of our forefathers, honor them and their cause with a few 
 moments of our thought. And what was the oppression from whiph the 
 people of Suffolk County were then Uberated.? and in what way did the 
 relief come? 
 
 My friends, go back with me in imagination, just a moment, to the 
 period of the outbreak of the Revolution. Suffolk -County then occupied 
 a strong and prominent position in the Colony of New York. In numbers, 
 wealth, resources, the physical and intellectual power of its people, and in 
 political influence, .it stood in the front rank. For more than a hundred 
 years these people, and their ancestors through many generations, had been 
 building for themselves homes in this land and had incessantly struggled 
 
38 kVACtJATlOy fiv thS fiRltlSit. 
 
 for liberty and equal rights against arbitrary power. Look at the situatioii. 
 Suffolk County had its ablest men as delegates in the Continental Congress 
 at Philadelphia — the declaration of Independence, announcing the separa- 
 tion of the Colonies from Great Britain and the fundamental principles of 
 liberty, had been proclaimed by that Congress. All but about five hundred 
 of the three thousand male inhabitants capable of bearing arms in this 
 County were devoted to the Patriot cause. All 6ver the land these men 
 were organizing in military companies. In Southold, Southampton, East- 
 Hampton, Brookhaven, Smithtown and Huntington, the old towns ot that 
 period, the militia were drilling and preparing for the struggle. Washing- 
 ton, anxious to save Long Island from subjugation, had thrown such force 
 as he could spare across the East River, under General Green, occupying 
 fortifications on Brooklyn Heights. 
 
 It was midsunim'er. The fields of golden graiii- waved in the sea 
 breezes which fanned the Island. At all the farm-ho,uses the impending 
 invasion occupied the thoughts of all, and the hearts of all men and women 
 throbbed with apprehension of the approach of startling events, when sud- 
 denly there came horsemen riding swift as the wind into all the villages*who 
 announced in breathless tones that Lord Howe had arrived in New Yca:k 
 harbor with an immense fleet of war ships and transports and thirty thousand 
 soldiers threatening a landing on Long Island, and threatening to sweep it 
 with fire and sword. 
 
 The militia of Suflfolk County, though weak in , numbers, de" 
 termined. to make a bold stand. The work of drilling and organizing for 
 resist^ce was pushed with renewed vigor. Col. Josiah Smith,, then , at 
 Southampton, was, on the loth of August summoned by the Continental 
 Cougress to take command of the Suffolk County militia and hasten to 
 Brooklyn in aid of General Green. In about four days he had gathered a 
 men of about four hundred men — the towns in the County each Gontrib- 
 utmg about their proportion of this force. General Woodhull, of lamented 
 memory^ a son of Suffolk County, was also ordered to the front with the 
 force at his command. In all the homes of the Patriots, intense excitetnent 
 and hopeful courage prevailed. The question was which of the sons 
 should go to the war; and who can describe the emotion written in the 
 faces, and the tender words of parting which fell from the lips of the 
 mothers of that day as their sons hastily gathered their arms and Mt their 
 homes, many to be absent in the Continental Armies for long years, and 
 many never to return. 
 
 But bitter humiliation and defeat, for a time, awaited the patriot cause. 
 The story of their subjugation is short. The Battle of Long Island was 
 fought at Brooklyn, August 27th, 1 776, and lost.. Long Island lay prostrate 
 at the;, feet of a conquering army. 
 
 The military plans of General Washington, for the defense of New 
 York and Long Island have met with adverse criticism, as do all plans that 
 fail, and the niovements of the two armies at the battle of Long Island, 
 in which the British had about 15,000 soldiers partially engaged and the 
 patriots about an equal number, are involved in considerable obsciirityj but 
 there is evidence enough to show that the Suflfolk County Militia were in 
 the thickest of the fight for two days— that they stood in the trenches two 
 .nights in the face of the enemy-^that they Suffered excessive loss Gwing-to 
 their isolated position and want of support, and that they bravely main- 
 
tained their position until withdrawn from the field by order of General 
 Putnam in the retreat to Westchester County. 
 
 The news of the disaster flew fast through all the villages and hamlets, 
 carrying terror and dismay to a people cut off from communication with 
 the riebel.-army and too weak to resist the overwhelming force of the in- 
 vaders; Euid to add to the alarm British ships were landing troops near 
 Wading River who were pillaging the country! Five days from this, British 
 infantry and cavalry entered Huntington village, tore out the seats in the 
 Presbylertan Church and converted it into a stable ftir their horses. Proc- 
 lamations went forth from General Erskine commanding obedience and 
 submission by Suffolk County and that the people' take the oath of alle- 
 giance to the King. 
 
 At first these demands were met with stern refusal. The peoplb had 
 not yet tasted fully of the bitter cup of humiliation in store for them. 
 General Tryon with an army of 1000 men swept Long Islaiid from end to 
 end of its horses, cattle, grain and stores for food for . the British Arhiy. 
 General CEnton was at Southampton with 2, 500 soldiers and dragoons 
 and tweif^-five British war vessels lay in Sag Harbor. Every whei-e violence 
 
 :«nd pillage accompanied the march of the British'seidiery. With a long 
 extent of vulnerable sea coast, its best comnianders and soldiers in the 
 Continental armies, destitute of necessary cannon, ammunition and the ap- 
 pliances of war, and their communications cut off from Wiish-ngtoft's 
 army, the people of Suffolk County were compd-led to submit. At the 
 point of the bayonet or under threats of confeeation or banishment of 
 
 ..'themselves and families, hundreds signed the 01th of allegiance to the 
 King. They took the oath as an outward form but inwardly revolted 
 iatgainst it. 'They yielded to the King a lip service extorted by force too 
 ■great to be overcome, but mentally abhorred the act, and all their sympathies 
 were with the patriots who were fighting with Washington. There were 
 
 ■ those however who refused to take the oath of allegiance to the King, and 
 ■jve cannot help admiring that band of patriots whose spirit could not be 
 broken, and who at the approach of winter abandoned their homes and 
 fiirms, gathered wife and children, and fled to withrn»the lines of the Con- 
 tinental army. They were worthy descendants of the Pilgrim Fathers 
 whose indomitable souls and iron nerves never knew^defeat. 
 
 We read in history the events of the long years of war, oppression, 
 destitution and vassalage which followed. Time does not permit me here 
 to describe them. Let us change the scene seven '^ears later on. Imagine 
 yourselves on the threshold of 1783, the year of whieh this is the centen- 
 nial. It is winter. British soldiers swarm in all the 'large villages of 
 Suffolk County. The invader is the master — theiiative of the soil is the 
 servant, driven to menial service as hewers of wood and drawers of water 
 for an arrogant soldiery. Forts and barrfcades bristling with guns frown 
 upon the disarmed and impoverished people. Troops of dragoons with 
 gaily caparisoned horses prance along all the great highways. Trains of 
 military wagons are conveying the scanty food of the people to the camp 
 of the enemy. The churches and places for wor^ip of Almighty God are 
 turned into stables or barracks for a ribald, blasphemous soldiery, and 
 their ministers driven into exile or in prison under the brutal Provost 
 Marshal Cunningham. From Fort Golgotha in Huntington,- there comes 
 the sound of revelry and music, as gay dragoons move in the dance over a 
 floor made of the tombstones of the, torn up dead fi-om the grave- 
 
go JTACUATION BY THE BRITISH, 
 
 yard on •which the fort is built ,. 
 
 But the avenging angel had not been idle. Justice, though 
 to mortal conception sometimes tardy, moves with unfaltering tread 
 and reaches the goal at the appointed hour. There comes swift 
 riding couriers now, from the camp of the victorious army of the patriots. 
 With trumpet sounding over all the hills and valleys, the glad words are 
 heard "Peace has come ! The armies of Washington are triumphant ! — 
 Glory to God in the highest !" If we could call from the tomb these pa- 
 triots of old and they could stand in our midst to-night, with what 
 unspeakable, joy they would join in this celebration. If their souls hover 
 over us in the shadowy unseen world, may they not look with gratitude 
 and loving approbation upon their children who here commemorate the 
 .hundreth year of their glorious victory. 
 
 Since these events we have had a war for the preservation of the Union 
 which called forth greater armies and was waged on a vaster, field; and 
 though the battles of the old Revolution may be dwarfed in comparison 
 with the gigantic military operations on land and sea which larger numbers 
 and advanced miliiary science has made possible, yet the wlue of the 
 principles which the Revolutionary Fathers' contended for, remains uhdim- 
 inished, and; the justice of their cause, the purity of their purposes, their 
 unfaltering courage and patriotism, continue,as they ever have, to challenge 
 the admiration of mankind. 
 
HSPPENDIX.i- 
 
 APPENDIX A. 
 
 Washington, D. C, Oct. ii, 1883. 
 Hon. Hesry A. Reeves, Greenport, L. I. , N. Y. : My Dear Sir. — 
 Your letter of the 8th inst, requesting statistical information in regard to 
 the commerce, navigation and fisheries of Long Island, is received. I must 
 sympathize with you, and am very sorry that I cannot felicitate you upon 
 the task assigned to you, viz: that of preparing a paper upon the Com- 
 merce, Navigation and Fisheries of Suffolk County, to be read on the oc- 
 casion of the County's bi-centennial celebration. Long Island probably con - 
 sumes fully her share, if not more than her share, in proportion to popula- 
 tion, of foreign goods imported; but they are all imported 
 at New York, and appear as the imports at that city 
 with ic^orts for consumption in all parts of the United States; for 
 with respect to foreign commerce, New York represents the whole 
 country. It would be utterly impossible to find out the value of foreign 
 gpods consumed in Suffolk County, unless you were to inquire of every 
 village merchant as to the amount of foreign goods whidi he had bought 
 and, sold during the year, and, besides that, propound the same question 
 to every lady in the county who has gone down to New York in the morn- 
 ing and done her shopping during the day. That, you see, would involve 
 something in the nature of a census work quite unique as a governmental 
 operation. Besides, it would be entirely too inquisitorial, I fear, for the 
 average Long Islander. 
 
 In the second place, there is probably a very small part of the products 
 of Suffolk County exported to foreign Countries, but she performs indirect- 
 lya very important service in feeding the population of.New York City which 
 is so extensively engaged in this great foreign commerce of the country, as 
 well as in its much more important domestic commerce and industries. 
 You and I know that Long Island is the garden spot ofthis Country, if not 
 of the world, and we also know very well that Suffolk County is the most 
 beautiful and best part of Long Island. We also know the important ser- 
 vice v»4uch Long Island renders in sustaining the vital forces of New York 
 City,itiie commercial centre ofthis country, from the time of the first ap- 
 pearance of water cresses and. early spring greens, until the last harvest home 
 of the Autumn crops. 
 
 Next, I will touch upon na^ggdeo. It So happens that under our 
 laMl«rsb0tlvth«Bcn^Qm'shor«.a94 )i>f 91'oathfirn shone of Lqng Island *X9 
 
94 APPENDIX. 
 
 embraced in the customs district of New York City. The onlj district 
 which at all icpresents Suffolk County is the customs district of Sag Har- 
 bor, embracing the waters between Oyster Pond Point and Montauk Point. 
 I will have the tonnage of that district rnade up for the last five years and 
 also the amount of tonnage belonging to that district for the decennial 
 years back as far as 1830. The only customs officer on the north side of 
 Long Island is located at Port Jefferson. He is a Surveyor and reports to 
 the Collector of Customs at New York. I wJl send you a table extending 
 as far back as possible, of vessels built at Port Jefferson and the tonnage 
 owned th^re; also the same as to Patchogue. Some time ago I tried 
 to formulate some commercial statements in regard to Long Island and re- 
 gretted very much that there was not a Chief of Bureau of Statistics of Suf- 
 folk County, clothed with ample powers to collect information. 
 
 The most valuable commercial expression which you could get would 
 I think, be a statement of tonnage and of passengers carried by the Long 
 Island Railroad to and from Suffolk County; but there again you would 
 meet a difficulty, for the Long Island Railroad Company does not separate 
 its traffic by counties. I think; however, that they may be able to give you 
 something which would show the growth and present magnitude of the 
 traffic east of Farmingdale. I would advise you to apply to the secretary 
 of the Company for such data. The railroad is now the principal highway 
 of the commerce of Suffolk County and railroad cars are the vessels in 
 which she carries on trade with the outside world. As we know, there arte 
 many sloops and schooners trading'between New York and points along 
 the entire 'shores of the County, and a few steamer lines, but their opera- 
 tions, I fancy, embrace only a comparatively small part. of the commerce of 
 the County — what part it is impossible to telL The collection of such in- 
 formation in full as to Suffolk County, wouldnot only be a serious incon- 
 venience., but I fear be an insufferable perplexity to the people of this 
 county. As neither the Nation'al Government, nor the State, nor the 
 County itself, raises any revenue from internal commerce, ■ there is no suf- 
 ficient reason Why the people of the County should be required to report all 
 their commercial transactions. 
 
 In regard to the Fisheries of Long Island, the difficulties in procuring 
 exact data are even greater than those with respect to commerce and navi- 
 gation. Many years ago Long Island was, to some extent, engaged in the 
 whale fisheries. I am having prepared for you a statement upon this sub- 
 ject which you will find enclosed herewith. During the last century, and 
 first part of this century, those monsters of the deep were so accommodating 
 as to present themselves as living sacrifices to the temporal interests of' tire 
 people residing at the east end of Suffolk. All those people had to do was 
 to go out from the shore in whale boats and capture the welcome visitors. 
 But that has long iince ceased, and the vessels engaged in whale fisheries 
 have also disappeared. 
 
 I also enclose herewith a statement showing the value ofthe products of 
 American Fisheries of all kinds brought into the United States at the Customs 
 District of Sag Harbor. This embraces only small fisheries, but Long 
 Island has to-day fishing interests exceeding in value those hereinbefore 
 mentioned. I refer to the fisheries of the Great South Bay, and all along 
 the eastern .and northern shores. But the value ol these fisheries cannot be 
 estimated upvW any trade standard such as obtains in Fulton Market. The 
 chief value of i*iieie fithwies is in the line of sport anid of recreation fi-om 
 
APPENDIX. 5S^ 
 
 business cares in the great city. If you should undertake to ascertain the 
 value of these fisheries you would have upon your hands a most perplexing 
 work. You would have to hunt up every man who has enjoyed the exhil- 
 arating sport of trolling for blue fish. But then not one of them would be 
 able to tell you what he estimated to be the value of his day's catch; for in 
 catching fish, he also caught hea'.th and recre.ition and joy. Besides fish 
 so caught are not usually sold. 
 
 I remember a notable day's fishing on the Great South Bay many years 
 ago which has an ever increasing value in its pleasant recollections. 
 
 Then again you, have all around Long Island, trout ponds and trout 
 streams, almost all of which are now pr.vate preserves. Who can estimata , 
 the money value of these fisheries .? For example: Suppose you should 
 apply to my friend, the Hon. Henry J. Scudder, of Northport, for the 
 / annual value of the catch on his trout pond, which is not only a source of 
 pleasure to himself and his family, but adds a charm to fce landscape 
 which takes in his beautiful home. To estimate the value of the fish taken 
 on that pond during a season upon the basis of value per pound in Fulton 
 Market, would, I think, be very disgusting to Mr. Scudder. 
 
 Then, again, you have your oystering interest, for the enterprising 
 citizens of Suffolk County have gone out upon the bays and harbors in 
 front of their properties along the water line, and through a recognized 
 principle of squatter sovereignty have acquired exceedingly valuable ri- 
 parian rights. Ichthyologically the oyster is not a fish; but, commercially, 
 oystering and the fisheries are commonly embraced in the same category. 
 It woul(l be about as difficult, I think, for you to ascertain the value of 
 oysters, clams and escallops, taken annually in the waters of Suffolk 
 County, as it would be lor you to ascertain the value of the imported goods 
 consumed by the people of that county. 
 
 ■ I enclose a statement in regard to the population of Suffolk County 
 according to the censuses, running back as far as possible, also acreage in 
 farms, value of lands in farms, and value of manufactures; Some time ago 
 I wrote an article for the North American Review, a copy of whicn I send to 
 you. In this, you will find some allusion to Long Island which may 
 interest you. 
 
 If you should fail to meet the expectations of your audience you will 
 certainly be entitled to plead in defence the fact that you were asked to do 
 the impossible thing, and you may, if you choose, summon me as witness 
 in yotir defense. 
 
 Regretting my inability to serve you better, — I am, Sir, very respect- 
 fully yours, JOSEPH NIMMO, Jr., 
 
 Chief of Bureau, 
 
^ 
 
 AlPiPfeNDiX. 
 
 Statement of the tonnage belonging to and built in the customs district of 
 Sag Harbor, New York, during the years named. 
 
 YEARS. 
 
 TONNAGE BELONGING TO THE DISTRICT. 
 
 TONNAGE 
 
 
 Sail. 
 
 Steam. 
 
 Total. 
 
 BUILT. 
 
 1830 
 1840 
 1850 
 i860 
 1870 
 1880 
 1882 
 
 Tons 
 * 6,390 
 20,406 
 14,111 
 18,498 
 7,960 
 
 14,939 
 14,027 
 
 Tons. 
 
 121 
 
 5,223 
 208 
 
 1,955- 
 2,547 
 
 Tons. 
 
 6,390 
 20,406 
 14,232 
 23,721 
 
 8,168 
 16,894 
 16,574 
 
 Tons. 
 Not Stated 
 207 
 532 
 4.19 
 472 
 755 
 704 
 
 Treasury Department, Bureau of Statistics, Oct. 11, 1883. 
 
 Joseph Nimmo, Jr., 
 
 Chief of Bureau. 
 *0f this tonnage, 3,072 tons was employed in the whale fishery, and 859 
 tons in other fisheries. 
 
 Statement showing the amount of tonnage belonging to the customs dis- 
 trict of , Sag Harbor, N. Y., which was engaged in the Whale and 
 Cod Fisheries during the years named. 
 
 YEARS. 
 
 WHALE FISHERIES. 
 
 COD FISHERIES. 
 
 
 Tons. 
 
 Tons. 
 
 1830 
 
 3,072 
 
 859 
 
 1840 
 
 12,522 
 
 410 
 
 1850 
 
 2,827 
 
 392 
 
 i860 
 
 262 
 
 178 
 
 1870 
 
 476 
 
 1524 
 
 1880 
 
 
 5992 
 
 1882 
 
 
 6514 
 
 Treasury Department, Bureau of Statistics, Oct. 12, 1883. 
 
 Joseph Nimmo, Jr., 
 
 Chief of Bureau. 
 
 The words "Cod Fishsries" as used above, for ths years 1870, 1880, 
 and 1882, doubtless includes all fisheries other than whale. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 97 
 
 Population, value of Farms and of Manufactures of the County of 
 
 Suffolk, Long Island, N. Y. 
 
 (From the United States Census. ) 
 
 YEARS. 
 
 population. 
 
 VALUE OF FARMS. 
 
 VALUE OF MANUP'S. 
 
 1790 
 
 16,440 
 
 no data 
 
 no data 
 
 1800 
 
 19.735 
 
 C ( t t 
 
 tt ft 
 
 1810 
 
 21,113 
 
 <c ti 
 
 tt tt 
 
 1820 
 
 23.930 
 
 tt (I 
 
 tt tt 
 
 1830 
 
 26,780 
 
 ti tt 
 
 tt tt 
 
 1840 
 
 32,469 
 
 it tt 
 
 „ « 
 
 1850 
 
 36,922 
 
 7,195,800 
 
 182,140 
 
 i860 
 
 43.275 
 
 12,641,940 
 
 r, 114,111 
 
 1870 
 
 46,924 
 
 16,324,870 
 
 1,940,184 
 
 1880 
 
 53,888 
 
 17,079,652 
 
 2,176,613 
 
 Statement showing the Total Value of the Products of American Fisheries 
 brought into the United States, at the Customs District of Sag Harbor, 
 Ni Y., from'- the Fiscal Year 1872 to the Fiscal Year 1883 inclusive, 
 as reported by the Collector of that District. 
 
 Years. Dollars. 
 
 1872 337.240 
 
 1873 234,870 
 
 1874 456,300 
 
 1875 $90,045 
 
 1876 622,109 
 
 1877 678,400 
 
 1878 577,250 
 ■ 1879 712,274 
 
 1880 678,450 
 
 1881 726,890 
 1,450,850 
 
 1883 
 
 758.250 
 
 Total 7,822,928 
 
 Treasury Department, Bureau of Statistics; Oct. 13, 1883. 
 
 Joseph Nimmo, Jr., 
 
 Chief of Bureau, 
 
^ APPENDIX,— JJENHADEN EISHERY, 
 
 APPENDIX B. 
 
 MENHADEN FISHERY. 
 
 It_ has been deemed useful to give in an appendi* some data TfeSf)ecting 
 this ^eiy yhich could nb't fee fefnbodied lin the jkpgr itself -withoflt unduly 
 extending its length; and i have adcfordin^ly sdi^t *to select Otit of the 
 mass of hiaterial furnished' me, such facts :as se^ 'to possess the rfiost value 
 or interest. 
 
 The menhaden, a branch of the herring family, are a migratory surface 
 fish, moviiig northward in early spring and southward in late fall, and col- 
 lecting in immense bodies called by the fishermen "schools". Their food 
 is .an., insect too minute to he seen by the naked eye. Thev arg found on 
 the.'Atlantlc seabbard'from the BritiibPrffviiltes to"the'Gdfr''bf 'MeBco, btit 
 thielr'faVorite summer renting places seem to' be Within the 'b^lt alo% shore 
 seaward 50 or 75 miles from the Capes of Virginia, to Ca^e 'Co&. More 
 than two-thirds of the annual catch in recfeht y^ats is taken 'between Cape 
 May and Narragansett Blay. Neither their spawtji% grounds nor their 
 . time of spawning ate fuHy determined. Great diSfer6nces of opinion pre- 
 vail on these and dffier points touching the habits afid. movements of these 
 fish. No sufficient study has yet been made by 'iifeituralists to warrant 
 definite conclusions, and fishermen who within tfieir range of experience 
 have been careful (J&SferVerS during many years, ccSlfess that they cannot 
 decide on some el^iit^rrtaty questions. This lack 6f certainty as to the 
 movements of mefiSadeh'may feirly be held to justify the claim that there 
 should be no legislation aWecting the business of failing and rendering them 
 except in some few'particulars of regulation which-may be manifestly safe 
 and proper, or maj be acquiesced in by those eifgaged in the business. 
 Proceeding from some mistaken ideas respecting atj ■ alleged effect of the 
 catch of menhaden upon ihe supply of certain food ■'fishes in the market, 
 there have been various efforts to regulate or restrict by State or Federal 
 legislation the takihg Of menhaden, biiit so far they have either proved 
 abortive altogether, or, where enacted into laws, no appreciable ibengfit has 
 resulted from their.passage. The business needs little if any protection from 
 law, and no other industry needs protection from it by law. That in 
 nature arid effect it is of a character to deserve the most liberal encourage- 
 ment and support rather than repression, must be obvious from the con- 
 sideration that it takes out of the sea a material otherwise waste and 
 worthless and from it makes articles of prime importance to the uses of 
 mankind, amounting in yearly values to millions of dollars, and in doing 
 so it affords an honest livelihood to several thousands of worthy citizens. 
 To illustrate the progress it has made within the past decade I ' collate in 
 parallel columns the statistics as certified by the United States Menhaden 
 
APPENDIX. -^MENHADEN FISHERY. 00 
 
 Q}l,^d.. Guano Association for the years 1874 (the first reported after its 
 organization) and 1 881: ' ' ' ■ > 
 
 1874. 1881 
 
 ]?actories - . . 64 Factories - ' 97 
 
 lilen at Factories - - 871 Men at Factories 2,805 
 
 Fishermeh - - - 1,567 Fishermen 2,406 
 
 Sailing vessels - 283 Sailing vessels 286 
 
 Steamers - - 25 Steamers (19 not in use) 92 
 
 Oil (gallons) 2,372,837 Oil (gallons). 1,266,549 
 
 Scrap (tons) - - 50,976 Scrap* (tons) 33,619 
 
 Fish Caught - 492,878,000 Fish caught* 454,192,000 
 
 Capital invested $2,500,000 Capital invested $4,750,000 
 
 *Scrapin 1881 was all dried; in 1874 all crude or wet; when wet it 
 weighs two-thirds more than when dry. 
 
 *No fish were taken on the coast of Maire in 1&81; alh repprted were 
 caught between Cape Cod and the Capes of Vly-r.^. .. and were of unusu- 
 ally poor quality. 
 
 The. above Association was organized at the U. S. ILvi'l, N. Y. City, 
 on Jan. 7, 1874, with the following oflficers: President, Luther Maddbcks, 
 Maine; . Vice-Presidents, George F. Tuthill, Greenport, L. I., and R. L. 
 Fowler, Guilford, Ct. ; Secretary and Treasurer, H. L. Du'dleyj New 
 London, Ct. ; Executive Committee, L. Maddocks and H. F. Brightori, 
 Maine, and David F. Vail, Riverhead, L. L Among its members were: 
 Falcon Oil Works, Greenport; Wells & Co., do. (and South Bristol, Me.); 
 T. F. Price, Greenport; Vail & Griffing, Riverhead; W. H. H. Glover, 
 Southold; B. C. Cartwright, Shelter Island; M. P. Green, Promised Land ; 
 J. Morrison Raynor, Greenport; Henry E, Wells, do. ; Wm. M. Tuthill & 
 Sons, East Marion; A. R. Comstock, Sayville; J. S. Marcy, Riverhead; 
 Benj. L. Potter (of East Marion,) Harvey's Wharf, Va. ; Belloste & Griffing, 
 do., do. ; Excelsior Oil & Guano Co., O. H. Bishop, Greenporr. T. F- 
 Price was the Committee on Statistics for Long Island. Its annual state- 
 ments show the number of factdries, of men employed therein, of fishermen, 
 of steam and sailing vessels employed, of gallons of oil and tons of scrap 
 manufactured, of fish caught, quantities of oil and scrap on hand at date of 
 report, average yield of oil, and capital invested. At the time of organiza- 
 tion the statistics reported (for 1873) were: Factories,62; capital, $2,388,- 
 000; fishermen employed, 1,197; men at factories, 1,109; sailing vessels, 
 383; steamers. 20; fish caught, 287,275,000; gallons oil, 2,214,800; tons 
 scrap (crude), 36,299. Inasmuch as a summary of these reports, not 
 available elsewhere, may be of value for the light they shed on varioiis 
 important questions connected with the business, it is hereto annexed. ' • 
 
 1873 and 1874 — given in foregoing 'e5chibit. 1875 — Factories, 60; 
 men* 2,633; steairiers, 39; sailing vessds, 304; &h, 563,327,000; -gallons 
 oil, 2,681,487; tons scrap(crude). 5^,625; capital, $2,650,000. [At the 
 meeting^Providence, April 5, 1876' — when these statistics wdre reported, 
 Mr. L. C. d'Homergue addressed the- Association on the advantages of 
 drying the scrap so as to put it in condition for export] 
 
 1876 — Factories, 64; sailih^'vesSelfs, 320; steamers, 46; men, 2,758; 
 ca,pital, $25750,060; fish, 51 2, 4 50,006'; gallons oil, 2, 992,000; tons **ap 
 (crude), 51,245. [At the meetings of 1875 and 1876 papers were readby 
 S. L. Goodale, of Saco, ]Vle.,ujp^n' the possibility of making from 'ifleh- 
 
roO APPENDIX. — ^MENHADEN FISHERY. 
 
 haden a food extract like the extract from beef, and, as declared by scien- 
 tists, equal to it in nutritive qualities. ] 
 
 1877 — Factories, 56; sailing vessels, 270; steamers, 63; men, 2,631; 
 capital, $2,047,612; fish, 587,624,125; gallons oil, 2,426,589; tons scrap 
 (crude), 55,444. [During the year 5,600 tons of dried scrap were 
 reported. ] 
 
 1878 — Factories, 56; sailing vessels, 279; steamers, 64; men, 3,337; 
 capital, $2,350,000; fish, 767,779,250; gallohs oil, 3,809,233; tons scrap 
 (crude), 53,719 — dried, 19,377; cash value of oil and scrap at the factories, 
 at average market prices for the year, $2,289,172. 
 
 1879 — Factories, 60; sailing vessels, 204; steamers, 81; men, 2.296; 
 capital, $2,502,500; fish, 637,063,750; gallons oil, 2,258,901; tons scrap 
 (crude), 67,059— ^-dried, 29,563. 
 
 1880 — Factories, 79; sailing vessels, 366; steamers, 82; men, 3,261; 
 fish, 776,000,000; gallons oil, 2,035,000; tons scrap (crude), 44,995 — 
 dried, 25,800. 
 
 1881 — Factories, 97; sail) ing vessels, 286; steamers, 73 (19 not in 
 use); men, 2,805; fish, 454,192,000; capital, $2,460,000; gallons oil, 
 1,206,549; tons scrap (crude), 7,592 — dried, 25,027.' 
 
 1882 — Factories, 92; sailing vessels, 212; steamers, 83; men, 2,313; 
 fish, 346,638,555; gallons oil, 2,021,312; tons scrap (crude), 10,029-^ 
 dried, 17,452; capital $2,838,500. [Attacks having been made, and others 
 threatened, upon the safety and welfare of the business, the Association 
 voted to defend its members in any part of the United States in the legal, 
 legitimate right of fishing along the seaboard,] 
 
 1883 — ^Factories, 78; sailing vessels, 136; steamers, 69; men, 2,427; 
 fish, 613,461,776; gallons oil, 1,166,320; tons scrap (crude), 20,920 — 
 dried, 34,246; capital, $2,051,000; average yield of oil per 1,000 fish, 
 1. 96-100. 
 
 The reports for 1883 — the last year reported — show great quantities of 
 fish mostly very poor, a small yield of oil. High prices of scrap in 1882 
 forced manufacturers of phosphate fertilisers to look up substitutes for 
 scrap out of which to obtain ammonia, such as nitrate of soda, sulphate of 
 ammonia, cotton seed, oil cake, tankage, meat scraps, etc. This feet, 
 with the large production of scrap in 1883, so lowered prices and reduced 
 demand that factory owners made comparatively little profit on the large 
 supply of fish. 
 
 1884 — ^The statistics of the Association for this year had not, at time 
 ot writing, been made up; but I have from a gentleman engaged in the 
 business a careful and close approximation to the figures of catch of fish 
 and make of oil and scrap at the twelve factories on Gardiner's and Pecon- 
 ic Bays', which foots up the following aggregates: Fish caught, 176,500,- 
 000; gallons of oil, 883,000; tons of scrap (dried), 13,125. At low aver- 
 age prices these products of the menhaden fishery on the two bays 3uring 
 the season of 1884 were worth close upon six hundred thousand dollars. 
 
 And, as showing its local development, I condense from fip'ures given 
 me at different times by W. Z. King, Surveyor of Customs at Greenport, 
 the following abstract of reports made to his office for the district including 
 the towns of Shelter Island, Southpld and Riverhead in the year 1880. 
 Number of menhaden rendered at factories, 202,000,000; value of pro- 
 ducts, $627,450; numbers taken in district but rendered outside, T40,dao,- 
 ctixx 
 
AWENDIX. — MENliAbEN FlSHERV. 101 
 
 In that year the aggregate value of fishery products reported at his of- 
 fice was $1,083,850. There were registered in his office that year 233 sail 
 and 23 steam vessels, aggregating 15,192.72 tons. In 1879 the number of 
 fish taken in the Bays and rendered at factories reporting at his office was 
 211,000,000; gallons of oil made, 1.013,300; tons scrap (dry), 22,100; 
 estimated total catch in district, 400,000,000; estimated total value of pro- 
 ducts of fisheries within the Bays, $975,000. In 1883 the number of fish- 
 rendered in factories reporting at his office was 178,050,000; gallons oil 
 made, 369,900; tons dry scrap, 15.278. 
 
 A brief statement of the practical operation of the fishery may not be 
 out of place. The purse net or seine, now in use will average 1000 feet in 
 length by 75 to 100 feet in depth; but steamers often take nets for deep and 
 shallow water fishing — the former 140 or 150 feet in depth, the latter' 70 or 
 80 feet; those used in deep water are generally 180 fathoms, or 1,080 feet 
 long, while in shoal water they are 130 fathbms, or 780 fjet, in length. 
 The former would require about 50 feet depth of water; the latter about 18 
 feet. On the upper line or rope to which the net is fastened cork floats are 
 strung at short distances apart, in order to keep the net floating in the de- 
 sired position; the underline is weighted and fitted with rings for drawing, 
 or, as it is technically called, " pursing" the net together. Half of the net 
 is placed in the end of each of two seine boats which, when a school offish 
 has been descried by the lookout and the vessel has approached . sufficient- 
 ly near, are rowed in different directions to make a circuit of the water where 
 the fish are known or supposed to be. The time opcupied in going round a 
 school is ordinarly 10 to 20 minutes. When the ends have been brought 
 together and the net has been ' ' pursed" by hauling the lines, the upper 
 ones over and the under ones below the fish, the upper lines are tied com- 
 pactly together, leaving an opening from which to bail the fish. The ves- 
 sel comes close alongside, and, if a steamer, uses a scoop net swung on a 
 crane and lifted by steam, to bail the fish from the net into her hold; the 
 scoop holds 1,000 fish of standard measurement, which is 22 cubic inches, 
 and repeated trials prove that this method of counting by scoop-fiils will 
 not vary materially, with fish of average size, from counting by hand. By 
 the use of steam the fish may be bailed at the rate of a scoop-ful a minute, 
 or 60,000 an hour. On sailing vessels the bailing has to be done by hand. 
 Experience has determined the size of mesh most serviceable for catching 
 menhaden of standard size, to be 21-2 inches, but sometimes nets are used 
 of 2 1-4 or 2 5-8 inches. A full grown fish commonly weighs i to i 1-4 
 pounds, but sometimes "fat fish" will range from i 1-2 "lo 2 pounds, and 
 yet' heavier specimens have been seen. The temperature of the water most 
 congenial to menhaden is from 52 deg. to 58 deg. Fahrenheit. 
 
 The first to enter upon the drying of scrap exclusively as a business 
 was Mr. L. C. d'Homergue, of Brooklyn, then of Greenport, who also was 
 first to make shipments of the dried scrap to England and Germai.y. He 
 had a factory at Hay Beach, Shelter Island. The results of his experi- 
 ments and observations there made were embodied in a paper read before 
 the Association in 1876, and set forth rnore in detail in a pappr read before 
 the American Institute on March 8, 1877. 
 
 The following synopsis of facts relating to the menhaden oil and guano 
 manufacture on Great South Bay is from a letter kindly sent me by Wilson 
 J. Terry, ofSayville; Samuel W. Green, of Sayville, was the pioneer in the 
 business. He built works at that place in 1861, at a cost of $a»500. 
 
102 APPENDIX. MENHADEN FISHERV. 
 
 Tl^ere were then no purse nets used on the bay, and he. depended wholly 
 on ibay fishing with seines, which was then very good. War prices pre- 
 vailed; crude scrap sold for $20 per ton, and oil for 90 cents to |i.oo per 
 gallon. Induced by these figures Green bought a purse net and engaged a 
 captain from Jamesport too instruct the bay fishermen in its use. A few years 
 later he sold out to his brothers and put lip works on the South Beach; but 
 the business becoming unprofitable he sold it to other parties; this factory 
 is now owned and run by Smith & Yarrington, of Sayville. In 1863 Mr. 
 Terry and others bought wprTss at Cape May, New Jersey, and moved them 
 to Cap Tree Island, near Fire Island Light; he directed this factory 'till 
 1877, when he bought oi.t the other owners aiid'purchased of Wall's Sons (of 
 Williamsburgh) their w: rks at The Ranges, consolidating the two in one 
 and still carrying on the business, which has paid him a moderate profit. 
 Wall's Sons expendeJ ?. large sum on their factory, vessels, nets, etc., ^and 
 employed John M. Rogers, as Superintendent. After about 6 years trial 
 they had sunk fully one; hundred thousand dollars, and then sold the es- 
 ta;blishment to Mr. i'erry for less than 10 per cent, of its cost. Willett 
 Green and others removed their works from Saville to the South Beach and 
 the second year afterwards it was burned, causing them a heavy loss; it 
 was not rebuilt. Edgar Gillette put up pot-works at Blue Point and run 
 them for a few years, but the busmess proved unprofitable and he gave it up. 
 John S. Havens and others put up pot-works at Swan Creek, near Patch- 
 giie, and ran them for some ten years; the Bay fishing fell off and they 
 were too far from Fire Island Inlet to get fish by means of purse nets, so 
 they closed up the business. In 1880 George Comstock erected works on 
 the South Beach, where he and his brother are still engaged in the business. 
 The three factories now riinning are: The South Bay Oil Works, W. J. 
 Terry owner; the Smith & Yarrington, and Comstock Brothers. For four 
 years past none of these have paid much profit owing to scarcity of fish, 
 while that year (1883) the fish were so small and poor that the three factor- 
 ies closed up ocean fishing on Sept. 1 5. On the whole the menhaden fish- 
 ery in the Great South Bay has not been a source of profit to factory owners 
 but it has afforded a fair livelihood to the fishermen. 
 
 To exhibit more clearly the actual extent ot the menhaden interest in 
 Suffolk County for the year 1883, the appended table has been prepared; 
 it includes two factories, located on Barren Island, in Kings County, which 
 were supplied with fish by Suffolk County fishermen, and were owned 
 or operated by .- SuiBFolk County men. To the total catch on 
 Peconic and Gardiner's Bays should be added some four million fish ren- 
 dered at the pot-works of W. M. Tuthill & Sons, at Napeague, but the 
 other figures of their operations have been mislaid and cannot be replaced. 
 
APPENDIJr. MENiiAb^l^ FISHERY. 
 
 lOJ 
 
 PEcONrc anB Gardiner's Bays. 
 
 
 Fish Taken. 
 
 Gidlons 
 Oil. 
 
 T. scrap 
 dried. 
 
 12 
 55 
 
 1 
 
 Capital. 
 
 Sail 
 yes'ls 
 
 Hasekins: Brothers, 
 
 7i 000,000 
 
 15.615 
 
 500 
 
 2 
 
 50 
 
 50,000 
 
 
 
 H. E. Wells, 
 
 14., 764, 600 
 
 43.315 
 
 1,100 
 
 2 
 
 85 
 
 25,000 
 
 2 
 
 Eakott OSl Co., 
 
 19,983,600 
 
 4OS18.5 
 
 1,524 
 
 2 
 
 67 
 
 60,000 
 
 I 
 
 fjoccelsior Oil Co. , 
 
 9,619,122 
 
 ^6j00o 
 
 726 
 
 2 
 
 46 
 
 35,000 
 
 
 
 Sterling Oil Co., 
 
 14 500,000 
 
 41,400 
 
 1,070 
 
 2 
 
 60 
 
 30,000 
 
 2 
 
 Ranger. Oil Co., 
 
 19,1750,000 
 
 52.500 
 
 1.4,00 
 
 3 
 
 65 
 
 75.000 
 
 I 
 
 B. C. Cartwr^Jit, 
 
 12,000,000 
 
 24,000 
 
 930 
 
 2 
 
 45 
 
 40,000 
 
 
 
 Dixon Mf'g Co., 
 
 10,000,000 
 
 30,ODO 
 
 756 
 
 2 
 
 58 
 
 75,oDo 
 
 
 
 Abbe 
 
 18,500,000 
 
 49,500 
 
 1,350 
 
 3 
 
 75 
 
 So, 000. 
 
 
 
 Jonas Smith 
 
 IJjOOOjOOO 
 
 30,000 
 
 1. 000 
 
 2 
 
 .70 
 
 60,000 
 
 6 
 
 E. Tutiiill &.Co., 
 
 15,000,000 
 
 35,000 
 
 1,150 
 
 2 
 
 70 
 
 60,000 
 
 
 
 'I'otals, 
 
 153951322 
 
 387.515 
 
 11,506 
 
 24 
 
 691 
 
 .580,000 
 
 6 
 
 
 Great South Ba' 
 
 i. 
 
 South' Bay Oil Works, 
 
 4,500,000 
 
 4,000 
 
 360 
 
 - 38 
 
 I2,OdO 
 
 4 
 
 GoiiiStoek Brothers, 
 
 5,000,000 
 
 5,000 
 
 460 
 
 - 48 
 
 10,000 
 
 4 
 
 Smith & Yarrington, 
 
 2,000,000 
 
 3,800 
 
 130 
 
 - ; 32 
 
 7,00b 
 
 3 
 
 Totals, 
 
 11,500,000 
 
 12,800 
 
 950 
 
 !ii8 
 
 29,000 
 
 11 
 
 
 Barre 
 
 M Island. 
 
 
 Jones & Co., 
 
 22,000,000 
 
 22,000 
 
 1,900 
 
 — 
 
 85 
 
 120,000 
 
 6 
 
 Hawkins Bros., 
 
 27,000,000 
 
 44,385 
 
 2,200 
 
 4 
 
 50 
 
 1,25,000 
 
 - 
 
 Totals 
 
 49,000,000 
 
 66,385 
 
 4,100. 
 
 4 
 
 135 
 
 245,000 
 
 6 
 
 Aggregates 
 
 2I445I 322 
 
 466.700 
 
 16,556. 
 
 2-8;. 
 
 944 
 
 854,000 
 
 2J 
 
 APPENDIX C. 
 
 INClilENTS OF THE FISHERIES. 
 
 Monroe Cohkling, of Orient, keeper of Little Gull Island light prior 
 to 1552, in connection with the -Manwarings of Connecticut, used to take 
 c<«»hsiderable numbers of lobsters in.pots set near the reefs off that island, 
 and smacks Stopped there to receive the catch for market. His successors, 
 Sineus Conkling, Wm. Booth, Wallace Reeve, and others> continued the 
 business, which is still carried on to spme extent. The late Cajrt. Henry 
 B. Gardiner, of East Marion, for several years made a regular trade of 
 taking lobsters in pots set in Gardiner's Bay, and carrying them to New 
 Haven for sale. Lobsters are also taken in L. I. Sound, off Arshamom- 
 oque. 
 
 -Fisher's Island from the earliest date has been noted as a fishing 
 
I04 APPENDIX. — INCIDENTS OF THE FISHERIES. 
 
 Station. The Pequot Indians when in ppssession made it one of their 
 chief resorts for fishing. Gov. Winthrop, who had a grant of the island 
 from Massachusetts, was confirmed in it by an act Of the Connecticut Court 
 in 164 1 ' 'so far as it hinderj not the public good of the country, either for 
 iortifying for defense, or setting up a trade tor fishing, or salt, or such 
 like.' J?"rom the "Antientest iiooke" of New London records it appears 
 that in 1649 leave was granted to Mr. John Winthrop to set up a were 
 (weir or wear) and make use of the river at Poquonnuck "for to take fish." 
 This is the earliest local mention I have seen of this contrivance for taking 
 fish. 
 
 The island itself, with a smaller one off Mystic and close under the 
 Connecticut shore, was included in the Duke of York's patent of 1664 and 
 has ever smce been regarded as belonging to Suffolk County; but the small 
 island off Mystic reverted to Connecticut on the a^loption of the boundary 
 hne between the two States. In 16^8 John Winthrop, its owner, recog- 
 nized the soverignty of New York by procuring from Gov. NichoUs a 
 patent which settled his title to the island, and it remained in his &mily 
 until transferred to the late Robert Fox, of New London, to whose estate 
 the greater part of it now belongs. Adrian Block, the Dutch navigator, 
 who in 16 H was the first to explore Long 'Island Sound, when ,be. sighted 
 Montauk Point called it Fisher's Hook, but that term was not accepted by 
 the English. 
 
 It IS believed that Matthias Rowland, of Norwalk, Ct, formerly of 
 Suffolk County, and Capt. Gould Hoyt, of Norwalk, were the first to open 
 escalops for market purposes; this was about 28 years ago. Charles 
 Fanning, late of New Suffolk, deceased, was the first one on Peconic Bay 
 to engage in the business, which has since grown to very considerable 
 proportions, giving employment, mostly in the winter months, to a fleet of 
 40 to 50 vessels manned by over 206 men and boys. Some winters ago 
 Capt. James M. Monsell, of Greenport, in a boat with. two men and six 
 dredges, from a bed of escalops at Promised Land, East-Hampton, to(5k 
 500 bushels in one day. 
 
 In January, 1837, the Z. I. Star printed an account of a summer 
 ramble over Long Island, and in that part of it which treats of the country 
 between Riverhead and Orient, particularly of the facilities for fishing, etc., 
 speaks of an old gentleman telling; the writer that when he was young a 
 great seine was used to catch porpoises, out of which they made oil from 
 the blubber and leather from the skins. In Transactions of the ' ' Society 
 " Instituted in the State of New York for the Promotion of Agriculture, 
 "Arts and Manufactares, " printed in 1794, is an article by Ezra L'Hom- 
 medieu, of Southold, a Vice-President of the Society, entitled "The Man- 
 "ner of taking Porpoises at the East End of Long Island.": 
 
 By the kindness of Hon. B. D. Sleight, I have examined an original 
 "indenture" dated March 26, 1744, w^ich recites that Benjamin L'Hom- 
 medieu, Jr., Benjamin Bailey, John Vail, Sam'l Landon, John Prince, 
 Elijah Hutchinson and Isaac Hubbard, all of Southold, have, joined them- 
 selves to be partners together in the trade or design of catching porpoises 
 and other fish along the coast, shore or harbors of Long Island, to continue 
 six months from April 4th, the arrangement being that L'Hommedieu 
 should furnish a boat, porpoise seine, and one other seine for other fish, 
 with tackling, &c., and two men, one experienced and skilled in the use 
 thereof, while the others, either personally or by substitute, were to furnish 
 
APPENDIX. — INCIDENTS OF THE FISHERIES. I05 
 
 each a capable man and to pay each one-tenth cost of provisions — L'Hom- 
 medieu to have five-elevenths of the profits and the others each one-eleventh. 
 At Orient, June 5, 1833, a seine at one haul took 12,250 drum ' fish 
 averaging 33 pounds in weight; the total catch weighing 202 tons and^ 256 
 pounds. 
 
 Fifty years ago Trout fishing on Long Island had already become of 
 recognized importance. The numerous swift, streams of clear, cold and 
 pure Water, flowing from the higher level of the central region to the north 
 and south shores — especially to the latter— make superior feeding and breed- 
 ing haunts for the "Speckled beauties," and it is held that the mingling of 
 these fi'esh streams with the salt waters of the Bays serves to j fomote the 
 growth and the delicacy of flavor for which the brook trout of Long Island 
 have long been noted. However this may be, it is certain that Long Island 
 trout have been and still are favorites in the city markets, commanding the 
 highest prices. Within the past thirty to forty years private individuals 
 and Clubs have bought up ponds and streams along the South Side, in the 
 towns of Babylon, Islip, Brookhaven and Southampton, and have expen- 
 ded lage sums in enlarging, cleaning and protecting the ponds and in 
 arrangements for the propogation or protection of trout therein; and now 
 compara-ively few public waters can be found in which the taking of 
 natural trout yields any considerable return of either pleasure or profit. — 
 To how great an extent this occupation of the trout ponds and streams of 
 our county by individuals or corporations has gone 1 am unable to state 
 with exactitude; but a careful estimate of the present cash value of the 
 trout preserves in the county places it at about one million dollars. As 
 long ago as 1837, in its issue of August 5, the Spirit of the Times had an 
 account ot a trip of several weeks on Long Island spent in making a tour 
 •of the trout ponds and streams, which were described at some length, the 
 writer bei^strongly impressed by what he saw. He also referred to troll- 
 ing for blue fish on the Great South Bay and to perch fishing in Lake Ron- 
 konkoma, and specified among the fish then more commonly taken from 
 the Bay^-biue fish, black fish, weak fish, (chequet), porgies, sheepshead 
 and striped bass. 
 
 On September i6th, I-837, the schooner Oneco, Captain Rogers, from 
 the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, arrived at Greenport with 25, 500 cod- 
 fish to Dr. E. D. Skinner. At that titne the bounty on codfish was large 
 enough, to stimulate enterprises of this sort, and several were undertaken 
 from preenport. and Sag Harbor. In 1807 there were brought to Sag Har- 
 bor 6,6qo quintals of codfish. , . 
 
 Traping fish, or, the use of various devices other than hooks or ordinary 
 nets ai^ seines, has been practiced from the earliest period, indeed, it may 
 fairly be inferred that this mode of fishing was more general in the first 
 than in the second century of the county's history, since in its earlier years 
 the procuring or making of nets and Seines was attended by greater relative 
 expense and difficulty than it came to 'be when improved methods of manu- 
 facturing twine, cordage and nets had cheapened their cost. 
 
 By virtue of their ancient patents, confirmed by acts of the Legislature 
 and upheld by judicial decisions, the towns of Brookhaven and Hunting- 
 ton claim and exercise exclusive property rights in the lanl under water of 
 the bays, &c., within their jurisdiction. Much contention and some dis- 
 turbance have arisen from conflicting views and claims growing out of this 
 ownership by the towns, and out of their management, through Trustees, 
 
100 APPENDIX. INCIDENTS OF THE FISHERIES. 
 
 of the business of taking; oysters an(l clanis, whlcn, Joeiag bottom ;.^sl^ are 
 held to .lie propej: subjects of local cpnttol, Prqgi the earfieit Sate^^i Mnder 
 t^ese, patents, mcfie or less dispute jias attended^ ttie _ ipaniggmenl. o/ ^e 
 oyster and cfam fisheries, and the controversy c'ontiri'ues to thi&.'d2y, ,^^i^t 
 while tho,se. engaged ;n the business differ widely qn sonj^e p^ots of riegu a- 
 tioii and government, they agfjee jii ppp6!smg outside i^&rfer^nce and a.)e 
 jjenacious upholdej&of tlie town's exclustve jur'sdiction. Thougli '^ibjni:- 
 ^^les grumbling at particular demands they have sufemifted to the tirjistefe .' 
 aiuthbnty arid have, resisted ail attejripts to bring on iriteryenti^on by the 
 State tSgisra,tiire. P.or t^e sake of better ehfofc,epient of , prohitiitior^^ bn 
 certaiiri o'bnoxious mettipSs or practices in tfie. fishery, recoarse has h/Sen 
 &.d to. the Board o^ Supervisors, who have power to imfjose fargef peiiar- 
 ties than the Trustees can do; but this is merely tp supplement arid i^pinfo ;ce 
 rio't to contravene or supplant the, lattpr'saiitliority. As early as 1771 tfu 
 Trustees of Br-ookhaven ordered "that no oystejs or clams sh ill be taltjii 
 " out of ye South Bay, opposite our town, within our patent, unless r.fi^^i't 
 " obtaining liberty of tis, ye Trustees, or from ourorfer, anif wHb^lyer s(i (11 
 "go contrary to this act shall p.iy for every sudbi offence ye^oi ofTwea y 
 "ShiUings, to be recovered befbire any Justice of the Pe'ice as any bthjr 
 ' ' debt. " In 1 78^ f he Tr usl'ees fixed the charge for.each t in .pf^'ovs tier's tKk'i'n 
 out of the bay, at i shilling 6 pence, and soon afterwards iii tKe .sarne year 
 amended it by making the charge " 2 pente p;r tiib of oysters or clains. " 
 
 APPENDIX D. 
 
 SHIP BUILDING AND TONNAGE. 
 
 I have striven with, much pertinacity and zeal to recover aMhen- 
 tic data which- might enable me to present a pretty comprehensi'\^e arid 
 complete view or the business of building vessels within the limits of our 
 County; of the builders whose handiwork becamea part bf the (glory of the 
 American comercial marine; of the yards in which they vroHced; 6f the 
 names and other particulars of the vessels they built, and of the skillful sea- 
 hien who manned and commanded them; and by the kind help bf friends kt 
 some places I have succeeded in getting tolerably full lists of name, rig and 
 tonnage of vessels launched at those places; but there -are others, soirie-ot 
 them in my immediate neighborhood, at which I have so far failedto get even 
 approximately correct lists and have therefore felt obliged- to omit all fui ther 
 referfence to them. I do not despair of eventually receiving facts enough 
 to give a fair idea of the busir\ess at these places, but it is a .Slow p oces< 
 and will take much time. It is not claimed that the lists herewith given 
 are complete, or are absolutely correct, but they are based on careful iri- 
 qtliry and research by friends at the places named, and may be abcejited ' as 
 reliable iniatll essential particulars, 
 

 Appeni 
 
 IIX. SHIP BUILDING. 
 
 107 
 
 
 
 Patchogue. 
 
 
 Vessels built at Ritchogue 
 
 by Boss 0. Peny Smith from i 
 
 85010 1872. 
 
 Rig. 
 
 Date. 
 
 Name. 
 
 Tonnage 
 
 Schr. 
 
 1850 
 
 Ida Maillor 
 
 160 
 
 11 
 
 1853 
 
 R. H. Vermilyea 
 
 140 
 
 t( 
 
 1854 
 
 A. Mason 
 
 340 
 
 it 
 
 1855 
 
 J. A. Stanley 
 
 320 
 
 tc 
 
 1856 
 
 T. D. Wagner 
 
 476 
 
 et 
 
 1857 
 
 Kate Merrill 
 
 360 
 
 tt 
 
 1858 
 
 A. Stewart 
 
 170 
 
 i( 
 
 1859 
 
 Phebe 
 
 180 
 
 t( 
 
 i860 
 
 S. T. Baker 
 
 300 
 
 I e 
 
 i860 
 
 Daniel Holmes 
 
 350 
 
 Brig 
 
 1864 
 
 John Shay 
 
 480 
 
 Schr 
 
 1864 
 
 Not named {(when launched 
 
 80 
 
 tt 
 
 1865 
 
 Harry Doremus 
 
 85 
 
 tt 
 
 1865 
 
 Not named (when launched) 
 
 55 
 
 ft 
 
 1866 
 
 Alida 
 
 76 
 
 it 
 
 1867 
 
 P.icardo Barros 
 
 170 
 
 it 
 
 1868 
 
 Minnie 
 
 360 
 
 ( t 
 
 1869 
 
 Phebe . 
 
 '240 
 
 tt 
 
 1872 
 
 J. W. Boyle 
 
 120 
 
 Total 4.556 
 
 During the same periodjhe built i^ sloops for the oyster trade, ranging 
 from 20 to 40 tons and averaging say 30 tons, or 57oinaU,niaking the total 
 tonnage constructed by him in that time something over 5,000. The larg- 
 er vessels were employed in coastwise trade, as fruiters , from, the West 
 Indies, or in other lines of foreign trade. Soine of them have been remark- 
 ably successful as sailors; thus: the R. H. Vermilyea made the trip from 
 Cuba, to New York in 6 days; the Phebe (2nd), made the trip from San 
 Bias to New York in 1 2 days, the quickest passage between the two ports; 
 and ofiiers have made notably quick voyages. 
 
 Edward, Post built at Patchogue in 1882 a schpoper yacht of abput 
 160 tons. In the same year Martenus Smith, son of Q. P. Smith, built 
 the schooner Grace Bailey, 120 tons. A very large nutnber of slopps .and 
 small schooners, designed mostly for the oyster trade, have been built in 
 and near Patchogue; any exact figures of number or tonnage Wpuld be im- 
 possible, but the aggregate would proba,l3ly count up several thousand tons. 
 To Edward T. Moore, Surveyor of Customs at that port, I am indebted for 
 the following: 
 
 Statement of Tonnage at the Port of Patchogue on June 30, 1875,- the 
 year of its establishment as a Port of Delivery and each year thereafter. 
 
 Date, No. of Vessels. Tonnage. 
 
 June 30, 1875 57 934.00 
 
 1876 134 2,523.12 
 
 1877 161 2,716.96 
 
 1878 179 2,766.00 
 
 1879 209 2,925.26 
 
 1880 2C7 2,730.39 
 
 1881 201 2,485.70 
 
Io8 At-PENDIX. SHIP BUlLblNfi. 
 
 I 
 
 " 1882 202 2,415.42 
 
 " 1883 208 2,611.45 
 
 Other South Bay Ports. 
 
 At Bellport several large schooners have been built, but I cannot give 
 their names, etc. Numerous small schooners and sloops, chiefly for the 
 oyster trade or for bay freighting,* have been built at Bellport, Moriches, 
 Patchpgue, Sa,yville, Islip, Bay Shore, Babylon and Amityville, but the 
 work of ascertaining their names and tonnage would bealmost an intermin- 
 able and hopeless one. It is considered a low estimate to reckon the 
 total tonnage of this class of vessels constructed on the shores of the Great 
 South Bay in Suffolk County within the past hundred and fifty years at not 
 less than fifty thousand tons — in fact, the strong probability may be that for 
 the past fifty years an average of thirty boats, averaging twenty tons, ha\e 
 been built each year. 
 
 Port Jefferson. 
 
 Lying at the head of a land-locked bay of deep and quiet water, with 
 sufficiently bold shore, this place seems to have been designed by nature 
 for a location adapted to the ship-builder's art. The earliest settlers recog- 
 nized these natural advantages, and while yet there were but five houses at 
 what was then known as Drowned Meadow, in 1797, John Wilsie is re- 
 ported to have built on the east side of the harbor, at the place now locally 
 called "Homan's Hollow," a sloop loyally named the King George — the 
 forerunner of a lajrge and noble fleet that, receiving their baptism and 
 christening in the waters of Port Jefferson Bay have since borne the hailing 
 nameofBrookhaven to all the seas ploughed by the keels of commerce. 
 Speaking commercially not less than in respect to ship-building, the chief 
 if not the only drawback to a much greater development than has actually 
 taken place in and on this bay, and in and on the bays that connect with 
 it, has been the narrow and shoal channel at its entrance from the Sound. 
 So far back as 1835, in October of that year \h.t Jeffersonian had an article 
 in favor of an appropriation to build a breakwater at Drown Meadow, 
 which name at a public meeting in the following March was changed to 
 Port Jefferson. On other occasions public attention was drawn to the de- 
 sirability of improving the entrance to this fine harbor, but no action was 
 taken until the 41st Congress ordered a survey and upon a favorable report 
 made an appropriation to begin the construction of a breakwater on the. 
 east side ot the channel. Subsequent appropriations have been made and 
 expended, and the channel is materially improved, , but a further sum is 
 needed to ht used for dredging a still wider and deeper passage-way. 
 
 Through the unwearied efforts of Mr. Jaihes E. Biyles, himself prom- 
 inently connected with the industry in question, who has had recourse to 
 Custom House records so far as they were available, and to local records 
 and traditions, verified whenever possible by conference with the oldest 
 residents of the locality, 1 am enabled to present a list o;' vessels built at 
 Port Jeiferson from the launching of " King "George" down to the pressnt 
 time. It is believed to be substantially correct and complete though some 
 of the dates, especially those between 1840 and 1850, may not be entirely 
 accurate. Its preparation extended considerably over a year and required 
 much patient labor. 
 
 Capt. John Wilsie in 1 799 or 1800 and following years built the 
 schooner CuUoden and sloops Collector, Ontario, Oneida and Jane, 
 
APPENDIJC SHIP BUII.DING. 
 
 109 
 
 Rig. 
 
 Sloop 
 Schr. 
 
 Rig. 
 Schr. 
 
 Rig. 
 Sloop 
 
 Rig. 
 
 Name. Date 
 
 Mongomery (Apl.) 1824 
 
 Capt. Thomas Bell moved there in 1802 and built the following: 
 Sloops, Argus, Hector, Hussa; ship Boyne and a gunboat of about 30 
 tons for the U. S. Government, which was begun in 1807, but, not being 
 called for sooner, was not finished till 18 14. 
 
 Richard Mather began in 1809. He built the following: 
 Rig. Name. Date. Rig Name. Date 
 
 Sloop Invincible 18 10 Sloop Independence 181 2 
 
 General Pike 1814 " Adeona 1815 
 
 Sloop, Catharine Rogers, 1816. 
 [He was the father of John R. Mather, the present noted builder, and 
 was killed by an accidental fall from the last named vessel when nearly 
 ready for launching.] 
 
 James Still in 1809 or 18 10 built the sloop Elector. 
 Thomas Bayles in 18 16 built the sloop Beaver. 
 Titus Mather. 
 Name. Date. Rig. 
 
 Calhoun 1823*^ Sloop ' 
 
 Triumph (Nov.) 1824 . Brig 
 
 Sloop, Escort, 1826. 
 
 Capt. Wm. L. Jones. 
 Name. Date. Rig. 
 Virginius 1827 Schr. 
 Charles E. Thorn 1834 Sloop 
 
 Elisha Bayles. 
 Date. Rig. 
 1830 Sloop 
 Edgar Brown. 
 Date. Rig. 
 1830 Sloop ( 
 Edward Post. 
 Name. 
 Cybele 
 Benjamin Brown. 
 Name. Date. Rig. 
 
 Invincible 1832 • Sloop 
 
 Juvenile 1834 " 
 
 Export 1840 
 
 James Nelson 184 j 
 
 Name. 
 Alonzo 
 
 Name. 
 
 Sloop (jmack) Uranius 
 
 Rig- 
 Sloop 
 
 Rig. 
 Sloop 
 
 Amos Palmer 
 
 1825 
 
 Name. 
 Pearl. 
 Radiant 
 
 Date 
 1862 
 1836 
 
 Name. 
 James Gorham 
 
 Date 
 1834 
 
 Name, 
 lack) Vesta 
 
 Date 
 1832 
 
 
 Date 
 1829 
 
 Name. 
 Verille 
 Ariel 
 
 Date 
 1838 
 
 Rig. 
 Rrig 
 
 Sloop 
 Schr 
 
 Cumberland 
 
 Register 
 
 Pizarro 
 
 C. L. Hulse 
 
 Franklin BfeU 
 
 Sloop Nancy Anna, J1852. 
 Isaac Ritch. 
 Name. 
 Aeolus 
 Lewis Hulse. 
 1832 Sloop 
 1835 Schr 
 
 Mary H.Williams 1848 
 Jacob "Duryea 1851 
 
 1841 
 1848 
 1853 
 
 Editor 
 Southerner 
 Flordia 
 Wm. Thomas 
 D. C. Hulse 
 
 Date 
 1839 
 
 1834 
 1840 
 1845 
 1849 
 1855 
 
lio 
 
 AEEEipw;x.^sH^ sinxp^fi. 
 
 
 
 Smith & Darling. 
 
 
 
 
 Rig. 
 
 Name. 
 
 Date. 
 
 Rig. 
 
 
 Name. 
 
 Date 
 
 Brig 
 
 Florida 
 
 1832 
 
 Brig 
 
 
 Amelia Strong 
 
 1833 
 
 Sloop 
 
 Emeline 
 
 1833 
 
 Sloop 
 
 
 S. B. Packet 
 
 1834 
 
 tc 
 
 Empire 
 
 1834 
 
 
 
 Active 
 
 1834 
 
 Brig 
 
 Darieil 
 
 1835 
 
 
 
 Congress 
 
 1835 
 
 Schr 
 
 yolta 
 
 1836 
 
 
 
 Unity 
 
 1836. 
 
 Sloop 
 
 Sylph 
 
 1837 
 
 
 
 Gleam 
 
 1837 
 
 ( ( 
 
 Report 
 
 1S37 
 
 
 
 Senate 
 
 1838 
 
 Bxig 
 
 Long Island 
 
 1839 
 
 Schr 
 
 
 Smith (tD^rlipg 
 
 1840 
 
 
 
 Sylvester Smith. 
 
 
 
 
 Rig. 
 
 Name. 
 
 Date. 
 
 Rig. 
 
 
 Name. 
 
 Date 
 
 Schr. 
 
 Martha Maria 
 
 1843 
 
 Schr. 
 
 
 Panama 
 
 1844 
 
 ti 
 
 Alert; 
 
 1845 
 
 {( 
 
 
 J. E. Smith 
 
 1845 
 
 Cl 
 
 Aratus 
 
 1846 
 
 It 
 
 
 Orianna 
 
 1846 
 
 
 ] 
 
 Matthew Darling. 
 
 
 
 
 Rig. 
 
 Name. 
 
 Date. 
 
 Rig. 
 
 
 Name. 
 
 Da.t;e 
 
 Schr. 
 
 Maria "M. Klots 
 
 1-842 
 
 Schr. 
 
 
 Charles Hopkins 
 
 1842 
 
 I i 
 
 iowa 
 
 1844 
 
 {{ 
 
 
 Mary Eliza 
 
 1842 
 
 it 
 
 Martha Jane 
 
 1845 
 
 tt 
 
 
 Gen. Marion 
 
 1845 
 
 a 
 
 Corbulo 
 
 1846 
 
 It 
 
 
 Charies Mills 
 
 1846 
 
 t( 
 
 JacoJ3 Smith 
 
 1847 
 
 li 
 
 
 Mary J. Peck 
 
 1846 
 
 
 Schooner, Oregon, 1848. 
 
 
 
 
 Sylvester Smith & T. Darling. 
 
 
 Rjg. 
 
 
 Name. 
 
 
 
 Date 
 
 Schr. 
 
 
 Athalia 
 J. Darling. 
 
 
 
 1846 
 
 Rig. 
 
 
 Name. 
 
 
 
 Date 
 
 Sloop 
 
 
 
 
 
 1840 or 1841 
 
 
 (;;harle: 
 
 ING. 
 
 
 
 Rig. 
 
 Name. 
 
 Date. 
 
 Rig. 
 
 
 Name. 
 
 Date 
 
 Sdir. 
 
 New Republic 
 
 1848 
 
 Schr. 
 
 
 Governor 
 
 1848 
 
 Sloop 
 
 Home 
 
 1848 
 
 It 
 
 
 William Tyson 
 
 1849 
 
 Schr. 
 
 Aurora Borealis 
 
 1849 
 
 It 
 
 
 Galota 
 
 1850 
 
 
 
 Charles Darling 
 
 
 
 
 Rig. 
 
 Name. 
 
 Date. • 
 
 Rig. 
 
 
 Name. 
 
 Date 
 
 Schr. 
 
 Sea Flower 
 
 1851 
 
 Schr. 
 
 
 SelahB. Strong 
 
 1852 
 
 
 James M. & C. L. Bayles. 
 
 
 
 Rig. 
 
 Name 
 
 
 
 Tons 
 
 
 Date 
 
 Sloop 
 
 Miaiisii 
 
 
 
 68 
 
 
 1836 
 
 it 
 
 Native 
 
 
 
 61 
 
 
 1838 
 
 Brig 
 
 Bel del Mar 
 
 
 125 
 
 
 1839 
 
 Schr. 
 
 Denmark 
 
 
 135 
 
 
 184 1 
 
 Sloop 
 
 Adelia 
 
 
 
 48 
 
 
 1843 
 
 Schr. 
 
 Belle 
 
 
 
 126 
 
 1845 01 
 
 • i«46 
 
 H 
 
 Telegraph 
 
 
 143 
 
 
 1846 
 
 Sloop 
 
 Mary R' 
 
 . Kirby 
 
 
 65 
 
 
 1846 
 
 Sehr. 
 
 /Edward L. Frost 
 
 
 150 
 
 
 1847 
 
 i( 
 
 WilUam E. Gollis 
 
 
 1*3 
 
 
 1847 
 
■OtVUDIX. — SHIP BUnJ>IK& lit 
 
 1848 
 1849 
 1849 
 1849 
 1849 
 1850 
 1850 
 
 185I 
 185I 
 1852 
 1852 
 1852 
 
 1853 
 1.853 
 1853 
 1854 
 1854 
 1861 
 
 Date 
 1854 
 1854 
 i«S5 
 1856 
 1856 
 1857 
 1858 
 1859 
 1861 
 
 Date 
 1852 
 
 Date 
 1861 
 1865 
 
 Sdn. (yacbt) 
 
 Breeze 
 
 100 
 
 (< 
 
 Raiabow 
 
 ^45 
 
 tl 
 
 Francis A. Baker 
 
 sS 
 
 Sloop 
 
 Phebe Ann 
 
 42 
 
 t( 
 
 £lizfa.A. Jane 
 
 76 
 
 tl 
 
 Senator 
 
 70 
 
 Schr. 
 
 C. L. Bayles 
 
 154 
 
 tt 
 
 James M. Bayles 
 
 170' 
 
 It 
 
 Maiia L. Bavles 
 
 176 
 
 (< 
 
 Willett S. Robbins 
 
 180 
 
 (C 
 
 Stephen H. Townsend 
 
 260 
 
 tt 
 
 Stephen Taber 
 
 304 
 
 " (yacht) 
 
 Ell^tic 
 
 112 
 
 cc 
 
 Breeze 
 
 254 
 
 Sloop 
 
 Flying Arrow 
 
 60 
 
 Sdu. 
 
 Henry Janes 
 
 261 
 
 €t 
 
 Thomas W. Alcott 
 
 203 
 
 tt 
 
 Lucinda A. Bayles 
 
 James M. Batlxs. 
 
 286 
 
 R%- 
 
 Name. 
 
 Tons. 
 
 Sdir. 
 
 M. H. Reed 
 
 221 
 
 fit 
 
 A. 'Hammond 
 
 219 
 
 (< 
 
 Moeiiflight 
 
 263 
 
 Bng 
 
 Mary E. Jones. 
 
 265 
 
 Sdbr. 
 
 K A. Conkling 
 
 260 
 
 Stoop 
 
 Yankee 
 
 85 
 
 Schr. 
 
 AnnaShepard 
 
 167 
 
 (( 
 
 Ann Amelia 
 
 89 
 
 tt 
 
 GloMirOO^ 
 
 JusiEFH Rowland. 
 
 148 
 
 Mig. 
 
 Namie. 
 
 Tons. 
 
 aoop (yacht) 
 
 Irene 
 
 L. M. ROWLAKD 
 
 59 
 
 Rie- 
 
 Name. 
 
 Tons. 
 
 Seta. 
 
 Flora Temple 
 
 23 
 
 it 
 
 Starlight 
 
 32 
 
 
 Jams M. Bayles & Sok (J 
 
 AHEsf 
 
 Rig. 
 
 Name. 
 
 Tons. 
 
 Srfir. 
 
 Annie Lewis 
 
 313 
 
 " Anna W. Collins 
 
 " Julia E. Willetts 
 
 " Julia A. Rider 
 
 ' • Annie V., Bergen 
 
 KatieJ. Hoyt 
 
 " Ann E. Valentme 
 
 " Circle 
 
 " Matilda Brooks 
 
 " George H. Mills 
 
 Bf% Susan Bergen 
 
 Tons. 
 
 Month 
 
 Year 
 
 313 
 
 July 
 
 1863 
 
 209 
 
 April 
 
 1864 
 
 243 
 
 July 
 
 1864 
 
 276 
 
 Dec. 
 
 1864 
 
 New Tonnage. 
 
 
 
 184 
 
 Jan. 
 
 1865 
 
 220 
 
 Aug. 
 
 1865 
 
 316 
 
 tt 
 
 1866 
 
 .-42 
 
 May 
 
 1867 
 
 333 
 
 July 
 
 186.7 
 
 296 
 
 Aug. 
 
 1867 
 
 247 
 
 *t 
 
 1868 
 
112 
 
 APPENDIX. SHIP 
 
 BUIUJING. 
 
 
 
 Bark 
 
 Carib 
 
 294 
 
 Oct 
 
 1868 
 
 Schr. 
 
 Heniy A. Taber 
 
 129 
 
 June 
 
 1869 
 
 (C 
 
 Alert 
 
 43 
 
 tt 
 
 1870 
 
 (t 
 
 Jennie Rosalene 
 
 342 
 
 Aug 
 
 1870 
 
 (t 
 
 Millie Frank 
 
 60 
 
 Sept. 
 
 1870 
 
 (t 
 
 Henrietta 
 
 30 
 
 June 
 
 1871 
 
 tt 
 
 Thomas P. Ball 
 
 430 
 
 Aug. 
 
 1871 
 
 Steamer 
 
 Thyra 
 
 205 
 
 Dec. 
 
 1871 
 
 Bark 
 
 Nomad 
 
 476 
 
 April 
 
 1872 
 
 Sloop 
 
 Ada Rhame 
 
 25 
 
 May 
 
 1872 
 
 ft 
 
 Ehza Rhodes 
 
 25 
 
 June 
 
 1872 
 
 Schr. 
 
 William H. Keeney 
 
 314 
 
 April 
 
 1873 
 
 ti 
 
 Mary Emmor 
 
 52 
 
 June 
 
 1873 
 
 it 
 
 De Mory Gray 
 
 402 
 
 Nov. 
 
 1873 
 
 tt 
 
 Rosa Eppinger 
 
 293 
 
 May 
 
 1874 
 
 tt 
 
 Annie A. Booth 
 
 208 
 
 June 
 
 1874 
 
 tt 
 
 Clara E. Bergen 
 
 481 
 
 Sept. 
 
 1874 
 
 tt 
 
 James E. Bayles 
 
 431 
 
 Nov. 
 
 1874 
 
 It 
 
 Manuel R.Cuza 
 
 298 
 
 Oct. 
 
 1875 
 
 tt 
 
 William E. Clowes 
 
 571 
 
 Dec. 
 
 1875 
 
 tt 
 
 Eleanor 
 
 35J 
 
 May 
 
 1876 
 
 Ship (whaler) 
 
 Horatio 
 
 349 
 
 July 
 
 1877 
 
 Bark 
 
 Fleetwing 
 
 328 
 
 Oct. 
 
 1877 
 
 Schr. 
 
 Comet 
 
 301 
 
 Nov. 
 
 1877 
 
 It 
 
 Jimmie 
 
 20 
 
 June 
 
 1878 
 
 it 
 
 Nellie Floyd 
 
 457 
 
 March 
 
 1879 
 
 tl 
 
 H. & J. Blendermann 
 
 399 
 
 Dec. 
 
 1879 
 
 It 
 
 Gracie N. 
 
 415 
 
 Jan. 
 
 1880 
 
 tt 
 
 Transit 
 
 30 
 
 May 
 
 1880 
 
 tt 
 
 Chatham 
 
 "3 
 
 July 
 
 1880 
 
 tt 
 
 Waccamaw 
 
 459 
 
 Aug. 
 
 1881 
 
 Brig 
 
 Atalanta 
 
 352 
 
 Dec. 
 
 1881 
 
 Sloop (Yacht) 
 
 Whitby 
 
 30 
 
 June' 
 
 1882 
 
 Schr. 
 
 Lillie Holmes 
 
 407 
 
 Sept 
 
 1882 
 
 > (( 
 
 Ocean Child 
 
 37 
 
 Nov. 
 
 1882 
 
 (C 
 
 Nellie W. Craig 
 
 468 
 
 Aug. 
 
 1883 
 
 It 
 
 Elsie A. Bayles 
 
 302 
 
 Oct 
 
 1883 
 
 tt 
 
 Nettie Shipman 
 
 322 
 
 (( 
 
 1884 
 
 
 John R. Mather. 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 Rig. 
 
 Name. 
 
 
 
 Date 
 
 Schr. 
 
 Caroline E. Thorn 
 
 
 
 1838 
 
 tl 
 
 Alfred F. Thorn 
 
 
 
 1839 
 
 tl 
 
 Excelsior 
 
 
 
 1840 
 
 Brig 
 
 Wm. L. Jones 
 
 Tons. 
 
 
 1841 
 
 Schr. 
 
 Lady Suffolk 
 
 100 
 
 
 1846 
 
 Sloop 
 
 Thomas A. Hawkins 
 
 
 
 1849 
 
 t'c 
 
 Schr. 
 
 Wm. H. Sanford 
 John R. Mather 
 
 98 
 
 
 1850 
 1 85 1 
 
 tl 
 
 Magnolia 
 
 139 
 
 
 1852 
 
 tc 
 
 Neptune's Bride 
 
 206 
 
 
 1853 
 
 tl 
 
 War Steed 
 
 153 
 
 
 l8?4 
 
AWBNBW.— rSBIP WHLpiJfe. 
 
 1*3 
 
 ct 
 
 
 Millard Fillmore 
 
 240 
 
 CC 
 
 
 Willow Harp 
 
 139 
 
 ■ «« 
 
 
 B. Jones 
 
 ^i6 
 
 M 
 
 
 Wm. M. Jones 
 
 374 
 
 ■ •« 
 
 
 B.' I. Hazard 
 
 392 
 
 -Brig 
 
 
 John McDermott 
 
 564 
 
 ScIh-. 
 
 
 -George R. Congdon 
 
 4i50 
 
 (( 
 
 
 Bessie Whiting 
 
 , 560 
 
 << 
 
 
 D. K. Baker 
 
 493 
 
 «< 
 
 
 J. H. Parker 
 
 C. L. BAWiEi 
 
 ^21 
 >■ 
 
 Big. 
 
 Kamc 
 
 1. Xons. Date, £ig. 
 
 . Name. 3^one. 
 
 Schr. 
 
 Edward; Slade ^85 1855 
 
 Jeremiah Dari.in6. 
 
 ■5! 
 
 Susan E. 
 
 'Jayne 204 1855 iBark 
 
 Jtypges L. Davis 461 
 
 . <( 
 
 Aana M. 
 
 Edwards 119 1856 " 
 
 D. cjex 222 
 
 t( 
 
 Reindeer 
 
 .107 1856 " 
 
 Holland s6o 
 
 Brig 
 
 Yankee Blade 275 1857 Brig Eaglet 198 
 
 
 Bi!nrLEs& Wines. 
 
 Darling & 'Wines. 
 
 ■Sdir. Ida A. Jayne 21 1 
 
 " LawniayiBeU 154 
 
 " (yac^t) John Swan 30 
 
 " S.-T. Wines 224 
 
 -. " Madison HcJmes 189 
 . C. L. BaylesASon. ' - 
 
 Schr. H. N. -Squire 308 
 
 Brig Helen M. Rowley '390 
 
 " L. L. Squires 425 
 
 " M. M. Francis 439 
 
 Schr. Nymph 140 
 
 " AiM- t^^'^WS^P ^^^ 
 
 " Wm. H. Phare' 154 
 
 " T^^arrisKirk 350 
 
 " ^WmAeiy 330 
 
 " ^die Schlarfer 178 
 
 B^DijLi, 1^ Dasih^g; 
 
 Schr. J. W: McKee 191 
 
 " . Js^, M. Freeman 1,60 
 
 " jflelefi Mar 195 
 
 " JStiwafise^ 193 
 
 " 'Mariaij^wett 192 
 
 " ,, Ralph Post 426 
 
 " Sunny, South 227 
 
 "4 John Roe 297 
 
 Bar*' Anna 421 
 
 Schr: Prowess 267 
 
 ' " • Challenge (about) 265 
 
 " J. Darliirg " 300 
 
 Bark Clara R. Sutil 257 
 
 " Glenwood ' 360 
 
 John E. Sbhth. 
 
 Sehr. Wm. D. Cargill 190 
 
 « iMaiy Emma 257 
 
 .384 
 201 
 281 
 197 
 
 ,1863 Schr. C. M. Newins 
 
 1864 vBrig Caeique 
 
 1865 Schr. S.G. Evans 
 1864 ^Brig Water Lilly 
 r864 Ahira Hawkins. & - Wm, 
 
 ,,Schr. Montezuma 
 1867 , " Northern Light 
 
 1867 " Francis H. Hopkins 
 
 1868 " Esther Burr 
 
 1869 " Merach/ 
 
 1870 AHIRA i^jAWXINS & J. 
 
 1 871 §chr. S. L. §tevens 
 R. H;' Wilson J 98 
 John L. Darling '199 
 Naiad' Queen' 160 
 
 1871 
 
 ;i.873 
 1874 
 1874 
 
 .1856 
 1858 
 1 86 1 
 1871 
 1872 
 1878 
 1879 
 1882 
 1883 
 1884 
 
 Date. 
 
 1857 
 1858 
 1859 
 I&59 
 
 ;i86o 
 
 i860 
 i860 
 I86I 
 
 Darijng. 
 
 lao 1847 
 
 1849 
 
 1848 
 
 1850 
 
 1852 
 
 L. Dari^ing. 
 
 132 1852 
 
 JoHif E. Darling & Co. 
 
 Sloop Pearl u^ 
 
 1850' Schr. Rachel Jane iii 
 
 1 85 1 " L N. Seymour 
 'i8'52 " Copy 
 
 1852 " L. N. Godfrey 
 
 1853 " "transit 
 1^54 '' Alexander Blue 
 
 1854 " ,.LauraA.Burlingame,i9i 
 1854 ; Henry Hallogk. 
 
 71 
 
 95 
 140 
 297 
 131 
 
 1-854 Schr. Narrag^nsett 
 
 1855 " " ' "■" 
 
 r8|5 
 
 i8|6 
 
 1856' 
 
 1856 
 
 1854 
 1854 
 
 Sarah Mills 
 • ' '■'Spencer D. 
 '"Estelle 
 Gen. Gilmore 
 Florence V; Turner 
 .JLaurel 71 
 
 - Coral 34 
 
 216 
 
 |45 
 i67 
 
 33 
 
 '^5^ 
 i?54 
 1854 
 
 1849 
 1850 
 
 1853 
 1854 
 1854 
 
 1855 
 185B 
 1.864 
 
 1855 
 1-855 
 1856 
 i8§7 
 1863 
 1865 
 1868 
 1878 
 
114 
 
 AVPENDIX. — SHIP BVILDING. 
 
 Sig. Name. 
 
 rons- 
 
 Date. 
 
 Rig. 
 
 Name. 
 
 Tons. 
 
 Date. 
 
 Akira Hawkins & E. 
 
 Ketcham. 
 
 
 Emmeit B. Darung. 
 
 
 Schr. Virginia 
 
 295 
 
 1856 
 
 Schr 
 
 Mary Alice 
 
 35 
 
 1870 
 
 " Isabel Alberto 
 
 231 
 
 1859 
 
 tt 
 
 Onward 
 
 52 
 
 1871 
 
 " Anna C. Leverett 
 
 100 
 
 i860 
 
 it 
 
 West Side 
 
 153 
 
 1871 
 
 Edward Hawkins. 
 
 
 (t 
 
 H. S. Tuthill 
 
 43 
 
 1872 
 
 Schr. Island Belle 
 
 142 
 
 1854 
 
 It 
 
 Lillie Ernestine 
 
 54 
 
 1872 
 
 Sloop Sarah F. Jayne 
 
 24 
 
 1851 
 
 Si 
 
 Smith & Darling 
 
 44 
 
 1873 
 
 Sylvester T. Wines. 
 
 ' 
 
 it 
 
 Francis Smith 
 
 49 
 
 1873 
 
 Schr. J. C. Havens 
 
 44 
 
 1866 
 
 << 
 
 Charley Banks 
 
 46 
 
 1873 
 
 " L. A. VanBrunt 
 
 344 
 
 1867 
 
 It 
 
 Ilo 
 
 35 
 
 1874 
 
 " Florence Shay 
 
 405 
 
 1867 
 
 <t 
 
 E. B. Darling 
 
 184 
 
 1874 
 
 " Henrietta Hill 
 
 51 
 
 1868 
 
 (t 
 
 MaryC. Decker 
 
 92 
 
 1875 
 
 '• H. S. Marlor 
 
 350 
 
 1869 
 
 tt 
 
 Emma Southard 
 
 72 
 
 1877 
 
 " T. D. Harrison 
 
 512 
 
 1873 
 
 tt 
 
 John Eastwood 
 
 48 
 
 1877 
 
 Joseph J. Harris. 
 
 
 Sloop L. J, Dayton 
 
 25 
 
 1879 
 
 Schr. James M. Holmes 
 
 205 
 
 1858 
 
 tt 
 
 B. H. Hageman 
 
 25 
 
 1879 
 
 " Quickstep 
 
 132 
 
 1863 
 
 
 Mather & Wood. 
 
 
 " (yacht) Halcyon 
 
 
 
 Schr 
 
 
 
 1881 
 
 " Silver Spray 
 
 118 
 
 1869 
 
 Stmr 
 
 . Hoyt Brothers (ab't) 45 
 
 1882 
 
 " J. J. Harris 
 
 141 
 
 1870 
 
 tt 
 
 Addie B. 
 
 35 
 
 1882 
 
 " William Young 
 
 68 
 
 1871 
 
 tt 
 
 Nonowantuc 
 
 226 
 
 1883 
 
 " Jane C. Harris 
 
 44 
 
 1872 
 
 tt 
 
 S. S. Brewster 
 
 26 
 
 1883 
 
 " Robert T. Clark 
 
 190 
 
 1873 
 
 tt 
 
 May Queen 
 
 25 
 
 1884 
 
 " Game Cock 
 
 61 
 
 1873 
 
 
 S. R. BiKP. 
 
 
 
 " La Ninfa 
 
 126 
 
 1877 Schr. 
 
 Luella Nickerson 
 
 25 
 
 1884 
 
 " Mary C. Crowley 
 
 70 
 
 1878 
 
 
 
 
 
 John Marvin. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 .Schr. Walter Smith 
 
 31 
 
 1866 
 
 
 
 
 
 The foregoing list includes 61 sloops, 2 sloop smacks, 2 sloop yachts, 
 215 schooners, 2 schooner yachts, 19 brigs, 9 barks, 2 ships, 6 steamers, i 
 gunboat — with an aggregate, so far as stated, of 43, 291 tons, to which add 
 8,230 for the vessels unreported, averaging sloops at 50 and schooners at 100 
 tons (which figures are doubtless below rather than above the fact), and 
 we have a total of 51,521 tons of shipping constructed at Port Jeflferson. 
 
 Abstract of Tonnage Built and Enrolled at the Port of Port Jefferson. 
 
 rear. 
 
 Totmage. 
 
 Year. 
 
 Tonnage. 
 
 Year. 
 
 Xoanage, 
 
 1867* 
 
 648 32 
 
 1868 
 
 828 36 
 
 1860 
 
 506 68 
 
 1860 
 
 812 74 
 
 1861 
 
 859 27 
 
 1862 
 
 28 49 
 
 1863 
 
 964 08 
 
 1864 
 
 1190 32 
 
 1865 
 
 1008 07 
 
 1866 
 
 1001 65 
 
 1867 
 
 1819 49 
 
 1868 
 
 586 70 
 
 1869 
 
 419 57 
 
 1870* 
 
 446 00 
 
 1871* 
 
 1166 00 
 
 1872* 
 
 339 50 
 
 1873 
 
 466 93 
 
 1874 
 
 3090 40 
 
 1876 
 
 961 32 
 
 1876 
 
 860 00 
 
 1877 
 
 1025 66 
 
 1878 
 
 738 90 
 
 1679 
 
 876 00 
 
 1880 
 
 558 00 
 
 1881 
 
 469 00 
 
 1882 
 
 1489 68 
 
 1883 
 
 764 00 
 
 Total recorded 27 years 23,802 98. 
 
 Office established in 1852 but no records previous to 1857. 
 
 * Imcomplete, Since 1854 only about one-half the vessels built at 
 Port Jefferson have been recorded in that office, a large number sailing 
 under registers, in foreign trade, being recorded at New York or other ports. 
 
APFFNDIX. — SHIP BVOBING. II5 
 
 Tonnage Outstanding' at the Close of each Fiscal Year, 1858 to 1883, In- 
 clusive, Omitting Fractional Parts of Tons, for the Port of Port Jeflfer- 
 lon. 
 
 leu. 
 
 Tqudbkb. Tear. Tonnsge. 
 
 Tear. 
 
 Tonnage. 
 
 1868 
 
 U,225 1869 14,910 
 
 1860 
 
 16,716 
 
 1861 
 
 19,795 1862 22,091 
 
 1863 
 
 25,146 
 
 1864 
 
 29,476 1866 17,073 
 
 1866 
 
 12,806 
 
 1867 
 
 14,660 1868 16,281 
 
 1872* 
 
 14,860 
 
 1873 
 
 16,278 1874 17,627 
 
 1876 
 
 21,721 
 
 1876 
 
 17,847 1877 16,486 
 
 18T8 
 
 12,986 
 
 1879 
 
 11,486 1880 12,603 
 
 1881 
 
 10,586 
 
 1882 
 
 16,666 1883 14,868 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 No abstracts on record for the years 1869, 
 
 NORTHFORT. 
 
 1870 and 1871. 
 
 
 Favored by nature with remarkably beautiful surroundings and oc- 
 cupying an admirable position where a lovely valley descends to the shore 
 of a large, deep and sheltered bay, Northport offers such obvious facilities for 
 shipbuilding, that, as early as 18 14, before the close of the last ^ar with 
 Great Britain and while yet there were but a handful of inhabitants — ^Bayles 
 (Sketches of Suffolk County, p. 162) says that twenty years later, in 1834, 
 Uiere were only eight dwellings in the place — one or more vessels had been 
 built there. From Mr. Wm. E. Parrotte I have the following list of vessels 
 built at Northport between 18 14 and 1884, by parties other than the estab- 
 lished builders and whose names are not given : 
 
 Big. Name. Tons. Big. Xame. Tons. 
 
 Sloop Brilliant 66 Sloop Export 40 
 
 " Ctmncellor 66 Schr. CoraJla 120 
 
 " Aogeline 25 Sloop Perl 36 
 
 " Bemark tO " Martha Ann 40 
 
 « Elect 80 Sohr. Stephen Francis 150 
 
 " Gazelle 26 " Eliza Eatherine 110 
 
 •' H. T. Toung 66 « Eate 140 
 
 << Emma Smith 60 Sloop Irene 50 
 
 " Bulldog 10 " Water Witch 40 
 
 " Harriet Amelia 9 " Silas Wright 160 
 
 " Aogeline 12 " Martha 40 
 
 •' Henry Herbert 15 " Northport 20 
 
 " Crescent 15 " Motto 16 
 
 " Kate Cannon 60 " Aloamus 60 
 
 " Ida Viola 21 " Borealis 70 
 
 " Armenia 26 '< OreyGull 80 
 
 •' G. B. McCleUan 
 " George Milner 
 " Wanderer 
 Schr. Viola 
 Sloop Eaty Did 
 " Unexpeoted 
 " Laurel 
 « (smaok) NetUe 
 " Contest 
 
 «• (built by U Beebe) 
 
 Isaac SoDDDER Eeiohax. 
 Dates not given, but commencing in 
 
 1820. 
 Sloop Constitution 
 " Flanet 70 Sloop Delaware 
 
 10 
 
 C( 
 
 Water Witch 
 
 9 
 
 4< 
 
 Silas Wright 
 
 12 
 
 l( 
 
 Martha 
 
 15 
 
 » 
 
 Northport 
 
 15 
 
 U 
 
 Motto 
 
 60 
 
 •< 
 
 Aloamus 
 
 21 
 
 ft 
 
 Borealis 
 
 26 
 
 « 
 
 GreyGuU 
 
 20 
 
 
 S. Prior Habtt. 
 
 21 
 
 Tonnage and date not given. 
 
 80 
 
 Sloop Fanny Eemble 
 
 69 
 
 ft 
 
 A. DarUng 
 
 10 
 
 « 
 
 Alamonde 
 
 9 
 
 Brig 
 
 Caroline E. Piatt 
 
 10 Schr 
 
 Golden Eagle 
 
 8 
 
 Sloop Lady Kmil 
 
 22 Schr. 
 
 William Ellis 
 
 9 
 
 « 
 
 Sea Bird 
 
 
 u 
 
 Tickler 
 
 in 
 
 u 
 
 Maxon Sogers 
 
 
 CI 
 
 Alfred Chase 
 
 60 
 
 ilt 
 
 Jonas Warren 
 
■m 
 
 -5i#ifaffii.ii^»-ftflem. 
 
 tSTk.. N4ttie/. TrtftB 
 
 Sloop Three Sisters 
 
 « piiebe A4in Levinus 
 
 . "" MisfeBfel 
 
 .:« AdelftMfe 
 
 " WilMini Mlddleton 
 
 « Ohtef 
 
 - " John Atoeel 
 
 iSelir, Nettie - 
 
 "" Bob»t^. Coleman 
 
 " David Orocker 
 
 Sloop Saral^^Elizabedi 
 
 « Maltby 
 
 " Lady Elizabeth 
 
 rother qj_S, Prior Haitt.}, 
 
 '^idop T&ary ISLl'Smith 
 'SbfirJ Pfeil^s 
 
 " Wm. togfeWMl 
 
 " Btetjfebira 
 "». « iBlingbird 
 '■"" Milton 
 .. " , J, M,Klgsam > 
 Sloop Geo^e Edwin ^ ., 
 
 Sloop Mollie 
 
 " Sarah lionise 
 
 " Alvaretta 
 
 '" Sallie 
 '3chr. Eva Lewis 
 '^loop Emma Bru^h 
 'Sihr. Wm. W:'Wo6a 
 
 '" Lillie Wiiaon 
 
 " Wm. Miller 
 
 •' George Edwin 
 
 EEASTtrB !&/EiT. 
 
 (Son of 8. Pridr 'fiartK) 
 
 31e> ^Naiiie. ^Cma. 
 
 T«ar. iSohr. 8. 8, Brown 116 
 
 Stmr, Pastime 100 
 
 « Tourist 100 
 
 " ; Passport 100 
 
 Sloop.Pell 30 
 
 " jBillajrd 20 
 
 Sttor. Eipple 100 
 
 Jesse Jabvib. 
 
 816dp Orange 
 
 SchT,' Detroit 
 
 SlOflWAnn Strong 
 "i0irai4it-)B[ectoa; . , 
 " Johnny Levin ess 
 
 ftetii. Henry J. Scudder 
 
 Sloop, iKojsert Preeinan 
 LouHe 
 
 Vvsir 
 1868 
 1869 
 1869 
 
 100 
 60 
 
 ,,44 
 
 ,20 
 
 "til 
 
 U8f?4 
 !ie?4 
 1876 
 
 1841 
 
 ')t844 
 
 1847 
 1849 
 1852 
 1863 
 1864 
 
 175- 
 235 
 130 
 130 
 100 
 
 99 
 60 
 
 30 
 
 15 
 
 100 
 
 ■60 
 
 110 
 
 80 
 
 ite 
 
 li^O 
 
 1849'6<Shr. (^rri'kj Etizai;L.'E<JfeSi's 68 1^59 
 
 1870 
 
 SHcr;(Pilot lD6at)'Bd'h4'£!, 
 
 " J-l^iiife'^ifeh 
 Sloop' fialri'let 
 Bcbr: Mairi^uiia 
 Sloop eiedm 
 Schr.! (smaSk)]Petiel 
 ,," i^aoMt) Mattie 
 Sloop, Dictator 
 
 Dlti 
 
 40 
 46 
 '20 
 100 
 68 
 .72 
 50 
 19 
 16 
 ■22 
 33 
 1^ 
 
 * i$loop e3arah Lucinda 
 
 ' '' Elsie May 
 
 " Helen A. Brown 
 . •• JohnBoach 
 ' " Mary Suydam 
 
 'l^tmr. L. J. N, Stark' 
 
 Sloop A. Bi^iish 
 
 Bolton ' 
 " Marianna 
 " Stanley Howard 
 *'8ohr, Phil Sheridan 
 1867 " (sm'k) Eli2a J. Kings- 
 land 88 
 " Racer '87 
 ,. '• Ella go 
 ^loop Lena Becar ' 94 
 1879"Schr. J. 8. Curtis 228 
 'Sloop Cornelia 70 
 'i3tmr. Wilmingtbn '76 
 ISeSSSloop Bride 60 
 1861 « (yaobt) Middhief ^0 
 '66 1864 « (smack) Isaac WaitCh ' 29 
 '46 1864 « James Kirbjr -ii 
 85 1 1866 « Louise 19 
 SOO 1866 'Stmr. P. P. Browne 54 
 66 1867 " Li2zieWoddWd 68 
 
 ; Jess* Cjirll. 
 
 1860 
 
 1860 
 
 I860 
 
 1862 
 
 1882 
 
 1863 
 
 18§3 
 
 1863- 
 
 18^ 
 
 1805 
 
 1865 
 
 1866 
 
 1867 
 1868 
 1869 
 1870 
 1870 
 1870 
 1870 
 1871 
 1872 
 1874 
 1876 
 1879 
 1881 
 1*883 
 
 Of all the Norfhpdrt '.sliipbnilders perhaps the most succes§fiil and 
 widely known is Boss Jesse Carll, a native of Huntington town, who^when 17 
 years old began an apprenticeship of five years with Boss James M.Bayles, 
 of Port Jefferson. In 1855 he begah |t)usines3 at the yard how occiiilied 
 by him, then one-half its present Size-in connection with his'brbther David 
 Carll, In that year th^ built for S^th JR.^ R6bBihs, of "Brooklyn, two 
 sloop lighters each of abbut 80 tons, but their' names are iiot givien. In 
 the following year'lhey biiiltfor the lioted Appleton Oaksmitt a fine bark 
 of about 650 tons— a large vessel in those days, having a .poop-deck and 
 two iiill decks — named the Storm Bird. She was launched inside of 87 
 
difs from the laying of her 'keel, which was a notable instance of i energy 
 and expedition when the limited resources of -the yard at that early day are. 
 considered. Throughsharp practicethey were cheated out of the fair pxojfife 
 they' would have traadie on this contract, bmtthe young' firm were not .difc 
 couTaged thepeby. They then paid their workman from^$4. to |4.5Q,per 
 day.' The partnership was dissolved in 1 86 5, David returning and /afters, 
 ward opening a yard at City Island. , Jesse Carll hassince 1865 built sorne. 
 large and 'highly successful vessels, which are regarded' as spepiail5!> excet 
 lent in respect to beauty of model, speed' and staunchness. 'He did not 
 preserve any record, however, and cannot give exact figures, but in the 
 following list accuracy is approached sufficiently for all practical purposes, 
 though in some cases the tonnage is not the registered number of tons but 
 indicates the carrying capacity. 
 
 Some of the more noteworthy vessels built'by hiro, wilj? incidents' in 
 their careers, are: Schooner Storm Cloud was sold and sent to (California, l 
 Schooner Joseph E. Nickerson, a keel boat, built for Boston and Cape 
 Cod parties, the builders retaining a quarter interest, was sold, and lafter 
 1 5' to ao years of service Mr. Carll, with Messrs. Yates & Porterfield, of N. 
 Y., the leading ifirm in the West African trade, bought her for that trade; 
 after making several voyages in command of Capt. Israel Whitman, she 
 was seized -by the natives while on a trading voyage up the Congo River and 
 destroyed. Schooner Wm. Mazyck, built for Capt. Oonfclin, of Smith- 
 town, was named after a Southern rice planter and employed in 'the 
 trade to Georgetown, S. C, after one trip, in 1 861, to avoid seizure she ' 
 had to make a hasty departure. Schooiier Lucetta,' designed expressly for 
 the fruit trade; was the second vessel of hefr kind built up to that time. 
 The years' 1 86 3-6-3 were dull in the building line, but this yard was 'fltlly oc- 
 cupied with repairing and rebuilding, in which branch of the business there 
 is less renown but more profit In i866i Mr. Carll, 'then-running the yard 
 alone, built his first vessel, the schooner' Goddess. In 1867 he built for- 
 the Mediteriranean' fruit trade the schooner Jesse Carll, then declared to-be 
 the handsomest craft of her class sailing "out of New York ) she was -also, a 
 fast sailer, once making the trip from Gibraltar to 'Baltimore in zo days^and - 
 beating by 5 days the fastest English fruiter afloat ; several thousand dollars 
 changed hands in bets on the parage, between 'the charterers of the -two 
 vessels; she ■was finally stranded on the Spanish coast 'in a hurricane, 
 while discharging cargo at an- open roadstead. Brig Moses Roger-s, com- 
 manded by Capt. Edward M., Jones, of Cold Spring, in the Malaga- trade, 
 was of about 600 tons burden (383 registered). Schooner Ann-E. Carll, 
 built for Capt. Benj. Tyler, was a fine craft, and after ten years service, 
 during which she was twice stranded — once off Norfolk, Va. , and once on 
 Block Islanid — was, finally wrecked on a low coral , island 60, miles from 
 Cieniaegos, Cuba ; it ■was inhabited only by alligators who came near devour- 
 ing the crew before they could make firss to protect themselves, but, ^t last 
 the tables were turned (literally^ and, the cifew,.. having used up all the prp-^, 
 visions they had been able to save, wejf? forced to eat the ajligatorsf ; the. 
 vessel was whole when they were taken off by a Spanish gunboat, bmt -th^- 
 expense of floating her would ;have been, more ithan she was worth. Brig 
 Osseo, of about 700 tons burden (454 register), 21 feet deep in after hatch, 
 wit'htwo full decks and poop, was designed-for the Mediterraijean trade ; is a 
 large and expensive vessel, costing ab9.uf^:$49,,ooo ; is still runnipg, aii^, 
 
Il8 APPENDIX. — SfflP BUILDIKG. 
 
 Mr. Carll retains an eighth interest in her. Bark Carrie L. Tyler, 565 
 tons register, carrying about 750 tons, having two full decks and a poop, is 
 engaged in foreign trade and Mr. Carll is a part owner. The schooner 
 yacht Clio was rebuilt at his yaxd and her speed greatly increased by being 
 lenghtened 12 feet and almost completely re-constructed. Th^ schooner 
 jacht Ariel was served the same way with a similar result; she is now on the Pa- 
 cific, havingsailedtoCahfomiaby way of the Straits of Magellan. Schooner 
 Joseph Rudd, a double-decked, centreboard vessel, built for the Texas 
 trade, owned by the builder and Messrs. Woodhouse & Rudd, of N. Y. , 
 , achieved distinction by an accident unique of its kind and a deliverance 
 equally notable. In a norther off the. mouth of the Rio Grande she was car- 
 ried two miles inland and left upright and tight, but so far from her " native . 
 element" that it seemed hopeless to think of her ever floating again. Her 
 owners expended $23,000 in digging a canal to the sea, and after a year's 
 enforced absence she was again clasped to the bosom of the Gult, an ex- 
 perience only paralleled by that of the brig Atalanta, built by Ji M. Bayles 
 & Son at Port Jefferson, which vessel was driven on the Mexican coast in 
 a norther and lay there for nearly a year before she could be put afloat, 
 without sustaining any appreciable strain or any worse apparent injury 
 than the loss of part of her copper sheathing. Schooner Herbert E., built 
 for Woodhouse & Rudd's Texas trade, carried about 600 tons, was valued, 
 new, at $35,000. In 1880 bark Mary Greenwood, the largest vessel built 
 at that yard, of about 1,100 tons capacity, was launched ; is now in Aus- 
 tralia under command of Capt Tooker, and Mr. Carll owns three-eighths 
 of her, the balance being held by N. Y. parties. Schooner Fanny Brown, 
 of about 800 tons capacity, having two full decks and a poop, is a fine 
 vessel, principally owned in Richmond, Va. The last vessel launched 
 from his yard is the schooner Allie R. Chester, built on his own accoun 
 and still principally owned by him ; a vessel of somewhat similar type, 
 size and style to the Fanny Brown, and commanded by Capt. George 
 Tyler, of Smithtown. While no record has been kept, he thinks that in 
 all, of large arid small craft he has built or aided in building between 40 
 and 50 ; but finding the margfin for profit small on new work he has, for 
 the past turenty years, sought to do only enough of it to keep his men 
 steadily employed ; his force of workmen Huring that time ranged from 25 
 to 95. Three times in the same period he has had to make Southern trips 
 for the benefit of his health, impaired by constant and close application to 
 business. 
 
 The lists below are made up mainly from memory and are not com- 
 plete, but excepting tonnage as above noted, may be accepted as practically 
 correct': 
 
 N. R Whitb. Jbssb & David Cabll. 
 
 Big- Same. Tons. Year, gjoop (lighter) 80 18BB 
 
 Sloop Competent 60 1834 « •• 80 1855 
 
 " Ben Franklin 75 1835 Bark Storm Bird (about) 680 1856 
 
 Sohr. Henry Chase 65 1837 8ohr. Joseph E. NlcUerson 350 1858 
 
 Sloop Roanoke 80 1840 •« Storm Cloud 280 1858 
 
 Schr. Globe 136 1846 » Helen Burton 150 1859 
 
 " T. B. Smith 182 1847 .< Qrvletta 230 lJ<59 
 
 Sloop 26 1849 « Wm. Mazyck 140 1860 
 
 " Augusta 36 1860 ■• Lucetta 250 1861 
 
 «nhr. N. R. White 30 1878 
 
AlPnCRDIX.— SHIP BUILDIirG. II9 
 
 Jesse Caxul. Sloop Mary & Martha (ab't) 100 1871 
 
 Schr. Goddess (about) 250 1866 " « 75 1872 
 
 " Jesse Oarll •' 300 1867 Bark Carrie L. Tyler " 750 1873 
 
 Brig Mosee Bogers " 600 1867 Hcbr. Joseph Budd " 450 1874 
 
 Schr. GaUlard 80 1868 " (yacht) Addle Yoorhls 55 1875 
 
 Sloop (lighter) « 90 1868 " Annie Webb 200 1876 
 
 " 90 1868 " Herbert E. (ab't) 600 1877 
 
 Schr. Ann E. Carll " 400 1868 " Frances 600 1878 
 
 " Francis E.Hallock" 350 1869 " Emma Ritch " 400 1879 
 
 Brig Oaseo " 700 1870 Bark Mary Greenwood " 1,100 1880 
 
 Sloop Farmer 70 1870 Schr. Panny Brown " 800 1883 
 
 Schr. Florence 160 1871 " Allle R. Chester " 800 1884 
 
 This makes a total, so far as stated, of 179 vessels, including 91 sloops, 
 2 sloop yachts, 4 sloop lighters, i sloop smack, 58 schooners, 2 schooner 
 yachts, I schooner pilot boat, 3 schooner smacks, 3 brigs, 3 barks, 8 
 steamers. Reducing tonnage capacity where so g^ven to average of regis- 
 ter, there are of recorded tonnage built atNorthport about 16,500 tons, and 
 allowing feir averages for the vessels whose tonnage is not g^ven, the ag- 
 gregate will be close upon 18,500 tons of shipping built at that port 
 
 Centreport. 
 Eligibly situated at the head of Centreport Harbor, an offshoot from 
 Northport Bay, this small but thriving village early engaged in the business 
 of shipbuilding and carded it on to a moderate extent, but in recent years 
 little or none has been done there. Mr. Parrotte has kindly sent me the 
 subjoining list of vessels built at Centreport between 1814 and 1884, but 
 did not give names of builders or dates of launching : 
 
 Big. Name. Tons. Big. Xam«. Tons- 
 
 Sloop Enemy 25 Brig Buckley 160 
 
 " Capital 50 Sloop Cinderella 60 
 
 Schr. Consort 100 Schr. Intent 100 
 
 Sloop Farmer 50 Sloop Gen. Lewis 55 
 
 « Select 50 " Adelia 12 
 
 " Lady Jackson 45 " Record 25 
 
 Schr. Metamoras 40 " Brief 11 
 
 A total of 14 vessels and 773 tons. 
 
 East Setauket. 
 
 Occupying a favorable location at the head of Setauket Harbor, which 
 connects with Port Jefferson Bay, residents of this place engaged in ship- 
 building on a small scale early in the present centuiy, but I have not been 
 able to get any data anterior to 1836, in which year Boss Nehemiah Hand, 
 still a hale and vigorous man, widely fcnown for the active and prominent 
 part he has taken in commercial affairs and especially as a representative of 
 the American Ship Owners and Masters' Association, began a long and highly 
 successful career In 1864 he associated with himself his son George S. 
 Hand, and, after adding half a dozen fine boats to his fleet, in 1873 he re- 
 tired leaving his business to be prosecuted by his son. During this long 
 period of almost forty years he built many large, handsome, swift and 
 staunch vessels, that were a credit to himself and an honor to the countv ; 
 some of them are still in active service and able to hold their own in comparison 
 with later built craft, whether for speed or seaworthiness. He and his son 
 own two sets of marine railways, which for twelve years past have been kept 
 
IZO 
 
 APPEIIDEii.V^SHIP BUinDING. 
 
 preEfy fUlly occupied witK 
 
 vessfel 
 
 s'tobfe repaired or rebuilt. His 
 
 list is a re- 
 
 markabie one, as follows : 
 
 
 
 
 
 Nehemiah Hand. 
 
 Bi^g t. W. EowJand 
 
 471 
 
 1855 
 
 Rig;. Name. 
 
 TSne. 
 
 Tear. Bark trra;nia 
 
 405 
 
 1856 
 
 Schr. Delight 
 
 41 
 
 1836 Schr. Andromeda 
 
 261 
 
 1857 
 
 Sloop Eliza Jayne 
 
 35 
 
 1837 Barii Pa:lace 
 
 368 
 
 1859 
 
 " Ha^rdscrabble 
 
 74 
 
 1839 Schr. iyidebaran 
 
 180 
 
 1860 
 
 " flelea Jayne 
 
 43 
 
 1841 Bri^ iiary E. Rowland 
 
 280 
 
 1862 
 
 " Dart, 
 
 18 
 
 1843 N. Hasd & Son. 
 
 
 
 " Commerce 
 
 8ii 
 
 1844 Brig Ainericus 
 
 498 
 
 1864 
 
 Sohr. Nancy Mills 
 
 109 
 
 1845 " Mary E. Thayer 
 
 272 
 
 1868 
 
 " Mary A. Eowlind 
 
 135 
 
 1847 Eiar'k Dfealdo 
 
 492 
 
 1870 
 
 « Albemafle 
 
 154- 
 
 1847 Brig Daisy 
 
 476 
 
 1871 
 
 South Hamjjton 
 
 180 
 
 1848 Barkendne Thos. Brooks 
 
 460 
 
 1872 
 
 " Marietta Hand 
 
 137 
 
 1849 Schr. N. Hand , 
 
 191 
 
 1873 
 
 " Nassau 
 
 169 
 
 1850 Bark Ferris S. Thompson 
 
 5(J0 
 
 1875 
 
 Brig N. Hand 
 
 263 
 
 1851 Brig Irene 
 
 475 
 
 1877 
 
 Sloop Chase 
 
 181 
 
 1852 Bark Lottie Moore 
 
 933 
 
 1878 
 
 Schr. Flying Eaiglfe 
 
 182 
 
 1853 " Monr jvia 
 
 360 
 
 1879 
 
 Bark 0. W. Pi'ultnev' 
 
 487 
 
 1854 Steamer Florence 
 
 50 
 
 1882 
 
 The above lists make a total of 33 vessels launched from that yard, 
 comprising! one steamer, 7 bark-s, i barkentine, 7 brigs, 11 schooners, 6 
 sloops, with! an aggregate (registered) of 8,964 tons. In 187Q the largest 
 vessel ever completed- in a Suffolk county — perhaps in a Long Island — ^yard 
 waslau^ched-from the yard of DaividiBayles at East Setauket. This was 
 the -full-rigged ship Adorna, built by Capt. James Davis for the cotton 
 trade between New Orleans and Liverpool and stvll engaged in foreign 
 trade, though now sailing under the German flag. , She registered i , 460 tons 
 ahd' has a capacity of over 2,000 ions. Capt. Davis, who was largely irtterest- 
 edin the cotton tradcand had made a great deal of money, set out to build 
 the largest vessel afloa,t, and s'peiit intrch money and time in collecting 
 njaterial at Boss Bayles' yard ; work' was begun and the frame put together 
 for a ship that was to measure 235 feet in length, 40 feet beam, and 31 
 feiat in depth; but owing to some specul9.tions that turned out disastrously 
 Capt , Davis' resources were crippled and he was forced to abandon the un- 
 dertaking ; the frame was finally sold to the New Jersey R'ailroad Co. , by 
 whose direction it was cut dowrf to a depth- of 20 feet, finished as a propel- 
 ler or steam coal barge, cajr-rying, over 2,000 tons, and named the Wilkes- 
 barre. 
 
 BaymS & Baoon. 
 
 Big. Name. Tons. 
 
 Sloop Emily 80 
 
 Schr. Arrow 164 
 
 " Edna C. 200 
 
 Slo'op Fashion 100 
 
 DaVid B. Baulks. 
 
 Schr. E. Wi Brown 290 
 
 Francis Satterly 200 
 
 " Marcenas Monson,3r.ll5 
 
 " Charles T. Smith 117 
 
 Sehr,, Wide World 200 185* 
 
 Tsar. " (S-giasted) Fleet Wing 520 1855 
 
 1847 " Dexter Oak-8 175 1855 
 
 1848 " D.B. Bayles 1^0 I856 
 
 1848 Sloop Meteor 50 1857 
 
 1849 Schr. Harriett Bi'dwster 180 1859 
 Brig Conflict 80 1859 
 
 1850 Ship Adorna 1^460 1869 
 
 1851 " (unfinished) aftet- 
 
 1852 ward coal propeller 3,700 1876 
 1853 
 
ASVEKDIXj — SHIP BUILDING^ 121 
 
 Setauket. 
 Wm. B!acon. 
 This builder constructed in aV., forty vessels, ranging from looto 700 
 tons burden, but is unable to give the exact tonnage, and ' application for 
 further information proved resultless. 
 
 At Riverhead John Davis Built schooners Artist and Citizen, and 
 sloops Olive Branch, Copy, Wm. Penn, John Adams, Sophroniaj Marsh, 
 and Signal. Frank Davis built schooner Mary E. Woodhull stfid sloop 
 yacht Peerless. 
 
 Cold Spring. 
 
 More or less of shipbuilding and ship-owning has been carried on 
 upon the shores of this admisrable harbor, one of the' best on L. L Sound, 
 from an early date; but persistent inquiry has failed to elicit %ny very definite- 
 information respecting thie vfefesels or their builders in early days. The bay 
 and harbor form a fine shelter for both large and small craft, being de6p, spa- 
 cious and safe in all kinds of weather ; hence, naturally,- the vidnity became 
 the Home of many seafaring men and has so continued since thesettfement of 
 the town. Beside the lists of[fecent builders some facts may be stated relating 
 to the earlier part of the present centur^. In 1836 the sloop Pfeniier of 
 136 tons burden, Capt. Wood, traded from Cold Spfin^ to South Carolina ; 
 the sloop Mediterranean, 100 tons, Capt. Jones, was in the Albany trade. 
 In 1846 the schooner Silas Wright, i3prtons, Capt. Conklin, traded with 
 the West Indies ; the schooner J. B.- Gager, Capt. Fowler, traded in the 
 Gulf of Mexico. Since that date the following are some of the vessels 
 hailing from that port : Schr. Sarah Maria, 1 75' tons, Rogers, Central 
 Anierica ; schr. NarciSSa. izotons, Jones, -Boston ; schr. John D. Jones, Ber- 
 dell, Virginia; brig John H. Jones, 5ot) tons, Mills, Mobile; brig Mary 
 E. Jones, Capt. E. M. Jones, Malaga ;, schr. Eliza J. Raynor, Sally Mer- 
 ritt, Wm. L. Peck and others; Previoiis to the War of 181 2, Cold Spring 
 was largely engaged in the manufacture' of flannels and broadcloths, and 
 also ground large quantities of grain for eastern markets,' ftAghtmg the 
 grain from North Caroliha and froa the Hudson River. Cold Spring was 
 the second pfefefe On'thfe Sound shore at which a steamboat connection 
 with New York was formed. 
 
 Elwood Abbams. John Bbnnbtt., 
 
 Jlig. Name. Tons. Tear. Eig. Navme. Tons. Tear. 
 
 Sfoop E. A. Willis 35 1868 Sfehr. Sarah L. Merritli 67 1866 
 
 Schr. Fortuna 3t 1870 '' Wm. L. Peck 78 1867 
 
 Sloop Sarah F. Tooket 15 1872 Daniel Gilus. 
 
 Scfcr. Hattie Chevalier 37 1873 ScHr. Ann Dole 185 1868 
 
 Stony- Brooe. 
 ^ More or Veks of shipbuilding has been carried on at this place from att 
 early date. It occupies a favorable locdtton on the east side of a good 
 harbor projecting southward from the eastern side of Smithtown Bay. A 
 portion of . th.e village, lies on the western side of the harbor, 
 in the town of Smithtown, One of the prominent builders; Mr. 
 David T. Bayles, who in recent' years has practically retired from 
 the business, in ■ sending me his list' does not claim for it entire ac- 
 curacy as to tonnage by either the new or old cu.st6m house standard of 
 measurement; dr by ■Whit is called th'^ "carpenter's measurement"; his 
 
122 
 
 APPENDIX. — SHIP BXnLDIinS. 
 
 books do not contain these data, and he has to rely on memory for the 
 carrying capacity or dead weight tonnage. Since, some nine years ago. he 
 turned his attention to other business, his yard, except for some repairing, 
 lay idle till about i8 months ago, when he built for Greenport parties the 
 handsome schooner B. F. Jayne. 
 
 
 David T. Batles. 
 
 Rig. Name. 
 
 Tons. 
 
 Eig. 
 
 Name. 
 
 Tods. Sohr. (S-masted) Royal Aroh 
 
 600 
 
 Schr. 
 
 Reneloba Hallock 
 
 250 " Golden Ray 
 
 140 
 
 U 
 
 B. W. Hawkins 
 
 BOO " Wm. R. Knighton 
 
 300 
 
 «c 
 
 Village Queen 
 
 300 " (S-masted) Anna 
 
 800 
 
 « 
 
 Luna 
 
 170 " Caribbean 
 
 850 
 
 <l 
 
 Golden Rule 
 
 125 " B. F. Jayne 
 
 150 
 
 « 
 
 Oceanus 
 
 380 
 
 
 To the firm of Jonas Smith & Co., shipping merchants at 66 South 
 St, N. Y., I am indebted for the following compilation of vessels built at 
 Stony Brook (other than those built by Boss D. T. Bayles), between the 
 years 1835 Mid 1868 : 
 
 Jonas Smith. 
 Rig. Name. 
 
 Sebr. Repeater 
 
 " Vindicator 
 
 " Ann Smith (No. 1) 
 
 " Regulus 
 
 " Jonas Smith (No. 1) 
 
 " L. P. Smith 
 
 " Wm. U. Smith 
 
 " Ann Smith fNo. 2) 
 
 " Jonas Smith (No. 2) 
 
 " A. J. DeRossette 
 
 " N. W. Htuith 
 
 " D. B. Warner 
 
 " Oolonel Satterly 
 
 " Helene 
 
 " Charles Dennis 
 
 « L. 8. Davis 
 
 " Target 
 
 Smithsonian 
 
 " Jonas Smith (No. 3) 
 
 " Nancy Smith 
 Sloop Emerald 
 
 " Merchant 
 
 " Translation 
 
 " Valor 
 
 " Balina 
 
 CHABIiES D. HaLUXSK. 
 
 Rig. Name. 
 
 Schr. Charles D. Hallook 
 
 " R. Hallook 
 
 " Julia A. Hallock 
 Sloop Guide 
 
 " Pandora 
 
 " Velocity 
 Sloop Capitol 
 
 " Adonis 
 
 Daniel Wiluahsom. 
 bioop Illinois 
 
 " Orator 
 
 Ebenezbr HaIiLoce. 
 Name. 
 Monterey 
 Harriett Hallock 
 Julia M. Hallock 
 Adell 
 
 EuAS Smith. 
 Bell 
 
 Tons. Rig, 
 150 Schr, 
 200 " 
 100 " 
 120 " 
 200 
 
 190 Brig 
 175 Schr. Olive 
 120 Gideon Smith. 
 
 220 Sehr. Equator 
 200 " Deception 
 275 " Sylph 
 260 Sloop Lady Helen 
 230 " Isabella 
 250 Daniel T. Williamson. 
 
 280 Schr. Wm. S. Mount 
 847 « Sbepard A. Mount 
 360 " Sea Witch 
 890 Wm. Welm. 
 
 400 Schr. Topic 
 441 « Onel 
 
 50 Sloop Brookhaveu 
 
 50 « Apollo 
 
 60 •' Goldleaf 
 
 50 Joel Ratnob. 
 
 110 Schr. Alabama 
 
 WiLUAM Davis. 
 Tons. Sohr. Sophia C. Davis 
 150 Samuel Cabman. 
 
 150 Sohr. St. James 
 180 " Martha M. Heath 
 
 50 '< Tanner 
 
 50 " Alareoh 
 
 90 RicBABD Davis. 
 
 90 Sloop Ann Eliza 
 
 75 " George H. Davis 
 " Consul 
 
 70 Jesse Davis. 
 
 70 Sloop Copy 
 
 Tons. 
 150 
 175 
 180 
 175 
 
 200 
 160 
 
 100 
 
 100 
 
 100 
 
 90 
 
 30 
 
 110 
 120 
 120 
 
 120 
 
 120 
 
 90 
 
 90 
 
 150 
 
 200 
 
 130 
 250 
 320 
 220 
 
 60 
 50 
 60 
 
 50 
 
AFKENDIX. — SHIP BUILDING. 1 2 3 
 
 At Setauket, on the stream below the grist mill, sloops Mechanic and 
 Brilliant, each of about 60 tons, were built in 1816 ; in the summer of that 
 year (ever since known as the "cold summer"), mechanics at outdoor 
 empIo}mients worked in their overcoats. 
 
 Southampton Village. 
 
 One of the places least likely to be supposed a possible site for ship - 
 building is the ancient village of Southampton, which, though borderin g 
 the Atlantic, has no direct water connection with it and would seem to of- 
 fer no possible mode of putting afloat any vessels that might be built there. 
 But to the right kind of will there is said always to be a way; and fifty 
 years ago this good old village had not only a man of will and original 
 ideas in respect to shipbuilding, but also a connection, somewhat remote 
 but direct and sufficient, with the ocean, through an inlet into Shinnecock 
 Bay, into which bay Heady Creek flows from the west pajf of the village, 
 making the eastern boundary of the Shinnecock Neck or Reservation. 
 At the period referred to William French resided on what is called Hill 
 street, which runs westerly toward the Neck, and at some little distance 
 from the creek. He was noted as a man of ideas, not always practical 
 and, like others whose fate it is to be ahead of their times, was often 
 laughed at and perhaps despised. But this did not prevent him from experi- 
 menting and trying earnestly to carry out some of his new notions. Among 
 other things he conceived the idea of building a three-masted centre-board 
 schooner ; and the claim is made for him that he was the first to construct 
 such a vessel. At any rate he started to build, in the wide street before 
 his house, a vessel of light draught, primarily designed for the trade in pine 
 wood which than constituted almost the whole traffic between eastern Long 
 Island and New York, and spent some time in collecting material from the 
 native woods of the vicinity. At first he set out to build her himself with 
 the help of some house carpenters, but after a while he found that this 
 course would never do, and after spoiling much good timber he procured 
 the help of a master shipbuilder and assistants. After a long time, during 
 which he exhausted most of his available means, in October, 1835, by the 
 help of many yoke of oxen, the novel craft — strange in rig, in model and in 
 construction, and doubly strange by reason of the apparent solecism in- 
 volved in its being built in such a place — was trundled laboriously from the 
 house of Mr. French down into the waters of Heady Creek and there, 
 not without hitches and halts, was finally floated. She was loaded with 
 wood and taken through the inlet out to sea and sailed to New York, 
 where she and her cargo were sold to relieve her builder's pressing neces- 
 sities. It is said that she attracted a great deal of attention and was much 
 admired for her shape, fine lines and general cleverness of model ; she 
 proved a fast sailer and was employed for a time in trade with Southern 
 ports, making trips as far as New Orleans, and afterwards she went into the 
 L. I. Sound trade. An unverified tradition asserts that when last heard from 
 ■he was a slaver on the Spanish Main. She measured about 80 tons burden. 
 It is said that Mr. French took his idea of the extremely sharp bow which 
 he gave to this vessel from observing, in N. Y. city, one of the famous clip- 
 per ships which were beginning to be built in those days. She had two 
 centreboards, and was named the Sarah Helen. 
 
 About 8 or 9 years afteiwards Mr. French built at the same place an- 
 other craft — a two-masted schooner, considerably smaller, which was 
 
1241 
 
 APPEMDIX.^'^-«HIP BUmmN©,' 
 
 Tons.. 
 
 81 
 
 92 
 
 136 
 
 laftmched in thfe same w£ty I and was employed for some years on L I, 
 Sound ; her ultimate end is iiot known; Th© chief peculiarity abqut, this 
 vessel was the fact that I (instead, lofipknking on the outside in the, usual 
 way, she was covered with boards or strips laid oiii crosswise and: nailed<iat 
 the intersections ; this idea did not work well, as she soon became leaky. 
 She was named thg Phantom. 
 
 GjtiEENPORT. 
 
 at GtrfesBnihill. 
 Eig^: ,Name. 
 Sohx. ,0^yBO,lite ■ 
 " Eipedite 
 " Charles Henry 
 " J^.Tt-umaii 
 " Traide Wind 
 Sloop Loflg feland 
 " ' Antecedent 
 
 Post &• Hand. 
 Sloop Sea Witeh 
 
 Silas E. Hand, , 
 South of ihe Kailroad.. 
 Schr. Wm. E.Dodge 
 " Maria' Mdrton 
 
 As to many of the earlier biiilt vessels, ,some,of which are mentioned 
 above while others are, hidden from the light of investigation, few and Iut 
 complete details could be procured. Aside froni , those mentioned a num- 
 ber were built at different times, of which ho data was obtainable. 
 
 At Southold Jdhn C Wells biiilt the schooner John C. Wells and ,thie. 
 sloops Fox and Defiance, Gilbe'rt Davis built at New Suffolk the sloop 
 Sar^n Alice; , he, al^o built two sl6ops at Greenport and relDuilt the sloop 
 D. D. "Webq. At jamesport Jdhn Diriion built , the schooner North State, 
 2o tpns. W. H. Corwin .built the schooner Anadir, 73 tons, sloop Sylph, 
 i2,tonsiand sloop yacht Sirocco, 20 tons. Several other, vessels, incj-uding 
 a number of large schooners, were built at New Suffolk and Jamesport. 
 
 KiOHABD Benjamin. Eig. N/ipie. Tons. 
 
 At E^anning's Point, south side of 8loop{sihack)WyaQdank ab't4d 
 Bailroad, - x_ . 
 
 aig. Nai''B. 
 
 Schr. Win. H. Eftwfe 
 " David G. Floy! 
 
 Sloop Native 
 
 Schr. Wm. 0. Kundson 
 
 
 Sloop (smaek) J. H. Eacey 
 
 
 " " Wild Pigeon 
 
 
 " .Emma Johnson 
 
 
 E. THOKNHIIiL. 
 
 
 Sloop Grampus 
 
 12 
 
 Haemo^ D. Bishop. 
 
 
 Who had j^rds on'both sides of Main 
 
 street. 
 
 
 Big. Name. 
 
 Tons/ 
 
 BarK Jane A.: Bishop 
 
 
 Buig Eastern, Star 
 
 238 
 
 Schr. Emeline Halaht 
 " Hannah M. Johnson 
 
 105 
 
 
 " Siam 
 
 52 
 
 Sloop Union 
 
 36 
 
 At East Marion 
 Schr. Tamanlipa8,a,bout 
 0. & b. Brook^ 
 
 Toils. 
 
 156 
 
 191: 
 
 20 
 
 200 
 185 
 
 1865 
 
 Harriet Poster 30 
 
 Year. .;,'< E. Betijaimfn 15 
 
 1865 HiBiAM Bishop; 
 
 1856 JBetweea the! yearsi 1839 and 1355^ 
 1859 at tae-yard/Dn the. Qorth side of 'Gen-.. 
 tral avenue (formerly Amity street) 
 1862, 8laoe occupied by his son ,Qltv«i:. H. 
 1865 Bishop and now the property, of 
 
 Al yard west side of Main Street. Elizur Matthews, successor to liat- 
 
 Sdhr. ' Charles Eeatf 139 
 
 • " J. Preetnan 132 
 
 Sloop Long Island 88 
 
 " John Post 38 
 
 " D. F. Ives 61 
 
 '■ (smack) Silas Henry 40 
 
 " Mary Elena 15 
 
 " (yacht) Wavelet 20 
 
 « Albati'688 ' 40 
 
 '"(BiHi^Gal'WmB 39' 
 
 1847 thews & Fdrdham. 
 1847 Schr. Sterling 
 1847 Brig Thos. Cook 
 1849 do Beoonic 
 1849 Schr. John 0. Ireland . 
 
 1849 do Sarah Strong 
 
 1850 do Minerva 
 
 1851 do Alida 
 
 1852 do Almefla 
 
 1862 do D. W; Dicklileoh 
 
AfFENDlX. — SHIP BUILDING. 
 
 125 
 
 Eig. Name. Tons. 
 
 Scbi. H. H. Talman 
 do H. E. Bishop 
 do Ruth Halsey 
 do Bainbow 
 
 Bloop (smack) Stoim Child 43 
 
 do HearchuB 46 
 
 do Frances A. Bishop 13 
 
 Sohr. Henry 67 
 
 Sloop (smack) Beindeer 
 do Margaret £. Wells 
 Sohr, Black Diamond 12t 
 
 Sloop Mary Frances 
 
 Boss Bishop also built the follow- 
 ing other vessels : At Moriches the 
 schooners Consul and Texas, and 
 sloops Traffic, Tradesman and Cadet. 
 At Speonk the sloops Three Brothers 
 and David Lamphier. At Squire's 
 Lauding, Peconic Bay, schooner Ore- 
 gon and sloop Lexington. At Wading 
 
 Elver sloop . He also rebuilt 
 
 out of other vessels the sloops Em- 
 blem and Floyd S. Warner. 
 
 In and near the same yard Calvin 
 Horton built sloops Hannah Maria 
 Webb, Van Buren, Odd Fellow and 
 Greenport. 
 
 H. E. & O. H. Bishop. 
 Sloop (smacb) Sophia 1865 
 
 Olivbk H. Bishop. 
 
 Sloop(8mack)CharlPS Miller 42 1860 
 
 do B. C. Cartwright 14 1865 
 
 do Dolphin 14 1866 
 
 Schr. Ada M. Hallock 29 1866 
 
 do smack A. M. O. Smith 44 1866 
 
 do do W. W.Dickinson 44 1866 
 
 do Marshall O. Wells 88 1867 
 
 do Olive Branch 69 1869 
 
 do Maria L; Davis 61 1869 
 
 Stmr. Cambria 33 1871 
 
 Sloop yacht Lulu 1871 
 
 do Agnes 13 1871 
 
 Schr. (S-masted) Charles W. 
 
 Alcott 296 1872 
 do do S. 0. Tyron 423 1873 
 
 do do HattieM.Crowell432 1873 
 do do Allen Green 489 1874 
 do do Lizzie Titus 200 1876 
 
 Sloop (sharpy), Centennial 20 1876 
 do Eva 8 1876 
 
 Big. Name. Tons. 
 
 Schr. Lena E. Eaplan 76 1878 
 
 Matthew & Foedham (same y&rd.) 
 Sloop Kansas City 26 188Q 
 
 Schr. (s'k)Samuel L. Storer 118 1882 
 
 Keiceam & Smith. 
 Schr. Almira Wooley 224 1867 
 
 do Emma M. Fox 238 1867 
 
 Sloop Mary A. Sisson 21 1867 
 
 do Joseph Smith 12 1867 
 
 Schr. S. B. Franklin 243 1868 
 
 do (s'k) Thos. S. Ecgers 52 1868 
 do Abel C. Buckley 234 1869 
 
 Smith & Bbbbiak. 
 Sloop Swan 24 1870 
 
 do Nevada 27 1870 
 
 do J. E. DeBloi* 27 1870 
 
 Schr. Luther Eldridge 15 1871 
 
 Sloop (yaeht)Tho'B G.Hunt 22 1872 
 do do Annie Homan 22 1872 
 Schr. (3-masted) Mary Free- 
 land 398 1872 
 Charles M. Smith. 
 Barkentine Melville Bryant 594 1874 
 
 Smith & Tebby. 
 Sohr. (smack) Josle Keeve 46 1878 
 Barkeii tine Wandering Jew 667 1880 
 Schr. (3.m't'dJ Freddie Hen- 
 
 cben 326 1882 
 
 do do Felton Beat re- 
 built into the 
 Barkentine Mascotte 594 1882 
 
 Schr. (smack) J. T.Becker 48 1884 
 do do Peter Cooper 50 ' 1884 
 do do JuiJaLGrattan 52 1886 
 Silas Hand — Greenport. 
 Schr. Bleecker 120 1847 
 
 do S. E. Hand 200 1848 
 
 do Sophia C. Davis 160 1849 
 
 Sloop Sea Wuch 100 1850 
 
 Schr. Trade Wmd 120 1851 
 
 Silas E. Hand— Greenport. 
 Sloop (smack) J. H. Bacey 50 1852 
 do Flying Cloud 80 1853 
 
 do (smack) WUd Pigeon 50 1854 
 Schr. Wm. E. Dodge 175 1855 
 
 do C. B. Enadson 200 1856 
 
 ao Maria Morton 125 1856 
 
 do Jennie M. Vandeveer 100 1860 
 
 SiiiAS E. Hand— Bellport. 
 do Baynor 100 1863