USA > New York > Suffolk County > Riverhead > History of Suffolk country, comprising the addresses delivered at the celebration of the bi-centennial of Suffolk county, N.Y., in Riverhead, November 15, 1883 > Part 1
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BI-CENTENNIAL
F 127 .5976
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS,
Chap 127 Copyright Da. Shelf $9TC
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
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அச்சு தா
234-5817
C
entennial.
HISTORY OF ~
SUFFOLK COUNTY,
+ COMPRISING THE +
ADDRESSES DELIVERED AT THE CELEBRATION OF THE BI-CENTENNIAL OF SUFFOLK COUNTY, N. Y., IN RIVERHEAD, NOVEMBER 15, 1883.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS COPYRIGHT NOV 13 1885 22847
0
OF W ASHINGTO
BABYLON, N. Y., BUDGET STEAM PRINT, I885.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1885, BY STEPHEN A. TITUS, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.
F127 5976
CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTORY :- PAGE.
"The growth of Suffolk county in Population, Wealth and Comfort," by EPHIER WHITAKER, D. D., 9
"The Formation of the Civil Government of Suffolk county," by HON. HENRY J. SCUDDER, 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. CHARLES R. STREET, 85
APPENDIX :-
Letter and Statistics, by JOSEPH NIMNO, JR., 93
MENHADEN FISHERY 98
INCIDENTS OF THE FISHERY IO3
SHIP BUILDING AND TONNAGE 106
INTRODUCTORY.
P ATRIOTIC 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 1, 1683. The initiative steps were taken by Mr. B. Van Dusen, editor of the Southold Traveler, who addressed 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 persons 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. 18th (Court week), immediately on the arrival of the mail train from the west, about II: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.
6
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, literary 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: John R. 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 . Osborn, 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. Osborn, 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.
SMITHTOWN-Hon. J. Lawrence Smith, Jacob B. Conklin, Coe. D. Smith, Herman T. Smith, Wm. Henry Mills, Theo. W. Smith, Elias S. Platt, Robert B. Smith, Edmund N. Smith, Wallace Donaldson.
ISLIP-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, Perry 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
7
INTRODUCTORY.
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 in 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 tasteful. 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 Nicoll, 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. 1, 1884.
THE GROWTH OF SUFFOLK COUNTY
-IN-
POPULATION, WEALTH AND COMFORT. -BY-
PHER
HITAKER,
T THERE is very generally a close 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 dense, must also greatly affect 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 and 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 variety in unity which is the essential condition, or even the source and soul of beauty.
IO
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 their birth and abode, which determined their course and history. The mountains of Judea rise under the same stars that beheld them when they were traversed by the feet of our Lord and His apostles. The Greeks, in the days of Æschylus and Plato, breathed the same air which now maintains the life of the inhabitants of Athens. The Rome of Cæsar 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 fruitfulness, 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, industry 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 vast that 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. Much more of the same fine soil will hereafter be possessed by the hand of culture, and thus promote the growth of the population. 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
II
POPULATION AND GROWTH.
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 corn 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 Seminary 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'Hommedieus; 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 the 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 became prominent in the place of his American home. He doubtless came to Southold through acquaintanceship with Captain Nathaniel Sylvester, the 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 own
-
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POPULATION AND GROWTH.
countrymen, found delightful entertainment in his affluent and protecting home. Here Benjamin L'Hommedieu met, wooed, won and married Capt. Sylvester's daughter Patience. They had a large family, and he lived to be ninety-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 was born in Southold, August 30, 1734, graduated at Yale College in 1754, 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 county and the founder of the Floyd family 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 Independence, a Senator of the United States, a Presidential Elector, and very active and prominent in the service of his country 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 same time, and also together at the same time in other important civil offices. 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 1801, as they had been at an earlier period in the Provincial Convention. They were admirable representatives of 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 1803, Catharine, daughter of Nicoll Havens of Shelter Island. They had no sons-three daughters. One of these, born in 1806, became the wife of Samuel S. Gardiner, Esq., of Shelter Island, whose children in- herited the Sylvester Manor. Mr. L'Hommedicu died in 1811.
There were also, in the formative period of our history, worthy rep; resentatives of the Dutch people, and among these may be mentioned those who bore the family names of Schellenger, Vorich, 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 others.
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 native 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- tion to maintain here a purer social and religious life, and freer and more
13
POPULATION AND GROWTH.
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 interpreters of the law in both Church and State; and this was a new departure in 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 maintaining 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 and rules for 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, their possessions should be under the control of such persons as were fleeing from England to avoid the persecution and injury there in- flicted upon those who were intent upon more liberty and safety in the kingdom, and more freedom and purity in the church than they possessed. In 1639, the freemen of the several towns of Connecticut associated and conjoined 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 shall require.""On this ground, they formed a permanent or- ganization, " to maintain and preserve the liberty and purity of the gospel of our Lord Jesus which we now profess, and also the discipline of the churches, which, according to the truth of the said gospel, is now prac- tised among us; 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 decreed." In the same year, 1039, the government of the Colony of New Haven was organized on essentially the same principles and for the same purposes. The following year, in 1640, our towns of Southold and Southampton were settled, the first under the New Haven jurisdiction from its origin, and the second soon after united itself to Connecticut. In 1643, the Puritan colonies of New England formed their Union, and said in the Preamble 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.
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