A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time, Part 150

Author: Ross, Peter. cn
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: New York ; Chicago : The Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1188

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III were discarded, being publicly ripped off ; and then an effigy of the personage represented by those letters, being hastily fabricated out of base materials, with its face black like Dun- more's Virginia [negro] regiment, its head adorned with a wooden crown, and its head stuck full of feathers, like Carleton's and John- son's savages, and its body wrapped in the union instead of a blanket or robe of state. and lined with gunpowder, which the original seems to be fond of-the whole, together with the letters above mentioned, was hung on a gallows, exploded and burnt to ashes. In the evening the committee of this town, with a large number of the principal inhabitants, sat around the genial, board, and drank 13 patri- otic toasts, among which were: The free and independent States of America, the General Congress, The Convention of the 13 States, Our Principal Military Commanders, and Suc- cess and Enlargement of the American Navy. Nor was the memory of our late brave heroes who have gloriously lost their lives in the cause of liberty and their country forgotten."

On August 12, 1776, Colonel Josiah Smith marched from Smithtown for Brooklyn, pick- ing up the companies of his regiment on the way. There seems some doubt as to the num- ber of men he took with him into the brief campaign which ended in the retreat of the Continental forces from Long Island. Mr. Henry P. Johnston, in his "Campaign of 1776," estimates the whole at 250, but Mr. Pelletreau seems to think this an underesti- mate. Nor can we determine exactly the num- ber of men from Huntington who were in the disaster of August 27th. It would seem, however, that on that day 100 men were sent from Huntington to join General Woodhull and assist him in his humble mission of driving away the cattle from before the enemy. The results of the battle of Brooklyn paralyzed all military effort, although some of the ardent spirits at Huntington were for continuing the struggle ; but on September Ist General Oliver De Lancey and the Seventeenth Dragoons were in full control, and a day later Hunting-

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ton's Chief Magistrate, Isaac Wood, formally surrendered it to the royal authority, and the awful reign of the army of occupation com- menced.

Then followed the usual acts of pillage, confiscation and ruin, of which we have seen so much. In Huntington there was no room for doubting the sentiments of the great body of the people, as there might have been justly in Queens, and so it seems that the troops carried on their mission in a much more high- handed manner in this township than even in Oyster Bay. One of the first of the British hauls was a prize of 160 casks of oil and twenty gallons of molasses, which were put on board two vessels, which were also vir- tually confiscated, and sent to New York City. Every horse fit for troop or team work was seized, wagons, boats, grain, live stock, for- age,-all that could be useful to an army were seized, paid for at valuation fixed by the mili- tary authorities when the victim was a Loyal- ist or confiscated when a pronounced or sus- pected Patriot. Even men were impressed into the royal service to drive the teams or convey the live stock to Jamaica, or to cut down wood for the use of the military. The requirements of the troopers pressed heavily on all classes, many. of the most pronounced Patriots aban- doned their property and sought refuge in Connecticut or service in the Continental army; the oath of allegiance was ordered to be taken by all of the adult male population, and the records show that 549 of the dwellers in Huntington gave this evidence of their lip loyalty at least to the dominant cause. Those who had belonged to the local militia were compelled to do military duty, such as guard mounting, etc. As the period of the occupa- tion progressed and the township was overrun by the Loyalist regiments,-the scum of the population in the large cities, -- robbery and wanton destruction of property became the rule and all pretence of any law except that of might and the drum-head was abandoned. The people were openly accused of being reb-

els, even those who had taken the oath being regarded with suspicion, and those who es- caped that declaration of lip loyalty were few, for Governor Tryon had swept Suffolk county as with a dragnet and forced the acceptance of the declaration with the alternative of an enforced trip to Connecticut.

Huntington was strongly guarded, for its position on the sound made it a likely place for landing parties of Patriots. Fort Frank- lin, at the west end of Lloyd's Neck, with seven or eight guns and a garrison generally of 300 or more men, was supposed to safe- guard this bit of coast from attack, but it be- came a place from whence marauding parties fitted out expeditions for shore robberies, and the pirates cared little when a chance for plun- der appeared about distinguishing whether their victims were Loyalists or Whigs, whether the booty was money, blankets or teaspoons. Even the regular soldiers got up pillaging parties, and "the Honorable Board of Asso- ciated Loyalists" was simply a refined name for a gang of thugs and cutthroats who, under the name of loyalty, enjoyed a season of lib- erty and rascality, and robbed whenever, wherever and whoever they could. An attack on this fort was made on July 1, 1781, by a force of Americans and Frenchmen, but they were repulsed by superior numbers, and the fort as a centre for pillaging parties continued for a little while longer.

In the center of the village of Huntington is a hill commanding a fine view of the sound. The people of the village had selected it as a place for the burial of the dead, and for over a century it had been so used, and the stones which marked its graves bore the names of every family in the place. It was, in fact, to them, holy ground, and we can imagine the indignation that was felt when, in 1782, Colo- nel Benjamin Thompson (afterward known as Count Rumford) decided to build a fort on the hill, and especially when his edict went forth that the people of the village were to as- semble with spades, axes and teams and help

AMERICAN BANK S

ON HUNTINGTON HARBOR.

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in the work of desecrating the graves of their ancestors. · The local militia were impressed into the unhallowed work, and over a hundred tombstones were removed and the ground lev- eled. For the erection of the fort a church was torn down, and even buildings in use were stripped of their outer walls, while or- chards, trees, fences were cut down or carried away without the slightest regard to personal property. The tombstones were used as floor- ing, some went into the construction of ovens, and bread was often seen bearing part of the inscription on a tomb from contact with one of these stones in the oven. The fort was completed and bore the appropriate name of Golgotha. Its remains are yet discernible. Some of the old gravestones left untouched by Thompson's troopers and more or less unwill- ing helpers are still to be seen, fragments of them, rather, for the hill was often swept by cannon shot. The hill itself is a veritable me- morial of the Revolution, more precious than mere human hands could contrive.

These cruelties and oppressions and rob- beries, however, belong to the past, and time has helped to soften the sense of their miseries and degradation. But the events of the Revo- lution have left in Huntington one memory which is as bright as ever, one hero whose name, which is and ever will be held in the very foremost rank of American patriots and whose dying declaration, "I regret I have only one life to lose for my country," will always be regarded as among the watchwords of lib- erty.

Nathan Hale was born in Coventry, Con- necticut, in 1755, and was educated at Yale with a view to entering the ministry. After he was graduated, in 1773, he taught school at East Haddam, and afterward at New Lon- don. He was so engaged when the news reached New London of the engagement at Lexington, and was one of the speakers at the town meeting that was called at once to consider the situation. He advised imme- diate action, saying, "Let us march immediate-

ly and never lay down our arms until we have obtained our independence." He at once en- rolled and was given rank as lieutenant. After the siege of Boston, in which his regiment participated and where he was promoted to a captaincy, he was ordered with his command to New York. There he distinguished himself by capturing one of the supply boats carrying provisions to the Gubernatorial ship of refuge, the "Asia," and the provisions provided quite a feast for his soldiers. In response to a call from General Washington Hale volunteered to pass the British lines in search of data, and in the guise of a Loyalist schoolmaster he entered most of the British camps on Man- hattan and Long Islands, estimating their forces, sketching their fortifications and ac- quiring other information which he deemed might be useful. His work was almost com- pleted on Long Island. He had crossed the sound from Norwalk, landed at Huntington Harbor at a point called the Cedars, and trav- ersed all through the British posts, returning to Huntington according to a date previously arranged about two weeks later to meet a boat that was to take him back to Norwalk. He saw a boat on the morning arranged approach the shore of Huntington Bay, and, supposing it to be the one he waited for, stood on the beach until its crew was landed. Then he saw he had made a terrible mistake, and the lowered rifles pointing at him made escape impossible. He was taken on board a pris- oner and rowed to the frigate "Halifax," then in the bay, and the evidence found concealed in his boots left no doubt of his guilt. Hale was taken to New York and condemned to death as a spy. His execution took place Sep- tember 22, 1776, in New York City. The ex- act place is not known, although it is generally conceded to have been elsewhere than in City Hall Park, where MacMonnies' statue repre- senting Hale just before his execution now stands.

Huntington is proud of her association with this hero. In 1894 a neat fountain lamp

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was erected in the village "to commemorate the patriotism of Nathan Hale," and on the shores of the bay, near the scene of the cap- ture, a boulder weighing forty-five tons was laid from a field near by. It bears three mas- sive bronze memorial tablets, one of which repeats a part of Hale's words when he ac- cepted the mission which demanded his life,

service its claims to the performance of that service are imperious."

Huntington Bay is about a mile from the village, and is one of the most delightful "bits," as a landscape painter might say, along the coast of Long Island Sound. "As a whole," said a writer in Scribner's Magazine for May, 1881, "it resembles the track of a bird. The

NATHAN HALE

NATHAN HALE MEMORIAL AT HUNTINGTON.

"I will undertake it. I think I owe to my country the accomplishment of an object so important and so much desired by the com- mander of her armies. * Yet I am not influenced by the expectation of promo- tion or pecuniary reward. I wish to be useful and every kind of service for the public good becomes honorable by being necessary. If the exigencies of my country demand a peculiar

rear claw is the narrow entrance from the sound ; the center of the foot is the main body of water, and three or four claws are spread from this westward, southward and eastward. Each long, narrow harbor is diversified with many points and coves that surprise you as you explore it. You pass, farther and farther inland, among the wooded hills and along the clean sand beaches. A sloping field here and

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HUNTINGTON.

there, an orchard covering a low farm-house, or a villa on a commanding knoll, are minor points in the charming panorama of the shores. In-and-out, in-and-out, is the course of land and water ; and in their devious way they play many tricks at hide-and-seek, and draw you on from nook to nook by the most attractive pictures. At last you reach the head of the harbor, with its salt meadow of waving grass, its old tide mill, its pond, and the shady village sheltered among the encircling hills. You can explore still farther with pleasure by following the roads and lanes through scenes of unusual beauty. The road may skirt the beach of a sand-locked bay bordered with forest; it may lead past old farm-houses, orchards and typi- cal barn-yards; or it may mount the hills of a headland or neck commanding extensive views of tortuous harbors, rounded headlands, long tongues of white sand dividing the blue water, the wide horizon of the continent, and the sound stretched eastward to the Atlantic."

When hostilities ceased the population was only a little over 1,000, and the township's losses by the occupation were figured at about £75,000. Civil law was quickly restored; the town meeting again held its supreme position as the arbiter of local affairs, and farm and mill combined to make Huntington once more a prosperous as well as a peaceful community. By 1790 the township had doubled its popula- tion, but it would seem that some of the new- comers had not proved either well-doing or prosperous, or perhaps deserving of either, for the overseers of the poor then found it necessary to buy a building in the village for the purposes of a poor-house. This house was continued to be used for that purpose until 1868, when a poor farm was bought at Long Swamp. In 1872 the paupers belonging to the township were removed to the county institu- tion as Yaphank, Brookhaven township.

The War of 1812 caused a good deal of alarm in Huntington, considerable powder was sent there, as in 1776, and the local militia once marched to Lloyd's Neck on a false alarm

that the British were landing troops in that vicinity. But the war only brought rumors, and the township was permitted to work out its problems of progress and development in peace.

The Civil War found Huntington again ready to "rally round the flag." Many of her sons went to the front and never returned, but the handsome soldiers' monument and memo- rial house show that their devotion has not been forgotten. The course of the Civil War brought into active service, after he had been officially retired, a veteran whose home had been in Huntington for many years. This was Admiral Hiram K. Paulding, a son of John Paulding, one of the trio which captured Ma- jor Andre. Admiral Paulding entered the navy as a midshipman in 1811. took part in the victory of September 11. 1814, on Lake Champlain under McDonough, and was pro- moted lieutenant in 1816, during the Algerian War. By the usual slow process of promotion through the various grades he was retired with only the rank of captain, when he reached the age limit for active service, December 21, 1861. On July 16, 1862, he obtained the rank of rear admiral and was in command of the Brooklyn Navy Yard until May, 1865, when he returned to Huntington and again resumed the pleasures of private citizenship. He died there October 20, 1878.

In 1872 the township was divided by the general consent of the people, the southern part becoming an independent township under the name of Babylon. It was said at the time that the reason for this change was simply a lack of sympathy or coherence between the people on the northern side of the township and those on the south, but possibly the real reason was that the Long Island Railroad, when it had completed its road from Hicks- ville to Greenpoint in 1844, practically divided the township into two sections, and in 1868 the northern half got a railroad of its own by the extension of the branch from Syosset.

In these modern days Huntington village

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is a thriving country place, proud of its past and more than hopeful as to its future. It has eight churches, a bank, two weekly papers, exceptional educational facilities, and an esti- mated population of 4,000, a Masonic lodge (Jephtha, No. 494), an Odd Fellows' lodge, and a number of other organizations.

Northport, formerly Great Cow Harbor, now boasts a population of some 1,800. Its Presbyterian Church has a record dating from 1794, although not always located in the vil- lage. The most famous of its ministers was the Rev. Joshua Hartt, who held forth to its people from about 1780 until 1809, by which time the congregation had dwindled down until only a handful remained. The Rev. N. S. Prime, the historian of Long Island, then took hold and succeeded in reviving it so that at the conclusion of his stay of eighteen months it had a membership of forty. The

Rev. Mr. Hartt continued to act as "pulpit supply" until his death, in 1825. He was a great "marrying minister," for some reason or other, and probably mated more couples in Huntington than any other clergyman, one record placing the number as high as 500. It is now a manufacturing village, with an increasing summer boarding business. As much might be said for Centerport, which in olden times rejoiced in the name of Little Cow Harbor, and for Cold Spring, the sur- roundings of which have been described as being "as charming as those of the Lake of Como." There are several other smaller set- tlements all through the township. It pos- sesses many splendid agricultural sections, but its glory lies in the part lying between the railroad and the coast, and in that portion of the township there is little doubt that rapid and wonderful developments are certain in the immediate future.

OLD SCHOOL BUILDING, COLD SPRINGS HARBOR, N. Y.

NEW SCHOOL BUILDING, COLD SPRINGS HARBOR, N. Y.

CHAPTER LXV.

BABYLON.

P ROPERLY speaking, the history of Babylon township only commences with March 13, 1872, when she was constituted to the dignity of a sep- arate community with the following as her boundary lines, according to the act of the Legislature :

"On the north by a line commencing at the boundary line between the towns of Hunting- ton and Oyster Bay, one mile north of the line of the Long Island Railway, and running thence easterly and parallel with said Long Island Railway until it reaches a point on the boundary line between the towns of Hunting- ton and Islip one mile north of the Long Island Railroad; on the east by the town of Islip; on the south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the town of Oyster Bay; the eastern and western boundaries being the lines now estab- lished and recognized as the town divisions of the said several towns respectively."

Up to the time the act took effect, on the date above given, the general history of Hunt- ington applies to Babylon. It had its Revolu- tionary experiences and heroes, it had its little excitements in 1812, and it contributed its full proportionate share to the heroes who went to the front in the Civil War, yet these are part of the history of Huntington and only belong to Babylon in a sort of reflected light as the glory of Shakespeare and Milton belongs to the literature of America.

The part of Huntington now included in Babylon had a slow growth. Mr. James' M. Cooper, the town's historian, says : "Doubtless

few if any dwellings or other buildings were erected in this portion of Huntington previous to the year 1700. The land first purchased on the south side was bought by the settlers on the north shore. They bought the marshy necks of land on the South Bay, which were then and are now covered with an abundant growth of salt sedge and black grass. These lands at that period appear to have been more highly prized by the inhabitants of the town than the uplands. The farmers were in great need of hay with which to feed their domestic animals, and English grasses were but little cultivated on Long Island until about 1800. The early yeomen spent the early portion of the fall months in cutting, curing and carting the liay from these marshes to their north- side homes." Mr. Cooper also remarks: "It is rather a singular fact, although more than two centuries have elapsed since the town has been settled by the white race, and its west- ern limits are only about thirty miles from New York City, more than three-quarters of the land in the town remains in an uncultivated state, that portion which is cultivated being on the eastern and northwestern parts and along the southern or post road."

That was written in 1880, and although the population has wonderfully increased since then, and the railroad mileage more than dou- bled, and the land boomers have been zealous- ly at work, the same sentence might be penned at the present writing (1901). The shore is now lined with pretty villas and mansions. Babylon and Lindenhurst and other places

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have become popular centers for the "summer boarder" business, vast hotels have sprung up. some of them among the most perfectly fitted up and most beautifully attractive of any near the metropolis, golf links have been laid out, sporting clubs of all sorts have been organ- ized, and even the sandy wastes of Oak Island and Muncie Island have been adapted to the uses of man and been transformed into health or pleasure resorts : but still the track of all this excitement is bounded pretty much by the lines laid down in 1881. Then, too, it lasts only for about four months in each year, and for the rest of the time, except for its oystering and clamming industry, Babylon township. as a whole, resumes its old-time quietness and soli- tude.

"The oldest house in the town," writes Mr. Cooper. "perhaps in the county, is situated near the Huntington line. It was built by Cap- tain Jacob Conklin, who was impressed on board of Captain Kidd's ship and served under him on one of his voyages. On Kidd's return from his last voyage, and while his vessel, the 'San Antonio,' lay in Cold Spring Harbor, Conklin and others, having been sent on shore for water. hid themselves and did not return to the ship. Doubtless they feared Kidd's arrest and trial, and dreaded lest they might be punished with him. They were for some time secreted among the Indians. Conklin purchased a large tract of land from the na- tives, of which the farm late the property of Colonel James F. Casey is part, and upon which the venerable mansion above alluded to is situated. The house was probably erected about 1710, and every part of it bears evi- dence of its antiquity. The high hill behind the dwelling commands a splendid though dis- tant view of the ocean and bay. Near by are several fine springs of water, one of which is said to be of medicinal character.

"Captain Jacob Conklin was born in Wilt- shire, England, probably in 1675, and died at his residence in this town in 1754. His wife was Hannah Platt, of Huntington, by whom

he had several children, among them Colonel Platt Conklin, who was an ardent patriot dur- ing the Revolution. The latter had only one child, Nathaniel, who was Sheriff of the coun- ty. He was the third owner of the premises above described. This property descended to the grandchildren of Sheriff Conklin, thus hav- ing been owned by four successive generations of the family. It has since been owned by Dr. Bartlett, formerly editor of the 'Albion,' Colonel James F. Casey, and Ulysses S. Grant, Jr."

The village of Babylon has an existence of about a century, and seems to have originated in a saw mill and a flouring mill built in the closing years of the eighteenth century, al- though there is a local tradition that the first house was erected about 1760. In 1801 Na- thaniel Conklin built a tannery and a eloth mill was begun by Timothy Carll about 1810. Conk- lin was the owner of large tracts of land in the vicinity of his mill, and it seems to be generally agreed that it was his mother who gave to the place its modern name.

The leading industry in Babylon in these modern times might be described as "hotel- keeping," and the business has been associated with it from almost the beginning of its his- tory. In the beginning of the nineteenth cen- tury an inn was opened by Jesse Smith, and the business then established is still known as the American House. It has perhaps, from the historian's point of view, a more interest- ing record than any existing house of enter- tainment on Long Island. It was one of the stopping places in the days prior to 1841 of the coaches carrying the mails, and was then. a popular place of "refreshment for man and beast." Among its many distinguished guests mention is made of Prince Joseph Bonaparte, ex-King of Spain and a brother of Napoleon the Great, who in the course of a tour through Long Island in 1816 put up at the hostelry for several days,-longer than he intended to, but he was overtaken by a sudden illness. This distinguished individual traveled around with

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a good deal of style, and his illness was doubt- less a most fortunate source of increase to the week's financial returns. The Prince was in search of a piece of property on which he might settle, but apparently was unable to find what he wanted and continued the search elsewhere, finally locating at Bordentown, New Jersey. In 1840 a much greater man than this King who had retired from business, was a guest for a night at the American House,- the immortal Daniel Webster, who rested at Babylon while on his way to arouse the Pat- chogue Whigs into a proper condition of en- thusiasmn. This he did, for on such an expe- dition failure with him was an impossibility.

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A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time, Part 150

Author: Ross, Peter. cn Publication date: 1902 Publisher: New York ; Chicago : The Lewis Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 1188

Author: Ross, Peter. cn
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: New York ; Chicago : The Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1188