A history of Mattituck, Long Island, N.Y., Part 3

Author: Craven, Charles E. (Charles Edmiston), 1860- 4n
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: [Mattituck? N.Y.] : Published for the author
Number of Pages: 418


USA > New York > Suffolk County > Mattituck > A history of Mattituck, Long Island, N.Y. > Part 3


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).


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The lower part of the lot next to the Creek was early sold. In 1719* Joseph Goldsmith, blacksmith, pur-


*Southold Printed Records, Vol. II., p. 479. Mr. Case is mis- taken in his note here, locating this plot on the North Road "directly in front of the house of Joshua Terry."


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chased from 3d Barnabas Wines eleven and a half acres on the highway, extending to the Creek. This was sub- stantially the Mattituck house property, extending far enough eastward to embrace the home of John C. Wells. The ground east of Mr. Wells' house is black with the traces of Blacksmith Goldsmith's forge of two hundred years ago.


At the time of this sale Wines still held the strip of land to the west extending to the Canoe Path, between the highway and the Creek. There are no conveyances. recorded, but in course of time both the blacksmith's property and the land between it and the Canoe Path were in the hands of the Hubbard family, and some time before the revolutionary war John Hubbard was keeping his tavern on the present site of the Mattituck house. By another transfer not recorded the land east of the blacksmith's purchase, extending from the highway to Long Creek, was already in the possession of Deacon Thomas Reeve, and remained in his family until recent times.


East of this first lot was the "second" (double) lot of Philemon Dickerson, east of this the double lot of Thomas Reeve, and east of this the "third" (triple) lot of William Wells. These three properties extended on the highway from the west side of Brown's or Wick- ham's Lane to H. B. Lupton's west line, a distance of about two hundred and thirty rods, which is slightly in excess of thirty rods for each of the seven single lots included. It is impossible to determine the partition lines with absolute certainty, but a careful study of all available wills and deeds relating to these properties leads to the following conclusion: The Dickerson and


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Reeve lots covered the B. S. Conklin, W. H. Pike and James Reeve (now Wm. Broderick) properties on the highway, two double lots of sixty rods each. The divi- sion between them ran midway in W. H. Pike's farm. The Wells "third lot" extended from Wm. Broderick's east line to H. B. Lupton's west, measuring some twenty- five rods in excess of the regular thirty rods for each single lot. Such irregularities in measurement were by no means uncommon. Thomas Mapes, the town sur- veyor, seems to have exercised a large discretion in lay- ing out the lots. Some are very scant and others very broad. William Wells was the largest land-holder in the town and if extra widths were coming to anybody they were coming to him.


That the dividing line between Dickerson and Reeve should have passed through the middle of an old farm such as that of W. H. Pike seems improbable to one unacquainted with the facts, but presents no difficulties' when it is known that both these properties came very early into the hands of the Reeve family and were re- garded as one great tract. The line between them was never fenced and the two double lots were eventually divided into three large farms.


The Dickersons never lived in Mattituck. Their lot passed by will to the sons of the second generation, and then by some unrecorded transfer the western half of it came into the hands of the Reeves. It has been seen that Deacon Thomas Reeve owned in 1719 much of the lower part of the lot next to the Creek. Even earlier he owned the whole of this great lot of the Dickersons. He built his house a few rods from the present residence of Bryant S. Conklin. He died there in 1761 at the age of


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77, was succeeded by his only son, Thomas, who died there in 1790. This Thomas was succeeded by his son Thomas, who, dying in 1823, left the upper half to his son Benjamin, and the lower half to his son Luther. Luther lived in the old homestead until his death in 1842 and was succeeded by his widow Elmyra who lived to be 86 years of age, dying in 1880. The widow El- myra Reeve and her son Thomas sold this land in many parcels ranging from I to 45 acres, about 1854 and 1855. Benjamin built him a house on the north road, and his grandson Thos. H. now lives on land that has been occupied by his family for about two hundred years.


As early as 1788 the middle farm, on the southern end of which Wm. H. Pike lives, was in possession of Barnabas Terrell, Esq. His title cannot be traced, but presumably he inherited as a Reeve descendant for the first of the Terrells in Southold, Thomas, married Mary the daughter of Ist Thomas Reeve. Barnabas Terrell, Esq., died in 1791 and appears to have been succeeded in ownership of the lower portion of this lot by his granddaughter Keziah (Horton) Reeve. She and her husband, Deacon John Reeve, sold in 1805 to William H. Pike the grandfather of the present owner. The up- per portion has changed hands many times and has been divided into very small holdings, including the farms of Patrick Drum, Perry S. Robinson, John Muttit, Pat- rick McNulty and the late Michael Garvey.


The eastern part of the Reeve lot was owned wholly or in part by William Reeve, who died in 1696, a son of Ist Thomas. This appears from a release given by Thomas Terrell in 1704 in the following terms: "These may certifie to all persons to whom It may come that I


HOUSE OF BARNABAS TURRILL, ESQ.


The wing of this house is still standing, at the rear of the residence of Win. H. Pike, Esq.


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Thomas Terell Mason doe acknolledge that William Revs desesed did formorlly purchas a pasell of saltte medow of me that did formorlly belong to me but was within his the above said Reevs Range be- · tween the. wollfe pit swamp and his froont boonds."* The wolf pit swamp, now a beautiful lake on the prop- erty of Capt. Ellsworth Tuthill, locates the range of William Reeve. This tract or part of it seems to have been owned by a Daniel Reeve in 1736, but there is no further trace of ownership until 1788 when Obadiah Hudsont appears as owner, mortgaging this property to Jared Landon and John Wells, Esquires, for the large sum of fooo. In the mortgage it is described as "a cer-


*The above is quoted from the original paper in possession of George B. Reeve, of Mattituck. An abstract, with more orthodox spelling, is in Southold Printed Records, Vol. II., p. 107. +Obadiah Hudson was probably a son of Richard, son of Jonathan, of Shelter Island. Richard was an elder brother of Samuel, who was the grandfather of Deacon Joseph, of Frank- linville, the great-grandfather of Wm. M. and Jos. B., of Mat- tituck. Obadiah left several children, and his descendants are many and honorable, but none is living in Mattituck. Like others of the revolutionary refugees, he suffered financial losses from which he never recovered, and his fine estate was sacri- ficed. He died in 1791. His son, Obadiah, who married Chloe, daughter of Jonathan and Chloe (Gardiner) Pike, lived for a time in the old house near the Lake. 2d Obadiah is said to have died at Commac, L. I., in 1846. 3rd Obadiah, born at Mattituck in 1797, was grandfather of Miss Emma I. Hudson, of Peekskill, N. Y., to whom the author is indebted for much interesting information concerning the family. A grandson of 3rd Obadiah is Commander William Henry Hudson Souther- land, U. S. Navy. He performed conspicuous service in the late Spanish war, in command of the "Eagle." Joseph, a younger son of 1st Obadiah, baptized in Mattituck in 1797, had a distinguished son, Captain William Leverett Hudson, U. S. Navy, who commanded the "Niagara," the ship that laid the Atlantic cable in 1858. He died in New York in 1862.


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tain tract or Parcel of Land and Meadows with all the Buildings and Tan fats thereon erected situate in that part of the Township of Southold called Mattituck." It is bounded on the north by the Sound and on the south by the Pond. The dwelling house was south of the road, near the present site of Geo. H. Fischer's ice house, the same that became the dwelling of Elymas


THE JAMES WICKHAM REEVE HOUSE. The home of Mattituck's first Sunday-school.


Reeve in 1825. It looks as though this property had been improved and the house built before the high- way was moved in 1710. The chain of ownership is lost again but appears next with Thomas and Joseph P. Wickham in possession between 1790 and 1820.


For a few years before his father's death, and be-


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fore he moved to the North Road, Benjamin Reeve owned six acres in the southwest corner of this prop- erty north of the highway, and dwelt in the house now owned by Wm. Broderick, that from 1822 until his death was the residence of the late James Wickham Reeve. This house was built about 1790 by the Wickhams and became the home of one of the first Sunday Schools in the country.


The founder of this Sunday School was Phebe Moore, the young wife of Joseph P. Wickham,* mar- ried in 1791. She was the seventeenth child of Dr. Micah Moore of Southold. Her mother, Abigail Hemp- stead, at the time of her marriage to Dr. Moore was the widow of Captain John Ledyard and mother of John Ledyard the famous traveler and explorer. Phebe, the half-sister of this remarkable man, was a remarkable woman. She was genuinely and deeply converted at the age of eleven and throughout her life displayed the graces of a beautiful Christian character. In four places where she made her home she established Sunday Schools. The first of these, shortly after her marriage, was in Mattituck. Here she gathered the children of the neighborhood of a Sabbath afternoon and taught them from the Bible. From that day to this, a period


*Joseph P. and Phebe (Moore) Wickham left no children. His sister, Parnel, married 5th James Reeve, and became the mother of the late James W. and Irad Reeve. After his first wife's early death, James Reeve married Mehetabel Downs, and their youngest daughter was named Phebe Moore. This Phebe Moore Reeve, in 1827, became the wife of Joseph Parker Wickham, son of Thomas, and nephew of the Joseph Parker Wickham who had married Phebe Moore in 1791. This Joseph Parker Wickham, by his second wife, Mary C. Taylor, was the father of Charles W. Wickham, now of Mattituck.


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of a hundred and fifteen years, Mattituck has never been without a Sunday School.


In 1822 James Wickham Reeve bought this dwelling- house with six acres from Benjamin Reeve, and from John Hubbard he bought the remainder of the lower portion of the range, eighty-five acres. About the same time his father, James Reeve, bought the upper part, through to the Sound, from John Woodhull. James Wickham Reeve owned all after his father's death. The property has been much divided. The portion on the highway is now owned and farmed by William Brod- erick.


The three lots of William Wells were divided after his death, in 1671, among his four married daughters. Gershom Terry and his wife obtained the first lot to the west, John Goldsmith and Anna Wells, his wife, the middle lot. The eastern lot, the extra wide one, was divided into two half-lots, of which John Tuthill, Jr., and Mehetable Wells, his wife, received the western and Jonathan Horton and Bethiah Wells, his wife, the east- ern. These half-lots were two miles long, about twenty- five rods wide at the road and narrower at the Sound.


The Gershom Terry lot, corresponding on the high- way to the Randolph, Stewart and Jacob A. Brown places, passed by will to David Terry in 1725. John Wickham bought of David Terry. Wickham was per- haps followed by John Case. In 1822 Benjamin Gold- smith, son of Rev. Benjamin, was in possession. The men of that family seldom recorded deeds, though they owned much land. In 1839 the southern portion up to the "Mill Road," eighty acres, was in possession of Thomas Overton and was by him sold to Samuel Brown.


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A HISTORY OF MATTITUCK.


Samuel Brown lived there for a number of years and sold in 1854 to Daniel Reeve, a son of Benjamin Reeve. Daniel Reeve, dying in 1858, left this fine property jointly to his brother Richard Steer Reeve and his sister Amanda (Reeve) Terry. It is now owned by Mrs. Rosalie (Terry) Randolph. The lot now the residence of Jacob A. Brown was sold from this larger property by Daniel Reeve in 1856. The Stewart property is also a section from this.


The Wells middle lot, now owned by Charles Benja- min on the south, fell to John and Anna (Wells) Gold- smith. They sold to Jonathan Reeve in 1684. This Jonathan was a son of Ist Thomas Reeve and a brother of Ist James who then owned the great Purrier estate south of the highway. The highway then ran south of the Lake, and the house of Jonathan Reeve probably stood on the hill where the Wickham cottage now is. Jonathan died in 1707. His widow, Martha, was in possession as late as 1725. It seems impossible to dis- cover when or how the Benjamins came into possession of this lot. From a deed for adjacent property it ap- pears that John Benjamin was the owner in 1776. In 1804 he left it by will to his son Isaiah. The north- side of this property was sold by the Benjamins to An- drew Gildersleeve in 1862.


How the Wines family came into possession of the two large half-lots is another unanswerable question for lack of recorded deeds. John and Mehetable (Wells) Tuthill sold the western half-lot, next to Mill Lane, to John Terry in 1692. Capt. Jonathan and Bethiah (Wells) Horton's half-lot descended by will in 1707 to their son William. In 1725 3d Barnabas Wines owned


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one of these half-lots, probably the eastern. In 1736 his holding here was still restricted to the half-lot, on which he was then residing. Not many years later he owned the whole lot from the highway to the Sound. He died in 1762 on the farm next east of Alvah's Lane. His son, 4th Barnabas, was then living on the farm next to Mill Lane.


The next allotments eastward originally belonged to Matthias Corwin and John Elton. They were "second" and "third" lots respectively and together extended as far as Elijah's Lane. The Corwin property covers the Lupton and Davis farms on the highway, the farm of J. M. Lupton on the Middle Road, the Ed. L. Tuthill, Bond, Burns and Hallock farms on the Oregon Road. The northern part of the farms of James J. Kirkup and Philip W. Tuthill also lay within the Corwin lot, which of course extended to the old highway. Matthias Cor- win, the first owner, had two sons, John and Theophilus. Theophilus seems to have settled early on the lot in Mattituck, locating his house on the old highway, where James J. Kirkup's house stands. There 2d Theophilus died in 1762, in his eighty-fourth year, owning the land south of his house, which had been acquired by purchase, extending to Gardiner's or Deep Hole Creek. John, the other son of Matthias, or his son John, came later to Mattituck and located on the north side of the new high- way, after 1710. The fact that the Corwin property lay on both sides of the present highway has given color to the prevalent mistaken idea that the Cutchogue lots ex- tended from Sound to Bay.


The Corwin property south of the highway was much divided by will and sale. Much of it came into posses-


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A HISTORY OF MATTITUCK.


sion of the descendants of John Corwin. The Kirkup farm was bought by James Worth, half in 1807 and half in 1825. It was held by him and after him by his son John until 1864, when it was sold to Frances J. Bryan, wife of Clark Bryan of Springfield, Mass., and daugh- ter of Charles Reeve, son of Irad, son of 5th James.


THE OLD CORWIN HOUSE.


Its present owner came into possession in 1880. Corwin land east of this after changes hard to trace became the property of Capt. Ira Tuthill, the father of the present owner. The Corwin land north of the highway, with the exception of the old house and lot in the southeast corner next west of La Mont Gould, passed to George Howell and from him to Parshall Davis who sold the "northside" in 1828 to John Woodhull, James Hallock'


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A HISTORY OF MATTITUCK.


and Ruport Hallock, and in 1850 sold the lower 150 acres to Josiah Lupton. Twenty acres on the eastern side, now the Davis farm, were sold to Wmn. F. Lane in 1858.


The old house in the corner of the lot was probably built by James Corwin, son of 3rd John, in 1763, the year of his marriage to Mehetable Horton. In that year James Corwin bought* "aboute one quarter of an acre of Land in Mattituck purchased of John Corwin [4th John, his brother] for £12 in hand paid adjoining Southerly to the highway or Road, Easterly to the lands of Joshua Clark." This lot was 6 rods and 12 feet on the front. This James Corwin was proud of his native place and describes himself in the town records as "James Corwin of Mattituck." But like many others he left the Island at the beginning of the Revolutionary struggle, and remained away. His quarter acre passed back to his brother, Deacon John. There Deacon John died in 1817, and there his son Major John died the year before his father.


The John Elton third lot extends to Elijah's lane and comprises the Gould, Mulford, Corey, Bergen and Geo. I. Tuthill properties on the highway, the Jacob A. and Wm. Austin Tuthill and the Robinson, Wyckoff and Duryee farms at the northside. John Elton was a son- in-law of Ist Barnabas Wines, and never occupied this property which after his decease was sold in 1677 by his executor, Rev. Joshua Hobart. The property com- prised something over three hundred acres, and, though a third lot, was not divided into three regular lots. The


*Southold Printed Records, II., p. 212.


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A HISTORY OF MATTITUCK.


western half, 150 acres came into possession of Samuel and James Cooper of Southampton, who sold to Samuel Clark in 1700. Clark settled there, and must have built immediately on the highway, for after the road was altered he owned a strip of land on the south side. He was succeeded by his son Joshua on the southern half of the property and his son William on the northern half. Joshua Clark lived here until his death in 1789.


Next to the Clarks was a narrow strip, 1612 rods on the highway and 10 rods at the Sound, called in the deed of sale "threescore acres," though it could hardly have been over fifty, and this was conveyed to Thomas Tusten, of whom we shall have occasion to say more presently. In 1684 Tusten sold this to David Gardi- ner, who two years before had bought the Pese- puncke Neck.


The remaining one hundred acres passed through several hands before the year 1700, and then the chain of title breaks. All of this Elton property came into the hands of the Tuthill family before 1800, and the later lines of title down to the present owners are easily traced.


From Elijah's Lane to Alvah's Lane there were five original owners: Thomas Mapes, one lot, Samuel King, one lot, Jeremiah Vail, three lots, Benjamin Horton, two lots, and Barnabas Horton, three lots. Of these the Mapes, King and Vail holdings, five lots in all, became later "the Manor," extending from Elijah's Lane to the foot of Manor Hill, and on the northside embracing the Wm. Tuthill and Tyson Hamilton farms and the farms of F. Asbury Tuthill, Tyson Hamilton, Jr., and Isaac N. Teed.


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A HISTORY OF MATTITUCK.


The Mapes lot, next east of Elijah's Lane, was left by Thomas Mapes by will to his son Jabez. The lot is described in the will as lying "against the old field at Curchauge." This indicates that the Indian field which covered most of the Corchaug and Fort Necks did not terminate at the foot of Manor Hill but reached some distance west of its summit. The highway of course skirted the north side of this field, taking advantage of a route already cleared, and it is probable that the bear- ing of the north boundary of the field had some influence in determining the trend of the highway to the south side of the pond.


The Samuel King lot next east of Mapes' was sold in 1697 to John Osman, planter. Further conveyances of the Mapes and King lots are not recorded, but these two lots appear fifty years later as the "New, or Terrill Manor." They were probably bought by Thomas Ter- rill, and by him sold to a syndicate who held them as common pasture land.


The next land east, the third lot of Jeremiah Vail, extending down Manor Hill as far as the little pond at its foot, and described in the old records as "butting on the small lots south," became, not long after 1700, the "Mapes Manor," afterwards sometimes called the "Old Manor." Before 1700 this property was chiefly owned by Thos. Tusten and Thos. Mapes, and William Mapes as the successor of his father. The transfer to the manor owners is not recorded, but later sales of rights in the Manors show that all of the leading families of the neighborhood were represented. The rights or shares of manor-land were five acres, undivided, and sold in 1741 for £8.


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A HISTORY OF MATTITUCK.


Next to the manor lands lay the second or double lot of Benjamin Horton, which soon passed into the hands of Thomas Tusten, a blacksmith, who married Priscilla, the daughter of Ist Richard Benjamin, and who, though not one of the original proprietors soon became a large land-holder. Tusten built his house on the north side of the highway near the foot of Booth's or Manor Hill, in the southwest corner of this lot. He appears to have been succeeded by his son Thomas, who died in 1736 in the 56th year of his age and is buried in the Mattituck church yard. This second Thomas Tusten let most of this property pass from his hands by sale before his death and it was soon in possession of a number of own- ers. The northern end of it is still known as "Tusten," a most desirable property for residence and cultivation, but now a tangled wilderness.


We have now passed the eastern limits of Mattituck, but as a matter of interest the names of the original land holders in the North Dividend of Corchaug as far as the old Town limits are given. Next to the Benjamin Hor- ton, or Tusten, property were the three lots of Barnabas Horton, extending to Alvah's Lane. East of Alvah's Lane were Barnabas Wines, Jr., 2 lots, Thomas Mapes, 2 lots, Thomas Terry, I lot, Thomas Cooper, 3 lots, Richard Terry, 2 lots, Robert Smith, I lot, Richard Ben- jamin, 2 lots, and Barnabas Wines, 2 lots.


We must retrace our steps westward now, and view the great lots west of the Canoe Place, that extended from Sound to Bay. The holders of these lots, from the Canoe Place to the present Riverhead Town line, were Thomas Mapes, 2 lots, Richard Clarke, I lot, John Tuthill, I lot, John Swasey, 2 lots, John Tuthill, 2 lots.


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Thomas Mapes thus describes his land :* "One divi- dent in Occabauck land lying next and adjoyninge to the Canough place by Mattituck pond, being in bredth eight score pole-in length from sea to sea-the land of Joseph Youngs, Junr. west."


This magnificent domain, "in length from sea to sea," extended westward to Cox's Lane, that was origin- ally the private road to the Mapes homestead on the "neck," and was long known as Mapes' Lane. The width of this double lot on the highway was far more than 80 rods-in fact it was about 160 rods-but this was to make allowance for the irregular boundary of the creek, as with Joseph Youngs' lot, east, and is not to be considered an instance of land grabbing on the part of Mapes, who was the town surveyor. A double lot in the First Division of Occabauck usually contained about 500 acres, and this property is not a great deal above that measure. The first Thomas Mapes dwelt on sixty acres now a part of the farm of Chas. W. Wick- ham, and never occupied this Occabauck land. Dying in 1687 he left it to his children: to Thomas, "half that division of upland and meadow on the west side of Mat- tituck Creek;" one-eighth to William, one-eighth to Jabez, and one-fourth to his daughter Abigail, the wife of Thomas Terrill. He had three other married daugh- ters, to one of whom he left fifty acres from his double lot in Corchaug, a little east of Alvah's Lane; to an- other, two sheep, and to the third, his "great brass ket- tle." As showing that he held the land west of Matti- tuck Creek in comparatively little esteem, it may be men-


*Southold Printed Records, Vol. I., p. 108.


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tioned that by his will he expressly entailed all of his land, excepting only this, "which may be bouct, sould or exchanged."


There is no record of the partition of this land among the four heirs. Jabez evidently came into possession of what is now known as Cox's Neck, and was formerly known as Mapes' Neck, for there he lived and died, and there, upon his death in 1732, he was succeeded by his son Joseph. Jabez also owned 50 acres south of the Riverhead road, reaching to the bay, next west of the Canoe Place, comprising what we call "South America," for he sold it to 2d James Reeve in 1725. This land was bounded on the west by Thomas Terrill's land. In those days a married woman's property was her husband's. Land left by will to her was usually deeded by the ex- ecutors to her husband, and when it was sold her hus- band's signature sufficed. Thus Abigail Terrill's inher- itance became Thomas Terrill's property. Terrill ap- pears to have held more than the one-fourth part that was willed to his wife. He was a mason, and like other men who supplemented their farming with trades he be- came wealthy and a large landholder, and it seems prob- able that he bought much of 2d Thomas Mapes' share. He owned the Vandenhove property (part of which is now in possession of Rear Admiral Charles Dwight Sigs- bee, U. S. N., and on the other half of which Judge H. F. Haggarty has lately built a handsome residence), the Hüsing farm, and the land at Horton's Creek now owned by Mrs. John C. Wells. He also owned the sixteen acres in Mattituck woods lately purchased by Otto P. Hallock, and probably a good deal of the land east of that between the two roads. The extensive holdings of




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