A history of Mattituck, Long Island, N.Y., Part 4

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 4


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the Hubbards, and later of the Shirleys, between the roads and also south of the Riverhead road were in- herited by John Hubbard in 1791 from his grandfather, Barnabas Terrel, or Terrill, who was the grandson or great-grandson of Thomas and Abigail Terrill.


Next to Mapes Richard Clarke held one lot. He removed to Elizabethtown, N. J., and sold this lot in 1683 to William Coleman, the son-in-law of Mapes. "Coleman's Rock" off the Sound shore is a memorial of this owner. This lot, about forty rods wide, takes in the residence of Arthur L. Downs, and the property north and south from Sound to bay. It is an interesting fact that the field across the highway from the house of Arthur L. Downs is still known as the "Coleman lot," be- ing so designated in the deed by which it was conveyed to Daniel Downs, the grandfather of the present owner, in 1830. Joseph and Robert W. Wells and Atmore Youngs, of Laurel, dwell on the southern part of this range.


The one lot of John Tuthill, next west, early passed into the hands of Joseph Youngs, Jr., the same who owned the first lot north of the highway west of the Creek. How the title passed to Youngs or from him is unknown, but in 1691 this lot was the property of Thomas Moore, and was by him sold to Richard Howell, who then dwelt where Chauncey P. Howell, a lineal descendant, now lives. Richard Howell established sev- eral of his five sons on this strip and there his descend- ants lived for several generations, purchasing in addition most of the Clark or Coleman lot, and most of Mapes' Neck also. On this Tuthill-Youngs-Howell lot now re- side Mrs. John Bergen, on the North Road, Joseph C.


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Cooper and George Henry Howard on Bergen Avenue, and George Clark on the South Road. The beautiful Laurel Lake is partly in this range, though singularly


LAUREL LAKE.


enough it is not mentioned in any of the old records of lands or deeds .*


Next west lies the second or double lot of John


*Since the above was written "a fresh pond" mentioned in a deed in Southold Printed Records, Vol. II., p. 446, has been identified as Laurel Lake. This deed, dated January 9th, 1713, conveys from Richard Howell to Archable Tomson, for "ye sum of eighteen pounds," a tract of fifty acres, "bounded on ye North by a fresh pond-East by Walter Brown-South by ye baye, and West by John Swazey." This was the farm now of George Clark, and the Brown farm south of the highway. About Archibald Thomson, and when or how the property passed from his possession, nothing is known to the writer.


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Swasey, extending to the lane west of the house of the late James Richard Hallock. It is impossible now to trace the descent of title to this property. John Swasey lived on another double lot, near the present village of Riverhead. This Mattituck lot is not mentioned in his will which was drawn in 1692. Many acres of the northern part were later owned by members of the Al- drich family (who were descended from John Swasey), and about 1700 a large part of this tract came into the hands of the Hallock families. The late James Richard Hallock lived where his ancestors had lived for nearly two hundred years. He is succeeded by his sister, Mrs. Fanny C. Dayton and her sons, Eleazar J. P. and La Rosseau. That part of the farm of the late Thos. A. Hallock which is now owned by Benjamin C. Kirkup is also a part of this tract. In Laurel the farms of Al- bert W. Youngs, Fred. Hallock, the late Moses Youngs and Edward P. Youngs are on this property.


The strip of land included between the lines of the lane next to Mrs. Fanny C. Dayton's and the Laurel Lane ( formerly Aldrich's Lane) is the double lot of John Tuthill, afterwards of Thomas Osman. This passed from Thomas Osman to his sons John and Jacob and a num- ber of sales of parts of this property are entered in the Town Records, but, as usual, all lines of title become obscure in the early part of the eighteenth century, from frequent failure to record wills and deeds. This lot in- cludes now the farm of Charles W. Aldrich, and others at the north, and in Laurel, the Presbyterian Church property, and the farms of James Williamson, George S. Mahoney, the farm lately of Mrs. Geo. B. Reeve (now of Dr. Eugene Fuller), and the farm of Geo. B. Woodhull.


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The next lot, the second lot of Wm. Hallock, ex- tends from Laurel Lane to the town line and has largely remained in the hands of the Hallock family. By reason of the rapid recession of the line of the bay. this tract is nearly four miles long, "from sea to sea." For some inexplicable reason its width is considerably in excess of the standard eighty rods, so that the allotment of Wil- liam Hallock was about 700 acres.


William Hallock took up his residence upon this Occabauck land very soon after the allotment, and in 1675 he gave to his son-in-law, Richard Howell, a strip on the western side of his land, twenty rods wide, "from North to South Sea." This made a farm of 150 acres, and the same year Richard Howell added to it twenty acres purchased from John Conklin whose land lay next west. "The said twenty acres is to ly twenty poles in breadth and is to begin (southward) at the highway that leadeth to Sataucutt and to runn Northward the sd bredth till the said twenty acres be fully compleated." The length northward to complete the twenty acres was 160 rods, or half a mile, being about half the distance from the North Road to the Sound. These twenty acres, with the adjoining land north of the North Road, have ever since remained in possession and occupation of Richard Howell's descendants, and now constitute the fine farm of Chauncey P. Howell. When the town of Riverhead was set off in 1792, the west line of the Howell farm became the dividing line between South- old and Riverhead.


The north and south lines dividing the towns and bounding the lots of the First Division in Occabauck are not due north and south, but run about north-north-


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west, and east-southeast. These lines are perpendicular to the general trend of the Sound shore. The lines of the smaller farms into which the great lots are divided follow the same direction, and until recently were all marked by hedges and "live fences." The north and south lanes and roads have uniformly followed the same direction, running along the farm lines. This is true even of the streets in the village of Riverhead. The farmers have called this an "eleven o'clock line," be- cause the shadow falls along it about an hour before noon. This has been as good as a dinner horn for the farmer in all generations. When his shadow falls along the farm lines he knows that dinner-time is near.


East of Mattituck Creek the farm lines as far as Mill Lane are about in the same direction, but towards the east they begin to slant more towards the northwest, the lots growing narrower towards the Sound. The lanes, following the old boundary lines, deviate more from the north the farther east we go, until the Depot Lane in the village of Cutchogue runs northwest and south- east.


For two hundred years and more the lands were fenced with hedges and "live fences." Many of these ancient hedges still exist, but the intensive agriculture of recent years is forcing the farmers to clear and level them. On either side of the line trenches were dug and the earth piled up along the line. Some of the old hedges are far from straight, having been led from tree to tree in the general direction desired. The branches of these trees were "lopped" and bent over. The notches healed, and the lopped branches lived and grew and put forth shoots, and these branches intermingling, and entwined


.


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A HISTORY OF MATTITUCK.


with many wild vines, soon made a fence that cattle could not break through. In the early days at the annual town' meeting Fence Viewers were appointed, whose


LOPPED TREES IN AN OLD HEDGE.


duty it was to see that these fences were in good order, and after warning from them, if the fence were not made. tight, the owner was fined. This was necessary because.


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the early inhabitants had large herds of cattle and sheep that were allowed to run in the common and unim- proved lands, and they must be kept from straying into the highways or into cultivated farms. About the mid- dle of June, yearly, the cattle were driven to Occabauck, and thereafter if any were found in unfenced land be- tween Tom's Creek and the Canoe Place at Mattituck their owners were subjected to a fine of ten shillings .* Here and there, in the woods, portions of the fences that restrained these herds more than two hundred years ago may still be seen. In almost any farm, and occasionally by the side of the highway, one may see an ancient tree with gnarled branches reaching outward in grotesque shapes as they were lopped and bent for hedge fences in the olden time.


*Southold Records, Liber D, p. 221.


CHAPTER III.


THE EARLIEST SETTLERS.


The allotment of Mattituck lands that was made in the autumn of 1661 was probably carried into effect by a survey and the marking off of the lots the next spring and immediately the first settlers began to build their homes and clear the land.


The earliest complete list of the Mattituck settlers is found in the rate list of Sept. 16th, 1675. This list names eighty-one heads of families in Southold Town and gives them in order from east to west. The names that appear to belong to Mattituck, beginning with Thomas Tusten, who lived near the foot of Manor Hill, are twelve. In these twelve families were seventeen adult males according to the list, which gives the num- ber of taxable heads in each household. The twelve householders were the following : Thomas Tusteene, Thoms Maps Senr, Thoms Terrill, James Reeves, Will Reeves, John Swasie Senr, John Swasie Junr, Joseph Swasie, Will Halloke, John Hallok, Richard Howell and Thoms Osman. Of these William Hallock was rated at 361 pounds, James Reeve at 244, Thomas Mapes at 227, John Swasey at 200, Thomas Osman at 194 and the others at much smaller amounts.


These twelve earliest settlers are easily located. Thomas Tusten was near the foot of Manor Hill, prob- ably on the south side of the highway then, in the Fort


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Neck. He probably settled north of the highway in 1684. If the list is complete there was no dweller be- tween the foot of Manor Hill and the farm now of Wil- liam Broderick where William Reeve was settled as set forth in the preceding chapter. William Reeve prob- ably had his house near Fisher's ice house, where Oba- diah Hudson later dwelt. Across the Lake and the highway, on a part of Charles W. Wickham's estate, Thomas Mapes was located, and next east of him, James Reeve. Thomas Terrell and his wife, Mary Reeve, were probably then in possession of the Pike farm with their house near the old highway. William Purrier in his will, 1671, gave to Thomas Terrell "two acres of land near or adjoining to his now dwelling house." The dwelling was perhaps left high and dry in the midst of Reeve's farm when the road was moved in 1710. It appears so, for in 1712 Terrell sold to Reeve four acres with dwell- ing house, bounded north, south, east and west by the grantee.


Thomas Mapes' farm, as well as Reeve's, came from William Purrier. Mapes married Purrier's daughter Sarah, and to her was left by her father twenty pounds or an equivalent in land. James Reeve, Purrier's ex- ecutor, accordingly conveyed to Thomas Mapes sixty acres of land along the highway next to the Pessepuncke Neck. The deed,* of date 1683, states that this land was already "in the tenour and occupation of sd Thomas Mapes." Mr. J. Wickham Case is mistaken in a note upon this deed, saying of this property, "It was long the homestead of James Worth." He was led into error by


*Southold Printed Records, Vol. I., p. 400.


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an attempt to locate it on the present highway. The sixty acres fronted on the old highway and, as stated above, were a part of Charles W. Wickham's land, jut- ting in also into the country place of Frank M. Lupton. When in 1833 the land of 5th James Reeve was divided between his sons Irad and Edward the line of partition ran through the midst of "Jabez' field," which was doubt- less so called from Jabez Mapes, who inherited from his father Thomas and sold the sixty acres back to the Reeves, half in 1707 and half in 1715. There are traces of an ancient dwelling not far back of Charles W. Wick- ham's residence that was perhaps the house of Thomas Mapes. The James Reeve homestead stood a few rods west of Mr. Wickham's and was taken down some thirty years ago.


The others of the first twelve settlers lived in an- other group some two miles to the west, on the north road, in what is now called West Mattituck. Richard Howell was next to the Riverhead line, and near him were his father-in-law William Hallock and his brother- in-law John Hallock. Near Osman's Lane (later Al- drich's and now Laurel Lane) dwelt Thomas Osman and east of him the Swaseys, John and his sons John, Jr., and Joseph. These seven families made quite a colony in West Mattituck and when William Hallock gave land to his son-in-law Richard Howell in 1675 he required that he should "not lett said land to any person but shall be approved by ye neighborhood."


A rate list eight years later, 1683, gives Mattituck names as follows: Willm Reeves, Thomas Tuston, Theophilus Curwin, Thomas Mapps Senr, James Reevs, Thomas Terrill, Petter Haldriag (Aldrich), Thomas:


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Osman, John Osman, William Haliock, Thomas Haliock, John Swazey, Joseph Swazey. This list adds three names to the list of 1675 and subtracts two: Richard Howell and one of the John Swazeys. Richard Howell had moved to a farm farther west and his name appears in another part of the rate list. One of the John Sweseys is omitted altogether from the rate list. This is likely an error, for both were living. John the father lived until 1692 and it appears from his will that his son John was then liv- ing near him. The elder Swezey's son-in-law, Peter Aldrich, is added to the list. He died ere long, and in 1692 his heirs received one hundred acres of land by Swezey's will. In the interval between the rate lists of 1675 and 1683 John Osman, son of Thomas, had become a freeholder beside his father. The third addition to the inhabitants is Ist Theophilus Corwin, who has taken up his abode on the highway at the place where J. J. Kirk- up's farm-house stands.


The next year saw Jonathan Reeve locate on the lot now of Charles Benjamin. It was also in 1684 that 2d Barnabas Wines bought the lot next east of the Creek and in all probability he took up his residence there im- mediately, locating near the "Ivy Hollow" where the late Capt. Joshua Terry lived. Another who just escaped the rate list of 1684 was David Gardiner, who settled on the Pessepuncke Neck about that time. In 1700 Samuel Clark settled upon the place now of La Mont Gould. There were therefore seventeen or eighteen families in the year 1700 between the foot of Manor Hill and the Riverhead Town line.


Within a few years after 1700 a number of changes and additions were made. In 1701 Thomas Clark, car-


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penter, located on the farm lately of Mrs. George B. Reeve in Laurel, and two years later his son-in-law Rob- ert Matthews was on the Woodhull farm adjoining on the west. This was on the Osman range. In the same range Jonathan Hudson, of Shelter Island, bought land in 1715. In 1702 John Osman, who styled himself "planter," moved from West Mattituck to a farm be- tween Elijah's Lane and Manor Hill. Probably about 1707-certainly not later than 1715-Jabez Mapes, son of Ist Thomas, having sold the Mapes homestead to James Reeve took up his residence on Mapes' Neck, the seat of the Mapes family for three generations. 2d James Reeve was born in 1672 and had established his own household before 1698, the year in which his father died. In 1719 the blacksmith Joseph Goldsmith was settled on the hotel property.


Shortly after 1700 Thomas Reeve dwelt on the Phile- mon Dickerson lot near the present dwelling of Bryant S. Conklin, and owned not only that lot but most of the adjoining Youngs-Wines lot, south of Long Creek. It is difficult to determine which of several Thomas Reeves of that day this was. Very careful investigation, how- ever, leaves little room for doubt that this was Thomas the son of Ist James, and brother of the James who in- herited the Purrier property across the highway, and who in 1715 gave the land for the church and burying- ground. While 2d James inherited the Purrier property in Mattituck, Thomas, his brother, inherited the Purrier home lot and other property within the old town bounds. All this he sold in 1707 to Peter Dickerson, the son of Philemon, for five shillings. There must have been some important consideration back of the five shillings


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for this transfer. Now it will be remembered that about this time, by some conveyance of which there is no rec- ord, the Dickinson land in Mattituck passed to a Thomas Reeve. The natural conclusion is that there was an ex- change of land between Thomas Reeve, the son of James, and Peter Dickerson. Thus Thomas Reeve came back to the place of his birth, locating near his older brother James, his cousin William, and his uncle Jonathan. Like his brother James he began life in an assured posi- tion, inheriting a valuable share of his grandfather Purrier's property. He married Mary Salmon of South- old, became a lieutenant in the colonial militia, and after the organization of the Mattituck Church was one of its deacons. In the old grave yard he and his wife Mary lie next to his brother James and his wife Deborah.


Whether we are right or not in supposing that this Thomas was Thomas the son of James, there remains, no doubt that all the Reeves of Mattituck, and indeed of Southold Town, are of one and the same family, all' descendants of the Ist Thomas Reeve and Mary, the eld- est daughter of William Purrier. Thomas is the only Reeve in the earliest lists of inhabitants. After 1666 he is dead and his property is held by the Widow Reeve, who was Mary Purrier. Their children were Thomas, James, William, John, Isaac, Jonathan, Joseph, Mary and Hannah. Of these, James, William and Jonathan settled in Mattituck, and in 1750 Purrier (or Purryer) Reeve, the grandson of Joseph, was also here. Thomas, probably the eldest son, married Agnes Rider and died intestate in 1682, leaving her a widow with three chil- dren, one of whom was 3d Thomas. As regards age; this might have been the Thomas who settled on the


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Dickerson land in Mattituck, but all indications are against it. This Thomas had little wealth, and hardly could have acquired so fine a property ; he was illiterate, signing deeds with his mark, and was hardly the man to become a lieutenant and deacon. At all events, it was either this Thomas or his cousin, Thomas the son of James, both of them grandsons of the original Thomas Reeve and Mary Purrier.


Deacon Thomas Reeve was the ancestor of most of the Reeves in Mattituck today. He married Mary Sal- mon in 17II. He was survived by one son, Thomas (1726-1790) and four daughters, Ruth, Bethiah, Mary and Hannah, who married into the Goldsmith, Howell, Wells and Case families, respectively. Thomas (1726- 1790) married in 1745 Keziah, the daughter of Joseph Mapes and had sons, Thomas ( 1749-1823), Daniel, James (1751-1807), Barnabas and John, and daughters, Keziah, Hannah, Sarah and Experience. Of these sons, Thomas married in 1770 Parnel, daughter of Ist Rich- ard Steers Hubbard, and James married in 1779 Parnel Howell. Thomas and Parnel (Hubbard) were the par- ents of Benjamin (the grandfather of Thomas H.), Luther (the grandfather of William H. and James L.), and Thomas (the grandfather of Thomas Edward). James and Parnel (Howell) were the parents of Jesse (the grandfather of John G., Henry J. and Herbert M.), and Edmund (the father of James Franklin).


In the Census of Southold Town taken in 1698 there were eight hundred persons in one hundred and thirty- two families. At least nineteen of these families, with about one hundred and twenty persons, dwelt in or near Mattituck then or soon after. The list is not in order of


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location, like the rate lists of 1675 and 1683, and while the names of all inhabitants, old and young, are given. the heads of families are not indicated. It is often im- possible to tell where one family ends and another be- gins. As far as possible, with probability of some errors both of addition and omission, an attempt is here made to indicate the Mattituck families, including both those that were in the village then and those that located in Mattituck within a few years. With this disclaimer of inerrancy the author ventures to give the Mattituck fam- ilies about the opening of the eighteenth century :


Thomas Terrell,* and the sons and daughters then living with him, John, Richard, Abigail, Nicholas, and Catharine ;


Peter and Eliza Hallock,t and Bethiah, Abigail, Peter, Jr., William, and Noah ;


Jonathan and Martha Reeve, and Margaret, Mary, Martha and Matthew ;


Thomas and Hope Hallock, t and Thomas, Kingsland, Ichabod, Zerubbabel, Anna, Patience and Richard ;


*This is probably 1st Thos. Terrill. He first married, in 1665, Mary, daughter of Thos. and Mary (Purrier) Reeve. It appears from the will of 1st Thos. Mapes (1686) that he married later Abigail Mapes. Through Abigail (Mapes) Terrill a large part of the Mapes property descended to John Hubbard, the grand- son of Barnabas Terrill, who was the grandson or great-grand- son of 1st Thomas.


¿Peter Hallock was second son of 1st William. The father of 1st William was likely enough Peter, as is commonly stated, but there is no valid reason for believing that he ever dwelt in Southold Town, for his name does not appear in the early records. William was undoubtedly the first Hallock in Southold.


¿Thomas Hallock was eldest son of 1st William. He is the ancestor of most of the Hallocks of Mattituck, Laurel, and vicinity.


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Joseph and Mary Sweazy, and their children Jo- hanna, Joseph, Jr., Mary, Sarah, Samuel, Richard, Stephen and Bathia. [Joseph was a son of John, Sr.]


John and Mary Swazy, and their children John, Jr., Susana, Mary, Jr., Joshua and Phebe. [This was 2d John.]


Jacob and Sarah Ozmond,* and Mary, Sarah, Jr., Eliza, Hester, Pinnina, Hannah.


*This was Jacob Osman. Other Osman families are given in the census that probably belonged in Mattituck, but cer- tainty regarding them is unattainable. Thus early the Osman name suffered in its orthography. In the latter part of the eighteenth century the Osman and Osborn names became sin- gularly confused. This confusion misled for a time even such a careful writer as the late J. Wickham Case. In a note in Southold Printed Records, Vol. I., p. 98, on 1st Thomas Osman, Mr. Case identifies the families, saying, "They changed their family name Osman to Osborn in 1778 (See D, 136)." This he corrected in a later note, Vol. II., p. 536, where he explains, "These two names became confounded on the Town Records in 1778, the name being written Osman by the Town Clerk when he should have written it Osborn." This mistake led Mr. Case to suppose that Thos. Osman, when he sold his home at Hashamomack, in 1684, removed to the lot in Cutchogue next east of Alvah's lane, where the Osborns later appeared. Wines Osborn (son of Daniel Osborn, of the East Hampton family) inherited that lot from his grandfather, 3d Barnabas Wines. Thomas Osman settled, as stated above, on the lot that had been John Tuthill's, between Wm. Hallock and John Swazy: (Printed Records, Vol. I., p. 99.) Aldrich's Lane, now Laurel Lane, was Osman's Lane until nearly 1800. The confusion of the names Osman and Osborn must have been general, extend- ing to stone cutters as well as town clerks, for five children, almost certainly of Jonathan and Elizabeth (Hallock) Osman, who died in August, 1756, have head-stones in the burying- ground marked as children of "Mr. Jonathan and Mrs. Eliza- beth Osborn." The confusion was not so impossible to the. ear as it appears to the eye. One was pronounced "Osm'n," and the other "Osb'n." Jonathan Osman wrote his name correctly. Why he let the tomb-stones remain uncorrected is a question for guessing. Perhaps the tide of mistake was so strong


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Thomas and Mary Clark, and Thomas, Jr., and Eliza- beth. [Settled in Laurel in 170I. Elizabeth married Robert Matthews.]


Richard Howell,* and David, Jonathan, Richard, Isaac, Jacob, Eliza, and Dorothy ;


Theophilus Corwin ; +


John, Jr., and Sarah Corwin, and Sarah, Eliza and Hester; ["Captain" in Corwin Genealogy. Son of Ist John, grandfather of Deacon John.]


David and Martha Gardiner, and Mary ;


Mary Reeve [widow of William], and William, Abi- gail, Margaret, Sarah, Thomas.




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