USA > New York > Suffolk County > Easthampton > A history of the town of East-Hampton, N.Y. > Part 9
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Beman is not the first or only transgressor who preferred reasoning to threshing. The flavor of Indian wit aud hu- mour, the concentrated force of the Indian epigram trans- mitted down the later generations, is characteristic of the American mind and born of aboriginal antecedents. Deep seated and nurtured in the heart of the Indian for untold ages was the love of war. His education, his hunter life, his undying aspiration was supremacy in martial achieve- ment. This was "his being's end and aim." To this all other pursuits or desires were subject. The four Sachems of the tribes of eastern Long Island in 1645, offered their services as warriors to the Dutch against the English, thereby showing their inherent love for war. After the lapse of more than a century and a quarter from the settle- ment of the town and the friendly intercourse with the whites and the "old, old story," by ministers James and Huntting and Buell, by Sampson Occum and Azariah Hor- ton and others, they were still ready for war, even against their best friends and neighbors.
Martha Bookee Flint, in her book entitled " Early Long Island a Colonial Study," on p. 429, cites a letter written about 1777 by Guy Johnson to Lord Germaine, quoting this: "I had an interview with the Montauk Indians on Long
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Island, who though few in number and surrounded by dis- affected people, have offered their services whenever the General could please to make use of them." The Indian walked " in the valley of the shadow of death." The the- ology of the day contributed to darken his night. Samp- son Occum's hymn commencing " Awaked by Sinai's awful sound " ends with the words " redeeming love." Yet four of its five stanzas describe the state of despair, as if a pre- monition of the extinction of his race was his dominating thought. It seems as if the Indian brooding over, resolved to hasten his doom and contribute to his own destruction. The elder Beman is said to have composed his epitaph, which is characteristic of himself and perhaps of the tribes then vanishing. It runs thus :
"Here Josiah Beman lies, And nobody laughs and nobody cries ; Where he's gone and how he fares, Nobody knows and nobody cares."
The Trustees of the Town, as a corporation, were twelve in number. By the patent of Gov. Dongan they took title in trust by its terms " only " in trust as a medium of con- veyance, to confirm the allotted lands to the individual owners thereof, the unallotted lands to their owners and with a pre-emption right to acquire the yet unpurchased part of Montauk. The date of the patent was December 9th, 1686. The date of the deed of the unpurchased part of Montauk was August 3d, 1687. The nearly cotempo- raneous dates would seem to imply some connection between them, and imply that the patent was a procuring cause of the deed. The trustees, and they alone, could purchase. They could do so for the benefit of the town, or of individ- uals. They chose to do so for individuals. The twenty- nine proprietors who took title in the deed to "North Neck" and all the remainder of Montauk lying east of and includ-
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ing Great Pond, advanced to the Trustees the purchase money wherewith they paid the Montauk tribe of Indians for the land. Thenceforth the Trustees held the nominal legal title for the benefit of the purchasers, who held the equitable title. By contributing the money to purchase, a trust resulted in the land for the benefit of those contribu- tors, in the proportion of their contributions. If the Trus- tees were unfaithful to their duty as Trustees for the equit- able owners, the latter could invoke the aid of a court of equity and compel a conveyance to them of the legal title by the Trustees. On this theory, in 1851, at the Suffolk County Circuit, judgment was rendered against the Trus- tees in favor of the committee of the proprietors, prosecut- ing in behalf of themselves and their numerous co-owners in their own names. As required by the terms of the Judgment, the Trustees conveyed all their corporate rights or claim to the land and waters of Montauk, to the propri- etors, who thenceforth, as a corporation, governed the same, substantially as it had been governed by the Town Trustees, before they set up claims of ownership adverse to the rights of the equitable owners. In 1879, by sale in a partition suit, Arthur W. Ber son became the purchaser and sole owner of the land called Montauk. Since he be- came the owner the Indians left their home at Montauk. Their dwellings were removed or demolished. For some years they have been disbanded as a tribe. They and their descen lants are dispersed and widely scattered, without organization ; with little aboriginal blood, the few tragic survivors of a once great name.
With a short interval from the time of Dongan's Patent, for 160 years, the Town Trustees controlled, managed and governed the territory of Montauk. The three purchases of Montauk, comprising "the Hither End," which extended
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to and included Fort Pond ; the nine score acie purchase, which comprised the land from Fort Pond to Great Pond, and bounded north nearly by the line of stone wall between those ponds, (called the nine score acre purchase because the three men purchasing were reimbursed on conveying to proprietors, by an allottment of nine score acres at Am- agansett, and sometimes called the "land between the Ponds") ; and the final purchase of 1687, constituted three sets of purchasers owning different interests. In 1748, by consent of all these proprietors, their complicated interests were simplified and consolidated so as to run throughout the whole territory of Montauk,* estimated at nine thous- and acres. In this equalization a share in the "Hither End" was estimated at £8, 0s, Od, a share in the land "between the ponds" at £8, 0s, Od, and a share in the land east of Fort Pond at £24, 0s, Od. The sum of these three amounts is £40, 0s, Od. Thereafter a share throughout Montauk was measured by forty pounds, and an eighth part of a share by five pounds, and all ownership or interest therein was measured by pounds, shillings and pence. The Town Trustees took the charge and practical manage- ment of this large territory, improved mainly as a pastur- age for cattle from the early days of the town to modern times. They regulated the pasturage ; they fixed the stint or proportion of cattle allowed on an undivided interest ; they kept a record of all the owners and their rights ; they hired and fixed the compensation of the shepherds or keep- ers, who resided on Montauk; they negotiated with the tribe of Indians there residing ; they provided for fencing the land in several tracts ; they took measures to prevent trespass ; they sold the wood as it became ripe for cutting ; the construction and repairing of the dwellings thereon
*See copy document equalizing in Appendiz.
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they managed. All these and many other duties connected with this large domain enhanced the importance of the of- fice of Trustee and made a position on that Board an edu- cational force. Thereby they acquired business habits, legislative and practical knowledge, self reliance and an ex- perience impelling thought towards popular government. Thus twelve citizens were constantly training to represent the Town by this large trust and by thinking, speaking, and acting for the town. When Gov. Dongan sanctioned and legalized such a Board of Trustees in the old towns of Long Island, he chartered a power that could move and did move with an augmenting velocity ever more in the direction of popular rights. The inborn devotion to free- dom that never slumbered in the old towns of Suffolk County was nurtured and grew deep rooted in their repre- sentative boards of Trustees. They were the Tribunes of the people. What shall be the value of products of the earth as currency ? How shall the meeting house be fin- ished? Shall the money of the town in Jere Mulford's hands go to pay the minister ? Shall the negroes sit in the 2d gallery ? Shall a school house or town poor house be built ? Shall the bell be rung at nine o'clock ? Shall Eleazar Miller and his partners be allowed to take tim- ber to build a vessel? Shall the Montauk Indians have powder and shot to resist invasion ? Shall innoculation to prevent the ravages of the small pox be permitted or prohibited ? Shall the cattle that were taken from Mon . tauk in 1775 to prevent their seizure by the British fleet go back or stay at home ? In 1781 the British government demanded of the farmers of East-Hampton 40 tons of hay. What men and in what proportions should they furinsh it ? All these and hundreds of other momentous proposi- tions are decided by a vote of the Town Trustees, and their vote sounds as a judgment irreversible.
CHAPTER VIII.
The original dwellings and their location, p. 114. The later dwellings and surroundings, p. 115. Progress, p. 117. Home manufacture, p. 117. Economic and social life, p. 118. Literature, p. 119. The galaxy of mind, p. 120. Health p. 121. The County of Kent, p. 123. Maidstone, p. 123. Substitutes for Money, p. 126. Religion, p. 127. The Sabbath, p. 129. Care of Indians, p. 129. Pity for the poor, p. 130.
Probably the settlement of East-Hampton was commenced by a few pioneers who erected rude dwellings for tempora- ry use, some partly under ground-some partly covered with earth and some like log cabins. As late as 1678 (T. R. Vol. I, p. 414) the sale of a home lot "and cellar" indi- cates this kind of structure as then in being. It is not im- probable that the preparing Pioneers stopped awhile at Southampton, proceeding from thence as a base to East-
Hampton. It has been said Tradition is the fragments which history loses on its way to eternity. The uniform tradition that East-Hampton was settled by a company from Lynn, until of late years, was unquestioned and is yet undisproved. In Lyman Beecher's Historical sermon of 1806, p. 7, it is stated that six families commenced the set- tlement "at the south end of the town." . "That they were discovered by some Indians who were out on a hunting party. That the chief warrior applied to the Sachem (then living at Three Mile Harbor) for leave to cut them off -- that the Indians who made the discovery were called and interrogated. Did they invite you into their houses ? They
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did. Did they give you to eat ? They did. Did you expe- rience any harm from what you ate ; did it poison you ? It did not. The reply of the Sachem turning to his warrior was, you shall not cut them off." This relation is there stated to have been made to persons then living, by a native of Montauk, then dead, 50 years ago and about an hundred years old at the time of her death, who, if she did not her- self recollect the first settlement of the town must have lived so near that period as to have received correct infor- mation. The dwellings would be located compactly ; for social convenience, for easier fortification, for defence against the wild beast and the prowling savage. Every house was fortified by palisades. The church was central and used as a meeting house, court house and fortress. The spring then running in the middle of the street, and probably into the Hook Pond, furnished water for the set- tlers, was within gun shot of the dwellings and defensible therefrom. These rude dwellings with thatched roofs soon disappeared and before the first half century had expired, more spacious and comfortable houses had taken their place. They were succeeded by single houses generally fronting the south, two stories high on that side and run- ning down to one story in the rear, framed of massive tim- ber, shingled on uprights and roofs, constructed of endur- ing materials, wrought with honest care and for future ages. The long low roof, the leaden window sash, the miniature diamond shaped glass, the red cedar window frames, the projecting posts, the big beams overhead in the rooms, the queer blue painted wainscotting, the hard shell lime walls, the huge fireplaces, the spacious oven, the vast chimney are relics almost unknown. The eel spear and clam rake that hung at the end of the house was often used to procure food from the waters. The old "King's Arm" that hung
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over the fire place failed not to bring down ducks and geese and brant that flew in abundance now unknown. The samp mortar hard by was a large hollow log, upright, and over it hung the huge pestle suspended from an elastic sapling hung in a crutch. The operator held the pin driven through this pounder, beating fine into samp the corn in the huge mortar. The spring of the pole raised the poun- der again to descend, blow on blow, until the song of the samp mortar worked chiefly of a Saturday for Sunday's food, had ceased with the close of the labor of the worker. The well pole rose from every rear yard and "the moss cov- ered bucket" "hung in the well.
The abundance of the waters, the game of the woods, the swarming wild fowl of its air, the profitable enterprise of the whale fishery were all attractions of the place. Clear- ings had been made by the Indians where corn could be raised. Southampton and Southold were not too remote for counsel and succor. Gardiner on his Island desired, and probably invited the Pioneers. Wyandance at Mon- tauk was friendly. Connecticut had crushed the terrific Pequot tribe and would hold over them her protecting wing. Harbors for small craft opened for prospective com- merce, at Napeague, at Three Mile Harbor, at Northwest. The sound was an avenue for travel and transportation that prevented isolation, and was convenient for the fleet of a Nation. As years passed on the settlement prospered. The dwelling of 1684, with its one front room and low long roof, gave place to the dwelling of 1784, with its two front rooms and two story heighth, and its substantial comfort, its more capacious barn, its more enlarged field and agri- cultural products. The exterior of the dwellings changed. The interior was almost identical. The same sanded floors, the same projecting posts, the same modelled mantel piece,
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the same closet over the fire-place and in the corner of the big parlor, the same place of honor for the gun. The like dining table, similar chests of drawers, carved dragon's feet are yet underneath them ; flag bottomed chairs, the handi- work of the Indian ; all these, from age to age, for nearly two hundred years, remained practically the same. Even the tobacco patch of the planter of 1689 was like that of 1784, and the smoke of both not unlike.
Time had vindicated the wisdom of the colonists in the selection of their home. As early as 1654 by an ordinance the dwellers on the street were enjoined to "clear the high- way in the street six feet from the payles," &c. Thus early was nurtured a sense of neatness and a culture of beauty, that made the " Town Street" a charm one hundred years ago and a living landscape that is an abiding delight. From that day to this, the stranger looking on its wide avenue, its old trees and old houses, its sward of "living green," and breathing its pure air, has sought rest in its quiet and restoration in its simple and natural beauty.
The policy of England was to restrain the commerce and manufactures of the colonies, and at their expense promote her own aggrandizement. Connecticut was a focus of in- vention, yet the first carding machine there was constructed in 1802. Previous to that time wool was carded at their own firesides only by females. The shoes, stockings, caps, 0 straw hats, clothing, linen for the table and bedding, the harness, brushes and brooms were manufactured largely or wholly in the family. Within the memory of the writer there were resident in one-half the dwelling houses on East-Hampton Main street a shoemaker member of the household who made the shoes for the family. Nothing was bought that could be made at home. The spinning wheel was constantly running and carried in visits to
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neighbors. The farmer raised, and his wife and daughters spun the flax and wool that kept the family warm with clothing by day and covering by night. The family meal was eaten from wooden trenchers or pewter plates and plat- ters, with the smallest possible allowance of tin and crock- ery ware. Corn and rye with very little wheat furnished flour for bread. Fish, beef and pork salted for the year's supply were the chief items of animal food. Unceasing in- dustry and toil occupied all the members of the family, young and old. Rigid economy ruled every expenditure. The simplest, cheapest diet satisfied the appetite. The homespun apparel in summer and mostly in winter was
then worn. For clothing the cost of buttons, for harness the price of buckles, bitts and trace irons were almost the only expenditure. Looking back three score years and ten it is simply astonishing how little money was sufficient to buy all that the then wants of a family required. In life frugality reigned ; in death a stained pine coffin made by a neighbor carpenter enclosed the mortal remains of young and old, of rich and poor. Four friends raised the coffin on the bier and bore it on their shoulders to the grave. No display of hearse, no cavalcade of horse and carriage, no pomp of ostentations or idle mourning made outward sign of unfelt grief. The rites and ceremony of burial were as simple and unobtrusive as the life. The lament, less Pos- conspicuous, may have been as sincere then as now.
sibly the hard struggle for life made it easier to let go our hold of it. It is true Summer and Autumn and Spring each had days "almost divine." But Winter, cold, cheerless,
shivering Winter tried soul and body. I remember the
one fire on the hearth of a cold dark morning, so cold that a blanket hung from the hooks in the wall encircled the family and fire as an additional protection from the cold.
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The ham is frying, the Johnny cake is baking, the coffee pot is boiling, the table is set and for convenience is small, not half as large as now is required. Now it is twenty five cents' worth of plate and twenty-five cents' worth of meat ; then five cents' worth of plate and twenty-five cents' worth of meat. The old sat, the young stood, around the break- fast table. A dish of meat cut in pieces ready for eating was in the middle of the table. All hands broke the John- ny cake in small pieces and with the fork dipped it in the gravy held in the meat dish, and occasionaly speared out a piece of meat in the same way. It was a cold, frugal, hard, narrow, severe winter life.
The clustering location of the dwellings favored frequent visitation and social intercourse. The testimony of wit- nesses in the controversies recorded in the Town Records, sometimes give us a flash of light revealing social enjoy- ment. There might be pressing danger from Indians, from Pirates, from belligerent nations. There was a limited commerce in which all were interested. There was a far off Fatherland to which for long years they were bound by ties of blood and kinship. Their isolation demanded con- cert. Their worship brought them together. The thoughts of the thoughtful became the thoughts and property of all. The welfare of one became the concern of all. Neighborly kindness and sympathy reigned over the habitations of our forefathers. Poverty evoked pity. Misfortune called for mercy. Sickness appealed for sympathy to tender hearts from that day to this.
Books were costly and rare ; so costly that "Willard's Body of Divinity," (a folio) was written out in full by min .. ister Huntting, and was extant at a recent date. Newspa- pers were unknown. A volume of sermons, in the time of the Long Parliament, might be among the literary treas-
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ures of the community. The Bible was the Book. The Minister was the guide in politics, in law, in morals, in religion. Instruction was mainly oral and traditionary. In the absence of other teaching the two hours' sermon was to them a lecture of untiring interest, and to us with our wealth of books, magazines and newspapers, a common- place and unedifying lesson.
Yet in that far off day there was not wanting the courage to dare, the genious to instruct, the power to lead. The men of 1717, who erected the church building of that date, were worthy to be counted founders of a commonwealth. The men of 1784, who built Clinton Academy lacked not the heart but the wealth and numbers to found a Universi- ty. The community wherein lived Lion Gardiner, William Fithian, John Mulford and his greater son Samuel, Minis- ters James and Huntting, could not sink to low abasement. When after their career was run, and Samuel Buel resided there, Eleazar Miller the "Assemblyman," and his sons Burnet, and Abraham the Judge, Judge Chatfield, Col. Abraham Gardiner and his son Nathaniel the surgeon of the Revolution and friend of Andre, Capt. John Dayton, Col. David Mulford and his kinsman Capt. Ezekiel, and Capt. Thomas Wickham illuminated the life of the village and town. If Alfred Conkling, father of Roscoe ; Sylvanus Miller, long time Surrogate of the City and County of New York ; Jeremiah Osborn, once surrogate of Rensselaer County ; Burnet Miller, member of the colonial congress, removed from East-Hampton, with many others, there still remained those who would have been lights in any cultured community ; men whose names are recorded with honor in the civil list of their state and nation. William S. Pelle- treau, a distinguished antiquarian, writing of East-Hamp- ton in "Munsell's History of Suffolk County," said, after
Clinton Academy, Erected 1784.
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exhausting study, " A town that in proportion to its popu- lation has produced more men of talent and high position than any other in Suffolk County.".
On Monday afternoon the women of the village devoted some time to friendly visits. Carrying the light linen spinning wheel, they sought social enjoyment to enliven their unrelaxing labors. In earliest days the wit and charm of the maidens of this town were famed. In later days their accomplishments were not less known.
In September, 1696, minister Huntting commenced his minute and careful record of baptisms and deaths, which minister Buell continued to his death, in July 19th, 1788. This continuous record, extending over one hundred years, historically is invaluable and yet unprinted.
Minister Huntting baptized infants. 1,241
Minister Buell baptized infants and adults 1,797
Total 3,038
Minister Huntting records deaths 646
Minister Buell records deaths 1,093 1,739
The baptisms exceed the deaths 1,299
The record should substantially include all deaths. The number of baptisms recorded by Huntting excludes adults and the record of Buell includes them. It is improbable that much over four-fifths of the infants were baptized dur- ing the term of Huntting and much less during that of Buell. Adding one-fifth, 607 to 3,038 gives 3,645; subtract- ing the deaths 1,739, would leave the births in excess 1,806, being more than double the number of deaths for the century covered by the record. This result, very nearly exact, demonstrates the proposition that the town as a lo- cality was favorable to health by a long record seldom equalled. Beecher's sermon recites ;
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" From the ycar 1751 to the year 1775, there were the highest bills of mortality. In this period of 24 years the bill of mortality arose twice to 38, once to 37, once to 36, once to 35, once to 32, once to 30. It often exceeded 25 and once arose to 51. This was in the year 1775. Since that time, a period of thirty years, there have been but two ye .. rs before the present in which the bill of mortality ex- ceeded 20. It has been as low as 9. In this sickly period of twenty-four years there died 642. In the thirty years since there have died 405, making a difference of 237; 10 persons annually, notwithstanding the increased popula- tion of the town, which has been very considerable. The cause of this surprising change is ascribed by many to the death of the prim, (now generally called privet) which con- stituted a principal part of the fencing of the town, all of which died suddenly and unaccountably about the time that this favorable change took place."
The temperature of the ocean is higher in winter and lower in summer than thatof the adjacent land or o'erarch- ing air. From every quarter the wind blows over bay or sound or ocean, modifying the climate by lessening the ex- treme cold of winter and the parching heat of summer. The effect of the gulf stream, some 110 miles distant from Montauk Point, is an important element in alleviating the severity of winter's cold. The prevailing sea breeze from the south-west is a factor not less grateful at all seasons. The atmosphere lacks the dry, stimulating character known inland and is conducive to sleep, to rest and restoration of the wearied powers of body and mind. To the products of the earth for the sustenance of man are added "the abundance of the sea." All afford an agreeable variety and all tend to lengevity. An epidemic that often desolates the masses inland seldom enters the gates of East-Hamp- ton. The thousands of summer visitors, constantly in- creasing in numbers, attest these facts.
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