USA > New York > Suffolk County > Riverhead > Celebration of the 100th anniversary of the organization of the town of Riverhead, Suffolk County, N.Y. at Riverhead, July 4, 1892 > Part 2
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In 1669 and 1686 the settlers of Setauket obtained from the Royal Governor patents for "all the lands, bays, harbors and streams between the Stony Brook River on the west and the head of Wading River or Red Creek on the east," " and from the head of the Wading River their eastern bounds were to be a straight line running due north to the sound and due south to the sea or main ocean." Our first knowledge, then, of the Wading River and the settlement near it, finds it as a part of the town of Brookhaven. The spot which was then designated as "the head of the Wading River," was marked by a large pepperidge tree which after standing for more than a century and a half fell to decay, and the site it occupied was in 1840 marked by a stone bearing the initial letters of the adjoining towns. It stands at the northwest cor- ner of the church lot and will doubtless remain for long years to come. The land at the Wading River having been fairly bought, next comes the settlement, and as the record states, " At a lawful town meeting 17 November, 1671, it was voted and agreed upon that there shall be a village at the Wading
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River or thereabouts of eight families or eight men. It was granted and agreed upon by a vote that Daniel Lane, Jr., shall have a lotment at the Wading River convenient to the water for his calling (they do not tell us what that calling was), and at the same time allotments were granted to Thomas Jenness, Elias Bayles, Joseph Longbottom and Thomas Smith, and Francis Muncy had a lot granted there with the rest upon con- dition that he lived there himself !" Was this a shrewd dodge to get Francis Muncy (who may have been an undesirable neighbor) as far off from Setauket as they could, or was it an equally shrewd dodge on his part to get a lot free without ever having to live on it? These are questious upon which history throws no light and we cannot assume to answer them. From that time the village was an established fact. The Wading River is cetainly the smallest stream ever dignified with that title, for its entire length from mouth to fountain head cannot much exceed a mile, but the place has always been one of the most important portions of our town, though comparatively far greater in the past than in the present; but that it will have a prosperous future no one who sees its natural beauties can doubt.
In 1675 there is another Indian grant to the patentees of Brookhaven, ratifying and confirming all former purchases of land between Stony Brook and the Wading River, and by the same grant all lands not before purchased were conveyed to Richard Woodhull. This grant was signed by the Sachem, John Mayhew, and his associates Masstuse, Nascenge and Achedouse. On November 23, 1675, Richard Woodhull re- linquishes all the said lands to the towns and under the same date we find the following: "At a town meeting was voted and given to Richard Woodhull a farm at the Wading River, that is to say, ten acres upland where it is most convenient to set a house on, and three score and ten acres more of upland where the said Richard Woodhull shall choose it, lying together adjacent to the said Wading River, and half the meadow that belongs to us this side of the creek, being divided, and to draw
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cuts for it, and this is given in consideration of land that was given by the Indians and assigned over to the towns."
To locate ancient landmarks is one of the duties, and we need not say one of the greatest pleasures, of the antiquarian, and our researches lead us to believe that the place mentioned as the " ten acres where it is most convenient to set a house up" is the present homestead of Charles Woodhull, the descendant in the eighth generation from Brookhaven's most illustrious founder.
On May 4, 1708, we find that upon application of John Roe, Jr., in behalf of himself and others of the Wading River, that "they may have liberty to set up a grist mill at the Red Brook there, and to take up -- acres of land adjoin- ing to it for the use of the said mill or miller, on condition they set up a mill as aforesaid and support the same con- tinually." The Red Brook, so called from the color of the sands over which it flows, still "goes on forever," and the mill, under a long succession of various owners, still grinds as it did in days of yore. How Wading River came to be a part of Southold is a curious episode in our local history. It seems that about 1708, one John Rogers, who had been a townsman of Brookhaven, had removed to the town of South- old and by various misfortunes had become a public charge. Southold claimed, and with justice, that the cost of his support was chargeable to the neighboring town whence he came. A letter was sent by the authorities of Southold calling attention to the matter, and on October 7, 1708, a reply was ordered to be sent. This elicited another letter from Southold, and on December 9, another reply was sent. The evidence was plainly against Brookhaven, for, at a Trustee meeting in June, 1709, we find the following resolution :
" Upon the application of James Reeve, in behalf of the town of Southold in reference to defray the charge of keeping John Rogers, it was agreed upon between the said James Reeve on the one part in the part of Southold and the Trustees of Brookhaven on the other part, that the town of Brookhaven shall be acquitted and fully discharged from all charges whatever that now is or shall hereafter be con- cerning the said John Rogers, his keeping or care, on the condition that the town
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of Brookhaven do assign unto the town of Southold all their patent right of the land and meadow on the east side of the Wading River, and also pay unto the said James Reeve, four pounds in current money at his house, for the use of the town of Southold, at or before the 29th day of September next ensuing the date hereof."
Now we think our readers will, one and all, agree that Southold, through James Reeve, its agent, made a pretty profitable bargain, and this is the first instance on record where a pauper added to the wealth of a town. And so it happened that the due north line from the pepperidge tree to the sound ceased to be a boundary and the river itself became our western bounds.
Our limits will not permit us to dwell too long on the ancient history of this village ; let it suffice to mention some of the names of men who were prominent, and of places that were well known localities at the time when our town was established. We might say that from the earliest settlement the Woodhull family were the bone and sinew of the village. Here was the homestead of Joshua Woodhull, who died in 1787 at the age of fifty-two years. He was well known here during the days of the Revolution, and on the top of his house was built a lookout from which the watcher could descry and give timely warning if marauding bands from British vessels on the sound were seen approaching the shore. Not far from him, on the present homestead of Mrs. Thomas Coles, and what was in the very early days the home of Robert Terry, lived his son, Nathaniel Woodhull, a true and worthy repre- sentative of a noble race, a strong supporter of the church, a good, substantial citizen, and in all the relations of life a use- ful and honored man. He was the maternal grandfather of our worthy chairman, Nathaniel Woodhull Foster, and from whom he derives his honored name. On the cast side of the street, in the centre of the village, was the homestead and cx- tensive farm of Major Frederick Hudson, a wealthy and influ- ential citizen, but of Tory proclivities, and the officers of the British army found a warm welcome at his house. His son, Oliver Hudson, sold the estate to Zophar Mills, who was one
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of the largest land owners in the town. To all lovers of local history there is a peculiar interest connected with this farm, from the fact that it was the early home of the famous Indian preacher, Paul Cuffec, who was the bound servant of Major Hudson till his twenty-first year. Strange change of circum- stances. The grave of the master is somewhere unmarked and unknown in a dense thicket of weeds and briars. The grave of the servant, fenced and guarded with pious care, by the roadside at Good Ground, is visited by hundreds who revere his virtues and honor his name. Further cast is the well- known homestead of Zophar Miller, whose son, Sylvester, and grandson, Elihu, are names "whom not to know argues a Riverlicader unknown." In front of this house, and a few feet north of the road, stood the old meeting house built
about 1735. It stood till 1838, when it was sold and re- moved, and is now a barn on the premises of Alonzo Hulse, about two and a half miles east of the village. When the new church was built in 1857 it was Zophar Miller who gave the lot for the new edifice. It was in the house of the Miller family that the post-office was kept for sixty-one years. It was removed in 1886 to its present location. One of the con- spicuous features of the place is the ancient house of Stephen Homan (of an old East-Hampton family), who came here in the latter part of the last century, married a daughter of Zophar Mills, and was store-keeper, tavern-keeper and farmer. A brown tombstone tells us he died in 1816 at the age of forty- nine. His son, Benjamin Homan, who never tires of talking of the past, inherits his name and place. There, too, in old times, was Isaac Reeve, a noted boatman and great judge and prognosticator of wind and weather. For aught we know he may have been a descendant of James Reeve who drove so sharp a bargain for the town. And also Nathaniel Tuthill, a well known citizen, and as one of the old residents said, "a mighty smart man," and father of our honored townsman, Hon. James H. Tuthill. What shall we say of Jonathan Worth, who for long year's ralf the mill, and then left it to his
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son David, who sold it to a company consisting of the minister, Partial Terry, Deacon Nathaniel Tuthill, Deacon Nathaniel Woodhull and Deacon Luther Brown. Church and State might be separate, but church and mill were pretty closely con- nected in those days. The sentiment of the people may be imagined when we learn that when Washington was a candi- date for re-election to the Presidency he had only three votes in Wading River, and these were cast by Rev. David Wells, Stephen Homan and Benjamin Worth. New York took no part in the election of the first President.
The changes which are apparent in every part of Long Island, are especially evident in the relative importance of vil- lages in the present compared with the past. At the time when this town was established let us suppose a stranger had asked, " What is your .most important place? " The answer might have been, " Wading River or Aquebogue," but it most assuredly would not have been " Riverhead." In the olden time to live on the post road had a certain advantage. There would always be more or less passing. The stage coach with its weekly or semi-weekly mail was the only communication with the outside world, and its arrival would be looked for with an interest which we can now scarcely realize. The taverns at intervals of a few miles with their swinging signs announcing "Accommodations for Man and Beast," were welcome sights to the belated traveler. But the greater part of the people did not travel; many of them scarcely ever went beyond the bounds of their native village, and it is safe to say that hun- dreds lived, and lived to a good old age, who never saw any- thing outside of Suffolk County. The foundation for a village was a fertile soil where good crops could be raised. Means of communication with other villages were of little importance. As one old man expressed it, "A place is made to stay in, not go away from." It was the boast of some old-fashioned farmers that they did not go off their farm any day of the week ex- cept Sunday. The railroad changed all this. The whole sec- tion of country in the neighborhood of Riverhead was known
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to the old settlers by the name of Occobog, a name common to both sides of the river, and meaning in the Indian language, " the place at the head of the bay, or the cove place." Pre- vious to 1659, John Tucker, a very prominent man in the'early days, and who was dignified with the title of Deacon, Captain and Esquire at a time when they meant something, presented a petition for the the privilege of building a saw-mill within the town bounds near the head of the river. It was granted with liberty to "cut all sorts of timber," but with the condition that he should "cut no more oak than fell in the common track of getting pine and cedar, which was the chief induce- ment of getting a mill there to saw." This would seem to in- dicate that oak was comparatively scarce. He also asked for " ten acres of land for himself and such partners as he should take in to himself," which was granted. He seems to have found a partner in the person of Joseph Horton, for on Febru- ary 7, 1659, we find that " John Tucker with Joseph Horton desire the five men to enlarge the grant to the effect that they should have the privilege of building the saw-mill and of cutting timber for twenty-one years without molestation, nor any in- habitant to set up another mill by them." This also was granted on condition of their completing the mill within three years.
A writer in the Genealogical and Biographical Record (Oct., ISS2) claims that Joseph Carpenter of Maschete Cove, Long Island, who built a saw and fulling mill in 1677, "was the first man on Long Island, New York, Connecticut or New Jersey, to set up a saw-mill run by water power," but here was a mill running more than fifteen years before, and the credit of being the first to establish a mill of this kind must now be given to John Tucker and Joseph Horton and to River- head. Tucker lived here in 1665 and was no doubt the first settler, but we cannot be certain of the exact location of his house. The town of Southampton, on April 14, 1693, granted to John Wick, " serge dresser," " the use of the stream called the Little River, on condition of setting up a fulling mill, and
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fulling cloth for that town and Southold." It is doubtful if he complied with the conditions, for two years later we find that Southampton voted that John Parker and his heirs and assigns should have the stream and the privileges granted to John Wick, on condition of his building a good fulling mill, and that he should full cloth there "forever." John Parker also had land granted to him in 1700 to build a house on, and he probably did build a temporary residence at that time, but in 1713 he built a far more substantial mansion, which is yet standing on the south side of the river, and which in after years passed into the hands of his son-in-law, Wm. Albertson, and continued in his family for three or four generations. Since then this house was owned and occupied by the Sweezy family and is now the residence of Sylvester H. Woodhull. On May 15, 1715, we find that " the Justices of Suffolk County met at Parker's to ascertain the amount of arrears of taxes."
All the lands of Peconic River which are included in the village are a part of the original division of the lands of South- old, called the second Division of Aquebank lands. The lots were of large extent and ran from the river to the sound. In 1711 John Parker purchased from John Tucker, a grandson of the original John Tucker who died in 1690, one of the original lots containing 400 acres, bounded west by land of Widow Margaret Cooper and east by land of John Parker, which seems to have been another original lot of the same size, and which he had bought from its former owner. These two lots, with a Ist of Widow Cooper on the west, embrace the entire business portion of Riverhead.
In January, 1727, about a month before his death, John Parker gave a deed of gift to his daughter Abigail and her husband, Joseph Wickham, Jr., for their lives and then to her heirs, for all his land north of the river, and this tract in course of time came into possession of Parker Wickham, their eldest son and heir-at-law, whose loyalist proclivities caused his estate to be confiscated after the Revolution and sold to Na- chantel Norton, who sold a part of it to Stephen Jagger, and
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it is well known in recent years as the " Jagger farm." There are missing links in the chain of title which more extended investigation may supply ; but it seems as if at some time pre- vious to 1727 a tract of 130 acres on the western part of this land had been disposed of to other parties, for in. 1753 Thomas. Fanning sold John Griffing "a tract of land at a place called Acaboug, bounded north and east by the lands of Abigail Wickham, south by and with Peconick river, together with the. dwelling thereon, so far as the saw-mill, and west by the land of Christopher Young, containing by estimates 130 acres, reserving one-half acre of land at and about the place where his mother lies buried, with free passage in and to the same." This burial place, doubtless the first in the village, is situated just north of and adjoining the stable on the lot of Mrs. Louisa Howell on the east side of Griffing Avenue and next south of the railroad. The dwelling house mentioned is the first of which we have any positive knowledge in the vil- lage, and the Long Island House now occupies its site. The deed evidently includes the stream.
This John Griffing, the first of his name to settle in River- head, was a prominent Whig. At the request of his neighbors he became a "tea-spy," as they called men whose business it was to detect and prevent the use of tea and other imported articles upon which the English Government levied duties of the inhabitants here. When the British forces got possession of Long Island after their victory over the Colonist forces at Brooklyn in August, 1766, Mr. Griffing and many others fled to Connecticut. He died there October 18, 1777, in the sixty-first year of his age. As he died without will his property descended to his son and namesake. The mother of the late Charles and Gamaliel Vail was one of his daughters, and we well remember hearing them comment on the injustice of the English law of primogeniture. His grave is at a place called Cromwell, on the west side of the Connecticut River, about three miles above Middletown. Near it is the grave of Martha L'Hommedieu, the mother of Ezra L'Hommedieu,
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one of the most prominent men in the State 100 years ago, and a resident of Southold until his death in ISHI. The land next west of the Griffing farm, the original lot of Widow Mar- garet Cooper, descended to her grandchildren, the children of Stephen Bailey and Elnathan Topping of Southampton. Upon a division of her estate the land above mentioned fell to the latter, beyond which we cannot trace it, but in 1753 it was owned wholly or in part by Christopher Young. For long years the place was isolated from the rest of the town. No direct road connected it with the "Middle Road," then the principal thoroughfare. The fulling mill, the grist mill and the Court House and jail were the only things to call any of the people from the neighboring regions, and the people whose business called them there did not come to stay. It was recognized as a very central locality in the county, and this is doubtless the reason why the place was selected for the county seat. On November 25, 1727, an Act was passed by the Governor and Provincial Legislature to enable the Justices of the Peace in the County of Suffolk to build a "County House and Prison." Riverhead was chosen as the most suitable place, and the building was erected and the first court held in it on March 27, 1729. Previous to that the jail seems to have been the basement or cellar of the old church at Southold.
On July 12, 1729, an Act was passed reciting that "there had been of late some dispute among the Supervisors of the County of Suffolk," and hence it was enacted "that the place and time of the Supervisors' meeting forever hercafter should be at the Court House on the last Tuesday in the month of October, and that their pay should be 9 shillings (or $1. 12 1-2) a day." For a period of more than seventy-five years the place remained stationary, and from the best authorities we learn that for nearly thirty years after the Revolution there were but four houses, the Griffing tavern, Joseph Wickham's house, afterwards that of David Jagger. David Horton lived in the Court House and kept the jail. Stephen Griffing oc-
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cupied the place late of Dr. Thomas Osborn, and besides these there was the old Parker house, then owned by William Albertson on the other side of the river. It may perhaps be needless to state that till within comparatively recent times the village was surrounded by a dense forest. One of our best known citizens, John P. Terry, says: "When a boy (sixty years ago), I set snares and caught quails where the house of Hon. James H. Tuthill now stands. All the land north of Main Street was covered with woods, except in a few spots." He adds as a curious illustration of the changes in social life : "Sixty-one years ago my father died, one of the well-known men of the place. His funeral expenses were a dollar and a half. The remains, and the mourners, the members of his family, all rode to the grave in the same box wagon. The grave was dug by neighbors who volunteered; and this was the general custom at the time." He adds: "I saw ten deer, which had been caught in the woods south of the river, con- fined in a pen where Riverhead Hall now stands. The first store was in the northeast corner of the house of the late Judge Miller. It was kept by Stephen Griffing, who afterwards moved to West Hampton. Seventy years ago, Jasper or 'Jep' Vail lived at Riverhead, but kept a store some miles east, opposite the Steeple Church, thinking that a far better location for business than this place. He had some peculiar methods: for instance, if a customer tendered a dollar bill for fifty cents worth of goods he would cut the bill in two, keep one-half and tell the customer to bring the other half some other time, and he would take it for fifty cents. He thus secured that man's custom for so much trade anyhow, and . then he would paste the two halves together. The use of liquor was general. All storekeepers kept it and everybody drank it, and to expect a workingman to live without rum was the same as expecting him to live without air." For nearly a century and a half the Griffing family had been part and parcel of the place, and none have been more closely con- nected with its business and social interests. One of our
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largest hotels, kept by a member of the family, stands on the land bought by his ancestor in 1753, and one of the finest streets is justly named in their honor. 'Dr. Thomas Osborn was the first physician in the village and is well remembered by the older citizens. He commenced practice very early in the present century, and died here in 1849. Sixty years ago there was but one mail a week, brought here in a one-horse wagon. If a person wished to go to New York he must cross over to Quogue, take the mail stage which came from Sag Harbor, and he would reach the city at the close of the second dav. A newspaper clipping tells us that "on the 25th day of July, 1844, the first train passed over the Long Island Rail- road from Brooklyn to Greenport, and the event was duly celc- brated." Well it might be. It was the commencement of a new order of things. Since then Riverhead has been a part of the world.
At the Upper Mills there had been at various times a grist mill, a saw-mill, and a fulling mill, all owned by Richard Al- bertson, and his son after him, and built in the latter part of the last century. In 1828 John Perkins became the proprie- tor of the water-power and established a business there that has been for long years one of the most important industries. With that honesty and enterprise that have ever distinguished them. the name became a household word in all parts of Suffolk County. " If you buy Perkins' cloth," said an old farmer, " you know what you have got, but if you buy this store cloth it will like enough drop off of you in the street." No such catastrophe ever occurred with cloth that was made at the Upper Mills.
Sixty years ago there were about thirty houses in all scat- tered along the main road, and outside of the main street there was not a dwelling of any description. Cutting wood and ship- ping it on small vessels was the most important industry and employed more men during the winter than any other enter- prise: As the level of the street was much lower then, it was no uncommon thing for the tide to come up to the old Court
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House : and there are now living in this village two ladies who, when young, picked huckleberries in a swamp where Bridge Street now is-Mrs. Daniel R. Edwards and Mrs. Noah W. Hallock. Some seventy years ago the house of the late David Jagger was moved from the " Middle Road." To accomplish this it was necessary to move it east to the fork of the roads and then west to Riverhead. It was quite an event and re- quired a great many yoke of oxen.
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