USA > New York > Suffolk County > Riverhead > History of Suffolk country, comprising the addresses delivered at the celebration of the bi-centennial of Suffolk county, N.Y., in Riverhead, November 15, 1883 > Part 2
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Men of this character, with these principles and aims, could not fail to be sober, industrious, thrifty and virtuous. Planted on such a soil as Long Island's, in this genial climate, with the rich advantages of the land and seas which they have possessed, they were bound to grow and pros- per. They were generally intelligent people for those times, most of the full grown men being able to read and write, and some of them possessing scholarly attainments. Not a few were venturesome and restless, and nearly all desired to increase their worldly estates and make provision for their children, on earth, as well as lay up their treasures in heaven. Their style of living was simple and inexpensive. But the hardships of their condition did not chill their love of home, nor hinder the rapid increase of their descendants. The families were generally large and healthy, though suffering from the wants of medical skill. (Had there been a phy-
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POPULATION AND GROWTH.
sician in any of the towns before the organization of the county ?) Parents often lived to see their descendants number scores and sometimes hun- dreds. They were fit in mind and body to make sure of a rapid increase of population, wealth and comfort.
When the act of 1683 organized the county, it recognized six towns. Southold, the oldest, was settled in 1640, and Southampton in the same year; East-Hampton in 1649; Huntington, a few , years later; Brookhaven in 1655; and Smithfield, now Smithtown, soon afterwards, though its or- ganization as a town seems to date from the formation of the county.
The population of the county, at that time, may have been two thou- sand persons. Fifteen years later, in 1698, it was 2,679; and of this num- ber 2, 121 were white people. Five years later, in .1703, the whole number was 3,346. Twenty years thereafter, in 1723, it had nearly doubled, and was 6,241. Only eight years later, in 1731, it was 7,675, and without abatement in the growth; for, six years later, in 1737, it had become 7,923, when there were 328 freeholders in the county. The causes of this rapid enlargement continued; and, in 1746, it had risen to 9, 254. Thus, in the previous forty-eight years, the resident population had increased 360 per cent. In 1749, it was 9,387. Of these, 8,098 were whites, and 1, 289 were classed as blacks-the percentage of increase on the part of the whites, in the previous half century, outstripping that of the blacks. In 1756, the numbers were, whites, 9, 245; blacks, 1,045. The enumeration of 1771, the last census previous to the war of Independence, shows that the number of the people had become 11.676 whites and 1,452 blacks, making a total population at that time of 13, 128.
Thus the increase of that part of the population which remained in the county had been such as to cause the number of the people to advance five-fold in seventy-three years. The increase of the people, born in the county, who had removed to other parts of our country, may have been far greater in number than those who remained here; for our county, from .. the first generation of its christian people, has never ceased to be a busy, fruitful, swarming hive. Such towns as Chester; New Jersey, and Palmy- ra, New York, were almost wholly founded by Suffolk county people.
Among the men who removed from the county, or their ancestors be- fore them, may be named John Ledyard, the Traveler; Samuel L. South- ard, Mahlon Dickerson, Thomas Corwin, William H. Seward, members of the National Cabinet under Presidents Monroe, Jackson, Filmore and Lincoln.
United State Senators Hobart, Smith, Southard, Dickinson, Sanford, Corwin, Seward and Conkling also belong by residence, birth or ancestry to our county.
Governors of States, Ogden, Southard, Corwin, Seward, Young, Dickerson, Stratton, Hoadley, have the same connections here.
Among the great Judges, one may name William Smith, John Sloss Hobart, Topping Reeve, Nathan Sanford and Selah B. Strong as repre- sentative men of Suffolk county growth.
Who knows how many Representatives in Congress can be traced to a Suffolk county ancestry ?
Four of the ten Presidents of Yale College were themselves or their ancestors citizens and Christian pastors of our county. Perhaps half a score of other college presidents have been as closely connected with us, like Storrs and Wines.
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POPULATION AND GROWTH.
Of the Ministers of the Gospel who have attained the degree of Doc- tor of Divinity, perhaps not fewer than one hundred (in Southold town alone not fewer than thirty), could be named who were or are themselves natives or residents, or the descendants of natives or residents of our county. More than one of these were severally the first Professors of Di- vinity in the great theological seminaries of our country, like Henry White, of the Union Theological Seminary of New York city, and Abijah Wines, . of the Bangor Theological Seminary, Maine.
What a multitude of great merchants has Suffolk county produced, like Christopher R. Robert, born near Moriches, the founder of Robert College near Constantinople in Turkey!
What sea or port of the globe bears not witness to the science, skill and courage of our eminent shipmasters ?
It is the growth of population in our county that has been effective in producing these men and hundreds upon hundreds more of great emi- nence and worth.
It is the character of the population that Suffolk county has possessed and has freely given to our whole country and to the world of mankind, that is the greatest honor of the east end of Long Island.
A population af virtue, industry and piety grows in number as well as in wealth and comfort; for "godliness is profitable unto all things." The increase, as shown by the United States census from 1790 to 1880 inclu- sive, ranges in our county from some two thousand to seven thousand in each ten years. Thus the population in 1790 was equal to 16,440 per- sons; in 1800, 19,735; in 1810, 21, 113; in 1820, 23,930; in 1830, 26,780; in 1840, 32,469; in 1850, 36,922; in 1860, 43, 275; in 1870, 46,924; in .1880, 53,888.
It is proper at this point gratefully to acknowledge the courtesy of the Hon. C. W. Seaton, the Superintendent of the United States census, for the foregoing figures of each census from 1790 to 1880.
To James H. Wardle, Esq., a native of Suffolk county, a citizen of the village of Riverhead, who is the Superintendent of the Agricultural De- partment of the United States census, I am very greatly indebted for an elaborate and valuable table, showing the population of the county by its several towns, according to every United States census from 1790 to 1880 in decades, and also in half decades partly from other sources from 1820 to 1880. This table is as follows:
SUFFOLK COUNTY POPULATION, 1790-1880.
1880 |1875 1870 |1865 :1860 1855 | 1850 | 1845 |1840 ; 1835 |1830 | 1825 | 1820 | 1814 ; 1810 |1800 | 1790
The County.
53888 51873 46924 42869 43275 41066 36922 34579 32469 28274 26780 23695 24272 21368 21113 19464 16440
Babylon, (a).
4739
4533
Brookhaven
11544 11537 10159 10159
9923
9696 8595
74,61
7050
6866
6095
5393
5218 4790
4176
4022
3224
East-Hampton.
2515.
2299 2372
2311
2267 2145
2122
2155
2076
1819
1668
1556
1646
1449
1484
1549
1497
Huntington, (a).
8098
7739 10704 7809
8924 8142 7481
6746
6562
5498
5582
4540
4935
2946
4424
3894
3260
Islip
6453
5802
4597
4243
3845
3282 2602
2098
1909
1528
1653
1344
1156
1074
885
958
609
Riverhead, (b). .
3939
3976
3461
3226
3044 2734
2540
2373
2449
2138
2016
1816
1857 1753
1711
1498
.....
Shelter Island .
732
644
645
570
506
483
386
446
379
334
330
349
389
379
329
260
201
Smithtown ...
2249
2379
2136
2085
2130
2087, 1972
1897
1932
1580
1686
1677
1874 1771
1592
1413
1022
Southampton .
6352
6124
6135
6194
6803
6821
6501
7212
6205
5275
4850
4561
4229
3527
3899
3670
3408
Southold, (b).
7267 6840
6715 6272 5833 5676 4723
4191|
3907/ 3236
2900 2459
2968 2679 2613 2200 3219
.
(a) Babylon erected from Huntington, March 13, 1872.
(b) Riverhead erected from Southold in 1792.
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POPULATION AND GROWTH.
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POPULATION AND GROWTH.
The value of the property in the county two hundred years ago in- cluded, of course, the worth of all the acreage of to-day. The price of the land was then low; but for many reasons the price of horses, cattle, sheep and other useful animals was high. The assessed value at that time was less than two hundred thousand dollars. It was nearly an hundred dol- lars for each inhabitant; but who knows how many persons there are in the county now who have each more than the value of the whole county in 1683? The property in the county was then in the several towns as follows :
Southold,
Southampton,
£10,819 00 00 16,328 06 08
East-Hampton,
9,075 06 08
Huntington,
0,811 10 00
Brookhaven,
5,036 00 00 1,340 00 00
Smithtown,
There is no doubt that the true value of the property in the county now is not less than $500 to each inhabitant, even deeming the present population to be sixty thousand. It is safe to say, that the population has grown thirty fold in the two centuries, and the wealth five times thirty fold. The assessment made by the several towns this year amounts to $14,567,521. The equalized valuation for the present year is $15, 654, 564. But this sum doubtless needs to be doubled to approximate the true value. It may therefore be deemed that while the population has increased thirty fold, the wealth has increased one hundred and fifty fold in the last two centuries.
It is not so easy to measure the progress in the comfort of the people. It is difficult even to understand the rudeness of that age.
Their lowly dwellings contained tables, chairs, desks, drawers, chests, bedsteads, beds, bedding, shovels, tongs, andirons, trammels, pothooks, pots, pans, knives, wooden ware, pewter ware, especially plates and spoons; sometimes a little earthenware, and perhaps a few pieces of silverware, as a tankard or a cup. Nearly every man had a gun, and a few had swords and books. But stoves, tin ware, plated ware of every kind, china, porce- lain, queens ware, and all kinds of fine pottery were almost or altogether unknown among them. They used no table cloths, and the first genera- tion, at least, no table forks. Their log cabins or low houses were covered with roofs of grass or straw. These abodes were furnished in the plainest and cheapest manner. The wills and inventories of that date show the prop- erty of the people and their style of living. They had land, houses, barns, fences, horses, cattle, sheep, swine and fowls. They used a few rude uten- sils to cultivate the soil-carts, ploughs, harrows, hoes, forks, rakes, scythes, sickles, axes. A few mechanics and artisans had the tools of their respective trades-carpenters, blacksmiths, weavers, shoemakers. The peo- ple generally wrought directly upon the land or the water. They had no carpets. Few had any pictures, clocks, watches, musical instruments, or works of art of any kind to adorn their homes. Some had candlesticks- very few, lamps. There were simple implements for the manufacture of flax and wool into cloth, and the families generally had scissors and needles to make and mend the homely garments which they wore.
Almost no articles of food, nor even condiments, were brought from be- yond the county-no coffee nor tea, little sugar. They had little more fruit than a scanty supply of wild berries. The mortar and pestle were in daily use to prepare their grain for cooking. They had no fine flour.
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POPULATION AND GROWTH.
They had nets and boats for fishing and other purposes; but how un- like those of the present day! Their highways were mainly water. There were few roads and no bridges. The sea, the sound and the bays were the paths of their meagre trade and small social intercourse. They had few books and no printed newspapers.
The destitution and want of the early inhabitants of our county can- not be understood, so greatly did their means of comfort differ from our own.
But though their hardships were so severe, they made us their im- measurable debtors. Their virtues and piety opened for us those living fountains of liberty, prosperity and benign influences of many kinds, which so greatly enrich and comfort us to-day, and which will continue to afford intelligence, wealth and gladness to our descendants for ages to come. There is no exact measure for the growth of comfort sinc .. their day. But it is safe to say, that there are now more and better means for it in hundreds of dwellings in Suffolk county than could be found two hundred years ago in any ducal or royal palace.
In the narrow conditions and sharp privations of their time, our an- cestors here did their work faithfully and well. It becomes us to com- memorate their deeds, and to celebrate their worth, not only: but also to emulate their devotion to the welfare of posterity, and to increase the pop- ulation, wealth and comfort of our countrymen through all future genera- tions.
THE FORMATION
-- OF THE --
CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF SUFFOLK COUNTY.
-BY-
LON. ENRY CUDDER.
T HE perfection of human government is the assurance of the largest personal liberty with the most thorough protection of every personal right. To achieve such a government has engaged the thought of the philanthropist and philosopher. Possibly it will not be given to man to consummate his hopes in this direction, but certainly it is given him to hope and labor for their fulfillment. We hail with rapture every struggle that advances us toward this form of government and deplore the errors and calamities that hinder our progress or reverse our steps.
Slow as the development of ruling systems has heretofore been, en- couragement is yet derivable from its study. That study illustrates the complexity of human wants and the necessity of new provisions for new conditions constantly arising.
The beneficial improvement of an existing political power, the intro- duction of a new principle into a code of laws may be, and often is, the achievement of a century of struggle and, when embodied and promul- gated seems so far the consummation of all reasonable ambition that the citizen rests upon it, and ceases further toil.
New exigencies will soon disturb his repose, and demand greater ex- ertions. Thus in the grand scheme of perfecting human government, se- ries of measures (and not single and disconnected movements), are ob- servable. We have to deal with one of these. We celebrate an occasion when out of prolonged, persistent and weary labor of many generations there came the birth of a great political principle, a new and grand politi- cal dispensation, in whose being, constitutional liberty of the person and assured protection of his rights were advanced beyond any limits to which they had before been pushed.
The establishment of a town, county or State, is always memorable; but the foundation of a benevolent charter for the ruling of a community infinitely more memorable. In celebrating the formation of Suffolk coun- ty, we render appropriate homage to those who inhabited its confines and administered its public affairs at that juncture; but if we reduced our com- memoration to the simple consideration of the territorial jurisdiction of a county; if we overlooked or failed to recall and dwell upon the character of the government it secured, we would fall short of celebrating that which
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CIVIL GOVERNMENT.
gave to its inhabitants the blessings of peaceful liberty, social and political eminence, and grandest of all, freedom of conscience in religious belief and worship.
Suffolk County as established by the Act of the General Assembly of the Province of New York, on the Ist of November, 1683, differed in no essential of geographical area from the East Riding of Yorkshire, as that was constituted at the convention held in Hempstead, Queens county, in 1665, and apart from the assignment to it of a high Sheriff instead of a Deputy, its municipal character would have remained unchanged by the act, and the mere gift of a name exhausted all that act con erred upon it. Far more serious purposes than the affixing names to portions of the Prov- ince animated the Assembly of 1683, and these purposes, their origin, sup- port and final triumph command our attention in this season of commem- oration. A full review of the steady progress of the organic law of the county from its settlement to the year it took position as a county, is for- bidden by the circumstances of the present hour. Simple references to in- portant events, and controlling characteristics of its people, their deter- mination to frame a government upon the generous and stable foundations of personal liberty and protection of property, must suffice for this paper.
The settlers of Suffolk County were Puritans. Few of the Church of England were found here during 20 years after Farret's small colony was expelled from Cow Bay by the Dutch, and found security and permanent homes at Southampton; and the few so adventuring impressed upon the public affairs of the communities little that is traceable through the ob- scure annals of those early days. These founders of Suffolk were already inured to the new life of the wilderness. At Lynn, in Massachusetts, and Hartford and New Haven, in Connecticut, they had learned the hardships of pioneer adventure, and were ready for the sacrifices their new settlement in Long Island exacted. They were intelligent and some even learned, resolute in purpose and fearless of difficulties. There were those among them who could recall the infamous decree of James I., that every minis- ter in Scotland should declare from his pulpit "that those who attend church on Sundays should not be disturbed or discouraged from dancing, archery, leaping, vaulting, having Whitsun ales, Morris dances, setting up May poles and other sports therewith used on Sundays after divine ser- vice, "a nd the punishment of those earnest ministers who refused to read such declaration as an impious breach of the command to keep holy the Sabbath day.
They could testify to the flight of the Elect from a realm where the true Word was thus perverted, and the stormy passage to Holland in search of a refuge for conscience.
Others had witnessed the accumulating power of the people of En- gland in its struggle with a monarch whose chief doctrine of government was his faith in the divine right of kings. And others yet had participated in the great uprising against this divine right, and had seen it and its vota- ries swept from existence by Cromwell and his Ironsides on the plains of Naseby.
There were those, too, who had gathered from the Pilgrims the rich experiences and conclusions gained during the twelve years residence in Holland, and the study of the free, genial, and hearty systems of the Dutch. These could understand the benefits of a Representative Govern- ment, and the value of the principle of taxation through representation only, established among the Dutch for a century and more.
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CIVIL GOVERNMENT.
The Puritans, however, were disinclined to imitation, original in de- vice, they were obstinate in adhesion. Theirs was not a disposition will- ingly yielding to contentment. Indulged beyond ordinary generosity by the kind-hearted Dutch, they were unable to resist the opportunity for gloomy criticism upon the usage of the Sabbath by their gentle hosts.
They came to the New World self-poised, indomitable, fearing God, but fearless of man, to hew their path to fortune, and hew out of that path all who stood in their way. It was no worldly fortune they sought, but the fortune of grace in the Church, and freedom in the State.
They were here on Long Island to lay the foundations of a govern- ment that should unite freedom with protection, and through years of la- bor, misfortune, trial and oppression, they laid those foundations, and on them, this day, rest our prosperity and happiness.
They brought the common Law of England as their system of juris- prudence rather to draw from its powerful and rich principles whatever might suit occasions, than to establish it as the law of their new land. The disposition of our Puritan ancestors necessarily inclined them to codes. They found in the laws of Moses a system of compensatory penalties that fitted their stern and solemn views of individual relations, and borrowed from its suggestive principles in framing their temporary government.
With such a people you may conceive that morality in the State would be inflexibly administered, and the early history of our county assured us that no indulgence was granted to the vicious or indolent. Virtue and in- dustry were compelled by the authority of the communities.
Upon what did any authority during the 43 years following the settle- ment of the county and preceding its legal formation rest ? Could any man show a commission as Justice under the Broad Seal ? Could any man in arresting an ill-doer point to his warrant and justify his act by its teste in the name of a magistrate deriving power from the Crown; or from any government acknowledged among nations ?
" Will you know," writes the brilliant and elegant Bancroft, " will you know with how little government a community of husbandmen may be safe," and he points to East Jersey in its comparative infancy as a prac- tical answer to his question.
Far more striking. as an instance of a well-ordered community, exist- ing without other government or laws than such as originate from the exi- gency of the hour, and the wisdom and purity of character of a handful of colonists, firm in religious faith and devotion to civil liberty, is presented by the scattered English settlements within the limits of this county for forty-three years succeeding their first establishment at Southampton. These early societies formed distinct political bodies upon the geographical bases of their respective purchases from the Indian owners. Habit suggested the township as a form of municipal organization. No statute determined its limits, or regulated the duties and obligations of its citizens Society, in some respects, was returned to its original elements. In New England, Royal charters were the source of authority. Direct communication with England enabled the colonists of Piymouth-the Bay -- and those as well on the Connecticut river, to maintain a relation of legitimate dependence and avail of protection from the powerful Home Government, yet enter upon undertakings that government sharply disapproved. Thus the New En- gland settlements were favored. No charter existed here. The opposite
1
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CIVIL GOVERNMENT.
condition was visited upon our ancestors. Anxiety respecting the Indian led to treaties with Connecticut, and an alliance for military aid that bor- dered upon subordination. but never centered in it.
Here, if ever, was witnessed for a generation and a half a system of petty governments resting for their existence and power solely upon the consent of the governed. Townships erected upon the area of a grant from Indian Sachems found their inhabitants compacted in a small locality as well for protection and assistance as for the gratification of social tastes. Great distances intervened between these settlements, and these distances forbade general communication. Thus the laws of townships, framed by no com- mon body of representative legislators, lacked harmony, and presented differences in penalties and observances.
The common law is sustained by the foundations of prudence, wisdom, and precedent. Its wholesome principles were imbedded in the tastes, habits and personal rights of the colonists, but they had faith in a better law. The abuses suffered in England were under the administration of the common law, and their recollection brought along with no agreeable taste the system of jurisprudence that allowed their perpetration. Our fore- fathers therefore set to the task of framing laws upon principles that should prevent sharp definitions, and dispose by adequate punishment of all offences toward individual or community. They modified the laws of property as well as of person. The feudal characteristics of the common law disappeared from a field where everv State was acquired upon one basis of purchase and without pure enta.lments.
If the ordinances regulating personal rights and obligations were harsh, they pointed to the Pentateuch, and silenced their opponents by the provisions of Jewish Statutes, having Moses for their founder. True to the Decalogue, they imposed death for violation of many of its decrees. In enforcing obedience to parents thev visited with capital punishment any child who after sixteen years of life
should curse or strike its father or mother. They ended the complaints of nervous women by sharp bodily inflictions. "You have brought me, " said a weary, homesick wife, " to a land without Church or Magistrate." The moaning utterance was true, the penalty inevitable. "For this unseemly speech," say the magistrates, "you shall pav £3, or stand in public with a split stick upon your tongue." And the latter barbarism was applied, for the £3 cannot be raised.
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