USA > New York > Suffolk County > History of Suffolk county, New York, 1683 > Part 43
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Mr. Havens's name and services appear prominently in connection with the various institutions of Suffolk county. He is a director in the Suffolk County Insur- ance Company, and one of the managers of the Suffolk County Agricultural Society.
He was married June 15th 1865 to Mary A., daughter of Jesse W. Pelletreau, of Southampton, a family of Huguenot descent. Their children have been three girls and one boy. Mr. Havens had one brother and three sisters, one of whom is not living. He has always been, in political affairs, an active Democrat, and his acts have always been an honor and a source of strength to his party. He belongs to the Congregational church in Patchogue, and gives cordial support to charitable and religious organizations.
It is Mr. Havens's nature to be constantly occupied, but he is a quiet worker and makes no unnecessary show. His private business, already large, is constantly growing. He built and is partner in the paper-mill mentioned in his brother's biography. His landed property at Moriches and his store and paper-mill at Patchogue absorb much of his time; still he enjoys the visits of friends, who are ever welcome at his hospitable home.
Janus Pice
JAMES RICE, M. D.
Dr. James Rice of Patchogue is a native of Avon, Livingston county, N. Y., and was born February 4th 1804. As a striking illustration of the great difference between the eastern and western portions of the State of New York in the dates of their settlement it is interest- ing to record here the fact that his father, Oliver Phelps Rice, was the first white child born in this state west of Cayuga Lake, which event took place in 1783 at Cana- wangus, about two miles west of the famous Avon Springs. Suffolk county at that time had raised four generations of white babies. Oliver Phelps, one of the owners of the Phelps & Gorham's purchase, gave the boy (whom the Indians had taken a great liking to, and had named Canawangus) his own name, and with his name a deed of roo acres of land.
The mother of young Oliver, Dr. Rice's grandmother, was a most remarkable woman. With no advantages of early education she mastered and spoke fluently four languages; obtained a most excellent medical education, so that she attended to a regular practice far and near, after the country began to be settled by whites; and possessed rare common sense, that made her advice sought after by all classes on all manner of subjects. She possessed great mental.vigor and physical endurance. When Sullivan's army passed through Canandaigua in 1779 she baked bread for them night and day while they were in camp there, receiving flour for her family in pay- ment. She was frequently called in council with the reg- ular graduates of the medical schools, being treated with
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great courtesy by them and her opinions having decided weight. Dr. Little, an old and leading physician in Avon, declared he would rather have "Granny" Rice (as she was called) in consultation over a difficult case, than any doctor he knew of. She lived to be 105 years old. From this it will be seen what kind of blood runs in Dr. Rice's veins.
In early life he lived mostly on a farm, making good use of his limited advantages to obtain an education. He saved his income and economized in his expenditures, and at the age of 25 went to Philadelphia to pursue a medical education. He remained there five months, but his great admiration of Dr. Valentine Mott induced him to change from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Philadelphia, to the college of the same name in New York, of which Dr. Mott was the renowned surgeon. Here he remained three years. Dr. Mutt found him an apt student and extended to him his personal friendship, giving him after his gradnation an autograph letter of all classes, from the poorest and humblest to the grand- attestation of his proficiency as a surgeon, and commend- ing him to any people with whom he. might settle. The number of medical graduates still living who hold diplomas signed by this remarkable surgeon is fast thin- ning out, and they will soon, like their great master, exist only in memory.
His aptness for business while a young man, and his quick perception of the main chance, giving the key to his success through life, will appear from a little history of one of his speculations while a student. He had saved a few hundred dollars before going to the city, with which he sometimes bought a little wheat and had it ground and shipped to him. Then from his study of drugs he became familiar with their value, and bought from ships and importers and sold to retailers. When the news of the outbreak of the cholera of 1832 reached New York, his quick judgment told him there was a good speculation in camphor gum, as it was largely used by the profession in that disease. Inquiry at stores showed that the price had jumped from 50 cents to $1.50 per pound. This was on Saturday, and there were no telegraphs, and no Sunday boats to Philadelphia, only a single stage. In this, with all the money in his pocket he could command, he took passage. Reaching the Quaker City Monday morning early he quietly went from store to store, and in a couple of hours had bought 1,500 pounds, on which he made over $3,000. One other man on the stage was on the same errand as himself, and only these two in all the great city had taken time by the fore- lock. At noon, when the boat arrived from New York, there was a rush of men after camphor gum, but they found a "corner" in that drug.
Immediately after graduating Dr. Rice came to Patchogue and commenced the successful career as a phy- sician and a citizen which has for almost 50 years been so well known to so many people. His form was com- pact, but very elastic, possessing the quickness and ease of movement that characterized all the members of his family. Sooner than is usual with young doctors he found himself in possession of a large lucrative practice.
The life of physicians differs from that of any other class; while there is more material from which to con- struct an entertaining biography than usually exist in the. doings of other men, still it is such that it must not be made public. A doctor who is liked is in possession of more family and individual secrets than the most inquisi- tive old news-monger ever dreamed of. Whether he will or not, into his ear is constantly poured a stream of fact and fiction, complaint, suspicion and gossip, until, like the Zuni Indians, he feels like saying "my head is full and can hold no more."
This accumulation of the inner facts of human life occurs with all physicians of long and large practice, but it is peculiarly true of Dr. Rice. He has a nature that invites frankness and confidence, for it carries an assur- ance that faith is never broken, and confidence never violated. For 30 years his professional duties were unusually extensive and exacting. His practice reached est and most wealthy. Many times he has been called to New York, sometimes by special train, to visit patients who made him their first choice. It is well understood that from the very first his circumstances have been easy and his accumulations have had a healthy growth. Dr. Rice has never married. It is well known that he has done what many a batchelor brother has not-he. has placed all the members of his father's family who needed help in a position to help themselves. Wealthy people may learn by his example, if they will, how to increase their own happiness by making others happy. This is a secret possessed by few people of means. Few men of his age carry as pleasant, contented faces as he. His vigor of body and mind is still marked. One day in May 1882 he walked to Bellport and back between breakfast and dinner, suffering no inconvenience there- from. Perhaps there is not a man in Suffolk county with a wider or more accurate knowledge of the men of his day and generation, and none bears a more honorable name, or commands a larger respect.
The expectations of his honored professor Valentine Mott that he would distinguish himself in surgery were fully realized. During his whole active career he was the ablest surgeon in his county, performing the opera- tion of amputating the lower jaw on Mrs. Enos of Quogue, when it had been done but a few times in America. He was depended on and sent for to perform capital operations far and near.
His brother Dr. Charles Rice, whom many people of Moriches and Riverhead will remember as a successful physician, was educated at Dr. James Rice's expense in the Philadelphia College of Physicians and Surgeons. He was a man of varied acquirements, and an extensive traveler, having completed the circuit of the earth in his desire to see and know for himself. He is now a resi- dent of Flint, Michigan, resting on the accumulations of a busy and successful life.
Dr. Rice also bore the entire expense of the education at Michigan University, of his brother Dr. Oliver W. Rice, whose career is sketched below. He is himself a
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traveler, having in company with Edward Osborn made the tour of Europe, besides seeing much of his native land.
[RI C E)
(1871)
RICE
The above engraving represents the cemetery lot and monument of the Rice family at Patchogue. The ground was purchased, laid out and fitted up by Miss Rachael Rice in 1871, and to it were re- moved the remains of her brother Dr. Oliver W. Rice, who died two years before and was buried in the old cemetery.
He was born in Livonia, Livingston county, N. Y., and came to Patchogue when a lad, to live with his brother Dr. James Rice. Here he helped in Dr. Rice's drug store, attended school, chose his profession, and completed the necessary course of reading preparatory to entering a medical school. Choice was made of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the University of Michigan, where he took a thorough course, and gradu- ated with honor March 30th 1854. He came home and commenced practice, taking high rank from the first. Desiring the additional advantages of a city experience he went in 1856 to Bellevue Hospital, New York, from which institution he received a diploma, dated March 7th 1857 and signed by John W. Francis, Isaac Wood, and Valentine Mott.
Always a great worker, he returned and resumed the duties of his profession with ardor. His brother Dr. James Rice resigned to his care his own large practice, which he not only assumed easily and satisfactorily . to all parties concerned, but largely extended. His career from this time to his death was a brilliant one. He was a born physician. It will give rise to no jealousy or contradiction to say that he eclipsed the bright fame of his brother, and attained a practice which, for large pro- portions, skillful conduct and satisfactory results, has never been excelled, if equalled, in Suffolk county. He
kept two, three and finally four horses for his extended rides, which knew no cessation night or day. But he committed that sin which nature never pardons in physi- cian or patient-he overtaxed his strength and neglected its recuperation, Then followed the old, old story: fever, partial recovery, premature exertion, relapse, death. It was sad, but it was inevitable. He had com- pressed the work of twenty years into twelve, and nature took him out of the exciting race at the noonday age of 36 years and 9 months. The manifestation of public and private sorrow was. everywhere seen. The press spoke as it never does except in moments of great loss. The poor were sorely smitten, for they knew him only as their friend. Every class, in a community many miles in extent, felt a personal bereavement, for there was a vacancy at the bedsides of the suffering, and there was no equal successor. The funeral attested the public feeling. The Congregational church could not contain half who came to participate in the last sad offices. He died November 12th 1869.
A short time after the lot was fitted up Dr. James Rice had the remains of his father and mother brought from Livonia, N. Y., where they had lived and died and deposited in the new burial place. Miss Rice has deeded this ground to the diocese of Long Island in trust, and has added a fund of $1,000 to keep it perpetually in order.
PLANING MILL OF EDWIN BAILEY & SON.
EDWIN BAILEY.
Edwin Bailey was born in Manchester, England. His father, Joseph Bailey, was a machinist, thoroughly ed- ucated and practiced in all that pertained to fitting up and running. the steam engines of those days. He
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had saved enough to buy a home, and was fairly pros- perous till the Irish famine of 1846-7 drove thousands of poor people to England, glutting the labor market and filling the asylums and poor-houses, which raised the taxes and deranged business generally. Mr. Bailey could see no way of supporting his family there under those circumstances, and turning his little property into ready money he took his wife and one child, Edwin, and started for New York city, where they arrived September 29th 1848. Here he found the tide of emigration had filled the shops and work was hard to get. After an un- successful search from city to city for four months he was taken sick in Philadelphia, where he died.
trade. When he had mastered his trade he took a wife.
In 1865 he was elected trustee and overseer of the poor, and he filled the office till 1868, when he was elected col- lector of the town of Brookhaven. In 1870 he built the union free school building at Patchogue, which has con- tinued an honor to the village. He was elected a mem- ber- of the first board of education, and enjoyed the credit of taking the lead in changing the school to its present consolidated system of management.
In 1870 he opened a small lumber yard on a capital of $800. In 1881 he took his oldest son, Joseph, as partner, and built the manufactory and planing-mills which are represented above, enlarging and improving the business in all respects, and selling in that year over 5,000,000 feet of lumber, the total value of which exceeded $100,000. This is the largest and most important man- ufacturing interest in Patchogue, the largest village on the south side of the island. The recent rapid growth and costly buildings and improvements in all places on
Edwin worked one year on a farm in Monmouth county, N. J., and his mother came to Patchogue and worked in a cotton factory, to which place Edwin also came at the expiration of his year, and obtained work in the same establishment. After a while he became an oyster- man on the Great South Bay, which pursuit he followed till 17 years old, when he went to learn the carpenter's the south side are among the wonders of the times.
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EAST HAMPTON.
By WILLIAM S. PELLETREAU.
HIS town occupies the extreme eastern portion of the south branch of the island. It is bounded on the west by the town of South- ampton, while on the north, the east and the south nature has fixed the boundary, and around it, as upon the borders of Achilles's shield, "rolls the broad stream of ocean." As in the adjoining town, the improved and cultivated land bears of nature. The forest still occupies the western and much of the northern portion of the town. The range of hills which extends through Southampton ceases be- fore reaching the boundary, and throughout this town west of Montauk there are no high elevations of land. The portion next the ocean is a low plain, while the shore itself is fringed by the line of sand hills or "beach banks " which forms so prominent a feature of the Long Island coast.
down to minute pebbles, mixed together. The cliff at the extreme point is about seventy feet in height, and the wearing process described has covered the coast with rocks which extend in an unbroken line across to Block Island, and reach south to a distance of many miles; showing conclusively that this portion of Long Island is but a mere fragment of its former self.
Separating Montauk from the western part of the town a small proportion to the part which continues in a state is a desolate tract known as Napeague Beach. This is some five miles in length, and in width from Gardiner's Bay to the ocean. It is composed entirely of sand, which the wind has raised into hillocks. Along the shore of the creeks is a scanty growth of salt meadow grass; the rest only produces a few scanty bushes of the beach plum, and other plants which seem adapted to their bar- ren dwelling place. There is little reason to doubt that this region was once covered by the sea. There is a tra- dition that at an early date the skeleton of a whale was visible near the western end of the beach, and nearly midway between the ocean and the highlands. It is spoken of as having been nearly perfect, and was either left by the receding sea or carried to its place by some extraordinary tide. In one respect this barren tract may challenge pre-eminence over any other part of the island. The marshy places render it the paradise of mosquitoes, and here, if we may speak from experience, can be found the most annoying specimens of that bloodthirsty race.
Upon the north, by the shore of Peconic and Gardi- ner's Bays, we find an entirely different scene. The sur- face is more hilly, and the beach of the bay is bounded by cliffs, in some places of considerable height. The action of the waves during storms gradually undermines these cliffs, and landslides on a small scale are not infre- quent. The lighter portions of the soil are then swept away, while the bowlders are left as monuments to mark the places which the land once occupied. The bay thus gradually encroaches upon the land, to a much greater Next to this comes the peninsula of Montauk. It is a region entirely different from the rest of the town, and there is no reasonable doubt that it was once an island by itself. It remains in primeval grandeur, as unsubdued by the toil of man as when the Indian roamed over it with undisputed sway. A small portion is covered with woods, but the greater part is clear and has probably al- ways been so. The land is broken and hilly, and from the summits of the highlands may be seen a magnificent prospect of bay and ocean. The view from the extremity of the point is exceedingly grand. extent than is generally supposed. In the suit between the "Trustees of the Freeholders and Comonalty of East Hampton " and Josiah Kirk the point in question was the right of the town to the beach between the bay and the upland of the defendant, the premises being at that portion of the town known as "Northwest." It was shown from the record that when the land was originally laid out, in 1736, the lots were, bounded not by the bay but by the cliff; and it was most conclusively shown by the evidence that the bay had encroached to such an ex- tent that the place where the cliff was then must now be THE ABORIGINES. under water. This process of encroachment is especially discernible at Montauk. The whole region there, which At the time of the settlement the whole of the land now embraced in the town was owned and occupied by is evidently of glacial formation, is composed of earth, clay, gravel and bowlders of all sizes, from large rocks | a tribe of Indians known as the Montauks. This name
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is probably a corruption of the original, " Meantacut," and this, like the names of other Indian tribes, was not properly the name of the tribe as such, but of the local- ity which was its principal seat. The comparative prox- imity of the Montauks to the Connecticut shore, and the facility with which their enemy the Pequots could make a landing upon their coast with their war canoes, render- ed them subservient to that fierce tribe which was the terror of the New England settlements. At the head of the Montauk tribe was the great chief Wyandanch, who assumed the title of sachem of Paumanack or Long Island. At what time this title was assumed is uncer- tain, but in a singular affidavit made by Thomas Halsey, whose wife was murdered by Indians in 1649, he deposes "that at the time of the trouble in this town of South- ampton by reason of murther committed by the Indians I saw Mandush, whoe was a man reputed and acknowl- edged generally by all the Indians in these parts to be the great sachem's son of Shinecock, cutt up a turf of ground in Southampton and, delivering itt to Wyan-
According to the author of "Chronicles of East Hamp- ton" the Long Island tribes were under the control of and subject to Poggatacut, sachem of the Manhasset tribe, which inhabited Shelter Island, "who had under him ten or fifteen sachems, to whom his word was law." Poggatacut died in 1651 and was succeeded by his brother Wyandanch, who then became grand sachem of Long Island. Of his tribe Montauk was the chosen seat. As a refuge against their enemies a fort was built at the west end of Montauk, not far from the line separating it from Napeague Beach. This fort, however, must have been abandoned at an early date, for in the deed for Montauk given in 1661 allusion is made to its site as the place " where the old Indian fort stood." At that time a new fort had been made on the northeast side of Fort Pond, on what is still called Fort Hill. The outlines of this work are yet visible, and show that it was about one hundred feet square, with a round tower at each corner. The position was well chosen for defense, and the fort must have afforded comparative security against an enemy who did not possess the means nor the patience to carry on a regular siege. Relics of ancient burial places are found in the vicinity, and doubtless here rest the remains of many a warrior whose deeds are not told in song or story.
The chief Poggatacut died in 1651, on Shelter Island, and his body was carried to Montauk to find a last resting place. While the corpse was being borne on its last journey the bearers rested at a place on the road be- tween Sag Harbor and East Hampton. On the spot
where the sachem's feet lay a small excavation was made, apparently to mark the place; and for more than one hundred and eighty years that spot was to the Montauk Indians holy ground, and none of the tribe ever passed it without stopping to remove the leaves and rubbish which otherwise would soon have obliterated the mark. At the time of the construction of the turnpike this in- teresting spot was plowed up; its location was on the south side of the road, a short distance west of " Whoop- ing Boy Hollow."
Considering the oppression of the Pequots, it is not surprising that Wyandanch and his tribe should have joined their forces with the English in Connecticut for the destruction of the New England savages. The great battle at Mystic Fort ended the Pequots' power forever. The few of that tribe who were among the Long Island Indians were hunted out and destroyed. After this the Narragansetts, seeing the destruction of the Pequots, became jealous of the growing power of the English, and their chief Miantonomah endeavored to danch, gave up all his right and interest unto him. And induce the neighboring tribes to unite in a common hee the said Mandush, with many others of the chief of Shinecock Indians, did manifest their consent by their ordinary sign of stroaking Wyandanch on the back. And since that time the said Wyandanch (who was sachem of Meantauk) hath acted upon ye aforesaid interest given to him, as by letting and disposing of lands at Quaqua- nantuck and elsewhere." This was sworn to on the 19th of September 1666. cause and destroy the English settlements at a blow. Accordingly he visited Montauk, and made every effort to enlist the sachem in his enterprise. He represented that the whites had already taken the best of their lands; that game, once so abundant, was now scarce, and in a short time the Indians must perish before the advancing power of their new enemy. "For this purpose," said the wily savage, "I have come secretly to you, because you can persuade the Indians and sachems of Long Island what you will. Brothers, I will send over fifty Indians to Block Island and thirty to you from thence, and take an hundred of Southampton Indians, with an hundred of your own here; and when you see the three fires that will be made at the end of forty days hence in a clear night,.then do as we shall do, and follow and kill men, women and children; but not the cows-they will serve for provision till the deer be increased." Fortun- ately the Montauk sachem did not listen to this appeal. Had he done so, and thrown his powerful influence into the scale of war, it is almost certain that the settle- ments on the south side of Long Island would have been swept from the face of the earth. As it was he com- municated his knowledge to the magistrates in Connecti- cut, and, as Lion Gardiner quaintly remarks, "so the plot failed, and the plotter next spring after died as Ahab died at Ramoth Gilead."
Ninigret, who was afterward sachem of the Narragan- setts, attempted to carry out the same plan, and in the same manner endeavored to obtain the help of the Mon- tauks. Failing in this he began a war with the latter tribe, which was carried. on by both sides with great vigor. Learning that the enemy was on Block Island, the Montauk sachem proceeded thither with a powerful force, and in a sudden attack killed about thirty of the Narra- gansetts. After this Ninigret made a descent upon Montauk, which he ravaged, burning wigwams, destroy- ing corn fields and killing many of the bravest warriors. It was at this time that he carried off the sachem's daugh-
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