History of Suffolk county, New York, 1683, Part 62

Author: W.W. Munsell & Co., pub; Bayles, Richard M. (Richard Mather); Cooper, James B. (James Brown), 1825-; Pelletreau, William S. (William Smith), 1840-1918; Street, Charles R. (Charles Rufus), 1825-1894; Smith, John Lawrence, 1816-1889
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: New York : W.W. Munsell & co.
Number of Pages: 677

USA > New York > Suffolk County > History of Suffolk county, New York, 1683 > Part 62

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Fort Franklin was intended as a rendezvous for tories, who from this point fitted out expeditions by water to plunder the inhabitants in the harbors on the sound.

Onderdonk says that Ludlow's battalion, numbering 150 men, occupied the fort in July 1777; afterward Cap- tain Hewett was in command, and he evacuated it July 7th 1781; that besides the regular force there was a body of equal number composed of tories, refugees, and. all degrees of desperadoes. They lived in huts near the fort. Having boats at command they sallied forth in every direction, for pillage and every kind of violence. It was considered as the headquarters of what was known as the "Honorable Board of Associated Loyalists." An attack was made on this fort in July 1781 by a combined force of French and Americans. Colonel Upham in his report states that three large ships, five armed brigs and other armed vessels appeared in Huntington Harbor July Ist and at 8 o'clock landed 450 men, mostly French, on the beach two miles from the fort. They marched to within 400 yards of the fort, but were repulsed by the cannon in the fort and very soon left. The strength of the attacking force was probably exaggerated. This attack was made by order of Count de Barras, who was at Newport. The commander of the fort, Colonel Hewett, complimented the Queens county militia for their timely assistance in repelling the attack, but cen- sured the Huntington militia for not appearing as ordered. Henry Onderdonk jr. accompanied his account of this affair with a cut and explanation, which he per- mits us to reproduce here.

LONG ISLAND SOUND.

Lloyds Neck

Huntington Harboun

Hog I.

Oyster Bay

o Cold Spring.

THE TOWN OF HUNTINGTON.

EXPLANATION OF THE PLAN.

b. Fort Franklio.

c. Place where the French landed.

e. A brig of 8 or 10 guns under protection of the fort.

f. A large sloop attacking the fort on the west side, the fort bringing one gun to bear on her.

g. Place where a British armed schooner landed her guns and mount- ed them in battery on shore and so beat off a 40-gun ship that came to the attack.

h. A 40-gun ship attacking the British vessels, which are trying to keep out of her way.

Huntington was compelled to contribute £176, the expenses of digging a well near the fort. Thomas Brush paid the money in behalf of the town, and it was after- ward raised by a tax on property.

The widow Chichester kept a public house on East Neck near the shore of the bay, and twenty-five loyalists from Connecticut were quartered in her house. Major Ebenezer Gray, with a party of Colonel Meigs's regi- ment, came over from Norwalk and attacked the house. A fight ensued, but the tories were overpowered; two of them, Captain Coffin and Lyon, were killed, one badly wounded and 16 made prisoners; the rest made their escape.

One of the most fearless and uncompromising patriots of this period was Major Jesse Brush, who is described in a current report of the time as "a small, well built man, with red hair, sandy complexion and a bright eye, strong as Hercules and bold as a lion." He abandoned his farm rather than submit, and was a terrible thorn in the side of the tories in the town, as the following tory report will bear witness:

"A party of rebels have a place of resort at Bread and Cheese Hollow, on a by-road that leads from the house of two men now in rebellion, viz. Nath'l Platt and Thos. Treadwell, to that of the noted Sam'l Phillips, near the Branch. They extend along the road from said Phillips's to the well known Platt Carll's, and have stopped several persons on horseback and in wagons and robbed a number of houses in Smithtown and Islip within the last ten days. They are said to be commanded by a rebel Major Brush, formerly of Huntington."

Major Brush was taken prisoner with Captain Joshua Rogers, Lieutenant Ketcham, Timothy Williams and others in September 1780, while concealed under a boat in Smithtown, and was confined in jail in New York until exchanged. It is supposed that Major Brush and the rest were liberated in October 1780, as Henry Scudder went to New York at that time to negotiate their ex- change. About this time a party of patriots from Con- necticut concealed themselves in a wood below Hunting- ton Harbor and fired upon three dragoons, killing one; they then took to their boats and escaped to Connecticut.

A tory correspondent of Gaine's New York Mercury, writing June 28th 1779, says:

"The rebellious part of the inhabitants of this town [Huntington], who were kept in awe while the troops were stationed east of us, are now become more insolent than ever, and publicly threaten to have all the loyal- ists carried off to Connecticut. The principal of these miscreants are Nathaniel Williams, Stephen Kelsey, Eliphalet Chichester, John Brush, Jonas Rogers, Marlboro Burtis and Israel Wood, some of whom smuggled goods out of New York for the sole purpose of supplying the rebels in Connecticut. Scarcely a night passes but some

of their loyal neighbors are plundered by the sons and other relations of those rebels who fled to Connecticut. I hope you will keep a good look out for these traitors."

It is no doubt true that about this time the tories here suffered greatly by sudden attacks on them by those of their patriot neighbors who had formerly either left the town or secreted themselves in lonely places. Many of the sons of those who had taken the oath of loyalty had gone to Connecticut, and occasionally bands of these patriot refugees would land on the coast and make a raid on the tories, sometimes carrying off their cattle and sheep to supply the American army and sometimes cap- turing and carrying off the tories, and imprisoning them in Connecticut. The tories therefore made loud and frequent complaints to the British officers.

July 10th 1779 General De Lancey issued an order setting forth that peaceable and inoffensive inhabitants had been carried off in the night to Connecticut and robberies committed by sons of persons who had pre- tended to be loyal, with the aid of the latter, and declar- ed: "I will send over such fathers, mothers and their whole families to Connecticut, and give possession of their farms and property to be enjoyed by his Majesty's true and faithful subjects " until they " can prevail upon the rebels to desist."

August 19th following General De Lancey ordered 210 of the Suffolk county militia to parade with their blankets on Monday the 23d instant, to be employed in repairing and constructing the fort at Brooklyn, and to cut, hew and transport 75,000 pieces of timber, pickets, fascines, etc., to be used in the work. This order was issued to Captain Dingee at Huntington South, who replied by stating that it was impossible to comply with it. Upon this the following sweeping order was made by De Lancey:

" If the requisition of men and materials for the pur- pose above mentioned is not immediately complied with a detachment of troops will be sent into that dis- trict, and every person who shall have refused to con- tribute his assistance towards a work in which the king's service and the interest of the loyal inhabitants are so intimately blended shall be turned without distinction out of Long Island, and their farms will be allotted for the support of those who have suffered for real attachment to government."

Compliance with the order could not be further re- sisted.

Governor Tryon was exasperated at the backwardness of the people in taking the oath of allegiance, and caused the following order to be promulgated, dated September 23d 1778:

" All the male inhabitants from 15 years old to 70 that have omitted or neglected waiting on his excellency on the 2nd instant, according to orders, are required to wait on his excellency at New York on or before the 10th day of this month; on failure of which they will be fined five pounds each, and after the fines are levied any refusing to wait on his excellency will be obliged to quit the island with their families."

As the people did not respond fully to the order Gov-

THE TOWN OF HUNTINGTON.

ernor Tryon in person early in September, with a force of 1,200 men, swept the island from one end to the other of its cattle, sheep and grain, and sent them to provision the king's army.

On his way east he stopped at Huntington and ad- ministered the oath of allegiance to 413 male inhabitants. After his return he says in a letter, "I gave them the alternative either to take the oath or remove with their families and furniture to Connecticut."

In October following Governor Tryon made another raid through the island with a large force, and adminis- tered the oath of allegiance to those who had escaped him before.

The town of Huntington was early in the war largely drawn upon by the British for wood, to supply the invad- ing army at New York city and other places as well as at the barracks here. Governor Tryon many times ordered the local militia to have cut and sent to New York large quantities of wood. In order to equalize the burdens of the requisition the owners of woodlands met and ap- pointed men to superintend the cutting and carting of wood to the landings, and it was agreed that each inhab- itant owning woodland should contribute his proportion of the wood as it was from time to time demanded. This plan was carried out in part, but often the tory friends of the British would enter upon the lands of known friends of the American cause and cut and destroy tim- ber indiscriminately. It took fifty years to recover from the havoc made by the war in the Huntington wood- lands.

In the fall of this year Colonel Tarleton with his Brit- ish Legion came to Huntington, and Colonel Simcoe was here with the Queen's Rangers.

The inhabitants had been promised that if they took the oath of allegiance they would be paid for their prop- erty taken from them, and receipts were generally given for wood, beef, cattle, horses, etc. As about four years had passed, and receipts had accumulated representing large sums of money unpaid, the town, through the trus- tees and individuals, petitioned Governor Tryon that these bills might be paid. Admiral Digby, who was sup- plied with much beef for the shipping in the bay, paid for the greater part of it, but the other bills largely remained unsettled. The. British officers, as an excuse for not paying or giving receipts, said the people of Huntington were rebels and did not deserve pay. The following is an extract from a letter by Colonel Simcoe, dated April 4th 1780, stating his opinion of the people of Hunting- ton. He could not well have passed upon them a higher compliment:

"I do not give receipts to a great number of people on account of their rebellious principles, or absolute dis- obedience of the general order. The inhabitants of the town of Huntington come under both descriptions. The last order I received relative to the collection of forage was to direct it all to be brought in, giving only an allow- ance for working oxen, under penalty not only of having it confiscated but their houses given up to plunder in case of disobedience."

In August 1780 sickness prevailed to a great degree

among the soldiers at the barracks in Huntington, espe- cially in the 2nd battalion of De Lancey's brigade. The inhabitants were compelled with their teams to transport large numbers of the sick to the hospital in Jamaica.

During the year 1781 the number of soldiers was in- creased; a fleet of war vessels lay in the bay; probably plunder, pillage and destruction of property continued. As the most of the horses and cattle of the farmers had been pressed into the king's service, and a large part of the able bodied men were kept employed in the trans- portation of baggage and goods and in building forts , and barracks, it was impossible to cultivate the soil or raise any considerable crops, and provisions were scarce.

In the spring of 1782 Thompson's corps, the Queen's Rangers and Tarleton's Legion, numbering about 600 men, were in Huntington. The same policy of robbery, pil- lage and destruction continued during the summer of this year. British officers were annoyed and alarmed at the success of the American armies and the ability of the "rebels" to hold out year after year against the king's troops. Believing that the war would last many years longer it was determined to erect more permanent forti- fications and quarters for the soldiers. And now comes the crowning outrage upon the people of this town.

Near the center of the village of Huntington there is a hill of considerable elevation, forming the northern terminus of a range of hills coming from the south. It commands a fine view of the harbor, bay and sound, and the distant shores of Connecticut. This hill had been consecrated ground, for all around its sloping sides to the crown of the eminence were the graves of the an- cestors of the inhabitants. It had been the principal burying ground in the town for more than a hundred years and was well occupied with graves, a large propor- tion of which were marked by tombstones. It was upon this spot, sacred to the tenderest sentiments of the hu- man heart, that Colonel Thompson decided to erect his fort, and he chose the highest part of the hill, where some traces of the work may yet be seen.

Probably nothing could have been done by the British soldiers at this period to so profoundly move the people to anger and grief as this horrid sacrilege; and when on the 26th day of November 1782 the order went forth from the commanding general directing the inhabitants to come with their spades, axes and teams and commence the work of desecration, we may well imagine there was a fiery indignation kindled in the hearts of the people, which neither time nor circumstance nor aught else than death could ever quench.

To make the humiliation greater the orders for the work were sent out through the officers of the local militia here that had been driven into the British service. The following is a specimen of tl:ese orders.

" HUNTINGTON, Nov. 26th 1782.

" By virtue of an order from Lieut. Coll. Thompson you must immediately warn all the carpenters whose names are undermentioned to appear without delay, with their tools, to labor on the barracks, on failure of which I am under an obligation to return their names immedi- ately; and must appear every morning by 8 o'clock, or

THE TOWN OF HUNTINGTON.

they will not be credited for a day's work, and must not go away till dismissed.

" PHILIP CONKLING, Ensign.

" Hubbard Conkling, Samuel Haveland, Jno. Morgan, Rich'd Rogers, Benj. Brush, Isaac Selah, John Wheeler, Isaac Wood, Dan'll Higbee."

Captain Timothy Carll, of Dix Hills, was compelled to bring up his company, with spades, picks, axes, etc., and engage in the unhallowed work. Those who had teams in or near the village were pressed into the service. Over 100 tombstones about the top of the hill were dug up and the ground was leveled to prepare for the work. A force of carpenters was set to work tearing down the church on a distant hill, which they soon accomplished, and the material was conveyed to the burying hill and used in constructing the fort. Building materials were also obtained by tearing off the sides of buildings in the vicinity. The buildings of John Sammis, Henry Sammis, David Conklin and others were taken for this purpose. Apple orchards were cut down and fences leveled in all directions and the materials used for the fort. The tombstones which were dug up went into the construc- tion of the fort for fireplaces and ovens and into floors for dragoons to stamp on. Tradition informs us that persons employed about the fort often saw the loaves of bread drawn out of these ovens with the reversed inscrip- tions of the tombstones of their friends on the lower crust. The fort was built in about fifteen days. It was well named Fort Golgotha. One who visited it described it as facing the north, about five rods in front, with a gate in the middle, and extending a considerable distance north and south, with a ditch around it; the works, in- cluding the huts for soldiers, inclosing about two acres of ground.

Colonel Benjamin Thompson, whose name will ever be infamous to the people of Huntington, was a native of Rumford (Concord), Mass. After the war he went to England and was there made a knight; he afterward en- tered the service of the elector of Bavaria and was made a lieutenant general and created Count Rumford, with a pension of £1,200.

The treaty of peace was signed in Europe on the 30th of November, so that this great outrage was chiefly com- mitted after the war was over.

LOSSES BY THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.

It is impossible to give any correct account of the losses incurred by the people of Huntington during the war. A commission was instituted in 1783 by Sir Guy Carleton for the purpose of examining and adjusting such claims against the British government as had not been paid. People here made out and swore to their claims, but they were never allowed or paid.

The total amount of these bills then made out was £7,249. There are several hundred of them, and the town records show the amount of each. The amount of losses as stated in the town records is £21,383, particu- lar items of which are given. All who have written on the subject state that the actual losses probably amounted to four or five times this amount. We here give a list of some of the greatest sufferers by the war as they appear on the records, with the number of pounds lost by each:

Thomas Scudder, 255; Dr. Zophar Platt, 246; Israel Wood, 254; Henry Smith, 178; Israel Carll, 139; Col. Platt Conklin, 132; Nathaniel Harrison, 106; Jesse Brush, 155; Epenetus Bryant, 104; Stephen Kelsey, 139; Jonathan Scudder, 182: Jacob Brush, 100; Israel Titus, 50; Zadock Smith, 54; Samuel Lewis, 50; Sylvanus Sammis, 59; John Sammis, 88; Job Sammis, 50; John Buffett, 89; Joseph White, 58; James Rogers, 78; Simeon Fleet, 54; John Bunce, 50; Micha Hartt, 62; Timothy Smith, 62; Eliphalet Sammis, 69; Mary Soper, 92; widow Mary Platt, 71; John Wood, 63; Malba Burtis, 61; David Rusco, 50; Timothy Conklin, 55; Matthew Bunce, 68; Allison Wright, 76; Solomon Ketcham, 50; Hezekiah Conklin, 70; Timothy Carll, 55; Platt Vail, 66; Samuel Wood, 50; Isaac Dennis, 55; Lemuel Carll, 54; Timothy Scudder, 50; Smith Brush, 65; Nathaniel Kelsey, 67; Phebe Scudder, 62; Jesse Bryant, 59; Platt Carll, 50.

Those whose losses appear at less than £50 were too numerous to be named here.

It is true that under the stern code of war troops are often quartered on a conquered people, and very often vandalism and robbery follow in the wake of conquering armies; but such things are generally done by the jackals and hangers-on who are not amenable to military disci- pline. Here, however, pillage had the sanction of the officers. As a sample of this kind of warfare, Scudder Lewis in the claim book in the town clerk's office certi- fies that Lieutenant McMullen impressed him and his team and wagon into the service, and that he and this

From the profoundest depths of humiliation and sorrow into which the people of Huntington had been officer and assistant spent two days in collecting "cover- plunged by a long and desolating war they were elevated, as it were, to the seventh heaven by the news that the armies of Washington were victorious, the haughty legions of the king vanquished, and the freedom and indepen- dence of the colonies achieved and acknowledged. Is it any wonder that the generation that passed through these trials and triumphs ever after celebrated their inde- pendence?

lets" from house to house for the use of the soldiers. There is a tradition that blankets and bedding were pull- ed from the cradles of infants. As one instance out of many of petty robberies, Jesse Bryant certifies that Ma- jor Gilfillan not only carried off all his cattle and sheep, but with the soldiers entered his house and took £20 worth of clothing and bedding, and the cooking utensils and table dishes, including a dozen spoons. It is note- worthy that these were the acts not of outside parties but of British officers. As one instance of wanton cruelty and destruction of property the writer well re- members the statement of his grandfather Gilbert Scud-

The war was over, but the greater part of the troops remained here during the succeeding winter. In the spring they burned their barracks and evacuated the place. The materials composing Colonel Thompson's redoubt were sold in lots by the trustees at vendue, and der, that near the close of the war the soldiers took over realized £23 IIS. 4d. forty horses belonging to the inhabitants to a valley just

THE TOWN OF HUNTINGTON.

north of what is now called the Sand Hill road in the east part of Huntington village, a little east of where William H. Scudder now resides, and killed them all.

AT THE CLOSE OF THE WAR .

and the withdrawal of the British troops the patriot in- habitants were relieved from any further necessity of re- pressing their sentiments, and the tories here were thrown into a state of consternation and alarm. Abandoned by their friends the British officers, they felt that their future residence here would be attended with extreme peril. At the celebration of peace some of them were roughly treated, and many joined that great army of 10,000 refugee loyalists who about this period fled from the States into Nova Scotia. Finding that country in- hospitable, and the successful " rebels" proving less hos- tile than anticipated, the greater part of them afterward returned.

As the machinery of the civil government had been suspended from the opening of the war in 1776 till its close in 1782, martial law having taken its place, the dec- laration of peace left this town like others in much dis- order. The unprincipled outlaws who had learned in the school of war to rob and plunder now hung upon the outskirts of the villages, concealed in remote places, and made occasional raids upon the inhabitants. As late as August 20th 1783 a party of these thieves attacked the house of Israel Young in Cold Spring, and after treating him with great cruelty carried off 200 guineas. Active measures were however taken here to suppress these dis- orders. Town meetings were held, officers were elected, delegates were sent to attend the various political con- ventions, and the town of Huntington assumed its posi- tion in the State government.

One of the first acts of the Legislature was to declare that all grants, charters and patents which had been made or issued under authority of the British government to the towns and which were valid and in force before the Revolution should be and remain valid, so that the town of Huntington continued to hold by a good title the lands whether above or under water within its corporate boundaries.

It would appear from papers in the town clerk's office that at the close of the war there were only 221 heads of families in the town, which according to the in time their descendants were likewise held as slaves;

usual rule of computation would make the population of the town 1, 100. This population was distributed over the town as follows: The " Town Spot " (taking in West Neck and East Neck), 102 families; West Hills, 28 families; Long Swamp, 13 families; Dix Hills, 35 families; Old Fields, 12 families; Cow Harbor, 31 families. The names in full appear on the records.

In 1790, seven years afterward, there were 385 heads of families, whose. names can likewise be given, and the entire population was fully 2,000, or nearly double that at the close of the war. This is in part accounted for by the return of large numbers of both patriots and loyalists who had previously left the town.

After the Revolution followed a long time of peace and

recuperation from the wastes of war, which furnishes few incidents of startling character; periods of peace and prosperity are not those which furnish the materials for ordinary history. The inhabitants resumed their occu- pations with enthusiasm and high hopes; new fields were subdued and cultivated; the raising of grain and live- stock was the chief employment and principal source of revenue. The flour-mills were driven to their fullest capacity, and as the people improved their condition financially the sounds of the woodman's axe and the car- penter's hammer were heard in all directions repairing and enlarging houses and barns, many of which had been partially destroyed by the British troops. The buzz of the spinning-wheel and the clash of the loom were heard in the homes of the people; the fair daughters of our forefathers were not afraid to pull the flax in the field and spin and weave it into fabrics.

Annually the people came together in town meetings, elected their officers, made provision for the support of the poor and other expenses, provided rules as to the granting of licenses for taverns, passed the usual acts against cattle, hogs and sheep running at large, and for the marking of animals, regulated " swinging gates " on public highways, and made orders that no one not an inhabitant of the town should be allowed to fish, fowl, hunt, or catch shellfish within the borders of the town. Year after year we find a repetition of these orders.

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