History of Suffolk county, New York, 1683, Part 85

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 85


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).


Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110


The records of highways of more recent date are more intelligible and need no explanation.


The communication with New York city was mostly by sloops, plying through the sound. The establishment of a stage running the length of the island was an era of improvement. The following is taken from the clip- pings collected in Onderdonk's "Long Island in Olden Times ":


"March 5th 1772 .- A stage will run from Brooklyn to Sag Harbor once a week as follows: From Brooklyn ferry to Samuel Nicoll's on Hempstead Plains, where passengers will stay all night; fare four shillings. To Epenetus Smith's at Smithtown, four shillings. To Ben- jamin Havens's in St. George's Manor, four shillings, and stay all night. To Nathan Fordham's, Sag Harbor, six shillings. Thus a passenger may be conveyed r20 miles in three days and over a pleasant road for 18 shillings."


Most of the larger landholders had slaves. The fol- lowing is a list of the slaveholders in Smithtown and Islip (only four in the latter) in 1755, with the number held by each:


MALES.


FEMALES.


MALES.


FEMALES.


George Norton.


1


0


Richard Blidenburge ..


1


John Mobrey


0


1


Stephen Smith ..


1


Charles Floyd ...


4


1


George Phillips


1


Obadiah Smith jr ..


1


0


Job Smith ..


3


Edmund Smith ..


4


2


Joseph Vondel.


1


1


Richard Smith ..


3


Andrew Tid.


0


1


Obadiah Smith sen.


1


Thomas Smith


1


Lemuel Smith


1


0


Anna Willis.


1


Richard Smith.


Rebeckah Willis. Richard Willis.


1


Otheniel Smith ..


1


0


Obadiah Smith


1


Isaac Mills .:


1


0


Daniel Smith jr.


0


1


Jonas Platt.


1


0 Daniel Smith.


2


Zephanlah Platt


1


3 Epenetus Smith.


1


0


Jonas Mills ..


1


0


David Brewster.


1


0


William Saxton ..


0


1


Weliam Nicols ..


5


1


Solomon Smith


3


2


Elnathan Wicks


0


1


Floyd Smith ...


2


1 Caleb Smith.


1


0


Mary Tredwell.


5


1 Jonathan Mills


1


1


Robert Arter.


1


0


THE CENSUS OF 1776.


A census of the town was taken June 25th 1776. The following is a list of heads of families:


1


Stones Brook.


1


0


1


4


2


2


1


1


1


Commissioners were appointed by the colonial govern- ment to lay out and work the highways in the county, and pursuant to the statute they affirmed the former acts of the people and laid out and recorded in the county records all the early highways. They are copied from the county record into the town records at Book 2, pages 25, 26.


The highway from Smithtown to Brookhaven ran through the village of Nissequogue to its east end, near Shubal Merchant's, at the last house as one leaves the village going east, and, reaching the point between the two roads (one leading to St. James, the other to the residence of the late Ebenezer Smith), it followed the ridge, entered the cleared land now of ex-Mayor Wick- ham of New York; followed the south line of his land in the rear of John Clark's, now Mrs. Griffith's; came out at Stony Brook Harbor, near the house of Captain George Hodgkinson; then, following the harbor and run- ning toward its head, crossing the creek at Obadiah Smith's, passed the house of Nathaniel Smith and his son Edmund N. Smith, to Stony Brook mill-dam. This highway across the fields past Mrs. Griffith's was discon- tinued by order of the commissioners April 28th 1808.


The highway from widow Smith's house to Cedar Point went from the old homestead of the patentee to the white sand hill now within Edmund T. Smith's en- closure. That whole tract of several acres was origin- ally laid out as a spreading ground (a place to spread and cure the salt hay) for the townspeople. Daniel Smith's gate was on the highway leading to the "island " directly south of Caleb Smith's house; the "going over" was from the island to Elias Smith's dock, and was until re- cently a well defined wagon track across the meadows, teams with wagons frequently crossing there.


The landing place at Three Sister Hollow was near the mouth of the Hither Brook, adjoining Nathaniel Smith's present residence.


The highway from Long Beach to the old path is the present highway from Long Beach through what is called the Bony Hill road at Nissequogue. It is still open, though encroached upon by fences.


..


14


THE TOWN OF SMITHTOWN.


Males.


Females.


NEGROES Male and Female.


Above 50 Years of


Above 16 and under


Under 16 years of


Above 16 Years of


Under 16 Years of


Above 16 Years of


Under 16 Years of


Age.


Age.


Age.


Age.


Age.


Age.


Joseph Platt


1


2


Epenetus Wood.


Jonathan Sammis


1


1


2


1


Nath'l Platt ..


Jesse Arthur ....


Reuben Arthur.


Jacob Balis ..


Thomas Tredwell.


1 1


2 1


2


4


6


6


John Stratton ...


Jeremiah Wheeler


1


1


1 2


2


1


Henry Shadden ...


2


1


2


Gamaliel Conkling.


Elemuel Soper


2


1


1


Jonah Soper


1


1


3


2


1


Obadiah Smith sen


2


3 2 1


1 1 3


2


1


2


Jacob Smith.


1 1


2 1


1


Hamble Darling


Mary Vargason ...


William Thompson


]


1 1


1


3 4


Samuel Phillips.


1


2


1


1


Samuel Ketcham.


James Jane.


Samuel Tillotson


1


Elisha Jillit.


1


Caleb Smith


1


6


2


3


1 1


1


Zophar Mills


Ebenezer Smith.


Joshua Hart.


William Arthur.


Epenetus Smith.


Zophar Wheeler.


Ruth Blydenburgh.


Daniel Tillotson


3


2


James Payne ..


1


Samuel Blydenburgh.


2


1


2


2


1 2


James L'Hommedue.


Shadrach Terry


2


1


2


Joshua Smith.


1


2


1


Nathan Wheeler.


3


Obadiah Smith Jun


1


2


Isaac Gerrard.


4


William Ward ..


2


2


2 1


1


Margaret Floyd


1


2


2 1


2 1


5


1


1


1


3


1


Joseph Gould Jr. William Smith Jr


1


1 1


1


1


2


1


2


4


Micah Smith Stephen Smith Sen .. Gilbert Smith.


1 1


1


3 1


4 2


2


Gershom Smith,


5


1


3


1


4


Elemuel Smith


1


3


3


Jonas Mills.


1 1


2 1


1 1


2 1


3


1


1


1 1


2 3


3


William Biggs.


2


1


1


1


Mary Biggs.


1


1


1


1


3


Merrit Smith


1


1


1


35| 109


141


152


118


9]


70


"SMITHTOWN, June 25th 1976.


"This day personally appeared John Stratton before


me, and gave oath that the foregoing list contains a true account of the inhabitants of the town aforesaid.


" EPENETUS SMITH, Chairman."


The census shows that there were 716 persons in the town, of whom 35 were over 50 years of age, 352 be- tween 16 and 50 and 329 under 16.


SMITHTOWN DURING THE REVOLUTION.


From the first settlement of the town until near the beginning of the Revolution the inhabitants appear to have taken very little interest in the affairs of the colony. The changes of administration and the intrigues of the outgoing and incoming representatives of the crown were of very little account to them. They were nominally under the government first of Connecticut, then of the Duke of York, then of the Dutch, and finally under the colony of New York; but they were to a great degree independent. The settled all their minor difficulties at the annual town meeting; they tilled the ground and led quiet and happy lives.


But the townspeople were not wanting in activity when the time for action arrived. They in common with their brethren throughout the country felt the weight of Brittish oppression in the imposition of taxes which they had no agency in raising or participation in spending. This leaven which had for a long time been working in the larger communities began to stir up in them a spirit of discontent. When the first fires of revolution were kindled on the plains of Boston the spirit of patriotism quickly manifested itself here. At a town meeting held August 9th 1774 the resolutions which had a few days previously been adopted in Huntington (and which ap- pear on page 37 of the history of that town in this vol- ume) were offered and adopted here, the committeemen appointed being Solomon Smith, Daniel Smith and Thomas Treadwell.


At the same meeting it was voted that the committee be " fully empowered in conjunction with the committees of the other towns in this county to choose a delegate or delegates to represent this county at the General Con- gress; that the expenses of attending said Congress be a county charge; that the said committee be fully em- powered on the behalf of this town, in conjunction with The committees above afor'sd, to act and do all that shall be necessary in defense of our just rights and liberties anainst the unconstitutional attack of the British ministry and Parliament, until another committee be ap- pointed."


The committee of safety in New York issued a call for a Provincial Congress to assemble in that city April 24th 1775. An election was held in Suffolk county April 6th and Thomas Treadwell was elected delegate from this town. From this time forth during the Revolution Mr. Treadwell was an active, energetic and patriotic man. He was born in 1742, and resided on the farm of the late Ebenezer Bryant at Fresh Pond, now owned by his grandsons Ebenezer and David Bryant. The whole neck was called Treadwell's Neck. On the surrender of the island to the British his family fled to Connecticut


Benjamin Newton


1


1


Abigail Ward.


1


2


3


3


.


2


Zephaniah Platt.


Jeremiah Conkling.


1


1


2 2


1


2


1


1


Solomon Smith


Jeffrey Smith


1


Philetus Smith


1


1


1


Aaron Smith ....


2


1


3


2


1


3


1


2


1


2 1


Daniel Brush.


1


1


1


2 1 1


2 1 2


1


2


2


Banjamin Nicoll.


Nath'l Gerrard


1


1


Stephen Smith.


4


1


2


1


1


1 2 1


2 1 1


Ruth Traves.


2


1


John L'Hommedne.


4 1


1


1


1 1


1 1 1


3 1


1


Abner Smith ...


1 1


1 1


2


1


2


2 2


6


Daniel Smith ...


Margaret Smith. Job Smith


1


1 1


3 3 1


1


1


1


1


1


1


Shubal Marchant.


Nathaniel Taylor


William Smith Sen.


3


1


1


1


2 1


2 4


2


Edmond Smith Jr. Floyd Smith.


1 1


Jacob Mills.


Isaac Mills.


3


1


5


1 1


Timothy Mills


1


1


3


1


Jonathan L'Hommedue ...


1


2


2


Silas Biggs ..


1


2


Joseph Smith.


1


2 1 1


1


1


4 1


1


1


1


Richard Smith


Samuel Mills ...


Joseph Gould Sen


1 1


Jacob Lungbotton


2 3


2


3 5


1 1 1


2


Alexander Mencil.


4


1


1 1 2


1 2 4


3


2


4


1 1 1


4


1


2


3


Nathaniel Smith


2


1


1


1


1


Zophar Scidmore Joseph Jane ..


1


1


3


William Phillips.


2


1


3


Jonathan Mills


Benjamin Gould


1


1


1


50 Years of Age.


NAMES OF HEADS OF FAMILIES IN SMITHTOWN.


15


THE TOWN OF SMITHTOWN.


and were exiles during the war. He was a member of Suffolk county regiment, was succeeded by Colonel the constitutional convention of 1777, State senator, and Josiah Smith of Moriches. The muster roll of the member of the constitutional convention of 1788. He Smithtown company shows enlisted men and officers as follows: finally removed to Clinton county and was one of the founders of Plattsburgh. (Thompson's Hist., Vol. I, page 461.)


The freeholders of Orange county adopted at Goshen, April 9th 1775, articles of association to be signed by all patriots, which were afterward adopted by the Congress assembled at New York (May 25th 1775) and sent to the various towns to be signed. The names of the signers in this town are published in Vol. I Rev. Doc., pages 85, 86. They were called associators, and those who re- fused to sign, recusants. The signers of Smithtown were:


.


Solomon Smith, Daniel Smith, Thomas Treadwell, Epenetus Smith, Philetus Smith, Jacob Mills, Edmund Smith jun., William Phillips Esq., Elemuel Smith sen., William Phillips jun., Samuel Blidenburg, Isaac Smith jun., Samuel Mills, Richard Platt, Job Smith jun., Samuel Buchanan, Benjamin Brewster, Nathaniel Smith, Samuel Smith, Paul Gillet, Ebenezer Smith, Jedediah Mills, Joshua Smith, Daniel Brush, Thomas Wheeler, David Smith, George Wheeler, Joseph Smith jun., Jonathan Mills, Samuel Hazard, Job Smith, Joseph Blydenburgh, Jeffery Smith, Obadiah Smith, Isaac Smith, Abner Smith, Jacob Longbottom, Selah Hubbs, Samuel Tillotson jun., Micah Wheeler, Elias Gerrard, Jacob Wheeler, William Nicoll, Jacob Concklin, James L'Homedieu, Ebenezer Phillips, Isaac Mills, Samuel Soaper, Daniel Tillotson, William Mills, John L'Homedieu, Nathaniel Taylor, Lemuel Smith jun., Jesse Arthur, Stephen Rogers, Floyd Smith, Benjamin Gerrard, Caleb Smith, Joseph Platt, Timothy Mills, Zephaniah Platt, Jonas Wheeler, John Stratton, Zebulon Phillips, Aaron Smith, Richard Smith, Henry Roscron, Jacob Smith, Obadiah Smith, Jesse Smith, Samuel Phillips, Benjamin Blydenburgh, Benja- min Nicolls jun., Platt Wheeler, John Gerrard, Nicholas Tillotson, Jacob Longbottom, Nathaniel Gerrard, John L'Homedieu, Zophar Mills, Nathaniel Platt, Floyd Smith, Timothy Wheeler sen., Jonas Mills, Timothy Wheeler jun., Stephen Nicoll, William Gerrard, Micah Smith, Israel Mills, Daniel Wheeler, Israel Mills, Jacobus Hubbs, James Paine, Zophar Wheeler, Platt Arthur, Benjamin Nicoll, Gamaliel Conklin, Thomas Wheeler, Jonas Mills, Jeremiah Wheeler, Epenetus Wood, Jona- than Sammis sen., Nathanael Sammis.


The recusants were:


Isaac Newton, Caleb Newton, John Newton, James Smith, William Smith, Jonathan L'Homdieu, William Thompson, Alexander Munsel, Peter Smith, John Edwards, Stephen Smith, Gershom Smith, Joseph Gould jun, Silas Biggs, Zophar Scidmore.


The Provincial Congress directed the enlistment of the militia and the election of officers. Pursuant to such direction the committees of Huntington, Smithtown and Brookhaven met at Smithtown and appointed William Floyd, of the manor of St. George, colonel; Gilbert Pot- ter, of Huntington, lieutenant colonel; Nathan Wood- hull, of Brookhaven, first major; Edmund Smith jr., of Smithtown, second major; Phillips Roe, Brookhaven, adjutant; James Roe, quartermaster. They also recom- mended the Provincial Congress to appoint Colonel Nathaniel Woodhull brigadier general.


Colonel William Smith, at one time in command of the


"A return of a company of minute men raised in Smithtown and the eastern part of Huntington, their enlistment to commence the 7th day of April 1776, at which time they chose the following officers, viz .: "


Nathaniel Platt, captain; Samuel Smith, first lieuten- ant; Henry Scudder, second lieutenant; Benjamin Blatsly, ensign; John Lockwood, first sergeant; Jonas Mills jr., second; John Vail, third; Abner Smith, fourth; Jesse Soper, first corporal; Nathaniel Smith, second; Benja- min Nicoll jr., third; Joseph Smith, fourth; William Newman, drummer; Thomas Tredwell, clerk; Jeremiah Platt, Epenetus Smith, Jacobus Hubbs, Stephen Nicolls, John Gerrard, John L'Hommedieu, Daniel Blidenburg, Platt Arthur, Stephen Rogers, Rob- ert Nicoll, Jacob Longbottom, Samuel Smith jr., William Gerrard, William Wheeler, Gilbert Smith jr., Jonah Soper, Jacob Conklin, David Sammis, Nathaniel Sammis, Epenetus Wood jr., James Hubbell, Jesse Carll jr., John Huff, William Davis, Stephen Ketcham, Losee Totten, Daniel Blatsly, Silas Smith, Nehemiah Brush jr., James Brian, Phineas Sills, Lemuel Brian, Moses Soper, Jeremiah Smith, John Ruland, Timothy Scudder jr., Gilbert Soper, Jeremiah Wood, John Totten, Zophar Ruland, William Buchanan.


This roll was found by William S. Pelletreau among the papers of the late Colonel Josiah Smith, and is kindly loaned for publication.


The company took part in the battle of Long Island; but in what part of the battle is not accurately ascer- tained.


After that battle this town, in common with the whole of Long Island, went into the possession of the British. Many of the inhabitants fled to Connecticut and other parts of New England. Most of those who remained took the oath of allegiance to the crown, but it was a forced oath, which the people felt, and which their op- pressors knew they felt, was of very little binding force. The greater part of those who were not pronounced tories were subjected to the most grievous outrages and indignities; their houses were occupied, their teams im- pressed, their fruit-trees and fences demolished, their cattle and crops seized and taken from them. Some- times they received scant and grudging pay from the officers, but what was left by the latter was exposed to and suffered from the rapacity of the soldiery. There were, however, some proud spirits who would neither abandon their homes or yield submission to the royalists. Among them were Joshua Hart, the minister of the Presbyterian church, and Richard Smith 4th of Nisse- quogue. These men long held out against the enemy. They were bold to express their patriotism and to de- nounce the lawless acts of their oppressors.


Their independence commanded the respect of the enemy, and for a long time their persons and property were unmolested, or if the latter was taken it was lib- erally paid for. But their example was pernicious. It kept alive the spirit of patriotism which the loyalists were striving to subdue, and they were finally arrested


I6


THE TOWN OF SMITHTOWN.


and thrown into prison in New York. They were ad- mitted to the old sugar house May 28th 1777.


Zephaniah Platt, of Sunken Meadow, another active patriot, was also seized and imprisoned in New York, but was at length restored to liberty through the personal application of his daughter Dorothea to Sir Henry Clin- ton, the British commandant.


The account of his capture is thus cited in Onder- donk: In exploring the territories of Zephaniah Platt of Smithtown, father to Samuel Broom's partner, there were found snugly concealed in a barn two whaleboats, which were instantly committed to the flames, and Mr. Platt in propria persona secured in custody of the cap- tors, who drove off the cattle and livestock from his and a brass three-pounder were captured and carried off. farm. Nathaniel Platt, a brother of Zephaniah, had already fled to Connecticut.


Constant communication was kept up between the pa- triots of Long Island and their friends on the main shore, by means of whaleboats, which carried across Eng- lish goods brought to the island from New York and brought back provisions in exchange. Boats were com- missioned by the continental authorities in Connecticut to cruise up and down the sound and annoy and if possible capture British cruisers. They made frequent landings in the night on the shores of Long Island, and carried off tories and tory property. They sometimes under pretense of annoying tories committed brutal out- rages on loyal citizens.


An item cited in Onderdonk (No. 627) shows the char- acter of these annoyances:


"One night, week before last, a party of rebels came over from Con't to the house of Solomon Smith, of Smithtown, and robbed him of all the clothing of his family and some household furniture. On their return the boat overset, and 'tis supposed the whole party per- ished, as the boat and some dead bodies were found on the shore near Mr. Smith's within a day or two after- wards .- Gaine, Ap. 7 '77."


The British were specially active in ridding the sound of this constant menace. From a privateer off Smith- town came this report November 28th 1778: "We have cleared the bay of the piratical crews which infested it, and look upon the greater part of the inhabitants to be disaffected to government, and believe they give every intelligence, as well as subsistence, to the rebel party." (Onderdonk, No. 672).


The visits of these whaleboats became so objectionable alike to whigs and tories that they were finally sup- pressed. They sometimes, however, did good service to the patriot cause. It was in whaleboats that Colonel Talmadge, then in command on the Connecticut shore, sent a detachment of his soldiers and took Fort Slongo. Slongo was a fortress on Treadwell's Neck in Smithtown, on the farm then owned by William Arthur and now owned by Dr. T. M. Cheeseman of New York. It was an embankment forming a hollow square of about fifty feet, constructed of trees standing perpendicularly and filled in with earth. It usually contained a garrison of 80 men, and was an adjunct to the larger fort at Lloyd's


Neck. The two were a constant menace to the people on the Connecticut shore and a rendezvous for tories, who chopped the wood and carried off the property of the farmers, and Colonel Talmadge determined to de- stroy them. When ready to attack Fort Slongo he sent across the sound, in the night, a party in a whaleboat with muffled oars. They landed near the house of Nathaniel Skidmore at Crab Meadow, by whom they were guided to the fort and shown its environs. They departed, and the following night returned with a rein- forcement and captured the fort.


It is said in Onderdonk's "Revolutionary Incidents " that four men were killed, and 20 prisoners, 70 muskets. Colonel Talmadge in his delightful memoir, page 45, gives the following modest account of his exploit:


"Having been honored by the commander-in-chief with a separate command, I moved wherever duty seem- ed to call. My former plan of annoving the enemy on the sound and on Long Island came fresh to my recol- lection. The fortress at Treadwell's Neck, called Fort Slongo, seemed to demand attention as the next in course to Fort St. George, which we had already taken: On the Ist of October I moved my detachment of light infantry into the neighborhood of Norwalk. At the same time I directed a suitable number of boats to as- semble at the mouth of the Saugatuck River, east of the town of Norwalk, and on the evening of the 2nd of Oc- tober 1781, at 9 o'clock, I embarked a part of my de- tachment and placed Major Trescott at the head of it, with orders to assail the fort at a particular point. The troops landed on Long Island by 4 o'clock, and at the dawn of day the attack was made and the fortress sub- dued. The block-house and other combustible mate- rials were burnt, and the detachment and prisoners re- turned in safety."


We are unable to give the derivation or meaning of the name Slongo. Thompson says the fort was so called because that is the Indian name of Sunken Meadow. In this Bayles concurs. ("Sketches of Suffolk County," page 186.) The inhabitants of that locality do not re- member any tradition of its name. Dr. DeKay, in his printed-but unpublished-list of Indian names inquires if Slongo is not Dutch.


The close of the war found the descendants of the patentee in possession of nearly the whole territory of the town, content to do what they could to retrieve their homes from the devastating effects of the war. They were satisfied with such progress and with such appli- ances as filled the bill of their daily necessities, without indulging in the experiments or improvements which have since carried this whole country so fast and so far.


MILLS, ETC.


Their first mill was at a place called the Old Mill. This is the first streamlet on the east side of the Nisse- quogue River southward of the "town," and is now the site of a small trout pond on the line between the Ogilvie and Petty places. The mill here was of short duration. As population increased the power was insufficient to do the work, and the mill was abandoned.


George Phillips, a son of the first minister at Setauket,


17


THE TOWN OF SMITHTOWN.


obtained a grant from the town, built a dam at the pres- ent head of tide-water, now called the "Head of the River," and erected on it a grist mill, a saw-mill and a fulling-mill,


It is not ascertained precisely when this dam was erected. Phillips's grant was in the nature of a lease at a nominal rent; for we find on the town records that in 1799 Mills Phillips paid £2 13s. in commutation of quit- rent. (Town Book, page 16.)


Here the farmers brought their grain to be ground into flour, their logs to be sawed into boards, wool to be carded into rolls, and the cloth when woven to be fulled. The carding and fulling have long since been discontin- ued, but the saw-mill and grist-mill are still in full and successful operation.


At a general town meeting on the 27th of January 1698 it was "agreed by a major vote that Adam Smith shall have the town's right of the stream called Stony Brook, with two acres of land adjoining thereto which may be most convenient, on condition that he erect and build a good sufficent grist-mill and maintain the same, the townsmen first building the dam, which he the said Smith shall keep in repair himself; and that he do hereby obligate to grind for all the townsmen who shall in due portion assist in making the dam, at the rate of two quarts on each bushel of wheat and three of corn and rye."


This agreement was modified May 8th 1699, Adam agreeing to make the dam himself, and to be allowed one-tenth toll on wheat and one-eighth on corn and rye.


who owned land on the south side of the river, embrac- ing the western part of Hauppauge, then resided where the late Major Ebenezer Smith, his son-in-law, after- ward resided and died. Caleb removed to Comac and erected the substantial dwelling afterward occupied by his son Caleb and now by his grandson Robert Smith. The two Calebs, father and son, were com- manding and influential men in town affairs.


At the head of Stump Pond, near the head of this branch of the river, Timothy Wheeler and, after him, Samuel Brush had a small tannery and shoe factory. In those days tanning and shoe- making were parts of the same trade. In this tannery Captain Elijah Brush, now one of our most aged and substantial citizens, learned the trade of shoe-making. Here, at the head waters of the river, the town authories laid out a public watering place. (Old book of town records, pages 44, 60.)


THE BROOKHAVEN LINE.


There was some dispute with Brookhaven about the eastern boundary of the town; which was submitted to arbitrators (Theophilus Howell, Isaac Halsey, Elisha Halsey and David Pierson of Southampton, and Cor- nelius Conkling, John Hedges and Eliphalet Stratton of East Hampton), who by their award, dated March 11th 1725, decided that the head of the middle branch of Stony Brook, where they put down a stake, should be "one of the bounds between ye said towns, and so run- ning southward to Ronconcamuck Pond, to a certain tree marked with two notches, by ye pond side, the line running near Ben. Ackerly's barn, which is ye south end of Smithtown line, and then from the aforesaid stake at ye head of Stony Brook to run northerly down ye beach




Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.