History of Suffolk county, New York, 1683, Part 88

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 88

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).

THE TOWN OF SMITHTOWN.

also has a large and valuable farm there. A little fur- ther east is the residence of Richard Handley, and there are some smaller farms on the patent, but Winnecomac is still mostly valuable for its timber.

"HEAD OF THE RIVER."

Next to Smithtown Branch the most considerable vil- lage is the Head of the River. Here is situated the Smithtown post-office. While the town business was always, in early times, transacted at the Branch the post-office, being the only one in the town, was at the

Fires in the woods were not uncommon before the Head of the River. After the inauguration of President days of railroads. The early settlers made ample pro- vision for stopping them. At the town meeting April 10th 1750 it was "voted that no fire be set in the town- ship in ye woods, and if any fire be seen in ye woods, and thought to be in this township, the person who first discovers ye fire shall go to ye place at ye expense of ye Town, and shall have a right to alarm ye whole town in order to extinguish ye fire; and whosoever shall neglect or refuse to go upon such warning shall forfeit six shillings to ye use of ye poor of this town."

Harrison the Smithtown post-office was removed to the Branch; this created great dissatisfaction among the res- idents at the Head or the River. The difficulty was finally compromised by establishing a new office, called Smithtown Branch, in the new place, and carrying back the old post-office with its old name of Smithtown to the Head of the River. Here are the large grist-mill, saw- mill and fulling and carding-mills heretofore described as erected by George Phillips; the tide flows back and forth to the foot of the mill dam. Here was the res- idence of Dr. Charles H. Havens, a noted physician and politician in his day, and one of the early clerks of the county. Here too was the residence of George S. Phillips, a lineal descendant of Rev. George Phillips, of Setauket, and another of the early county clerks, and for a long time supervisor of the town. The first country store in the village was kept in the basement of George S. Phillips's house. It was then removed across the dam and kept by George Mills, in the building now occupied by Justice Edmund Wheeler; from there it was removed, about the year 1816, to its present site, and kept by Jesse Mills and his son Egbert S. Mills, who retired after acquiring a competency, and were succeeded by the present proprietors, M. R. Smith & Co. Here too is the residence of Hon. Edward H. Smith, a native and former resident of Mud Island at Nissequogue, and for many years supervisor of the town. He represented this Congressional district in the 37th Congress, and has always been a power in the politics of the county.

The bridge across the river here was erected about the year 1805. Before that the river was fordable at low tide, but when the tide was high travelers to the village were obliged to go around on the hill by Blyden- burgh's and across the mill dam. Now a substantial bridge spans the river, of sufficient height to permit the passage of loaded scows under it. This was the terminus of the Jericho and Smithtown turnpike, which was con- structed by a company incorporated under that name. The road was after many years' use abandoned as a turn- pike and became a public highway. Near the bridge are the Riverside Hotel of B. B. Newton, a blacksmith shop, a coal yard, a lumber yard and commodious docks, from which are annually shipped many cords of wood.

THE TREES OF SMITHTOWN.

Cordwood has always been one of the chief products of this town. Almost every farmer owns a piece of tim-

ber, the cutting of which employs his leisure time in winter, and the carting of which fills up the interval be- tween the more pressing operations of seed time and harvest. But the clearing of the forests for cultivation and the devastating fires to which since the introduction of railroads they have been subjected, render wood more scarce. There are very few large tracts of woodland in the town which have not been swept by fires; sometimes originating in sparks from the locomotive, and sometimes from the carelessness of individuals.

The most extensive conflagration ever known here oc- curred in 1862. It originated in the fields of Joel L. G. Smith, who was clearing land preparatory to cultivation. The fire escaped into the adjoining woods and, sweeping across the eastern part of the town, entered the town of Brookhaven, across which it rushed with increasing fury, destroying every thing in its course until it reached the head waters of the Peconic River, in the town of River- head. The largest sufferers, William Sidney Smith and James H. Weeks, commenced action against J. L. G. Smith, claiming damages amounting in the aggregate to $100,000. A special circuit court was appointed for the trial, which sat at Riverhead during a whole week; over one hundred witnesses were examined on each side; their narratives of hair-breadth escapes, as they with their wives and children were driven from their homes by the roaring torrent of flames, were thrilling in the extreme. The whole trial was invested with dramatic interest. The jury rendered a verdict for defendant, thereby acquitting him of the charge of carelessness. Lesser fires have occurred annually since, so that wood- land is constantly in danger, and has come to be con- sidered of comparatively little value.

There are however many isolated tracts of wood where the timber is large and valuable. In fact the trees everywhere, if spared from fire and the axe of the woodman, grow to great size. Fifty years ago there were about the town many large oaks and chestnuts. On the North Fields at Nissequogue and on the burying hill were numerous oaks and chestnuts the trunks of which were four or five feet or more in diame- ter and whose broad arms covered the graves of the early settlers.

On the cliffs at St. Johnland is a beautiful forest of large trees, under whose shadows lie the remains of the philanthropic Muhlenberg. Nathaniel Smith of Sherra- wog recently sold the wood on a tract of fifty acres for $9,000, probably the best piece of timber on the island

THE TOWN OF SMITHTOWN.

-tall chestnuts and locusts running up Too feet or more, and broad oaks which stretch their green arms far and wide. The trees are used mostly for telegraph poles and docks; some poles have been cut seventy feet long and seven inches in diameter at tire top. The great demand for ship timber has denuded the forests and destroyed nearly all the larger trees, but there is still one here and there left to tell the story of their former greatness. On the farm of the Misses Harries are two black walnuts over four feet in diameter and nearly 100 feet in height. In the highway, opposite the residence of the late Daniel Hubbs, is an oak whose branches cover a space ninety feet in diameter. In front of the Methodist church at Hauppauge are also very large oaks. These are only examples on the north side, mid- dle and south side of the town. There are yet very many large trees elsewhere. The most valuable trees are the chestnut and yellow locust, both of which grow rapidly; the former is used for ship timber, house- building, railroad ties, and fence rails for the farms; the latter for ship timber, treenails, and posts for fences. A locust post of mature timber and well seasoned is almost as durableas iron. The tree when standing alone is symmetrical in form, its foliage is dense and of a soft delicate green, pleasant to the eye, and its shadow and its substance combine to so fertilize the ground that there is always found about the base of the tree, even in the most sterile soils, a rich velvet sod. As a shade tree for this part of the island the locust is unsurpassed. The beautiful rows of locusts extending the whole length of the street at Smithtowm Branch are the admiration of all summer visitors.

The black walnut tree, though not indigenous, also flourishes when planted, and grows to great size, form- ing a beautiful shade. Under the large black walnut occurred one of the most memorable events in this town

Those farmers living on the shores of the sound or tree in front of Hallock's Hotel at Smithtown Branch harbors have great facilities for making a valuable fertili-

DURING THE LATE CIVIL WAR.

The people were fully up to the mark of their pa- triotic duty in furnishing men and means for the war. They had from the beginning of the Rebellion furnished volunteers to the full extent of their ability, and when the call of the president for a draft was issued they were the first to act. They met spontaneously in mass meet- ing on a summer afternoon under the shade of this tree; teers, appointed assessors and a collector, and issued a regular tax-list. The whole amount, with a very few exceptions, was voluntarily paid, and the quota of this town as promptly filled. The tax was afterward legal. ized by the Legislature, and the few recusants who had at first refused to pay were compelled to do so.

AGRICULTURE, SOIL AND SURFACE.

average yield is from 30 to 40 bushels to the acre. The next year the field is sowed with oats or planted with potatoes, and in the fall is sowed with wheat and timothy grass seed. The clover, being more delicate, is put on in early spring. . The wheat crop affords protection from the summer's sun, which otherwise would scorch and kill the tender grass plants. After the wheat crop the field affords hay and pasture four or five or more years, when it is again subjected to the same routine of agriculture.

Wheat and oats are not considered paying crops, but they are covenient means, in the course of tillage, for preparing the ground to receive the grass seed, which affords the greatest remuneration to the farmer. Our farmers cannot compete with the west in raising grains, but hay is too bulky for long transportation. It is pressed into bales of about 200 pounds and shipped to the city, by sloop or rail, and always returns the farmers remunerating prices.

The latest census furnishes the following figures in regard to the agriculture of this town: Area improved, 1 1,606 acres; unimproved, 4,748; other land, 15,569; value of land, $1,639,200; value of farm buildings, $163,620; value of stock, $96,475; value of tools and implements, $37,345; area plowed, 3,122 acres; in pas- ture, 2, 142; mown, 2,896; tons of hay produced, 3,081; pounds of pork, 160,047; bushels of potatoes, 13,642; bushels of grain-buckwheat, 2,049; corn, 3,234; oats, 17,435; rye, 3,255; wheat, 11,254. Also horses, cattle, timber, cordwood, vegetables, milk, poultry, eggs, fruits, and a multitude of the other good things of this life. This is one of the richest and most prosperous towns in the county or on the island in comparison to the number of its inhabitants.

zer by using the seaweed as litter in the pens or yards where animals are confined. Large quantities of stable manure are brought here by sloops and by railroad from the city. Fish scrap, the refuse of the bunker or men- haden oil factories, was also used extensively. Now the prices are too high for its profitable use here. Large quantities of manufactured fertilizers under various guises and names are experimentally used, but without marked success. Leached ashes where the pure article can be procured are considered highly valuable in laying

voted a tax of $8,000, to be used in procuring volun- down a field to grass. The face of the country is roll-

ing, beautifully diversified with a constant succession of hills and valleys. The soil varies from a heavy clay to a light sand, and it varies so much that the two extremes: and all the intervening strata are frequently found in the. same field. In the main it is however a light sandy loam, extremely fertile and capable of producing almost any grain or fruit to be found anywhere in this latitude .. It is well watered by Stony Brook Creek and the waters of Lake Ronkonkoma on the east; the Stony Brook Harbor, a beautiful land-locked sheet of water, on the north, communicating with Long Island Sound by a very

The principal farm crops are wheat, rye, Indian corn, oats and potatoes. The farmer breaks up his sward in early spring and plants it about May Ist with corn. This is considered the most profitable. hoed crop; the narrow and. deep inlet,. and having several. streams flow-

THE TOWN OF SMITHTOWN.

ing into it from around its shores; the Nissequogue River, with its numerous heads and streamlets flowing in every direction, touching almost every farm, and uniting nearly in the center of the town at the head of naviga- tion, whence it gradually expands into a wide and safe harbor, separated from the sound by a narrow and deep inlet; and the Sunken Meadow and Fresh Pond Creeks, which run up a long distance from the sound on the west.

FISH AND GAME.

The waters of the town abound in fish of all kinds in their season. All the streamlets and rivulets are natural habitations of the brook trout; almost every farmer can have a trout preserve at his door, and the trout at the junction of salt and fresh water in the river are unequaled for their beauty and flavor. The veteran fisherman and trout breeder William H. Furman, who has a trout preserve on the banks of this river, asserts that there is no place like it in this or any other country for hatching or raising trout.

The channel eels of Smithtown River are much prized by epicures. Flatfish, bluefish, striped bass and many other fish are to be found, when sought with the proper appliances.

The indentation called Smithtown Bay, being the part of Long Island Sound between Eaton's and Crane Necks, and which bounds the whole northern front of the town, is remarkable for the variety and abundance of its fish. Shell-fish and crabs are plentiful in the harbors, and the broad flats on the sound shore, bare at every receding tide for more than a mile outward, are a perfect bed of soft clams. Thousands of bushels are carried from there annually to the New York market. In the deep waters of the harbors oysters are also to be found.

The attention of the inhabitants was called at an early date to the value of the oyster and clam fisheries, and they have always been, when properly attended to, a source of revenue to the town. The people at town meeting in 1774 voted that the privilege of taking and of improving and farming the soft clams should be vested in the hands of Samuel Smith, and he was to sell clams to strangers for three pence per bushel and make return to the overseers of the poor. (Old book of town records, page 53.)

In 1775 the town meeting voted that the soft clams in Stony Brook Harbor be sold by Jes Smith, at four pence brothers, and to Daniel Lawrence representing his sister per bushel, and that he retain one penny per bushel for his trouble; and from that time to the present there have been annually appointed, at town meeting, commissioners to superintend the taking of shell-fish and collect the revenue.

The waters of the town are visited by boats from abroad and great quantities of clams are annually carried away. In 1804 a town ordinance was passed requiring all persons coming from abroad for shell-fish to register their boats. In 1830 the town meeting authorized Eben- ezer Smith to plant oysters in Stony Brook Harbor, op- posite his house and 100 yards from low water mark, as far north as his land extended. Smithtown Harbor

abounds in small oysters, of natural growth. It is not known that any oysters of natural growth exist in Stony Brook Harbor. Ebenezer Smith planted oysters on the ground above designated; they grew to great size, and were very palatable, but they did not increase and now very few if any are left.

Other individuals have also planted oysters in the waters of Stony Brook Harbor, under the authority of the town commissioners. The supervisors passed an act in 1870 forbidding any one except inhabitants of Smith- town and of the village of Stony Brook to catch any eels or shell-fish in any of the waters of Smithtown. It is claimed that this law covers public navigable waters, and infringes on the public right to fish in such waters. The patent to Brookhaven covered the bays and harbors which are navigable. The patent to Huntington also covers the bays and harbors, and they too are navigable, like the waters of Smithtown, where the tide ebbs and flows. In both of those towns the exclusive right of fishery has been held by our courts to be covered by their patents and vested in the town. A glance at the patent of Smithtown, elsewhere recited, shows conclu- sively that it covers the waters of Smithtown and Stony Brook Harbors, and includes under the decisions of the courts the right of fishery, and a non-resident of the town has no more right to take shell-fish in those waters than he would have to take corn growing in the fields. Jurisdiction has been exercised over the fisheries by the town for more than 100 years; but the right, as well as the undivided land, belongs to the descendants of the patentee.

In early days, when the exercise of this jurisdiction commenced, the people, assembled in town meeting, were all or nearly all the descendants of Richard Smythe; but now a different state of facts exists. The undivided lands of the town have always been held in rights or shares, called proprietors' rights. There were seven of these rights, corresponding with the seven devisees of the patentee-his six sons and his daughter Deborah, Elizabeth (as elsewhere shown) not having a share in the division. This whole right was claimed by Jona- than, the eldest scn, by right of primogeniture, because the devise to his brothers and sisters was not limited to them and their heirs, as the law then required it should be to create a fee simple. He released this claim to his Deborah; and since then the proprietary rights have al- ways been claimed and conveyed, from time to time, by the descendants of those persons. Several of those pro- prietorships can be traced by regular paper titles down to the present day. Others have been allowed to be divided and subdivided. Many instances can be pointed out in the town where these proprietors have conveyed to individuals lands which have since been and now are held as undisputed titles. So too they may, under the decisions of our courts, as now understood, convey the fisheries. All these facts indicate that certainly no per- son not a proprietor, or an inhabitant of the town, has a right to fish there.

3 t

THE TOWN OF SMITHTOWN.

The boundary line between Connecticut and this State has been recently settled by commissioners to be a line running through the sound, and the Legislature of this State, by act of August 12th 1881, extended the jurisdiction of Queens and Suffolk counties, and of the towns bordering on Long Island Sound, over the waters of the sound to that line, thus bringing within the town of Smithtown the large sheet of water between Eaton's Neck and Crane Neck, above alluded to as Smithtown Bay; and the northern boundary of Smith- town is now not Long Island Sound but the line running easterly through the sound between this State and Con- necticut.

Here is a large and favorite field for the sportsman. Quail, partridges, woodcock, rabbits and foxes are found in abundance. In the southern part of the town and the northern part of Islip, adjoining it, is the favorite cover for what few deer are left on the island. The bays and harbors abound in geese, ducks and snipe. But the quantity of game, which has always been abundant, is very much reduced by strangers, who can easily come here from the city by

RAILROAD.

Previous to the construction of the Long Island Rail- road a journey to any place beyond this town was a work of labor, and the incursions of the New York sportsmen were less frequent. The Long Island Railroad for many years terminated at Hicksville, and travelers to New York followed the old accustomed route, by stage coach, to that place. Then the road was extended to Suffolk Station, and the well known whips Elias and George Smith made that their rendezvous. Soon afterward the road was extended to Greenport, and Suffolk Station, then a common board shanty, was the entrepot for the whole of Smithtown and Islip.

After many years the Northport branch was con- structed, through the town of Huntington, to the old Northport depot, and the people of the western part of the town went there on their way to the city; but still the main tide of travel was to Suffolk. The route of the mail stages, driven by the well remembered Daniel Howell, was from Suffolk Station past Eugene Platt's and Blydenburgh's mills to the Head of the River, or Smithtown post-office; then to Smithtown Branch, then to Stony Brook and Setauket, terminating at East Setauket.

The people of this town made many efforts to bring the railroad here. Negotiations were had with Charlick, Poppenhusen and Stewart, representing different interests in the Long Island Railroad, the north shore road, and Stewart's central road. These negotiations resulted in a proposition by Oliver Charlick, representing the Long Island Railroad, by which the people of this town should organize an independent corporation (it never possessed the first elements of independence), should raise $80,000 in cash, lease its franchises to the Long Island Railroad in advance, expend the money as far as it would go in constructing the road, and raise the balance of the money necessary to complete it by issuing bonds, the principal

and interest of which should be guaranteed by the Long Island Railroad. That plan after much negotiation was finally adopted. The town of Smithtown agreed to raise $50,000 of the $80,000 cash required, by bonding the town and taking that amount of stock at par, the bonds to run 30 years at 7 per cent. interest. The bonds were made when money readily commanded 7 per cent., and there was then no provision in the law for making them payable at a shorter period, or conforming the rate of in- terest to the current rates for loans. The people of the town have accepted and enjoyed the benefits of the rail- road, but now complain of the heavy interest. It is their contract, however, and they can abide by it without se- rious inconvenience.

NATURAL ADVANTAGES.

The surface of the town as we have seen is diversified by the numerous streams, making their way from the northern slope of the "backbone" of the island down the declivity to the sound. A few of these streams have been utilized by mills and by ponds for use and orna- ment, but a great amount of running water, which in a more enterprising community would be dammed and made to do good service, is here allowed to go to waste. The river from the confluence of all its branches at the Head of the River until it begins to expand into the open har- bor runs between high hills a great part of the way, and its breadth is in many places but a few rods. To build a dam and create a fall of many feet is entirely practi- cable. Such a dam would make a water power almost unequaled. Vessels could come up to and load and discharge at its foot.

With all these peculiar advantages the resources of the town have never been developed. Its people, conserva- tive in their ideas and disinclined to innovation, are fre- quently said to be " behind the age." This lack of the enterprise and earnestness in competition which are generally considered necessary traits of the American character has resulted in part from the isolated situation of the people, they being as it were in one of the eddies of the tide of improvement; and in part from the fact that many of the large farms have never been alienated, but have come down to their present owners by direct descent from the patentee, and those owners have been and are content to live and thrive in a modest and moderate way, as their fathers have done before them.

But more noted than the natural advantages of the surface is the healthfulness of the climate. A wind from the southwest every summer afternoon is the rule. This breeze, so damp and so impregnated with salt on the south side of the island, is tempered and perfumed, gathering a delicate odor of the pine as it is wafted across the plains, bringing with it vigor and strength and elasticity in marked contrast with the enervating lassi- tude which succeeds the first exhilarating effects of the humid seaside air. In the morning the same air is wafted back from the north across the sound, in refreshing breezes till midday, again to be replaced by a renewed and purified stock of vigor from the ocean.

THE TOWN OF SMITHTOWN.

Frequenters of the south side think the ocean air in- vigorating and healthful, but those who have never sum- mered on the north side of Long Island as far east as Smithtown have a very imperfect idea of how pure, delicious and healthful is the same air when relieved of its saline humidity.

To this peculiar quality is doubtless attributable the GREAT LONGEVITY

of the people. Suffolk county is noted for this, but this town is especially so. During the past year six persons died in or near Smithtown Branch whose average age was about 85 years. David W. Smith, now over 93 years of age, is in full possession of all his faculties, conducts his own farm and does his own work. His wife, aged 89 years, manages her household with vigor and ability. They have been married over 70 years. Mrs. Sarah Bunce, widow of Thomas Bunce, was born in this town and lived here until a few years past, when she moved just across the line in Comac. She is aged 95 years, and is still robust and active. A few years since John Thompson died at Blydenburgh's Landing, aged 104 years. He too was active and vigorous up to a short time before his death. Shortly after him William Adams, who lived on the east side of Nissequogue River, died at the age of 99. He habitually went into the woods and cut and brought home his wood until very near the close of his life. And this is no new thing; it has always been so, from the first settlement of the town. In Furman's notes on Brooklyn, page 194, is recorded the following marked instance of longevity.

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.