USA > New York > Nassau County > Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume I > Part 35
USA > New York > Suffolk County > Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume I > Part 35
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The census of the Town of Brookhaven, Manor of St. George and Patentship of Moriches, taken early in July, 1776, by Justus Roe of Setauket, Ephraim Marvin of Winthrop's Patent and Benjamin Havens of Moriches, under the direction of William Smith, Esq., chairman, gives a total of 373 heads of families with 142 white men over 50 years old and but 424 white men and youths between the ages of 16 and 50 years-the rest of the population being boys under 16, women, girls, free Negroes and slaves. Of the 424 white men of possible military age, fifty are known to have been Tories and deduct- ing that number and also deducting about a quarter of the remainder, for those with physical defects (greater in those days than now), there were only about 280 who could be expected to be available for
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military duty. Yet out of that small number, Brookhaven furnished more commissioned officers during the Revolution than any town on Long Island and managed to raise three regular Brookhaven com- panies in the early part of the war. After later changes were made, other companies were formed, composed wholly or in part of Brook- haven men, and those who were placed in command as captains were Caleb Brewster, William Brewster, Isaac Davis, Ebenezer Miller, Nathaniel Norton, William Phillips, Austin Roe, Daniel Roe, Nathan Rose, Selah Strong, Samuel Thompson, Abraham Woodhull and probably others.
Heading the list of officers of higher rank, were: Gen. William Floyd of Mastic, who as one of the delegates from New York in the Continental Congress, signed the Declaration of Independence; Brig. Gen. Nathaniel Woodhull, also of Mastic, who died of his brutally inflicted wounds received at the time of his capture in late August, 1776; Col. Josiah Smith of Moriches, who was in command of all the Suffolk County troops; Col. Benjamin Tallmadge, son of the Rev. Benjamin Tallmadge of the Setauket Presbyterian church, who served in Connecticut and also engaged in spy work; Col. John Leeke and Jesse Woodhull, both of whom served off of Long Island.
There were also Adjutants Ephraim Marvin and Phillips Roe and Majors Isaac Overton and Nathan Woodhull; Quartermaster John Roe, and over a dozen lieutenants and army ensigns and at least twice that number of sergeants, besides a long list of privates and minute men.
There are nine lists with a total of 801 names of those who signed the Associations - men who agreed to support the measures and resolutions of the Provincial Congress of New York and the Con- tinental Congress of the Colonies. Though many signed two or more lists and some were undoubtedly over military age, only about 50 refused to sign and the lists prove how overwhelming the majority of Brookhaven men were in favor of the fight for freedom.
After the defeat of Washington's army in the Battle of Long Island at Brooklyn, 27-29 August, 1776, the British forces used the Island as a base, and Brookhaven, like her sister towns, was at the mercy of English soldiers until the end of the War. Life was made miserable and dangerous for the Whigs, many of whom fled to Con- necticut and became refugees while some of the officers and soldiers escaped and joined the army elsewhere.
Those who remained eked out a miserable existence as neither person nor property was safe. Plots and counterplots were conceived and executed. Neighbors, friends and relatives grew suspicious of each other. Food and living supplies grew so scarce as time went on because of the frequent raids by the soldiers, that some nearly died of starvation. All sorts of insults and outrages were committed and nothing was safe from the roaming, lawless bands who took advantage of the times and the unprotected households from which the able- bodied men were refugees or serving in the army.
Tradition has it that the original South Haven church was used as a stable and barracks while its pastor, the Rev. David Rose, was
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serving in the army. The Setauket Presbyterian church was fortified, guns trained from the gallery windows and an embankment thrown around it, destroying the nearby graves and tombstones. A fort was built on Judge William Smith's property overlooking the east end of the Great South Bay, using his house and that of his son, Gen. John Smith, as part of the fortification. At Coram, hay or forage to the amount of 300 tons was forced from the farmers of the Town; timber and firewood were ordered cut and delivered to the soldiery, and many homes had British soldiers and officers billeted in their best rooms while the owners slept and lived anywhere they could.
In November, 1776, the former English governor, William Tryon of New York, followed up the withdrawal of the American forces from Long Island by dissolving the Committee of Suffolk County and the committees of the several towns and revoked all their pro- ceedings and orders under Congress. On the 10th of December, he received the militia of Queens County at Hempstead and in writing about that event, he continues: "on Thursday following I saw the Suffolk Militia at Brookhaven, where eight hundred men appeared, to all of whom, as well as to the Militia of Queens County, I had in my presence, an oath of allegiance and fidelity administered * * "> .
Yes, Tryon forced an outward submission to the King upon the "Rebel" soldiers assembled on the old Setauket Green, but he did not and could not force the submission of their spirit. Little did he realize that the smug Tories and English soldiers living or stationed in the vicinity of that Green would be used by some of those "Rebels" to play an unwitting part in a spy system which would become a valuable aid in defeating the King's forces and free the Colonies of British rule.
Setauket, at that time, was the principal village of the Town as well as the home of Dr. George Muirson, Dr. Gilbert Smith, the Rev. James Lyon of Caroline church, Benjamin Floyd, Andrew Seton and other influential Loyalists. Their presence and their connections with other Loyalists and English officers together with the location of the village on Setauket Harbor, made it an ideal spot for getting and sending badly needed information to General Washington's head- quarters after the execution of Nathan Hale had forever silenced his brave attempt as a spy. The necessity of having knowledge of enemy troop and ship movements increased as the war progressed and demanded a carefully worked out plan that would be reliable and safe from detection, and it was probably Col. Benjamin Tallmadge who conceived the plan and proposed making Setauket the centre of its operation. He wrote to General Washington and in reply got a letter from him dated 25 August, 1778, stating that he would be glad to see him upon the business mentioned in his letter, adding: "You should be perfectly convinced of the Integrity of W- previous to his imbarking in the business proposed-this being done I shall be happy in employing him." Tallmadge received a second letter from Washington in relation to a spy designated as C- and the two letters show that he (Tallmadge) was arranging some system of
L. I .- I-19
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using spies. The W- in the first letter undoubtedly referred to Abraham Woodhull, while the C -- probably stands for "Culper".
Tallmadge had grown up in Setauket and among his father's congregation were Abraham Woodhull, Caleb Brewster and Austin Roe, all of whom he knew to be trustworthy and true patriots. In Oyster Bay, there lived Robert Townsend with good social connec- tions and anxious to help his country, so a scheme was worked out that Townsend should open a store in New York right in the midst of the British occupying force where he could gather valuable infor- mation. It would be too dangerous to dispatch any message to Wash- ington either west through New Jersey or north up the Hudson, but as Long Island was a British-held territory, little or no suspicion would be aroused if a secret message were hidden among merchandise or mail being sent to some real or supposed-to-be Loyalist in Setauket and then was removed before its delivery by Austin Roe, who acted a sort of delivery man and mail carrier.
Quite an elaborate code was devised with certain letters meaning other letters, numerals assigned to persons and places and the prin- cipals in the systemn given fictitious names. Abraham Woodhull was "Samuel Culper, Sr." and also 722; Robert Townsend was supposed to be his son, "Samuel Culper, Jr."; Caleb Brewster was 725; Ben- jamin Tallmadge was "John Bolton" and 721, while Austin Roe was 724. As a further guard against detection, an invisible ink was used and many an innocent-looking letter came to Setauket with a code message written in the invisible ink between the lines of the letter. To avoid suspicion, Woodhull, Brewster and Roe seldom ever met. Messages would be deposited at certain places and picked up either after having been brought by Roe from New York or for him to take to New York, or for Brewster to carry across the Sound in a so-called "whale-boat" to Connecticut where they would be received by Tall- madge or his aids and then hurried to General Washington's head- quarters. There is a tradition that Capt. Selah Strong's wife whose maiden name was Anna Smith, of a branch of the Tangier Smith family who were all ardent Loyalists, made use of her clothesline by hanging up stockings, handkerchiefs, etc., in such a way that they informed Brewster, Roe or Woodhull where to pick up or leave messages. (Much of the above is taken from The Two Spies and General Washington's Spies, both by Morton Pennypacker.)
Nathaniel Ruggles, also of Brookhaven, was connected with the spy group and was a friend of Selah Strong who, too, is thought to have worked with them. Austin Roe's many successful rides between New York and Setauket as a carrier of important messages, need but another Longfellow to make his splendid service more noteworthy than the one "midnight ride of Paul Revere".
There were frequent raids made all along the North Shore by "the whaleboat men" striking across the Sound from Connecticut. Some were mere thieving raids but there were three strictly military ones which deserve notice, the first of which is described by Richard M. Bayles as follows :
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"In November, 1776, three or four hundred troops crossed from New Haven to Setauket, where a sharp skir- mish was had with a detachment of General Howe's troops. Eight or ten of the British troops were killed, and 23 prison- ers and 75 muskets taken."
There was another skirmish at Setauket on the 22nd of August, 1777, led by Brig. Gen. Samuel Holden Parsons, and which has been known locally as "The Battle of Setauket". The account as described by Frederick G. Mather in his Refugees of 1776 from Long Island to Connecticut is as follows :
"Early in the same year, 1777, Col. Richard Hewlett, of the Tory Troops, had taken possession of the Presbyterian Church at Setauket on Long Island. He occupied the build- ing as a barrack, and surrounded it with breastworks and a stockade. Several guns were mounted on the breastworks, and cannon were placed in the windows of the Church.
"The importance of dislodging the enemy was apparent to Gen. [Israel] Putnam. Therefore, on Aug. 16, he ordered Gen. Parsons to attack the stockade; to capture the garrison; and bring off, or destroy, all the Military stores. Parsons, on the same date, ordered Col. Samuel B. Webb to report with his Regiment. From Fairfield, Connecticut, on Aug. 21, Parsons issued orders that private property must be re- spected on this Expedition. The attack was made early in the morning of Aug. 22.
"The Expedition consisted of about 500 men, and it was strengthened by several pieces of Artillery. With the Expedi- tion were the Refugees Capt. Caleb Brewster and Zachariah Green. The latter, 20 years later, was installed as Pastor of the Church which he attempted to take from the enemy on this occasion.
"Crane Neck Bend [just north of West Meadow Beach], about three miles from Setauket, was the place of landing. Leaving the boats with a guard, the Expedition marched quietly to the neighborhood of the garrison. A Flag of Truce was sent to Col. Hewlett, demanding surrender. This being refused, the attack commenced. Little injury was done to either side. It was then learned that several British Ships were in the Sound. Fearing that the retreat might be cut off, Parsons ordered the men back to the boats. The party returned to Connecticut with a few horses and a small quan- tity of Military stores."
To the above account might be added from other sources that Gen. Parsons lost four of his men; that fighting continued for two or three hours; that "Defense Rock" in Tyler's lot, southwest of the church, was used to good advantage by Parsons' men as a defense against the enemy fire; that when the Americans arrived, Colonel
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Hewlett was in bed at the home of his Tory friend, Benjamin Floyd, a short distance back of the church, and that he hurried to his com- mand but partly dressed; that some bullets hit nearby Caroline church and are still visible; that the breastwork was an embankment some 30 feet distant and surrounding the old church and was 6 feet high, made by digging a trench and throwing the earth up and on the outer side on which were palisades protruding from the trench to the top of the bank; that there were "swivels of four" trained from the second story or gallery windows of the church; and that Gen. Parsons and his men sailed from and returned to Black Rock, Connecticut.
The most successful and brilliantly executed of all the Revolu- tionary incidents in the Town was the one led by Col. Benjamin Tall- madge. Again, let us quote from Mather's Refugees which seems to have the most complete and comprehensive of all the accounts. It reads in part :
"In the Autumn of that year [1780], certain Tories from Rhode Island took possession of the mansion of Gen. John Smith, at Smith's Point, Mastic, Long Island. They built a triangular stockage and named it Fort St. George. A Fort had been built on the site * by the [great] grandfather of Gen. Smith, Col. William Smith-known as 'Tangier' Smith.
"Thus protected, the Tories began to cut wood for the British Army in New York City. On the appeal of Gen. Smith, it was decided to dislodge the enemy. In the after- noon of Nov. 21, with about 80 of his men, Tallmadge crossed from Fairfield to Old Man's (now Mt. Sinai), on Long Island. The rain prevented any further progress that night. Early in the morning of Nov. 23, the march began. When two miles from the Fort, William Booth was taken as a guide. Tallmadge led his column through the Grand Parade; the ramparts on the other side were mounted by the smaller detachments; and with the watchword 'Washington and Glory' the Fort was captured. A few of the garrison having fired from one of the houses after the capture, Tallmadge pleaded for, and saved, those who had forfeited their lives by such conduct. The Ships tried to escape; but the guns of the Fort being turned upon them, they were secured. The Ships, stores and the whole stockage were destroyed. The more valuable of the goods were strapped to the backs of the Prisoners; and the return march began at 8 in the morning. On the way, Tallmadge mounted a dozen men on horses taken from the enemy, made a detour to Coram, and destroyed a large quantity of hay. By midnight, the boats had returned to Fairfield without the loss of a man. The captives included the Commandant, a Lieutenant, a Surgeon, 50 rank and file, and many others of the garrison. For this exploit, Tall- madge received the thanks of Washington and the Continen- tal Congress."
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We will add that the above account differs in a few details from the ones given by Onderdonk, Thompson and Bayles, and also omits a few facts contained by them and in a letter on the subject appearing in Pennypacker's The Two Spies. The letter describes the bloody but short fight that occurred when the troops attacked the men who fired upon them from Gen. John Smith's house. The account also omits stating that another, older and smaller house (the home of Judge William Smith, the father of Gen. John Smith) was the north point of the triangle about 300 feet north of the present Manor House which is a part of Gen. Smith's home. Among the attacking party were Capt. Caleb Brewster, Capt. Benajah Strong and Heathcote Muirson-Patriot son of a Tory father, Dr. George Muirson of Setauket-whose conduct was so noteworthy that Gen. Washington recommended his promotion.
Port Jefferson Harbor is said to have been the scene of a visit by John Paul Jones of Bon Homme Richard fame, and that he killed two officers of the English frigate, Nahant. He is also traditionally said to have fitted out a vessel in either Drowned Meadow or nearby Old Man's Harbor (now Port Jefferson and Mount Sinai), but neither of these statements has the writer been able to verify.
After the withdrawal of the "red coats" at the end of the War, Brookhaven, and all of Long Island, began the work of reconstruction and repairing their sadly damaged properties and resources. One of the first steps taken in the Town was to call a special town-meeting, 22 December, 1783, and expel any Loyalist town official in office and elect a Whig in his place. It was undoubtedly illegal but, nevertheless, was done.
The reconstruction period lasted a number of years, but it was accomplished by the people with the knowledge that they were their own masters. The Town began to grow with an unheard-of speed. Farms and settlements took on a new vigor and some new villages, churches, roads, fulling mills, sawmills and grist mills made their first appearance, so that at the close of the XVIII Century, Brook- haven began to assume some of the appearance it bears today and, for the first time, the population centre of the Town had moved to the middle of the Island, due to the growth of Patchogue, Fire Place and Moriches sections.
Brookhaven had three famous visitors during its reconstruction period. The first of these was George Washington who, while Presi- dent of the young United States and living in New York, made an inspection tour of the western half of Long Island, accompanied by a small party of friends and servants. Notes of the trip appear in his 1789-1791 diary.
He reached Sagtikos Manor in West Islip, then owned by Judge Isaac Thompson formerly of Setauket, where he spent Wednesday night, 21 April, 1790. Leaving there the next morning, he and his party proceeded along the old South Country Road (Route 27) to "one Green's [in West Sayville] distant 11 miles and dined [at]
T
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Hart's Tavern in Brookhaven township, five miles further". The tavern was in the western part of Patchogue but has long since been gone and its exact site is uncertain-the modern stone marker being only on the approximate site.
The diary relates that from Hart's, the party "struck across the Island" to "Koram" where, according to tradition, they were served refreshments at the tavern and home of Joshua Smith, whose wife, Lucy, waited on the President. From there, the party took the Old Town Road "to Setakit 7 miles more to the House of Capt. [Austin] Roe, which is tolerably dec.t, with obliging people in it". This house of Capt. Roe is still in existence and then stood on the north side of the North Country Road (Route 25A) at the corner of Bay View Avenue, East Setauket. Some few years ago, its present owner, Mr. Wallace Irwin, the author, moved it to Briar Hill, south of its orig- inal site. There can be but little doubt but that Washington and Roe discussed the war days when the latter was riding his horse to Setauket, bringing secret messages to be taken via Connecticut to the former's headquarters. Abraham Woodhull ("Samuel Culper, Sr."'), living quite near, may have called and joined in the talk.
The President left his host about 8 o'clock the next morning, Friday, the 23rd, and he and his party then "baited the Horses at Smiths Town". Passing through Stony Brook, the school children assembled under an oak tree in front of the ancient school building and watched the Father of his Country drive by. It made such an impression on some of the children that in later years, they would relate to their children and grandchildren of that eventful day when George Washington rode past their school.
In less than fourteen months after Washington's visit, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were visitors in the Town for the purpose of visiting Long Island Indians and recording their language. They toured the Island together, riding on horseback, and when Sunday came, they stayed at the home of their friend and former colleague, Gen. William Floyd, at his Mastic home. The next day, Monday, 13 June, 1791, they went to nearby Poosepatuck, and there among the remnant of the Unkechaug Indians, they found three old women who spoke the language and from two of them, with the aid of a young squaw of the tribe who knew English, Jefferson wrote down about 180 Unkechaug words with their English equivalents.
After leaving Long Island, Jefferson put his manuscript with other papers in a package and sent it to his Virginia home by packet, but while going up the James River the package was stolen. When the thief opened it and found nothing of value to him, he threw all the papers into the river. Some leaves floated ashore and were found in the mud of the river bank where someone picked them up and saved them. Later on, most of the Unkechaug words were copied from the water- and mud-stained pages and have been preserved to posterity.
By comparing the words with those of the brief vocabulary of the Montauks, set down in March, 1798, by John Lion Gardiner of Gardiner's Island, there will be found a great similarity and the
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slight differences probably are due more to the spelling used by Jefferson and that used by Gardiner, than to that of the words themselves.
The big event in the early days of the XIX Century was the War of 1812, but there were no events connected with it of any importance which happened within the Town and but few are known to have entered either the Army or Navy from Brookhaven. British ships preyed upon shipping in the Sound and also along the South Shore by entering Smith's Inlet, then open opposite Bellport, and sailing west through the Great South Bay and leaving via Fire Island Inlet. To the shame of the Town, some of its residents were suspected of having sold them firewood and other supplies and received good pay for their illicit sales.
During the war, eleven men from the Fire Place section were drowned in the ocean on the night of the 5th of November, 1813, when they went on a fishing trip and carelessly failed to fasten their boat upon landing on "Dry Shoal" to shake out their net. While busily engaged, the tide rose and the current carried the boat away, and they were compelled to wait on the shoal off the mouth of the Inlet while the tide gradually rose and engulfed them. A nearby rival fishing crew were in a beach shack, and were reported to have been so drunk they could not or would not go to the aid of the drowning men.
In 1812, the Gazetteer of the State of New York, published by Horatio Gates Spafford, at Albany, 1813, states that the population of the Town was 4176 in 1810, of which 126 were slaves. The assessed valuation of properties was $767,740. At that time, there were nine post offices at Brookhaven (Middle Island), Setauket, Stony Brook, Middletown (South Middle Island), Patchogue, Fire Place (at South Haven), Forge, Drowned Meadow (Port Jefferson) and Moriches. There were then six Presbyterian and Congregational churches and one Episcopal church, and Connecticut River had four mill seats.
In November, 1813, the Town was divided into 23 school districts by John Rose, Esq., Mordecai Homan and Benjamin F. Thompson (the Long Island historian), all three of whom had been elected the previous April as the first Commissioners of Common Schools of the Town. They met at Coram and established school districts "Accord- ing to Statute of this State in such Case provided", but the size of the districts makes one wonder how some of the children ever attended school. Since that time, the districts have been subdivided and changed several times.
Slavery in the Town had been a common thing ever since Richard Floyd had bought Anthony, "sound in wind and limb", of Robert Hudson of Rye, at a cost of £48, 'way back on the 9th of December, 1672. But soon after the Revolution, the people of the State began to feel that as they had fought to be free from oppression, it was inconsistent that they should still keep their fellowman in bondage. Accordingly, the State Legislature passed an act, 22 February, 1788,
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and amended, 8 April, 1801, that any slaveholder so desiring, could apply to the town trustees or justice of the peace and have him set free if upon examination and evidence it was found that the slave was capable of supporting himself and was between the ages of twenty-one and fifty (later reduced to forty-five) years; otherwise the owner must care for him during the remainder of his life.
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