Stock certificate issued by the American Mining and Milling Company. Note the signature of Thomas Girvan, Silas B. Dutcher’s successor as the corporation’s president. Photo from the Kenneth C. Brady Digital Archive
What was happening at the entrance to Port Jefferson Harbor?
Between 1887-88, the American Mining and Milling Company had built some kind of a plant on the beach adjoining the harbor’s east jetty, but the secretive corporation had not told villagers what it planned to do at the factory.
Located on land in what is now McAllister County Park, the complex included three frame structures containing engines and machines, a track for railcars, stables, a dock and housing for laborers. Pipes brought fresh water to the works from an offsite well.
This chart, prepared by the United States Army, Corps of Engineers, June 30, 1884, shows the beach adjoining the Port Jefferson Harbor East Jetty where the plant was built. Photo from the Kenneth C. Brady Digital Archive
Led by its president, prominent Brooklyn financier and politician Silas B. Dutcher, the AMMC had cobbled together the property by leasing shorefront on the east side of Port Jefferson Harbor from Brookhaven Town and the 1200-acre Oakwood estate from the Strong family.
Thomas Girvan, the superintendent of the plant and Dutcher’s successor as the AMMC’s president, was pressed by Port Jefferson’s residents and local newspapers to reveal the corporation’s intentions, but Girvan was not forthcoming. In addition, the AMMC’s employees were sworn to secrecy and worked behind barricaded doors.
The mystery only fueled wild rumors in Port Jefferson where villagers speculated that the AMMC was digging for Captain Kidd’s treasure, extracting aluminum, manufacturing roofing materials or making fine glass.
The AMMC was actually experimenting with a new method for grinding stone and sand. Seeing enormous profits in the venture, management was guarding the process from potential competitors.
The finished product, as fine as flour, was sold for filtering purposes, while byproducts, such as bird gravel, were marketed as well.
Not enjoying much commercial success, the plant closed in summer 1892, its income insufficient to meet the AMMC’s significant outlay of capital and labor. Lawsuits quickly followed, creditors demanding monies due and employees back wages.
After the works was sold at a sheriff’s sale, limited operations at the plant resumed in Dec. 1892, but attempts at reviving the flagging business were dashed on Sunday, Jan. 15, 1893, when a spectacular fire of undetermined origin destroyed most of the complex.
The American Mining and Milling Company’s factory was located on land in what is now McAllister County Park. A rare 1890 photo by Elmer P. Smith. Photo from the Kenneth C. Brady Digital Archive
Without insurance on the plant, the new owners removed what could be salvaged from the ruins of the blaze and closed shop in Port Jefferson.
In the years following the fire, there were reports that some of the former employees at the AMMC’s complex had contracted a fatal lung disease, perhaps brought on by continually inhaling stone dust, marking a deadly end to the plant’s operations in Port Jefferson.
Kenneth Brady has served as the Port Jefferson Village Historian and president of the Port Jefferson Conservancy, as well as on the boards of the Suffolk County Historical Society, Greater Port Jefferson Arts Council and Port Jefferson Historical Society. He is a longtime resident of Port Jefferson
Members of the Port Jefferson Fire Department are pictured in front of the original firehouse on the east side of Main Street. Photo by Arthur S. Greene, June 1907; Photo from the Kenneth C. Brady Digital Archive
The Suffolk County Volunteer Firemen’s Tournament, held in Port Jefferson on Wednesday, Sept. 11, 1901, was a bellwether event in the history of the village.
In tournaments of yesteryear, fire departments typically competed in a series of contests such as maneuvering hand-drawn equipment, laying hose, climbing ladders, and passing buckets of water.
Tournaments not only showcased the firefighting skills and physical fitness of the participants but also brought large crowds to the host village, publicizing its attractions and stimulating its economy.
Although the Port Jefferson Fire Department (PJFD) had never run a tournament and the Port Jefferson of 1901 was “terra incognita” to most Long Islanders, a committee of Port Jefferson’s residents and firefighters made such a strong case that Port Jefferson was selected as the event’s venue.
The village’s cheerleaders touted Port Jefferson as an undiscovered gem blessed with a beautiful village and harbor and easily reached by land and sea.
The event’s backers also contended that the village’s hotels and restaurants were fully prepared to entertain the throngs expected to descend on Port Jefferson and that villagers had raised earnest money to demonstrate their strong financial support of the tournament.
Port Jefferson’s champions also pointed out that the village had a straightaway on West Broadway between Jones (Main) Street and Barnum Avenue on which the contests could be run, and that nearby hydrants provided steady water pressure.
Once the PJFD received the go ahead to hold the tournament, work began on decorating downtown Port Jefferson with flags and bunting while Loper Brothers built a 2000-seat, covered grandstand along West Broadway as well as a judges’ stand.
The cover of the sheet music for the ‘Port Jefferson March — Two Step’ features a photograph of W. Kintzing Post, president of the Suffolk County Volunteer Firemen’s Association, and a view of Port Jefferson Harbor from the west side. Photo from the Kenneth C. Brady Digital Archive
On Tournament Day, special excursion trains and steamboats brough2firefighters and their guests to Port Jefferson to enjoy the festivities, including a parade that began near Myrtle and Main and wound its way through the village.
The impressive line of march featured over 1,000 Suffolk County firemen accompanied by their respective engines, trucks and carts. The procession also included delegations from Connecticut, including the Konomoc Hose Company of New London which brought its renowned band famous for playing the rhythmic “Port Jefferson March — Two Step.”
In the afternoon following the parade, various hook and ladder, steam engine and hose contests were held, and prizes awarded. Fire departments were also honored in “Best Dressed,” “Best Equipped” and other special categories.
By all measures, the one-day tournament was a resounding success. A record 5000 people reportedly attended the event, earning Port Jefferson a reputation for its hospitality.
The tournament was extensively covered in local and metropolitan newspapers, the articles depicting the village as the “Naples of Long Island” and bringing favorable notice to Port Jefferson and its businesses.
Merchants saw dramatic increases in patronage. Liveryman John “Billy” Brown could barely keep up shuttling visitors from Port Jefferson’s railroad station to the village’s downtown.
The fledgling PJFD, only organized in 1887, demonstrated it was as capable as well-established departments, such as acclaimed Greenport, in running a large-scale event.
Most important, the tournament contributed to popularizing Port Jefferson as a vacationland, presaging its entry into the lucrative tourist market and predating the village’s storied homecomings, concerts, festivals, regattas and other crowd-drawing events by years.
Kenneth Brady has served as the Port Jefferson Village Historian and president of the Port Jefferson Conservancy, as well as on the boards of the Suffolk County Historical Society, Greater Port Jefferson Arts Council and Port Jefferson Historical Society. He is a longtime resident of Port Jefferson
View of Port Jefferson village and harbor from Cedar Hill Cemetery from a colorized post card. Photo from the Kenneth C. Brady Digital Archive
There is a rich selection of non-fiction books about Port Jefferson’s early years, but perhaps because they are mostly novels and magazine articles, L. Frank Tooker’s literary works are not often found on Port Jefferson’s local history bookshelf.
This omission is unfortunate since Tooker’s writings transport us back to nineteenth-century Port Jefferson, letting readers feel the village’s past as formal history cannot, making a bygone age live again.
Tooker was born in Port Jefferson on Dec. 18, 1854 and came from a seafaring lot. He was raised in a house at 108 High Street, a short walk from the village’s harbor and shipyards where he spent much of his spare time.
While still a youth, Tooker sailed aboard his family’s ships and traveled to exotic ports, including one memorable voyage during the Civil War to Christiansted on Santa Cruz Island in the West Indies.
After graduating from Yale, Tooker served as the Suffolk County deputy clerk before joining the editorial staff of The Century Magazine where he worked from 1885-1925 and first recognized the talents of “unknown” author Joseph Conrad.
Tooker and his wife Violette (nee Swezey) resided in various communities including Brooklyn and Riverside, Connecticut, but frequently returned to Port Jefferson where they summered with their children, Lewis and Helen.
L. Frank Tooker, while on the editorial staff of The Century Magazine. Photo from the Kenneth C. Brady Digital Archive
In Tooker’s first novel, “Under Rocking Skies,” we sail on a brig bound for Santa Cruz Island along with Tom Medbury, the vessel’s mate, and Hetty March, the captain’s daughter, a couple destined to fall in love.
The plot is typical of many romances, but it is the author’s depiction of “Blackwater,” the homeport where the story begins, that holds the reader’s attention.
Tooker peppers his tale with references to Blackwater, a thinly veiled Port Jefferson, with descriptions of its streets, churches, shoreline, cherry trees, shops, and wharves, capturing life during the village’s shipbuilding heyday.
“The Middle Passage,” Tooker’s second novel, recounts the adventures of David Lunt, a native of Blackwater, who sails on a number of ships, one chartered to transport a “cargo” of enslaved Africans to the New World, another to carry arms for South American revolutionaries.
Returning to Blackwater between each of his hair-raising voyages, the high-spirited Lunt woos Lydia Wade, but is prohibited from seeing the young woman because of his wild ways.
After a penitent Lunt publicly acknowledges his reckless behavior, Lydia’s father relents and allows the courtship to continue.
Through Lunt, we also discover there is a dark side of Blackwater, where a two-faced “Captain Joe” pretends to be an upright citizen, but secretly profits from the illegal slave trade, suggesting the complicity of some from Port Jefferson in fitting out the slaver Wanderer in 1858.
Besides historical fiction, Port Jefferson is central again in “A Boyhood Alongshore,” one of the scores of features penned by Tooker and published in The Century Magazine.
In the story, Tooker reminisces about growing up in the 1860s during Port Jefferson’s “cherished past,” a time for him of flying kites, playing marbles, fishing, swimming, boating, and gathering beach plums.
But Tooker is at his best when writing about the “smells of the shipyards,” especially in the article’s excellent account of the launching of the bark Carib at Port Jefferson’s Bayles Shipyard in 1868.
“As long as life lasts,” Tooker concludes the piece, “I shall go to the high, green hill back of our village where lie our dead” and the view over land and water is “always beautiful.”
Seemingly drawn to Port Jefferson’s Cedar Hill Cemetery, Tooker was buried there following his death on Sept. 17, 1925, marking the return of a native son to his beloved village.
Kenneth Brady has served as the Port Jefferson Village Historian and president of the Port Jefferson Conservancy, as well as on the boards of the Suffolk County Historical Society, Greater Port Jefferson Arts Council and Port Jefferson Historical Society. He is a longtime resident of Port Jefferson.
Crowds gather at Port Jefferson’s Bayles Landing awaiting the departure of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the yawl Myth II. Photo from the Kenneth C. Brady Digital Archive
Franklin D. Roosevelt launched his 1932 campaign for president of the United States by sailing from Port Jefferson across Long Island Sound into New England coastal waters.
Roosevelt had accepted the Democratic presidential nomination on July 2, 1932, at the party’s convention in Chicago.
Returning to New York where he was governor, FDR announced he would be going on a week’s cruise with his sons and departing from a secret Long Island location, later revealed as Port Jefferson.
Escorted by state troopers, Roosevelt motored from his home in Manhattan to Port Jefferson, arriving in the village around noon on July 11, 1932.
As seaplanes roared overhead, FDR was greeted by the tooting of boat whistles, screeching of car horns and the cheers of the hundreds who had lined Water Street (East Broadway).
Roosevelt made his way to Bayles Landing and boarded the Myth II, a 37-foot yawl rented for the trip from Prescott B. Huntington of St. James, New York.
Offering sleeping accommodations for six and a galley with a two-burner range, the unpretentious vessel had a black hull, orange deck and white cabin. With no auxiliary engine, the Myth II was solely dependent on her three sails for power.
Before casting off, FDR chatted with two local boys, Randall Woodard and Gilbert Kinner, who would become instant celebrities in Port Jefferson when they appeared in dockside photos and newsreels with the presidential nominee.
Franklin D. Roosevelt, New York State Governor and Democratic presidential nominee, is pictured aboard the yawl Myth II as he prepares to leave Port Jefferson on a vacation cruise with three of his sons. Photo from the Kenneth C. Brady Digital Archive
Getting underway, a launch captained by E. Post Bayles pulled the Myth II into the choppy waters of Long Island Sound where the tow was parted, and the yawl caught the wind.
At the helm, Roosevelt laid a course for Connecticut, backed by a crew of three of his four sons, as well as friend George Briggs, who kept the ship’s log.
The luxury yacht Ambassadress, chartered by FDR’s supporters and advisers, and the motor yacht Marcon, packed with newspapermen covering Roosevelt’s voyage, followed in the Myth II’s wake.
Ostensibly, the vacation cruise was to provide FDR with rest and relaxation before beginning his campaign for president, but the trip was more about politics than recreation.
Roosevelt anchored at several ports during his “holiday” including New Haven, Connecticut; Marblehead, Massachusetts; and Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
At these locations, FDR worked to bring dissident Democrats into the fold, meeting with political leaders from New England who had supported former New York State Governor Alfred E. Smith as the party’s presidential nominee.
During each stop, political heavyweights attended strategy sessions aboard the Ambassadress and Roosevelt held daily press conferences with the reporters tagging along on the Marcon.
A victory for the Democrats, the extensively photographed cruise showed Roosevelt as a vigorous leader who was prepared to command the “Ship of State” as well as he captained the Myth II, countering claims that FDR was a helpless invalid crippled by polio.
Roosevelt would go on to defeat Republican candidate and incumbent President Herbert Hoover in the Nov. 8, 1932 election, marking the end of a campaign that began on a summer day aboard a sailboat in Port Jefferson Harbor.
Kenneth Brady has served as the Port Jefferson Village Historian and president of the Port Jefferson Conservancy, as well as on the boards of the Suffolk County Historical Society, Greater Port Jefferson Arts Council and Port Jefferson Historical Society. He is a longtime resident of Port Jefferson.
Amongst the Middle Country Public Library’s many historical artifacts are a few that explain just how far the area has come from its pastoral roots. The picture and story below come courtesy of a collaborative effort among the library staff.
In the 10 years between 1940 and 1950, the population of Selden doubled from 847 to 1743. By 1960, it would more than double again.
Photo from MCPL
The growth of neighboring Centereach was even more dramatic; from 628 in 1940 to 3100 in 1960 and 6,676 in 1970. For many civic-minded citizens, it was time for a community library. In March of 1957, The Mid Island News announced the forthcoming opening of the “long-awaited library serving the Centereach and Selden communities.” A library board of trustees was formed and board president, Lucille Hough, began a door-to-door canvass to solicit books for the new facility.
The former Nature’s Gardens clubhouse on Middle Country Road in Selden was acquired from area developer, O.L. Schwenke. A local carpenter began renovations and volunteers were requested to help catalog the books. The library was to be open 15 hours per week and managed by part-time librarian, Sadie Hallock, assisted by volunteers. By 1961, the topic of the need for a new branch library appeared in the board minutes. Suggested sites were Jericho School or the former Centereach school — neither proved possible. In 1963, when a new Centereach Post Office was built, the site of the former post office became available for rent. In June of 1963, a lease was signed for 8 Dawn Drive which would be available by year’s end. A “Stack the Shelves” drive suggested by Mr. Jones of Tinker National Bank announced that the bank would contribute $500 plus $2.00 for every new depositor over a stated period. In addition, Bernard Kaplan, Eastwood Village developer, pledged $500 to start the campaign.
Circulation figures for the library increased every year. In 1964, the first year both libraries were in operation, the circulation was 54,570. By 1967, it had risen to 176,145. In 1968, the name changed to Middle Country Public Library reflected the consolidation of the school district. That same year, the board hired Paul John Cirino as the library director.
Photo from MCPL
As the number of school age children surged and the school district became the fastest growing in the nation, the library kept pace to meet the needs of the increasing population. A search was begun for a suitable site of approximately three-acres with a minimum frontage of 150-feet and close to the center of population and not more than a quarter mile from Middle Country Road. In 1971, ground was broken for a new building on the corner of Eastwood Blvd and School Street and the new 19,000-square-foot building was dedicated on Jan. 30, 1972.
By 1981, the number of library cardholders had exceeded 51,000 and the annual circulation topped 500,000. Program attendance continued to rise and space for additional programming was at a premium. When the lease on the Selden Branch expired, the School District offered the unused Selden Elementary School to the library. In 1983, after remodeling the school to provide handicapped access and library furniture and shelving, the Middle Country Cultural Center at Selden was opened to the public.
An auditorium, complete with a stage and seating for almost 200, afforded a venue for community dramatic and musical a. MCPL’s 107,000-square-foot, two-building expansion made it the largest and busiest library on Long Island.
Photo from MCPL
Dynamic architectural spaces reflect the ever-changing innovative and creative activities taking place within the library, which is always looking forward to draw in new audiences and find ways to make the library an even more responsive heart of the community.
A steam locomotive is shown in August 1878 at Port Jefferson’s original LIRR depot and freight house situated west of Main Street (Route 25A). Photograph by George B. Brainerd; Photo from the Kenneth C. Brady Digital Archive.
After the Long Island Rail Road brought a branch to Northport in 1868, a group of prominent Port Jefferson businessmen lobbied for extending the north shore branch eastward to their village.
Although a leading wooden shipbuilding center in the years following the Civil War and blessed with one of the finest harbors on Long Island, Port Jefferson was surprisingly isolated for so important a village.
Going to New York City by train involved a tedious stage ride from Port Jefferson to Medford, the nearest station on the LIRR’s main line, followed by a rail trip to Long Island City and a ferry run across the East River to James Slip in Manhattan.
Stock certificate for the Smithtown and Port Jefferson Rail Road Company, which was absorbed by the LIRR. Photo from the Kenneth C. Brady Digital Archive
Port Jefferson Harbor often froze over during the winter and limited travel by packets, steamboats and other vessels engaged in waterborne commerce.
Hoping to make Port Jefferson more accessible and boost its economy, a committee of villagers was formed and charged with inducing the LIRR to bring freight and passenger service to Port Jefferson.
The diverse group included realtor William Fordham, publisher Harvey Markham, druggist Holmes Swezey, and tinsmith John Lee. They met regularly from 1868-1870 with representatives from St. James, Setauket, Stony Brook, and other communities where support for extending the Northport branch was strong.
Following lengthy discussion, a proposal was submitted to and accepted by the LIRR. The Smithtown and Port Jefferson Rail Road Company, organized in 1870, pledged to raise the money necessary to construct the 18-mile extension from Northport to Port Jefferson. Upon completion of the project, the LIRR agreed to lease and operate the franchise for 20 years.
Respected Port Jefferson shipbuilder James M. Bayles was elected president of the Smithtown and Port Jefferson Rail Road Company, and Robert W. Wheeler, who ran a flour/saw mill in Port Jefferson, served on its board of directors. The corporation had an authorized capital stock of $200,000, divided into shares of $25 each.
After surveys were completed, rights-of-way secured and contracts finalized, construction began on the 18-mile road. Gangs worked from 1871-1873 on separate parts of the route. The eastern, or Port Jefferson section, employed 200 men under the direction of Captain John Scully.
On Monday, Jan. 13, 1873, the first train left Port Jefferson at 6 a.m. with 24 passengers for the over three-hour, 58-mile trip to Long Island City. The fare on the inaugural run was $1.90.
The terminal at Port Jefferson, including a depot, freight house, turntable, and platform, was located on the west side of today’s Main Street (Route 25A).
The coming of the Smithtown and Port Jefferson Rail Road Company, which was absorbed by the LIRR in 1892, raised property values in Port Jefferson and eased travel to and from the village.
The railroad also brought tourists to Port Jefferson, hastened the village’s transition from a shipbuilding center to a vacationland, lessened Port Jefferson’s dependence on sea trade, and made the village a transit hub.
Kenneth Brady has served as the Port Jefferson Village Historian and president of the Port Jefferson Conservancy, as well as on the boards of the Suffolk County Historical Society, Greater Port Jefferson Arts Council and Port Jefferson Historical Society. He is a longtime resident of Port Jefferson.
The Bay View Pavilion, left, and Wilson’s Sail Loft, right, are pictured on the waterfront off Port Jefferson’s East Broadway. Photo from the Kenneth C. Brady Digital Archive
Once a lively Port Jefferson hotspot, the Bay View Pavilion was located in the village on the north side of Water Street (East Broadway).
The building was situated on shorefront property leased from Brookhaven Town by the Ladies Village Improvement Society (LVIS) of Port Jefferson, which also funded Bay View’s construction.
The two-story pavilion was 20 feet wide and 40 feet long, open on all four sides and protected from shoreline erosion by a stone seawall.
Bounded by a small lawn on its east and west, the building was painted green and adorned with a decorative sign, “Bay View,” donated by gifted local artist William M. Davis.
Opening to the public on July 4, 1901, the pavilion soon became a village landmark and well known for its summertime activities including ice cream socials, bazaars, cake sales, band concerts, dances and church outings.
Bay View Pavilion was located on the north side of Port Jefferson’s East Broadway. Shown decorated for Old Home Week, 1911, the building was the center of summertime activities in the village. The site of the former pavilion is known today as Mary Bayles Park. Photo by Perry; Photo from the Kenneth C. Brady Digital Archive
Water carnivals were also held at Bay View’s public dock which had been built by LVIS in cooperation with the Port Jefferson Yacht Club.
During the Old Home Week celebrations of 1908 and 1911, the pavilion hosted swim meets, boat races, diving contests and other aquatic activities.
Because of its prime waterfront location near Wilson’s Sail Loft, the Harbor View Hotel, F. F. Darling and other establishments, people were drawn to Bay View where they took in the ever-changing sights, but unfortunately the pavilion was also a magnet for rowdies.
The situation had gotten so out of control by 1924 that Leopold Cordier, who ran a paint store next door to Bay View, was appointed a deputy sheriff with authority to keep order at the pavilion.
Bay View also suffered from neglect and was in such poor condition that in 1927 the Port Jefferson Business Men’s Association called for the pavilion’s immediate removal.
After the Bay View eyesore was razed, the plot where it had stood remained largely unimproved until 1943-1944 when Brookhaven Town developed the property as parkland and the Suwassett Garden Club of Port Jefferson landscaped and maintained the grounds.
The site of the former pavilion is known today as Mary Bayles Park.
Kenneth Brady has served as the Port Jefferson Village Historian and president of the Port Jefferson Conservancy, as well as on the boards of the Suffolk County Historical Society, Greater Port Jefferson Arts Council and Port Jefferson Historical Society. He is a longtime resident of Port Jefferson.
Amongst the Middle Country Public Library’s many historical artifacts are a few that explain just how far the area has come from its pastoral roots. The picture and story below comes courtesy of a collaborative effort among the librarian staff.
Driving along Middle Country Road today, it is hard to imagine that only 100 years ago, this busy four- lane highway with its many intersections, signs, and streetlights started out as little more than a hard-packed dirt road.
Go back 100 years more, and you’d only see a narrower, rutted path. We take our nicely maintained, hard paved roads for granted today, but it wasn’t always such a smooth ride.
Today’s network of streets and highways have their origins in simple trails which were used by people and wildlife leading to sources of water and shelter.
These paths measured only two to three-feet wide in places, but they were sufficient for the needs of the times.
Photo from MCPL
Early English settlers began to use these footpaths as they established homesteads on Long Island, widening and improving these paths, using them as cart-ways to allow for easier travel between their farms. The cart-way needed to be wide enough for a livestock-drawn cart to traverse with ease. In those days a cart would be hauled by cattle, ox, or horsepower.
Those paths were the only way to travel around Long Island until 1703, when the NY General Assembly appointed highway commissioners in King’s County (Brooklyn), Queens County and Suffolk County to direct the building and maintenance of roads “four rods wide.” The roads were simply packed earth, hardened over time by travelers.It took some time for conditions to improve, and eventually drainage systems were constructed, and logs or planks were laid across some roads to pave them. These log-covered roads were known as “corduroy roads” because of their bumpy surface.
Thirty years after the highway commissions laid out the routes, arranged rights-of-way between existing properties and physical construction took place, Long Island boasted three major thoroughfares: North Country Road, parts of which follow today’s Route 25A; Middle Country Road, now known as Route 25 or Jericho Turnpike; and South Country Road, portions of which serve as Montauk Highway.
An organized system of roads was needed for many reasons as the population grew. Though most homesteads were self-sufficient at that time, people would barter for goods and gather together to socialize. Mail needed to be delivered across the Island, and prior to the establishment of the U.S. Postal Service in 1775, England’s Royal Mail System was utilized. Before reliably passable roads were built, that mail was delivered from Connecticut by boat. It was faster and easier to travel 19 miles by water than 120 miles overland from New York City.
As the farmland was cultivated and enriched over time, it produced more than one family or village could use and farming became a burgeoning industry.
Means to transport the surplus produce was required. Farm to Market Road (also called Horseblock Road) filled this need. Farm owners would load their wagons full of fruits and vegetables to ship by rail to New York City.
The term “horseblock” refers to a block of stone or wood used to help a person climb high enough to mount a horse or to enter a stagecoach with ease. With many homes, farms and taverns located along these miles of roadway, horseblocks were a familiar sight. We call this same Farm to Market Road by its old nickname, Horseblock Road to this day.
Photo from MCPL
Through the years, several popular taverns and rest stops were located on Horseblock Road. As far back as Revolutionary times, Sam “Horseblock” Smith owned and ran a tavern at the intersection of Horseblock and Middle Country Roads in Centereach.
A Smith genealogy relates that on March 2, 1806 Sam sold the inn and land to Lake Grove resident, Titus Gould. It appears that part of the tavern was dismantled and moved to another location. Generations later, Alfred Elsmann ran Al’s Tavern, at the corner of Horseblock and Granny Roads. It was advertised in the Patchogue Advance of March 7, 1946 as specializing in home cooking and “the best in beer, wines and liquors,” and was a popular destination for local festivities for several decades.
Members of the Brookhaven Town Police Department are pictured in front of 2nd Precinct headquarters on Port Jefferson’s East Main Street where they were based from 1950-1960. Photo from Beth Pranzo Collection
Alarmed by Port Jefferson’s growing descent into lawlessness, a group of concerned residents met in 1886 to consider building a lockup within the village.
Port Jefferson’s citizens were troubled by the rise in vagrancy, burglaries and vandalism in their community and disgusted with the increasing numbers of drunks on the village’s streets.
At the same time, Port Jefferson’s constables were hampered from carrying out their duties because there was no place in the village to detain persons pending their court appearance.
An attempt to fund the lockup’s construction by private subscription failed, but in 1891 Brookhaven Town appropriated money to finance the project.
Completed in 1893, the spartan Port Jefferson lockup was situated in the “salt meadow land” off what is now the village’s Wynne Lane, comprised of two cells and provided with heat, water, light and basic furnishings.
In the years following the lockup’s opening, most of the arrests in Port Jefferson were for public intoxication, although at times the village’s jail held those charged with more serious offenses including arson, fraud, murder and assault.
While the overwhelming majority of the accused were men, two females broke the pattern and were taken into custody in 1895 for being prostitutes at a notorious “disorderly house” on West Tuthill Street, today’s Maple Place.
From 1937-1949, the Second Precinct of the Brookhaven Town Police Department operated out of a combination lockup and station house on the north side of Port Jefferson’s Arden Place. Photo from Kenneth C. Brady Digital Archive
By 1909, the lockup was in such poor condition, once even toppling on its side when high tides undermined the structure’s foundation, that Brookhaven Town appropriated $1,000 to purchase land and build a new “cooler” on the property.
Located within what is now Port Jefferson’s Resident Parking Lot on the north side of Arden Place, the four-cell lockup opened in 1910 and from the outset was plagued by escapes and repeatedly criticized by the Department of Correction, Prison Commission and other State agencies for being unfit for human habitation.
The situation had so deteriorated by 1933 that the village lockup was closed but remained opened as a “hoboes hotel” for the homeless, while persons arrested in Port Jefferson were transferred to either the Riverhead jail or Patchogue lockup.
With the creation of the Brookhaven Town Police Department, the former Arden Place lockup was refurbished and served from 1937-1949 as a combination jail and station house for the 2nd Precinct.
The precinct moved briefly to the Odd Fellows Building on East Main Street near the foot of Thompson Street before finally settling at another East Main Street site.
Beginning in 1950, officers from the Second Precinct were based in a one-story building on East Main Street constructed adjacent to Port Jefferson’s former First National Bank and operated out of this place until Jan. 1, 1960 when the Suffolk County Police absorbed the Brookhaven Town Police.
Afterwards, the space was occupied by the Brookhaven Town Tax Receiver and has housed retail stores in recent times.
Kenneth Brady has served as the Port Jefferson Village Historian and president of the Port Jefferson Conservancy, as well as on the boards of the Suffolk County Historical Society, Greater Port Jefferson Arts Council and Port Jefferson Historical Society. He is a longtime resident of Port Jefferson.
Old Mans (Mount Sinai) was a small hamlet of 16 families in 1775, but seven young men volunteered for service during the Revolutionary War.
Two sets of brothers were among this group. All of them traveled to parts of the country they never would have done if not for the army, including northern and western New York, Canada, Pennsylvania, and finally Yorktown, Virginia. Often armies walked for miles before a battle, food was always short, clothing did not meet the needs of the weather, and illness was always present. By the end of the war most of the men were worn out.
New York including Long Island was finally evacuated by the British Nov. 25, 1783. All New York units were disbanded Nov. 15, 1783 at Newburgh, New York. The men had to find their own way home, and once home, there was little time to rest and recuperate from the war as they had to support themselves and their families.
All seven of the men survived the war, but not all of them moved back to Old Mans. Each of them did return to work, most were laborers, but one was a tailor, one a boatman, and one a farmer. They could work as they expected, but as they grew older, they were finding the effects of deprivations during the war started to affect their abilities. But they had to continue as there was no other income for their families. This changed in 1818.
Congress was divided on the issue of providing pensions for the veterans. It was a contentious debate for 30 years, but by 1818 the pension act was passed. Veterans could apply for pension relief, as could their widows and the disabled. The major portion of the application was a deposition from the veteran or his widow given in front of a Justice of the Peace, written by a clerk.
Other individuals could provide supporting evidence of service. Oral histories were required as few records survived or were not available to the individuals. Few of the men could find any paperwork including their discharge papers. The deposition had to include dates of service, which unit or units, officers, battles, discharge. Recall of this amount of information, especially after 30 years, proved to be difficult for some men more so than for others.
To qualify man had to have served at least nine months, must be “in reduced circumstances” and “in need of assistance from their government.” All seven men proved they qualified for a pension.
Richard Davis, age 18, was the first to sign up in May of 1775. He was assigned to the 2nd Regiment of the New York Line of the Continental Army. When his term of enlistment was up, he reenlisted for the duration of the war. He achieved the rank of sergeant.
At the Battle of Saratoga in 1777, he received a scalp wound from a musket ball, but he was able to continue to fight and was at the surrender of British General John Burgoyne and his entire army. He participated in many of the major and minor battles with the final battle at Yorktown where General Charles Cornwallis surrendered.
Richard was discharged on June 6, 1783.He settled in New York City where he worked as a boatman.By 1790 he had moved back to Old Mans where he married and raised his family and continued as boatman. In 1818 he applied for a pension due to his “bodily infirmities being afflicted with rheumatism and was frequently incapable of attending to his business.” Upon his death his wife, Temperance, applied for a widow’s pension which she received based on the information she knew of her husband’s war time activities. They are buried in the Phillips-Davis Cemetery on North Country Road, Mount Sinai.
Jeremiah Kinner, age 18, enlisted for one year in the militia company of Captain Selah B. Strong in February 1776. His first assignment was to a lookout post at Mt. Misery (Belle Terre) to watch for possible invasion of the British and Tories by way of Long Island Sound.
In August 1776 he was pulled with his company to the west end of Long Island as a part of the regiment commanded by Colonel Josiah Smith, Brigade of General Nathaniel Woodhull. Their assignment was to collect all the cattle and drive them east out of the reach of the British. This activity was thwarted by the British and resulted in the capture of General Woodhull.
Jeremiah with many of the other militia men were able to reach the patriot lines in Brooklyn and were evacuated to Manhattan where they fought with the rest of the army while retreating north up Manhattan to the Bronx and Westchester.
When his year enlistment was up, he was discharged by Lieutenant Caleb Brewster and returned home to Old Mans. He remained home “until the British took possession of that part of Long Island.”
He left the island moving to Goshen, Orange County, New York. Once he settled in, he joined the local militia under Captain McDowell of Colonel Tuston’s regiment. At the Battle of the Minisink he was wounded in the knee and was next to Colonel Tuston when the colonel was killed. Jeremiah was sent back to Goshen to recover from his wound which took six months. For the rest of the war the militia unit joined the Continental Army in battles in western New York.
At the end of the war he returned to Old Mans where he married and raised his family. He was a laborer and did not apply for a pension until 1833 when he was 74.
Nathan Phillips, age 22, enlisted for one year in the 4th Regiment of the New York Line Captain Daniel Roe’s company in March of 1776. He served as the company fifer. When he was discharged in March of 1777, he returned home where he spent the rest of his life. He married and raised his family. He was a laborer by trade. He applied for a pension “owing to my bodily infirmities being afflicted with rheumatism and in indigent circumstances.”
Photo from Edna Giffen
Chapman Davis, age 17, younger brother of Richard, enlisted in the spring of 1776 and assigned to the 2nd Regiment of the New York Line of the Continental Army. He participated in the Battle of Saratoga and the surrender of General John Burgoyne. He fought throughout the war and was at the final battle at Yorktown and the surrender of General Charles Cornwallis. After the war he married and moved to a farm in Aquebogue. He applied for a pension and received it in 1819 but was required to reapply in 1820. By that time, he was a widower with four children the oldest being 20 years old. He was suffering from ill health and having difficulty working his farm. His farm was 250 acres worth $2,788, but his mortgage was $2,800.
He gave his deposition before David Warner one of the judges in the Court of Common Pleas, however by 1820 the paperwork was a printed form which had to be purchased. The Judge requested the Pension Board to accept the handwritten application as “Mr. Davis is a very poor man and not able to be at the expense of making out a new declaration.”
Joshua Davis, age 19, joined the 4th New York Line as a private in April 1776 where he served until 1778 when General Washington had him, he transferred to the Whaleboat service under Captain Caleb Brewster. Brewster chose the men he wanted in his unit and “he would choose Long Island men as they knew the harbors and waterways of Long Island.” Joshua grew up on the family farm adjacent to Old Mans harbor. It is also probable that he and Brewster knew each other as Brewster grew up in Setauket.
Caleb Brewster is known for his activities as a member of the Culper Spy Ring, but that was not all he did. He made frequent forays to Long Island to collect intelligence of British activity on Long Island. One such foray had him observing the Maryland Loyalist Militia which was bivouacked in Miller’s Place 1778.He also fought British and Loyalist ships that were sailing on the sound.
Photo from Edna Giffen
During Benjamin Tallmadge’s raid on the Fort at the Manor of St. George, Joshua Davis was one of the men guarding the boats in the Old Mans Harbor. His discharge papers included a Badge of Merit for his faithful service.
After the War Joshua became a tailor, married, and raised his family in Greenfield, Fairfield, Connecticut. As he grew older his eyesight started to fail him and his general infirmity caused him to find employment for more than one day a week. He also had lameness in his left leg and back making it impossible to rise from his bed. He is buried with his family in Greenfield, Fairfield, Connecticut.
George Norton, age 22, grew up on Shore Road. He enlisted in the 4th Regiment of the New York Line of the Continental Army in the spring of 1776. He entered as a private, but eventually was promoted to sergeant and served for seven years. Upon discharge he also received the “Badge of Merit for seven years of faithful service.”
After the War he returned to Old Mans, married, and raised a family. By 1818, he is in indigent circumstances. In 1820 he was brought into court and upon examination by the judges he is declared insane and incapable of taking an oath. His wife, Elizabeth, appeared in the court stating he is generally insane and incapable of attending to his business. She had been taking care of everything. Two of their sons, wives, and children, and their own 14-year-old son lived in the house. His support comes mainly from the several properties he owned.
Jonathan Kinner, age 18, younger brother of Jeremiah, enlisted in the Continental Army being assigned to the 4th Regiment of the New York Line in 1777. In 1778 General Washington ordered Jonathan transferred to the Whaleboat service, Captain Caleb Brewster where he served for the rest of the war.Again, he was chosen because he was “a Long Island man.”
When he was a child his family moved from Brooklyn to a farm on Old Mans Harbor adjacent to the farm of Joshua Davis’ family. When he was discharged, he also was awarded the “Badge of Merit for length of service.” He remained in Connecticut, married, and raised his family in Weston. He applied for and received a pension in 1819 but was required to reapply in 1820 giving a detailed inventory of his property and household goods. He is buried in Connecticut with his family.
The Revolutionary War brought about freedom from Britain, but the long years of fighting took its toll on many of the men and their families.
Edna Davis Giffen is the Recording Secretary of the Miller Place-Mt. Sinai Historical Society. She enjoys doing history research of Mt. Sinai and Miller Place, and helping others learn about their community.
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