Uncle Stephen Ranger: A Piece of Work

Stephen Ranger was into everything. At age 21 he became a Northwest School trustee even though he had no children, wasn't even married, and probably still lived at home.

Exactly 10 score years ago - in the 150th anniversary year of the founding of East Hampton - Dering and Polly Van Scoy Ranger had a son whom they named Stephen, the first son of a first son, whose life would be dedicated to the ancient Latin motto carpe diem - seize the day.

We know nothing of certainty about his early childhood days, but we can infer a great deal from the time, the place, and the later record. Father Dering's farm, the one East Hampton people would one day call the Peach Farm, was on Northwest Road adjacent to the present-day Ranger cemetery.

Just to the north, just a bit beyond the school, was Grandpa Isaac Van Scoy's place. He and Grandma Mercy Edwards had come from Amagansett as newlyweds over 40 years earlier and took to raising livestock, crops, and babies with equal enthusiasm. However, of their 15 children, only two sons and six daughters survived to adulthood. Mother Polly (Mary, formally) was the baby of the family. Grandma Mercy died in 1782 at age 50; probably "wore out." After a while Grandpa Isaac married the widow Elizabeth Dibble Osborn. She was "Grandma" to young Stephen.

A bit further up the road, over on the south bank of Hand's Creek, was Grandpa Samuel Ranger's place. He and Grandma Ranger came over from Connecticut in '76 with Aunt Olive and the three older boys: Dering, Samuel II, and Abraham. Seems a strange time to be coming to Long Island. What with the Brits hassling folks, most were headed the other way.

Grandpa Isaac had his adventures with them. They say that on one occasion he drove a couple of would-be-thieving Redcoats off his place with a pitchfork. Some even say he killed one. Still, others say times weren't all that bad if you kept your mouth shut, tended to business, and tipped your hat to the officer of a Sunday morning. It probably depended a lot on whether or not you had anything worth "liberating." By the end of 1782 all that was history.

When Stephen came into the world in '98, President Washington had just retired and President Adams was in office. As for the Brits, they had their hands full elsewhere with a Corsican named Bonaparte.

At home, neighboring Sag Harbor was growing like a weed and the whole area was prospering for it. Northwest had had a school for six years. The town had come up with eight pounds for the purpose, and, desirous of a first-rate job, they hired Henry Dominy to build it - good mechanics, them Dominys.

You can be pretty sure Grandpa Isaac had his hand in the whole operation. Hard work and shrewd Yankee management had paid off for Grandpa Isaac. At 66 (in '98) he was both prosperous and influential.

Having pondered the evidence, one readily pictures young Stephen as bright, good-natured, and charming. In addition, he was energetic and ambitious (in the best sense of that word); a fitting heir to old Isaac.

When Stephen was 2, his brother Sylvester D. (for Dering) was born, and then, six years later, came Alfred. The picture comes into focus a little more sharply: Stephen, the ringleader; Sylvester, the trusty sidekick, and Alfred, the tag-along kid brother.

There can be no doubt that these three had some schooling, probably considerably more than most of the Northwest children. Not only was the schoolhouse just a short distance up the road, but Grandpa Isaac would have insisted. To amount to anything it was mandatory to learn enough of arithmetic to keep accounts and enough of reading to read the Good Book. Decent writing and spelling were desirable too, but not all that essential - or common. One could get by. In many instances, just the rudimentary requirements pretty much exhausted a teacher's repertoire.

Northwest farm boys had a busy life. There were, of necessity, strictly enforced daily chores from the time a boy could drag a stick of stove-wood or carry a feed pail. Soon Stephen would have been splitting kindling, pulling weeds, and escorting the milk-cow up to the barn twice a day. In addition to helping mother and father on demand, children typically would have had their own vegetable patch, and often their own animals: perhaps a pair of chickens to start, and then a piglet. As a teenager, a boy of enterprising disposition - with two willing younger brothers - might find himself the majority stockholder in a sizable flock of sheep, or perhaps a few cattle.

Stephen evidently did. At age 17, he registered his earmark with the Town Clerk, Abraham Parsons.

The War of 1812 started when Stephen was 14. The Brits again - poor Mr. Madison was driven right out of Washington. The infamous raid on Sag Harbor occurred when Stephen was 15. By then he may have been drilling with the militia, since mother's next-elder sibling, Uncle David - Captain - Van Scoy, was in charge.

If he could, he probably did. That was Stephen's nature. He was into everything. At age 21 he became a Northwest school trustee even though he had no children, wasn't even married, and probably still lived at home.

In his late 20s Stephen courted and won Miss Eliza I. Conklin, the daughter of Burnett and Ruth Jones Conklin of Amagansett. They set up housekeeping a bit to the south, on Swamp Road at the end of today's Two Holes of Water Road. Their place backed onto the fringes of Northwest Creek.

Stephen and Eliza had at least five children over a period of some 14 years. In birth order: Mary, the only daughter; George L., Alfred D., Stephen Jr., and William H. Here is the only sad part of the Stephen story: Both Mary and George L. died, unmarried, in their 20s. Stephen Jr. disappears from the record after the 1850 census and is thought to have also died young.

On the brighter side, William married Harriet Leek, the daughter of Erastus and Eliza Smith Leek. In 1868, along with Harriet's sister, Eliza Jane, and Eliza's husband, Jason Miller, they moved to Illinois, presumably to go homesteading. There was a lot of good farmland to be had out there, free for the taking if you were willing to work it. Perhaps there is a Ranger-Miller-Leek clan in Illinois today.

Stephen's other surviving son, Alfred D. (Dering, again), married Charlotte M. Parsons, the daughter of Nathaniel T. and Elizabeth Parsons Parsons (not a misprint) of Northwest. Their place was on the north bank of Hand's Creek at the terminus of Hand's Creek Road. Alfred D. moved in and it eventually became known - inaccurately, say some - as the Alfred D. Ranger place. In time, he became a well-known East Hampton personality in his own right.

But back to Stephen. In 1825, shortly before the birth of his first child, Stephen became involved in town affairs. He never looked back. He is the subject of some two dozen entries in the town records. In that first year he was chosen to be an Overseer of Highways. Over the years he would hold that office eight different times.

I have heard it said that the original Dominy schoolhouse burned. Chimney fires took a lot of places back then. At any rate, in 1827, a new school was built at the front of the Van Scoy farm. Stephen's children attended this new 16-by-22-foot, $250 edifice. It served until 1885. (Stephen's granddaughter, Mary E., a daughter of Alfred D., may have been the last teacher. She had formerly kept school on Gardiner's Island. Later, Mary E. married Henry Talmage.)

At the town meeting of 1828 Stephen was chosen to be a Viewer of Fences. This involved finding and prosecuting the violators of the fencing ordinances. In an economy that depended on keeping livestock and crops separated, this was serious business. But code enforcers are rarely popular, and Stephen liked to be liked; he never stood for that office again.

In 1846, a reasonably prosperous 48-year-old Stephen finally became a Town Trustee. He had hit the big time. This seems to have suited both him and the electorate: He would be chosen seven more times, the last time at age 66. In 1849, between stints as Trustee, he served a term as both Assessor and Path Master - simultaneously - just keeping his hand in.

In 1848, in addition to politicking and farming, he was part of a committee that laid out the official route and boundaries of Swamp Road - the extension of Merchants Path into the old port area. By now he was often called "Uncle" Stephen by his younger associates. In rural places especially, until very recent times, it was customary to bestow the honorary titles of aunt, uncle, or cousin on one's elders. No close kinship was implied.

When the Civil War broke out in 1861 Stephen and his brothers were too old to serve. Although Stephen's sons, Alfred D. and William, were of prime military age, they evidently declined to participate. In that saddest of our national adventures the family colors were carried by Stephen's 45-year-old cousin, Samuel Ranger 3d, who some years before had forsaken Northwest for a Round Swamp Lester as a wife and a small farm on Three Mile Harbor Road.

In 1862, Uncle Stephen's beloved Eliza passed away. She was 62. Together they had carved a prosperous farm out of the woods and raised a fine family. They had had a good run.

Clearly, Stephen liked Elizas; he wasn't finished yet. Soon he married Eliza C. Leek, who was probably the widow of Erastus Leek and the mother-in-law of Stephen's own son, William. Unfortunately, their time together was short. She died of apoplexy in 1865 - the year we lost Mr. Lincoln.

Uncle Stephen was alone now, but he was totally unsuited for the solitary life - nobody to talk to - nobody to listen - just too much peace and quiet. He went back to Amagansett for a third wife. In 1868 he married Phebe Bennett, the daughter of Augustus and Irene Topping Bennett. He was a spry, active, and colorful 70-year-old. Phebe was 48 and not previously married. Local history records her as tiny, determined, and very religious.

Uncle Stephen and Aunt Phebe worked the Swamp Road farm together for another 17 years. The census of 1880 indicates they had live-in help to do the heavy lifting: Edgar C. King (actually Cornelius Edgar) and a man named Addison. The latter remains a mystery.

The following is a 19th-century recollection by Everett J. Edwards, who was related to Aunt Phebe, as recounted by his daughter, Jeannette Edwards Rattray, in her wonderful book "East Hampton History and Genealogies," without which neither this article, nor many others, would be possible.

"Uncle Stephen drove an odd team - a horse and a cow together - to East Hampton to church or to Sag Harbor for trading. He would take a load of wood to the port and exchange it for groceries. He liked a nip or two and liked to get off by himself. If Aunt Phebe gave him the molasses jug to fill in the Harbor he was likely to come home with rum in it instead of molasses and he the worse for wear."

In 1885, the year Mr. Burling published the first edition of The East Hampton Star, Uncle Stephen slipped away, probably with a smile and a wink - probably looking forward to his name in the paper. He was 87. He and his two Elizas lie in a line in the Ranger cemetery at Northwest.

In due time Aunt Phebe became the second wife of Isaac W. Miller. His first wife was Phebe's sister, Ann Maria. It gets confusing.

Uncle Stephen Ranger. After him they broke the mold. He was some piece of work.

Charles E. Squires, a resident of East Northport, was born and raised on Three Mile Harbor Road. A descendent of the Ranger and other old-time East Hampton families, he is at work on a book, "Sam's War," about Samuel Ranger in the Civil War.