Venerable Chronicles are Back in Print

Wegwagonuck? Does anybody know the way to Wegwagonuck?

If you've never heard of it, don't feel too bad. "Even 175 years ago, no one knew what Wegwagonuck meant," wrote Harry D. Sleight in "Sag Harbor in Earlier Days."

The book, published in 1930 and out of print for many years, has recently been reissued by a Massachusetts publisher, along with another long-ago chronicle of Long Island's earlier days, "History of Long Island, from its First Settlement by Europeans, to the year 1845" by Nathaniel S. Prime.

Mr. Prime's 1845 volume covers the origins of names and the settlement of towns Islandwide, and gives information about the original 13 Native American tribes here, colonial schools, farming practices, early newspapers, and churches.

"Sag Harbor in Earlier Days" includes a detailed history of the village's formative years, chronicling land purchases, the whaling industry, and British occupation during the Revolutionary War, among other things.

In an 1819 letter from a Methodist minister, Fitch Reed, included in the book, the village population gets a glowing report. "The people are generally better informed than most of the country. They have a circulating library, and a printing office has been established for a number of years, from which is issued a weekly paper called the American Eagle."

Mr. Sleight is also the author of "The Sleights of Sag Harbor," published in 1929.

"Wegwagonuck," by the way, was the name of a Native American settlement once located where Sag Harbor is now. It means "the place at the end of the hill," according to Mr. Sleight.

New hardbound editions of these books are available by mail through the Higginson Book Company, 148 Washington Street, Dept. P, Salem, Mass. 01970. "Sag Harbor in Earlier Days" sells for $36; "History of Long Island" is $45. There is a $5 shipping charge.