125 Years Ago 1896
From The East Hampton Star, November 6
Seymour Stratton's company of comedians are playing a three night's engagement in Clinton Hall this week. Last night "The Diplomat" was given to a small house. To-night "The Two Orphans" will be played, and to-morrow there will be a matinee performance of "Ten Nights in a Bar-room." Saturday evening the company will play "Called Back." The prices are 10, 20 and 30 cents.
—
By the year 1900 East Hampton should have a bank and a public water plant. Why not?
—
There was much machinery about making the returns of the election this year. Each inspector of election was obliged to sign his name 96 times. The tally sheets which contained a complete record of the vote of each district were over eight feet long.
100 Years Ago 1921
From The East Hampton Star, November 4
The local chapter of the American Red Cross, along with every chapter in the United States, will make its annual roll call starting November 11, Armistice Day, and extending to Thanksgiving. The usual fee of $1 for membership will be asked for.
—
As several other newspapers in Suffolk county have tried out the plan of offering prizes for the best and second best contributions of local news items submitted by local school pupils and have met with success, the Star is going to try this plan in East Hampton. Authenticity, expression and neatness will be considered in judging. Letters must be received at this office not later than Wednesday of each week at 4 p.m., addressed to the "News Prize Editor." The writer of the best collection of news items will receive $1.50 and the second best $1 each week.
—
Southampton
William L. Donnelly has recently purchased one of the fine new Studebaker sedan cars and he and Mrs. Donnelly, with their son, Townsend, and Roderick Foster, enjoyed a trip to Wellesley, Mass., where they made a short visit with Miss Mildred Donnelly, who is attending Wellesley College.
75 Years Ago 1946
From The East Hampton Star, November 7
The Republican landslide materialized on Tuesday as expected with Gov. Thomas E. Dewey reelected over his Democratic opponent, James M. Meade, by a plurality of nearly 700,000, while Irving M. Ives was elected to the United States Senate, the first Republican since 1926, over former governor Herbert Lehman, by a plurality of over 250,000 votes. As New York State voted so did the trend extend through New England and through the West to the Pacific Coast.
—
Hallowe'en passed off very pleasantly and peacefully in East Hampton. Mayor Judson Banister stated at noon on Friday that he had received no complaints, so far, of any Hallowe'en depredations; Chief of Police Francis Leddy was all smiles, the next day, and said the department hadn't received one call. He had an extra-special force on duty; the police handled young merrymakers very tactfully, at the same time keeping a sharp eye out for any possible trouble. The Ladies Village Improvement Society Hallowe'en committee, headed by Mrs. P.C. Schenck and including Mrs. Russell Hopkinson, Mrs. E. Marvin Conklin, Mrs. Edward Tillinghast, and Gail Borden, helped where necessary with food, for group parties, and awarded cash prizes at the larger parties, for costumes.
—
At the monthly meeting of Guild Hall Players Monday evening, Nov. 4, plans were outlined for the Players' initial offering of the season, "Three Men on a Horse," which will be presented in the John Drew Memorial Theater Friday and Saturday evenings, Nov. 22 and 23.
50 Years Ago 1971
From The East Hampton Star, November 4
Republican victories are nothing new in East Hampton Town, but even by local standards the dimensions of Tuesday's GOP clean sweep were impressive. Incumbent Supervisor Eugene E. Lester Jr. defeated Walter C. Hackett, the Independent Voters' candidate, by 1,099 votes. In 1969, when Mr. Hackett opposed Mr. Lester on the Democratic ticket, the latter won by a scant 228 votes.
The score this time around, according to unofficial totals with some absentee ballots not yet counted, was Lester 3,104; Hackett, 2,005; and Joseph T. Kelley, Democrat, 440.
—
Casting itself in the lofty role of guiding "change in such a way that those aspects of society which are beneficial will not be lost, but will rather serve as a constant reminder of our heritage and our past," the County Planning Department has created a plan for the development of Sag Harbor.
The plan, undertaken in connection with the Bi-County Comprehensive Plan for "ordered future growth" throughout the region, was completed last summer. It has only now come to the attention of the public, however, as residents of the Incorporated Village, going to the Municipal Building to discuss Sag Harbor's attempt to readopt a zoning ordinance, noticed the handsome blue brochure.
—
One hundred and fifty people, including James C. Hagerty, press secretary to President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and George E. Reedy Jr., who held the post under President Lyndon B. Johnson, gathered at Gurney's Inn, Montauk, last weekend to discuss the office of the Presidency.
The conference was held by the Center for the Study of the Presidency, and was the second such event to be held at Gurney's. The sessions were closed to the public, and the speakers were introduced by Dr. R. Gordon Hoxie, president of the Center, which has offices in New York.
25 Years Ago 1996
From The East Hampton Star, November 7
It was an election full of firsts.
The first Democratic President to be re-elected since Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
The first time in 68 years Republicans had kept control of Congress for more than one term.
The first woman to represent Long Island in Congress.
The first vote on Peconic County, which passed like thunder.
The first Election Night in East Hampton in 14 years without Tony Bullock on the ballot or the premises.
And the first Democratic Town Trustee since Tom Lester.
—
The Republicans in East Hampton may hold the majority on the Town Board, but they were outnumbered on Friday by Democrats and others who vehemently opposed their plan to shrink the recycling program, fire its coordinator, and move the Democratic Supervisor to a smaller office.
Shouted down, threatened with being voted out of office, and pelted with an assortment of ripe adjectives — "arrogant" and "short-sighted" were heard often, along with "petty," "asinine," "deceitful," "mean-spirited," and "sexist" — the Republicans began fighting back on Monday with a barrage of letters to The Star.
—
In Monday's crisp morning air, three men stood looking down upon three large pieces of wood beside Walter Galcik's driveway in Ditch Plain, Montauk. The pieces had been uncovered by the northeast storm of Oct. 19 about a quarter mile east of Gin Beach.
Both Mr. Galcik and Joe Burgess, his neighbor, were quite sure the wood was from the 18th-century wreck of the H.M.S. Culloden, known to have struck the beach just about where the pieces were found before finally coming to rest farther west in 20 feet of water on the point of land now bearing her name.
