125 Years Ago 1897
From The East Hampton Star, February 5
All business in town has been retarded during the past week by the superabundance of winter which came to us. We have had little trains, irregular trains and no trains at all. We have had occasional mails and no mails at all. All the beaten paths of business and social life were abandoned during the snow-blockaded week. The peanut train sneaked through our village on Wednesday morning, and was not seen or heard again until yesterday noon. We trust matters will get straightened out and all lines of business will move smoothly again before the flowers bloom in the spring.
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A feather boa was found on the floor at Clinton Hall after the dance on Tuesday evening. The owner can have the same by calling for it at this office.
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The snow blockade on the east end was broken on Friday night last, the snow plow reaching this place at 9:30. Superintendent Potter was on board the snow plow train, and put up at The Pines, Amagansett, that night. Sunday morning the plow, with Supt. Potter on board, opened up the road to Montauk.
100 Years Ago 1922
From The East Hampton Star, February 3
State troopers raided three places in Sag Harbor Saturday night and arrested three men, Charles Thiele of Burke st., Max Waldman, Division st., and Charles Raymond of Spring st., charged with violations of the law in possessing intoxicating liquors. Quantities of liquors were seized at each place. The men were taken before Justice of the Peace Everard F. Jones, at 10:45 p.m., and were held for the Grand Jury in bonds of $500 each.
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The Long Island Hotel and Restaurant Association, which was recently organized for the purpose of bringing the beauties and advantages of a residence or season’s sojourn on Long Island, is now getting busy by giving the project publicity in various ways and asking all civic associations to join them.
The association is the pioneer in this great boosting movement and is confident that wonderful returns will result from united and unselfish action on the part of all citizens. Through these efforts thousands will be attracted to our Island this summer. Long Island, the greatest island in the world, is the least known through lack of publicity.
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According to Mrs. Jonathan Baker’s report as treasurer of the Ladies Village Improvement Society, this society started the new year with a balance on hand amounting to $3,391.62, about $1,000 less than a year ago.
Of course it was the returns from the annual mid-summer fair that made the biggest item in the receipts, that amount being $3,690.69. Other items were dues and donations, spraying fund, minstrels, interest, which amounted to $136.71, supper, sale of old flag, winter fair $89, and cook books.
75 Years Ago 1947
From The East Hampton Star, February 6
Considerable excitement was occasioned at Montauk by the arrival of a 42-foot whale on the beach at “Cocoanuts,” halfway between the Ditch Plain Coast Guard Station and Montauk Light, early Sunday morning. What variety of whale it was, is uncertain; some Montauk people identified it as a sperm whale, which has only been seen here two or three times within living memory. The usual variety seen in these waters is finback, or the right whale.
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Boy Scouts of this generation being trained for responsible citizenship “are the promise of men qualified to lead the peoples of the United Nations in their efforts to maintain universal peace,” says Amory Houghton of Corning, New York, President of the National Council, Boy Scouts of America, in a message for Boy Scout Week, February 7 to 13, marking the 37th anniversary of the organization.
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An evening’s entertainment will be presented at Guild Hall on Friday, February 14, with another of the St. Luke’s Church Parish parties. The program includes square dances, cards, dancing, refreshments with music by the famous Corn Cobbers Orchestra of Southampton. Previous parties have been very popular with the public.
Tickets may be secured from Eugenia Stanlea’s dress shop, L. Vetault & Son, Mrs. Emmett Bennett, Mrs. Bernard Salisbury, Raymond Whitaker, Mrs. Ezra Bennett of East Side, Mrs. Glenn Stonemetz of Amagansett and Mrs. Roy Maranville of Springs.
50 Years Ago 1972
From The East Hampton Star, February 3
The spacious halls of East Hampton’s new $3,500,000 High School are tense and the voices of some members of its black student minority are angry.
“There’s a feeling of walking on eggs all the time,” Samuel A. Meddaugh, High School principal, said this week. “So far, we’ve been bothered by only pestiferous things. Like in any other school, a thing that normally would be a scrap between two kids is now a black-white confrontation.”
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A W.T. Grant department store which will cover more than two acres of land, a King Kullen supermarket, and a Rite-Aid drug store are scheduled for an October, 1972, opening at the planned “Plaza East Shopping Center” in Bridgehampton.
The future commercial center will be on a 12.7-acre site at the northwest intersection of Snake Hollow Road and the Montauk Highway.
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The first in another series of three Hampton Day School international dinners will be presented on Monday, Feb. 7, at Anthony’s Restaurant in the Hedges Inn, East Hampton, when students prepare and serve a meal of 11 dishes from Southeast Asia and Hawaii.
Monday’s dinner will include foods from Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Hawaii. Anthony Hitchcock, head of the upper school, will be in charge.
25 Years Ago 1997
From The East Hampton Star, February 6
East Hampton Town will celebrate its tricentquinquagenary next year — that’s the 350th anniversary of its founding in 1648 — with a yearlong schedule of events arranged by a committee of volunteers from every corner of town — some of them descendants of the earliest settler families.
A core committee has been formed to get the ball rolling, with Bruce Collins, a former Town Supervisor who retired this year as East Hampton Village Highway Superintendent, as chairman. Mr. Collins’s family has been here for many generations.
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The Montauk Downs State Park has an exhibit in honor of Black History Month. It can be seen from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily all month in the front foyer.
The small side-by-side display features biographies and photographs of prominent African-Americans, including the inventor Garrett A. Morgan, who invented the gas mask, credited with saving the lives of thousands of soldiers in combat during World War I.
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Southampton’s Shinnecocks won a victory in court last Thursday, when County Court Judge John J.J. Jones Jr. determined that most, if not all, of a half-acre parcel purchased by William R. Pell 4th and his wife, Sarah Fitzsimons, belongs to the Shinnecock Reservation.
“I am hesitant to dash a person’s dream,” the judge said to the crowd in the Riverhead courtroom after meeting with lawyers for both sides in chambers. But according to the evidence presented, he continued, the defendants were intruding upon Native American land. He ordered a warrant of removal under Section Eight of the New York State Indian Law.
