125 Years Ago 1899
From The East Hampton Star, October 27
Sunday, Oct. 29, Mrs. Helen Stratton, the oldest inhabitant of East Hampton, will receive congratulations upon reaching the age of 90 years. The occasion will be more auspicious as "Aunt Helen" is just recovering from the effects of a fall which disabled her for a time and compelled her to employ a wheelchair during the past summer. Mrs. Stratton is the daughter of General Jeremiah Miller, the first postmaster at East Hampton. General Miller was a descendant in the seventh generation from John Miller, an early settler in this town.
As a child Mrs. Stratton went to the village school in the old town house, which still stands in a corner of the front yard at Fairlawn. She clearly recalls events in the village from the time of the War of 1812 to the present day.
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After years of litigation the Court of Appeals has decided that Nathan C. Jessup had a right to build a drawbridge across an arm of East Bay at Westhampton at his own expense, and the bridge will remain unless Mortimer D. Howell, who contested Mr. Jessup's right, secures a reversal in the United States Supreme Court. Permission to build it was granted by the town board of Southampton in 1888.
100 Years Ago 1924
From The East Hampton Star, October 24
At the Patrick Ryan trial today there were charges of a plot to make it appear that the bullet which killed Ferdinand Downs, constable of Eastport, L.I., and member of the Ku Klux Klan, was of the same caliber as the revolver owned by Mr. Ryan. The argument was made by Dr. Philip A. Brennan, counsel for Ryan, before Supreme Court Justice Lewis and a blue ribbon jury.
Dr. Brennan said he was prepared to show that two of the fragments taken from the slain man's head were sections of a .38 caliber bullet and that the third section had been added to make the bullet appear to be .45 caliber, the same as the gun alleged to have been owned by Ryan.
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Mrs. Charles L. Baldwin, wife of a prominent mason builder and contractor of New York City, was killed by an eastbound freight train of the Long Island Railroad last Thursday afternoon, at 2 o'clock, at the crossing of the East Quogue-Riverhead road.
Mrs. Baldwin had been visiting the Rev. Harold G. Sabin, pastor of the Methodist Church at East Quogue, and had an appointment at her home at 2 o'clock. The freight train was approaching a crossing when Mrs. Baldwin evidently saw it and tried to either swerve her car to one side or cross before it.
75 Years Ago 1949
From The East Hampton Star, October 27
The members of the 1950 Senior Class acquitted themselves very well on the stage at Guild Hall last Thursday and Friday evening when they presented "Ever Since Eve," a three-act comedy written by Florence Ryerson and Colin Clements.
The play itself was particularly suitable for high school thespians as the plot concerned a group of students trying to put out a high school newspaper. As the girl appointed by her journalism teacher to assist the editor, Gerry Gould portrayed with naturalness and finesse the typical schoolgirl who would put up with no nonsense from members of her own sex, or the opposite sex either. The part of her co-editor, played by Robert Ilaria, was equally well done, while William Lycke, who played Spud Erwin, the editor's pal, gave a most outstanding performance.
Pat Lester, who had somehow acquired an authentic southern accent, was every inch the southern bell, Lucybelle Lee, while Barbara Bennett did very well as the fast-talking younger sister who manages to make involved situations even more involved. Robert Denton as captain of the football team gave a convincing performance of a student with more brawn than brains.
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Edward Camp, who is employed by the Edwards Theatre, was injured on Monday evening as he was crossing Main Street in front of the East Hampton News store. He was cut on his right hand and sustained an ankle injury when he was struck by a 1931 Chevrolet driven by John Daviditis of Floyd Street, who was driving south toward the flagpole.
50 Years Ago 1974
From The East Hampton Star, October 24
The rousing debate among candidates for the East End's Congressional and State Assembly seats at Guild Hall last Friday could well have been included in the theater's subscription series as "Six Characters in Noisy Search of a Mandate."
As theater it was humorous, angry, and sometimes pompous, though not particularly revelatory. As politics it was a clash, largely semantic, between the new and old politics.
The production, staged by the local branch of the American Association of University Women, played to a charged-up audience clogging the aisles of the 400-seat John Drew Theater. Their reaction was lively and at times boisterously outspoken, though clearly mixed — a cross in mood between a wide-open town meeting and participatory theater.
The whole performance took about two hours. Afterward one young woman commented to her companion, "This was fun. But I don't know whether to be upset that politics as usual is alive and well or relieved that, after tonight, so is the theater."
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"A lot of people feel," observed Judith Hope soberly, "that we may be just about due for a big storm, and we can't do enough to prepare for it."
Part of the preparation that Mrs. Hope, East Hampton Town Supervisor, has in mind was carried out last week at an "emergency preparedness" drill that she arranged at Town Hall.
The mock disaster, a hurricane or "wet wind," was staged "on paper" in the Town Hall courtroom by New York University disaster specialists — as last Wednesday's mini wet wind drummed a fitting tattoo against the windows.
25 Years Ago 1999
From The East Hampton Star, October 28
On Nov. 11, Veterans Day, K-Mart, the Troy, Mich.-based mega-discounter, will deliver on a promise made in June to open a Big K-Mart at Bridgehampton Commons in time for holiday shopping. The grand opening, at 8 a.m. that day, will mark the start of a regular 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. store schedule.
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A medical laboratory that for nearly four years conducted blood tests for tick-borne illnesses at Southampton Hospital closed on Friday, more than two months before its contract was to expire. The contract runs through Dec. 31.
The hospital owes the lab several hundred thousand dollars for several thousand tests conducted over the past year, Victor Berardi, the chief executive officer of Imugen Laboratories of Norwood, Mass., told The Star this week.
He estimated that Imugen conducted between 6,000 and 7,000 tests at Southampton annually for tick-borne ailments, including Lyme disease, ehrlichiosis, and babesiosis. The lab also tested ticks that had bitten people to determine if they carried microbes that cause the ailments.
The lab was said to have been expert in testing spinal fluid for the Lyme spirochete and had a better than average record of detecting the illness early and avoiding false-positive test results.
