125 Years Ago 1899
From The East Hampton Star, November 3
Tom Banks, as he was familiarly known by everybody, was found dead in his stable about six o'clock Monday evening, with a wound in the side of his head, supposed to have been caused by a kick from his horse.
Tom had been seen driving his horse through the street a half hour before, on his way home. He unharnessed his horse and took it into the stable. A short time after, he was found lying on the stable floor with a bleeding wound in his head. Dr. Bell was immediately called, and he stated that the man had been killed instantly. The full force of the horse's kick had struck the right side of the head and crushed in his temple.
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The Long Island Railroad Company is about to make a test of a new smoke consuming device for its engines. The problem of lessening the annoyance from smoke has long been a puzzling one. Dozens of devices have been patented to abate the smoke nuisance on engines burning soft coal.
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Mr. Jeter Harlow, of Southampton, has shipped as boatswain on the U.S. Transport Kilpatrick, which carries supplies to the troops in the West Indies. It was Mr. Harlow's desire when he left town to ship for the Philippines, but no opportunity offered, he shipped for the West Indies.
100 Years Ago 1924
From The East Hampton Star, October 31
As East Hampton goes, so goes the county, state and nation is an old saying hereabouts, and Tuesday's returns seem to prove the truth of this saying, with the exception of the vote for Roosevelt, Republican candidate for governor, and Governor Smith, Democratic candidate for re-election.
East Hampton, like thousands of other towns in the United States, went strongly Republican on election day. The vote here was, in most every case, a two to one Republican victory.
Calvin Coolidge received the vote of 1,261 in the five districts, against Davis's 476 and La Follette's 161. The latter's vote is a surprise to many local politicians. There have never been more than a dozen votes cast for a Socialist candidate at an election before.
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Next Tuesday, November 11, will mark six years of peace. Six years since the whistles blew, the bells rang, and the world wept tears of relief, then went half mad with joy. Today we feel that wars may be thought out, as well as fought out. People said that before the Great War, too. But the world went mad just the same. If war has any lesson, this generation at least should bear it in mind, should stop surely once a year, and bow their heads in regret for those years.
East Hampton has erected a simple dignified shaft in memory of her men who served her in time of need, and in memory of those who died in service.
75 Years Ago 1949
From The East Hampton Star, November 3
Two East Hampton flyers met with difficulty in the air on Sunday after take-offs from the East Hampton Airport.
In mid-morning Charles Fanning took off from the airport in a Piper Cub for a cross-country flight. While flying he took on carburetor icing and was forced to land on the beach near the Shinnecock canal at Hampton Bays.
About five o'clock the same afternoon James Mulford Jr., in spite of forbidding weather conditions, took off from the airport in his red Taylorcraft plane with only enough gasoline for a local hop. Mr. Mulford, unable to land his plane at the airport, circled over East Hampton until almost out of gas. Flying over the Northwest Woods toward Sag Harbor he discovered an opening in the fog over Long Beach, where he made a forced landing on the beach.
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Two fishermen whose 50-foot beam trawler foundered some 19 miles southwest of Montauk Point about 11:30 this morning were dramatically rescued from cold waters of the Atlantic only a half hour after their boat sank beneath the surface. Their rescue was made possible by time-saving radio communication coupled with the speed of a Coast Guard amphibian plane which rushed to the scene and dropped a rubber life raft.
While fishing off the Point, William and Philip Birch, brothers, this morning discovered their boat, the "Rose W" sailing out of New York City, was leaking and "taking water fast."
50 Years Ago 1974
From The East Hampton Star, October 31
The Sunrise Highway Extension will be necessary, almost harmless, and beautiful, according to a "final environmental impact statement" that the State Department of Transportation made public this week. The bulky document was written early in 1973 and has been awaiting approval by the U.S. Department of Transportation ever since. Without Federal approval, the project is without Federal funding.
The local Halt the Highway Committee, which plans to sue the Federal government if it grants approval, immediately denounced the statement as "inaccurate, out-of-date, and misrepresenting the facts." The State had been trying "to hide its phony E.I.S.," because "if the State distributed the document, the people and public officials in the communities would know that it's phony."
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"The Cenci," a play by John Sherry of Sag Harbor, will be produced Nov. 4-16 by the Amateur Comedy Club of New York at Sniffen Court, at 150 East 36th Street, Manhattan. The play is based upon a true incident of 16th century intrigue in Rome, in which a noble was murdered by members of his family.
The play will open the 91st season of the Club, which rarely puts on first productions, which "The Cenci" is. Richard Smiley will direct. The cast includes a number of East Enders, among them Bill Patton, who has directed here. Curtain time will be 8:45 p.m. nightly.
25 Years Ago 1999
From The East Hampton Star, November 4
In one of the closest elections in recent memory, East Hampton's Republicans won the Town Supervisor's office for the first time in 16 years and may have recaptured majority control of the Town Board after a two-year hiatus.
Jay H. Schneiderman, 37, of Montauk, a former Democrat making his first run for office with the endorsement of the Republican, Conservative, and Green Parties, will take over as Supervisor on Jan. 1 from Cathy Lester, who sought a third term on the Democratic and Peconic Party lines.
East Hampton residents cannot be sure who will represent them on the Town Board, however, until the Board of Elections issues its final tally next week. An unofficial count put a mere four-vote spread between Diana Weir, a Republican, and Peter J. Hammerle, Democratic incumbent.
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The Montauk Playhouse Advisory Committee continues to make progress in its effort to transform the dilapidated Montauk Playhouse into a community center.
It was announced at the committee's meeting on Monday that a trailer with information and staffed by volunteers will soon be set up on the site. It will have a barometer tracking the progress of fund-raising.
At the meeting it was also noted that East Hampton Town's budget proposal for next year allocates $25,000 to be used solely for engineering costs to get the project underway.
