125 Years Ago 1899
From The East Hampton Star, November 10
There has not been any further evidence obtained against Sylvester Conklin, who is now in the county jail at Riverhead, awaiting the action of the Grand Jury, having been arrested on suspicion of assaulting William Strong, whose death occurred a few days later in the Presbyterian Hospital, Manhattan, where he had been taken for treatment. A detective from Manhattan has been at work for a week and has made a thorough search for the weapon that was used in the assault, but has not been able to find it.
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East Hampton people will have a fine opportunity to witness the great show in the heavens next week, when the earth will be passing through a belt of meteors, as the spectacle can nowhere be seen to better advantage than over the sea, looking toward the east. Wednesday night between twelve o’clock and dawn is the time set for the show. It will be thirty-three years before you will have a chance to see anything like it again.
100 Years Ago 1924
From The East Hampton Star, November 14
Armistice Day was observed here Tuesday afternoon by the dedication of the East Hampton War Memorial Park at the north end of the village. A detail from the Edwin C. Halsey Post, in uniform, led by Commander F. Raymond Dominy, took a prominent part in the afternoon’s exercises, which started at 2:30.
The members of the Post assembled at the headquarters on Newtown lane and, led by the Sag Harbor band, marched down to the Memorial green. At the same time the 800 or more schoolchildren were led by their teachers to the green. Following these groups were hundreds of residents who wended their way to the green to listen to the exercises.
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Harold Eager, temporary man at the Georgica Coast Guard Station, was lost and evidently drowned last Friday morning while attempting to cross the inlet at Georgica Pond. The pond had been let out the day before and the current was very strong. No sign of the body or the flat-bottom rowboat in which he attempted to make the crossing have been found. One oar washed ashore at Ditch Plain Coast Guard Station, Montauk, last Saturday morning.
75 Years Ago 1949
From The East Hampton Star, November 17
Arrangements for the National Retriever Championships to be conducted at Westhampton Beach on December 2, 3, and 4 were virtually completed with the election of judges for the championship contest.
Meanwhile only one more licensed preliminary trial remains on the year’s program, that to be conducted through the coming weekend by the Maryland Retriever Club at Chesapeake City.
It is possible that this final preliminary will qualify three or four more dogs for the National, though the probabilities are much more limited. However, among the entries are several dogs who have collected points through the year, but need a required first place to qualify.
Under the revised rules for the National this year a dog needs six points to qualify, but five of these must be accounted for by a first place in a licensed trial.
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For the Ramblers’ program on Tuesday evening, November 1, a very enlightening discussion of the Far East was presented by Mrs. Marian Thomas and her committee. She had prepared a map of the Far East, and using it for illustration took the Ramblers on a tour of Asia from India to Korea, commenting upon the significant movements which have taken place on this vast continent in the past several years. These movements she divided into three general classifications — economic change, national revolutions and the Communist influence. At the end of the presentation there was a panel discussion with members representing a British, Russian, and American point of view.
50 Years Ago 1974
From The East Hampton Star, November 14
Edwin M. (Buzz) Schwenk thinks it might just be possible to get the San Francisco Giants back East to Deer Park. The genial chairman of the New York Sports Authority feels that “the Giants have got their problems out there in Candlestick Park, especially when the wind comes up in the afternoon. It’s pretty hard for them to hit the ball out of the park. And the attendance there hasn’t been too great, so I think that the Giants might be happy to come back to the great State of New York.”
Buzz, a former baseball star himself, was appointed Commissioner of the Sports Authority by former Governor Nelson Rockefeller. The Sports Authority is planning to put New York, with nine major-league franchises, “back ahead” of California, which has 15 major-league franchises.
The plan includes a 75,000-seat sport complex Deer Park, which would also accommodate facilities for ice-skating, bowling, roller-skating, and the construction of a hotel-convention center, an office complex, and regional shopping center.
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The Sag Harbor Youth Center may be on the brink of closing because it’s on the brink of town.
The building that houses the center, on Division Street in Sag Harbor, sits on the boundary dividing East Hampton from Southampton Town. The portion of the building the center uses to conduct its nightly recreation program is in East Hampton.
State law directs that recreation funds be dispersed within Town boundaries. Thus, the Youth Center, which opened last July 9, is ineligible to receive the $10,000 allotted it by the Southampton Recreation Department unless it moves to quarters within the Town line.
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A junk dealer from Islip Terrace who allegedly stole a tractor was arrested by East Hampton Town Police Tuesday. Henry Schwenk had reported the 2,000-pound, broken-down machine and various other farm equipment missing from his field at Stephen Hand’s Path, East Hampton, two days earlier. Patrolman David Brown’s suspicions were aroused by the sight of a flatbed truck piled with scrap metal proceeding on nearby Route 114.
When he stopped it, police said, the driver “admitted stealing the tractor and other objects to sell as scrap metal.” Identified as Richard G. Graf, 46, of 6 Manhattan Boulevard, Island Terrace, the dealer was charged with criminal trespass in the third degree and petty larceny, arraigned before Judge Edward Hults, and released on $100 bail.
25 Years Ago 1999
From The East Hampton Star, November 18
Bill Richardson, the Secretary of Energy, ordered Brookhaven National Laboratory’s controversial high flux beam reactor permanently shut down this week. The move has been variously attributed to strong community opposition, the high cost of maintaining and reopening the reactor, and politics.
The reactor was closed in December 1996 for refueling, at which time radioactive tritium was found leaking from its spent-fuel pool. Research was halted and the Government has since spent $23 million annually to keep the reactor ready for a restart.
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“It knocked the wind out of me!” said Sag Harbor Mayor Bill Young after hearing plans to convert the crumbling Bulova Watch Case Factory on Division Street into an opulent hotel and spa. Plans were unveiled during a well-attended Village Board work session Tuesday night. Other jaws dropped when the principals behind Madison Equities, a Manhattan real estate and development firm, presented the board with a preliminary site plan.
