125 Years Ago 1899
From The East Hampton Star, May 19
Sturgeon fishing is now well under way for the season, and promises to be quite profitable as in years past. The largest fish landed this week was by William Raynor. It was a sturgeon weighing between 300 and 400 pounds. It was estimated that the fish was worth $80. The roe of the sturgeon is the most valuable, and this is cured by the fishermen themselves sufficiently for transportation to New York, where it is sold. Last year the price averaged 40 cents per pound the season through. It is not an uncommon thing for a boat to make $50 a day.
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The Riverhead Town free rural mail delivery has been in operation just one month, and during that time the carrier has delivered to the farmers in Northville upward to 5,000 pieces of mail matter. He now collects and delivers mail for about sixty families. The practicability and success of the scheme seem to be already established.
100 Years Ago 1924
From The East Hampton Star, May 16
Two speed boats are the newest acquisition to the Coast Guard on southern Long Island to aid in putting an end to the flow of liquor into the country from these shores. Another is scheduled to arrive, and when delivered will be pressed into service at Point Lookout, on the west side of Jones Inlet. In addition to this it was stated by District Superintendent Simon R. Sands that the first few of the 70-foot power craft ordered for patrol duty will be seen in service within six or eight weeks. No rum has been coming in through Fire Island Inlet within the past few weeks. The corresponding time last year saw the greatest activity in the bootlegging industry centered off here.
In the attempt to make Long Island bone dry no expense will be spared by the government. The object is to keep the rum fleet on the move.
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Thomas Edwards of this place has reached the conclusion that he is the news bearer for a prophet. A day or two before the Atheneum at Sag Harbor was destroyed by fire, last Wednesday, Mr. Edwards related to several friends, during the course of a conversation, that recently he had heard a self-styled prophet remark:
“There is always a calamity when a house of God is turned into a theater.”
The remark was still fresh in the minds of his hearers when they learned that Sag Harbor’s theater was burning — and not a stick, virtually, is now left standing. It is recalled that the Atheneum was first erected as a Presbyterian Church. It is doubtful if the theater will be rebuilt.
75 Years Ago 1949
From The East Hampton Star, May 19
A wrist watch lost last summer at the village bathing beach by a Baltimore, Maryland, man who was visiting in East Hampton resulted in a man being sentenced to 30 days in the county jail, Riverhead, this week. Justice of the Peace William H. Strong sentenced the 26-year-old Sag Harbor man, who was charged with larceny and failure to make a reasonable effort to locate the owner of the watch, which he said he had found in the sand at the bathing beach. The watch was engraved with the name “N. Pavloff.” Mr. Pavloff, who was staying at the 1770 House, placed an advertisement in The Star following the loss and notified the police.
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The East Hampton airport, owned by the township but operated under lease for the past four years by Miss Charlotte Niles, is now under the management of Mel Lamb, who has taken over the lease Miss Niles had with the town board. Under the terms of the lease Mr. Lamb will have use of one large hangar, two T hangars and the administration building. No agreement has been reached by the town board with Mr. Lamb but it is known that the board is enthusiastic about his having taken over the airport. If feasible the airport will be kept open year round, Mr. Lamb says. He plans to offer charter flights, student instruction, aerial photography, sightseeing, and storage.
50 Years Ago 1974
From The East Hampton Star, May 16
The preservation of the remaining, unspoiled stretches of Napeague Beach came closer to reality this week with an announcement from the office of State Assembly Speaker Perry B. Duryea that a long-expected “top priority” appropriation for the acquisition of the Smith Meal and Atlantic Processing Companies’ properties there was included in the supplemental State budget expected to be approved before the Legislature ends its session this week.
According to Mr. Duryea, the supplemental budget includes $6,500,000 for the acquisition from State funds, with a similar amount to be matched in Federal funds from the Bureau of Outdoor Recreation. The cost of the land to be acquired, some 1,200 acres, was estimated at $13,000,000.
The Atlantic Processing Company’s holdings, a total of 644.7 acres, including the now-idle factory complex at Promised Land, are still in Smith family ownership.
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Two companies that were ready to run buses in East Hampton discovered last week that the wheels of bureaucracy ran slower. Hampton Jitney Inc. had hoped to begin running two “bike buses” between Amagansett and Southampton yesterday: having applied for a State franchise to do so, it learned after a six-hour hearing last Thursday that nothing could be done “within a matter of several weeks.”
Tide Transportation Inc. learned the same thing a week earlier, at a hearing that reportedly lasted for ten hours, but still hopes to begin its express bus service to New York by Memorial Day.
One snag in each case was the State Transportation Department’s procedure for issuing franchises, by which transcripts of the hearings must be prepared and studied by the Transportation Commissioner. This can take five weeks, according to the Department’s hearing officer, Herbert Kampf. It was a “physical impossibility” to hasten it, he said.
25 Years Ago 1999
From The East Hampton Star, May 20
A grassroots campaign to convince Tony Bullock to run for Congress in 2000 has the endorsement of First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, herself a possible candidate, and of the man who had been widely rumored to be interested in the First District Congressional seat himself, Alec Baldwin.
An invitation to the East Hampton Town Democratic Committee’s campaign kickoff on June 12 shows the committee ready to raise funds for Mr. Bullock, a former Town Supervisor who is chief of staff to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, in a run against Representative Michael P. Forbes.
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A Brookhaven woman who witnesses said repeatedly flashed her bare breasts while riding on a float during the Montauk Friends of Erin St. Patrick’s Day parade in March will be charged early next week with indecent exposure.
The violation is punishable by 15 days in jail, a fine, or both, according to Capt. Todd Sarris of the East Hampton Town Police Department.
The charge was filed by two Montauk mothers who were urged to do so by numerous members of the Montauk community.
