125 Years Ago 1899
From The East Hampton Star, June 2
A valuable horse owned by J.N. Stearns was drowned from the dock near his summer residence at Shelter Island on Friday. A workman employed by Mr. Stearns had the horse with a load of lumber on the wharf, which is undergoing repairs. As he undertook to back the wagon near the end of the dock the rear wheels fell over the edge and the weight dragged the horse overboard.
The water was very deep and before the workmen could cut the horse from the wagon, the animal was drowned. The wagon and lumber were recovered.
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Work has commenced on the erection of a land office near the tower on Signal Hill, Montauk, on the Montauk Company’s property. The site chosen is on the highest ground on Rocky Ridge, a half mile or so east of the terminal station on Fort Pond bay. A fine view is obtained from this point over the thousands of acres owned by the group of capitalists who now control the land purchased by F.S. Benson of Brooklyn, known as the Pratt-Corbin property.
100 Years Ago 1924
From The East Hampton Star, May 23
The people of Suffolk County, Long Island, virtually dedicated themselves Tuesday to unrelenting warfare on liquor runners, at funeral services for Ferdinand J. Downs, slain Southampton constable, conducted by the Ku Klux Klan with all the picturesque solemnity of that order.
Almost at the moment that the body of Downs, killed in battle with alleged bootleggers, near Eastport on Friday night, was being lowered into its grave the Grand Jury at Riverhead indicted Patrick Ryan, former New York City policeman, for first-degree murder. Feeling in the county is running so high that Ryan’s lawyer intends to fight to the highest court for a change of venue.
Clergymen in the regalia of the Klan, standing at the open grave in the flickering shadows of a blazing cross, hailed Downs as a martyr to “pampered bootleggers,” asserted that he had died because he had spurned bribes and done his duty and called upon the community, while obeying the law, to close the whole county to the runners who traverse it with liquor smuggled at lonely seaports.
Standing in a square about the grave in the cemetery in East Quogue were 250 Klansmen in full regalia, but unmasked that all might see their faces. Behind them were some 2,000 Klansmen not in uniform and, fringing the crowd, at least as many other persons from Eastport, the Hamptons, Riverhead, Montauk and a dozen towns as well as farmers and fishermen from the whole countryside, who murmured approval as the preachers exhorted them to remember that Downs had died a hero to law and order and that the task he had laid down must be carried on. — New York Times
75 Years Ago 1949
From The East Hampton Star, May 26
Last Friday’s rain and wind did some tree damage here, and broke off two arms of the Old Hook Mill.
Maurice Lester, the miller, was running the mill. Being behind with his grinding, there has been so little wind during the past winter and spring, he takes advantage of every little puff. He noticed that the corn was not coming from the stone through the tube into the bolting box, so went up to the second floor to see if the corn was feeding into the tube. It was. That means the tube was plugged. “I stopped the mill,” Mr. Lester says, “to clear the tube, and had to take the casing away from the stone. While doing that I heard something crack above me.”
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Most people when asked to name a few wildflowers mention the more common ones — the dandelion, buttercup and daisy — but S. LeRoy King of Egypt Lane, whose hobby is growing specimens of Long Island’s wildflowers in his own back yard, has a more interesting and informative answer. He scratches his head, strokes his chin and after considering for a moment or two begins, “Well, there’s the turtlehead, the moccasin flower and the cardinal flower. And then, of course, there’s the Jack-in-the-pulpit, the monkey flower, and the purple loosestrife, besides the trillium and arrowhead and all kinds of orchis.”
50 Years Ago 1974
From The East Hampton Star, May 23
A lively, hour-long public hearing was held by the East Hampton Village Board last Friday anent the proposal that owners muzzle or leash their dogs when walking them off their properties.
In contrast to the tone of communications received by the Board, which were running four-to-one in favor of adopting such an ordinance, the great majority of the some 21 people who spoke at the hearing opposed the measure as worded, though there was sentiment for a law that would, as the Star had suggested in an editorial, hold the owner liable should the dog commit a nuisance or bite someone.
Since “dangerous dog” complaints fall in the realm of civil actions, the complainant must sign the complaint, rather than a police officer. The Town dog warden, Henry Chapman, who was praised by several who spoke at the hearing, has said that people are generally reluctant to sign such complaints.
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The County Legislature, acting favorably on a resolution introduced by Legislator Norton W. Daniels Jr. at its May 14 meeting, confirmed its intent to acquire Deep Hollow Ranch, or Third House, in Montauk.
The resolution, which passed unanimously, provided for the transfer of $4,000 within the budget to pay for surveys of the site — approximately 32 acres, a main building and stable — at the intersection of East Lake Drive and Montauk Point State Boulevard.
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Jeannette Edwards Rattray, the Star’s publisher, died Monday evening at her home, 17 Edwards Lane, East Hampton. She was 80 and had suffered a stroke on May 14.
She was born July 28, 1893, in Amagansett, the daughter of the late Captain and Mrs. Everett J. Edwards. Although she had traveled widely, and worked as a journalist in the Far East, Mrs. Rattray was best known as a South Fork newspaperwoman and local historian.
25 Years Ago 1999
From The East Hampton Star, May 27
East Hampton Town has chosen a chief town investigator for its newly created Ordinance Enforcement Department and in doing so has drawn the scorn of one of the three enforcers in the department.
Passed over for the position of chief town investigator, Frank Kennedy, a code enforcement officer for three and a half years, felt he’d been slighted one too many times and finally spoke out about it Friday.
“I originally came here with the intention of resigning, but I chose not to,” Mr. Kennedy said after sitting through a three and a half hour Town Board meeting during which Steven Gold was named the provisional chief town investigator.
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Last week, East Hampton Town Justice Roger W. Walker refused to dismiss the latest charge of fishing without a New York State commercial license leveled against the self-styled Don Quixote of local fishing rights, Stuart Vorpahl of East Hampton. It is the third such charge the feisty bayman has collected since beginning his legal jousting with the state in 1992.
