125 Years Ago 1899
From The East Hampton Star, July 7
Mrs. B.M. Osborne, proprietress of the Osborne House, and her mother, Mrs. Philips, were out carriage riding on Wednesday morning, and had just turned into Woods lane, when some thoughtless person threw a bunch of firecrackers into the road. Mrs. Osborne’s horse sprang to one side and started to run.
D.R. Osborne’s ice wagon, driven by Gardner Osborne and a hired man, was just ahead and the two men saw Mrs. Osborne’s horse coming straight for the wagon. They both jumped out, but kept hold of the lines. In an instant there was a crash. Mrs. Osborne’s carriage had struck the ice wagon and broken the front axle.
The team attached to the ice wagon broke away and ran, carrying the two men with them, but the big ice wagon was left standing where the collision took place. The carriage was overturned and both ladies were thrown out, Mrs. Osborne striking her head against the heavy iron bound wheels of the ice wagon, and falling between its front and rear wheels.
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Great alarm prevails among the duck raiders of Speonk and Good Ground as the result of the ravages among their flocks of a deadly malady which is killing hundreds of their choice birds. It has only been noticed for a few days but during that short time has killed hundreds of ducks, and its ravages still show no manifestation of yielding.
100 Years Ago 1924
From The East Hampton Star, July 4
If the weather man will be good to us this week-end there is every indication that East Hampton will have one of the most active week-ends in her history.
Although no special program has been arranged for the morning or afternoon of July 4th by the village folk, there will be plenty of activity to entertain the summer residents. With the formal opening of the new Maidstone Club this week-end, and the opening of the Devon Yacht Club Saturday afternoon, with the usual boat races, everyone should have a good time.
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The village board and police officers are making a trial this week of parking cars on both sides of Main street in the business center. Heretofore cars on the east side of the street were not obliged to park to the curb. The trial was started Wednesday morning, both Officers Morford and Garrow assisting in the parking. A decided improvement was at once noticed, and it was remarkable the way the drivers caught on to the new idea of parking.
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One of the first unfortunate accidents to occur in the production of “The River Road,” the outdoor scenes of which are being taken in East Hampton and Napeague Coast Guard Station, happened last Friday night when Assistant Director George Ackerson accidentally backed into the revolving airplane propeller, which was being used in making a storm scene.
75 Years Ago 1949
From The East Hampton Star, July 7
East Hampton dedicated its new flagpole (“mast,” Mayor Judson Banister said it is called by the company that made it; “Liberty Pole,” is the title the Mayor likes best) on the Fourth of July morning, in a simple but effective ceremony. The community also reaffirmed its faith in Old Glory and all it stands for, as the big old flag used only on very special occasions rose slowly to the top of the pole.
Mrs. Nathan H. Dayton Sr., who was present at the dedication of the original pole on that site just fifty years ago, in 1899, who has patched the flag time and again as one of her civic duties as a Ladies’ Village Improvement Society member, and who has actively assisted in Main Street’s display of smaller flags on holidays, started the flag on its way up the pole.
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A $26,000 contract for the construction of five stone jetties, between Fresh Pond Road and Abram’s Landing on Gardiner’s Bay in the town of East Hampton, has been awarded to Frederick E. Uihlein of Westhampton Beach, by Bertram D. Tallamy, New York State Superintendent of Public Works. Construction of the jetties will be similar to that of others which have been built in recent years to reduce erosion on numerous beaches on Long Island.
50 Years Ago 1974
From The East Hampton Star, July 4
The political scene continues its headlong rush toward denouement in the fall, and this week East Hampton will provide at least a part of the setting.
Among the politicians and aspiring politicians, candidates and would-be candidates who are speaking here over the weekend are Howard Samuels, would-be Democratic candidate for Governor of New York State, and Ramsey Clark, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for the United States Senate.
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The East Hampton Town Police gave summonses to four more landlords Sunday, charging them with violating the Town’s “grouper law.” The Town zoning ordinance says, among other things, that no more than four cars can be parked at a group-rented house; the police say that six cars were parked Sunday at a house on Meeting House Lane, Amagansett, five at another on Hand Lane, Amagansett, and more than four — the police were not sure yesterday how many — at a house on Oyster Shores Road near Three Mile Harbor.
25 Years Ago 1999
From The East Hampton Star, July 8
Sean Combs, as Puff Daddy is otherwise known, has drawn media attention and the ire of some neighbors since moving into a $2.5 million abode on Hedges Banks Drive in April of last year.
Mr. Combs, who has a resume that reads like fiction (multi-platinum rap artist, Grammy Award winner, producer, president of Bad Boy Entertainment, and co-publisher of Notorious magazine), was condemned by several neighbors just months after settling in for hosting a pair of parties, one on July Fourth and a second on Labor Day.
Both, the neighbors argued, brought too many people and too much traffic, and produced too much noise.
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A barn, stuffed to the rafters with hay, was consumed in a hot, smoky, and stubborn fire at the Falkowski farm on Millstone Road in Bridgehampton Saturday.
Volunteers from neighboring communities joined members of the Bridgehampton Fire Department on one of the hottest days of the year to battle the fire, which took about five hours to put out. Firefighters were called back to the scene early Sunday morning when it started again.
One fireman from Shelter Island suffered a torn Achilles tendon when he was struck in the leg by a high-pressure hose that accidentally disconnected from a tanker truck.
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A domestic fray in East Hampton Saturday night landed a Three Mile Harbor Road man in jail, and his wife in the emergency room at Southampton Hospital.
According to East Hampton Town police, officers investigated a 911 hang-up call at the residence of a 37-year-old man who was standing outside his house upon their arrival, bleeding from a cut on his left arm. When asked what had happened, he told police he “had a knife fight” with his “common-law wife.”
Police learned that while he was sharpening a multi-purpose hunting knife, he and his wife had an argument that took a violent turn for the worse.
