125 Years Ago 1899
From The East Hampton Star, August 25
The great celebration of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the founding of East Hampton is now in fact a thing of the past, but the memory of this event will live for many years to come.
Although with only a little more than two weeks of preparation, the occasion was observed in such a manner as to call forth plaudits from the press and the people the country over.
Beginning Wednesday evening the celebration was inaugurated by a historical address by Hon. Henry P. Hedges at the Presbyterian church, which was listened to by a large and appreciative audience.
But one feature of the great parade called for adverse criticism, and as it is well to get a disagreeable task over, let it be said at once that it moved too quickly. Every item was of such interest as to demand attentive observation, and unfortunately the rapid pace at which the bewildering succession of “features” rushed by a given point prevented the possibility of this and caused the remark that it was as hard to look at as a three-ring circus.
100 Years Ago 1924
From The East Hampton Star, August 22
Most of the 600 or 700 employees of the Fahys Watchcase Co., at Sag Harbor, who walked out on Monday following an announcement of the company that wages would be reduced eight or ten per cent, will return to their jobs tomorrow, a satisfactory adjustment having been agreed upon.
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One of the important events of the week for members of the summer colony in the Hamptons is the Consolidated Hamptons Dog Show, under auspices of the Southampton Kennel Club, for the benefit of the emergency hospital in East Hampton, Saturday afternoon on the grounds of the Maidstone Club, East Hampton.
This year the show has an unprecedented number of entries, in comparison with the usual number of dogs entered. Officers of the club attribute this to the fact that special inducement has been given to people in the Hamptons to enter their pets, by the giving of local classes. This has resulted in many dogs which have never been shown being entered against the veterans of the show ring.
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One hundred and fifty poultrymen are coming to Long Island for their annual tour in the interests of their business. Long Island farms have this year attracted potato growers from all over the East in connection with the annual potato tour. The tour covers the entire Island, from the city markets to Westhampton.
75 Years Ago 1949
From The East Hampton Star, August 25
A new kind of pirate has appeared over the horizon this summer. The lobster pirate. Connecticut, Rhode Island and eastern Long Island lobstermen have been terrorized recently by lobster thieves who looted lobster pots, boats and pounds where the lobsters were kept. Local dealers along the shorefront have obtained police permits to carry guns and have installed floodlights to forestall any nocturnal depredations.
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Nothing definite has yet been discovered concerning the plane seen falling into the ocean off East Hampton last Thursday evening about seven o’clock, but Earl Pike, chief boatswain’s mate of the Ditch Plains Coast Guard Station, told The Star today that a small plane from Massachusetts reported missing since August 13 may possibly have been the one reported off here. The Coast Guard is investigating this angle.
People surfcasting about a mile west of the Georgica Beach Coast Guard Station first saw something they thought was a plane, and Mrs. William Benbenek, whose husband and brother, Tony Flower, were fishing there, noticed a puff of smoke about two miles to the westward.
It is a coincidence that on the morning of that same day two Army planes collided over Sag Harbor, and the preceding Thursday, Aug. 11, a Navy plane caught fire and sank off the Ditch Plains Coast Guard Station, 15 miles east of here, the pilot getting out with a life raft.
50 Years Ago 1974
From The East Hampton Star, August 22
A&P employees were walking the picket line last week, but they’re back at work today after the settlement of a six-day strike that gained them, and 18,000 other A&P workers, wage increases of about 35 per cent over three years and improved fringe benefits.
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Two youths who allegedly burglarized nine homes in Amagansett, two who allegedly burglarized four in Montauk, and two who allegedly stole a large quantity of yogurt were among the 34 persons arrested last week by East Hampton Town police.
Roughly $1,000 worth of clothes, rugs, cameras, binoculars, and the like had been taken from the Amagansett homes during the past two weeks. In one, however, the alleged burglars had “switched” clothes, leaving their own behind. Town detectives traced the discarded clothes to their owners, one 18 and one a youth under the age of 16.
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A permit to build a 250-foot pier in Fort Pond Bay, Montauk, was taken away from the Argyle Land Company again last week, when the State Supreme Court ruled that the State Department of Environmental Conservation should not have granted it without allowing the Concerned Citizens of Montauk and the New York Ocean Science Laboratory a hearing of their “substantial objections” to Argyle’s plans.
Another Montauk company has meanwhile continued to ignore a State Supreme Court order to stop using its store, restaurant, bar, and motel. The order had followed a similar suit by the Town, which in turn had followed repeated charges by the Concerned Citizens that the four operations violated Town zoning restrictions.
25 Years Ago 1999
From The East Hampton Star, August 26
A referendum urging that the Millstone Nuclear Power Station be closed until there is an emergency plan for everyone who lives within 50 miles will be on the ballot in East Hampton this November.
The Town Board passed a resolution triggering the referendum on Friday after a public hearing in the East Hampton High School auditorium.
A referendum is required because the Town Board wants to require a unanimous (rather than majority) vote for the town to take action or spend money in connection with Millstone, thus reducing the Town Board’s own powers.
Even if the referendum passes overwhelmingly, which town officials believe it could, it won’t force the closure of the Connecticut plant, nor will it obligate the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to listen to eastern Long Islanders’ concerns about the troubled facility.
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Enthusiasm is a far cry from what it was a year ago as local officials and business owners prepare for the second visit in as many summers by President William Jefferson Clinton and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Last year’s visit was the first visit to East Hampton in 100 years by a sitting President. The mood was of history-in-the-making. The second visit could be viewed as one “price of doing things well — and having cachet,” said the East Hampton Village administrator, Larry Cantwell.
But the nature of it is “a thorn in all our sides; it rubs us the wrong way,” he said. Besides, Presidential visits are expensive — both to taxpayers and, retailers have complained, for local businesses.
