125 Years Ago 1899
From The East Hampton Star, September 22
The most valuable plant owned by the American Fisheries Company was destroyed by fire Sunday night and the loss is estimated at not less than $135,000. The fire broke out in the acid house located in the center of the monster sheds, which cover an area of about two acres, and was caused by the electric light wire coming in contact with the oil-saturated woodwork of the building.
Four freight cars owned by the Long Island Railroad were destroyed, all the machinery belonging to the plant is practically worthless and lies on the scene in a twisted mass of useless steel and iron. One hundred and seventy barrels of oil were caught in one building and were totally consumed, also fifty barrels of naphtha. Sixty barrels of gasoline were rolled away and saved, but 2,700 tons of menhaden scrap will be a total loss. This scrap is valued at $15 per ton, while the oil is valued at $20 per barrel.
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Governor Roosevelt does not intend to forget Long Island. He delighted thousands of people with his presence and common-sense talk at the Suffolk County fair this week, and next week he will be the center of attraction at the Queens County fair. On October 2 the governor will deliver an address at the laying of the cornerstone of the new public library at Oyster Bay. We doubt if there is a man in the state more popular with the masses than Theodore Roosevelt.
100 Years Ago 1924
From The East Hampton Star, September 19
Mrs. Frank C. Havens has given a large piece of land and a beach on Shelter Island Bay, Sag Harbor, for a park and bathing beach. It is to be called Havens Memorial Park. Mr. Havens, himself, gave the land [that became] the Sag Harbor Yacht Club, used by the New York Yacht Club. In Oakland, Calif., Mr. Havens presented to the city Sky Line Boulevard, which he built at a cost of $50,000.
Frank C. Havens was born in Sag Harbor. His sister, Mrs. Chauncey Marvin Cady, and daughters, Harriet, Charlotte, and Sara Cady, own the old homestead in Sag Harbor.
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A rather unusual find was made recently by G.H. Schellinger, son of Mrs. Henry H. Schellinger of Springs. While working about the farm Mr. Schellinger found a turtle with the initials “H.H.S. and E.L.S. 1881.” The initials were those of the late Henry H. Schellinger and other initials were those of Edward Lockwood Salisbury, who was employed on the farm at the time.
According to the date and history connected this would make the turtle at least forty-three years old.
75 Years Ago 1949
From The East Hampton Star, September 22
Positive news of the tragic death of William Dunn, 51, formerly of this township, only reached East Hampton after his body was found on Saturday at Martha’s Vineyard, Mass. It was identified by Murdock Pitts, formerly of Montauk. Mr. Dunn, who made his home in New Bedford for the past nine years, was reported missing and presumed lost on Sunday, September 4, when the shattered remains of what was once the fishing vessel Gay Head were brought into State Pier, New Bedford, by the Coast Guard tug Arundel. No trace of the fishing boat’s eleven-man crew had been found by the Coast Guard. Mr. Dunn’s body is the first to be found.
The wreck was first sighted Saturday afternoon, September 3, thirteen miles off Wasque Buoy. What caused the accident is not known: whether the boat struck a reef, a wartime mine, or had an explosion in her air tanks.
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The gunning season is almost here; the season when about half the male population takes to the woods and the bays with shotguns. Or — with rifles, which are strictly against the law on Long Island. Shotguns, which do not carry so far, are far safer. No one is legally allowed to fire off a rifle unless he belongs to an organized and recognized police, civilian group, or veterans’ rifle club and then only on an authorized range. There are none in East Hampton Township at the moment. There is too much fooling around with these deadly weapons.
50 Years Ago 1974
From The East Hampton Star, September 19
Several weeks ago three State officials in charge of various aspects of transportation met at Riverhead to pledge support for and modernization of the North and South Fork branches of the Long Island Rail Road. They were State Commissioner of Transportation Raymond T. Schuler, chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority David L. Yunich, and president of the L.I.R.R. Walter L. Schlager Jr.
One question asked, even though these officials spoke with one voice, was “Who is in charge of what?” When a passenger asks a conductor who runs the railroad, he will inevitably be told the L.I.R.R. runs itself while a supervisor will say the M.T.A. is in charge. Few have ever heard of Commissioner of Transportation Schuler.
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The head of East Hampton Town’s consulting engineering firm has come up with a proposal for dune “renourishment” which he says has stopped beach erosion in the State of Delaware and which he maintains will work here.
The Town’s zoning ordinance prohibits the taking of fill from between the 15-foot contour line and the Atlantic Ocean, but agencies of the State, which owns the beach below the mean high water line — considered the line marking the end of beach grass growth here — apparently have allowed this privately financed bulldozing work to go on.
25 Years Ago 1999
From The East Hampton Star, September 23
Pokemon, Japanese for “pocket monsters,” started out as a video game manufactured by Nintendo, a Japan-based video game company, released in that country in 1995 for use on the small, portable Game Boy console. Pokemania has spread like wildfire across the country and much of the East End. However, the trading cards are hard to come by out here — the demand is much higher than Nintendo can supply. Many local merchants have been obtaining boxes of cards through expensive distributions.
“We refuse to mark up the price,” said Nada Barry, owner of the Wharf Shop in Sag Harbor. “We buy them only when we can get them from the distributors. I am actually underselling those cards.” Ms. Barry does not foresee a long life for Pokemon, compared to the enduring Beanie Babies, which she still sells in flocks. “This is just a phase, a craze of an item that, just as fast as it comes, it will go,” she said. “Let’s see where Pokemon is in two years.”
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The three-month-old East Hampton Green Party nominated Jay Schneiderman as its candidate for Town Supervisor last Thursday, two days after he thwarted a Republican primary challenge for that party’s nomination.
His challenger, Philip J. McSweeney, will remain on the ballot as the Independence Party’s candidate, but said this week he would neither seek votes nor declare support for Mr. Schneiderman. “I don’t want to play the part of a spoiler, but I’m not going to support anybody either,” Mr. McSweeney said.
