125 Years Ago 1900
From The East Hampton Star, January 12
The volume of immigration at the Port of New York remains larger than it was last year, says the Bulletin of Labor Statistics, although a diminution is exhibited as compared with the second quarter of the present year. In the third quarter of 1898 the number of arrivals was 43,717, in the second quarter of 1899, 102,783, and in the third quarter of 1899, 56,978. The largest contingent of immigrants still comes from southern Italy, while the second place is held by the Hebrew race, and the Irish third. The largest increase over the corresponding period of last year was among the Finns; the next largest gain being among the Lithuanians.
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William S. Eaton and Frank B. Glover, two young men who have gone out into the busy world to make a name and fortune for themselves, appear to be on the high road to success. They have succeeded in perfecting a machine of their own invention for engraving metal. They were awarded first honors for their machine at the recent expositions in Omaha and Philadelphia.
Mr. Eaton is a resident of Sag Harbor and occupies a handsome villa on Palmer Terrace, while Mr. Glover, although owning property in Sag Harbor, resides in Brooklyn, where he was married a short time ago.
100 Years Ago 1925
From The East Hampton Star, January 9
The sloop La Felice, laden with liquor estimated in value at $40,000, was captured near Montauk Point early Sunday by the Coast Guard patrol boat CG 235 after a chase of two miles, during which the patrol boat fired two shots. The captured vessel was brought here and her captain, H. Hanson of New York, and Karl Smith, a deckhand of Montauk Point, were held for a hearing by the United States commissioner. It was the second capture of the La Felice for alleged rum running.
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The Board of Supervisors, at a recent meeting, endorsed the proposed bill to be introduced at the next session of the Legislature providing a tax of one cent a gallon on all gasoline sold in New York State, the tax to be collected by the companies which distribute the gasoline. The money raised by this tax, if the measure is enacted into law, will be used for the permanent construction of highways, and the amount Suffolk County would receive from that source is estimated at $100,000 annually.
It seems to be the consensus of opinion that placing a tax on gasoline is the most equitable manner to raise money for highway construction. Persons who use the highways the most, it is contended, should pay the most toward the construction and maintenance.
The Board adopted a resolution increasing the per diem compensation of Deputy Sheriffs and Constables who take delinquent children to institutions, from $5 to $8 per day.
75 Years Ago 1950
From The East Hampton Star, January 12
When Mrs. Edward J. Mottl started to cook breakfast one day this week for Mr. Mottl and broke an egg into the frying pan, she received the surprise of her life. Mrs. Mottl has broken lots of eggs but for the first time she saw something new. When the egg shell was cracked open it revealed not only a normal egg, but a much smaller egg (shell and all) as well. The smaller egg was about the size of a robin’s egg. The eggs were purchased from George Verheyden’s Sunny Acres Farm.
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The women’s organization of the Presbyterian Church held its annual meeting and covered-dish luncheon yesterday, Mrs. Paul F. Nugent presiding. Mrs. Nugent retired as president at the close of the meeting, after two years. Officers elected were Mrs. Kennell Schenck, president; Mrs. Edward Klein and Mrs. Nathan Dayton II, vice-presidents; Mrs. George Smith was elected secretary in the place of Mrs. K. Marian Thomas, and Miss Lillian Worthington was re-elected treasurer.
Reports of special committees and chapter leaders were heard. Mrs. N.N. Tiffany reported receipts of $869.54 for missions, and distribution of $800 through the L.I. Presbyterian Society to schools in Tennessee, Georgia, and Tucson, Arizona. The donations are separate from those of the church.
50 Years Ago 1975
From The East Hampton Star, January 9
The new county movement is again astir, if somewhat sluggishly: with his traditional misgivings, Assemblyman Perry Duryea (Republican, Montauk) has again pre-filed a resolution to amend the State Constitution and thus, eventually, permit the five East End Towns to secede from Suffolk County and form their own county, Peconic.
Specifically, the resolution would permit the formation of new counties smaller in population than Assembly Districts (the present population standard for new counties). The resolution has already passed the Assembly once, as it must by law, and if it passes a second consecutive time in this session, it will go to the voters in a statewide referendum on the November ballot. The last time that happened, in the 1973 election, it was roundly defeated.
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“This thing is frightening,” according to one local businessman. “It’s a mess,” according to another. It’s a mess here every winter, businessmen and bureaucrats agree, but worse now, having spread elsewhere.
Unemployment on the South Fork is “somewhat greater than it was last year but not as excessively greater as is true in the rest of the Island and the rest of the country,” according to a bureaucrat in the State Labor Department. Seasonal layoffs have been “normal” here anyway, he noted.
“I’ve the only good job in the area right now,” said a lower-echelon bureaucrat, Drayton Haff, perhaps humorously. Mr. Haff, senior employment interviewer in the department’s Bridgehampton office, heads the state’s job placement service for the South Fork.
25 Years Ago 2000
From The East Hampton Star, January 13
“The first day we were out there,” said Mindy Washington, founder of the Heart of the Wild, a non-for-profit animal rehabilitation center in Southampton, Monday morning, “the place looked like a war zone. Sick birds everywhere — floating in the water, frozen in the ice. It was creepy.”
Ms. Washington, a licensed wildlife rehabilitator, was one of the first called to the carnage at Crooked Pond in Sag Harbor on Dec. 27.
There, more than 40 Canada geese, members of what local residents believe to be a resident flock, were found either dead or on the verge of death. All, Ms. Washington said, exhibited symptoms consistent with lead poisoning — an awkward gait, uncontrollable and lethargic head movements, and uncharacteristic vocalizations, among others.
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One thing was made very clear to the Montauk Playhouse Advisory Committee on Monday when it met for the first time with an architect — a daunting task lies ahead.
The good news is the building is structurally sound. The bad news is that it could cost up to $150 to $200 per square foot plus an additional 26 percent to restore the building, which measures 25,000 square feet per floor, according to Paul Siemborski, associate principal project director of Van Dijk Pace Westlake, an Ohio-based architectural firm.
A floor plan submitted by Mr. Siemborski was a sketch, he reminded the committee. It contained two floors, one of which was multi-leveled.
