Footnotes to Long Island History
First Ridge School Tiny
by
Thomas R. Bayles
When Brookhaven
town was divided into school districts in 1813, the Ridge school was
organized as District 22, according to town records. "No. 22 is to
Embrace the Inhabitants east of Thomas Aldrich in Middletown extending
east to the Wading River Line.”
The first
schoolhouse built in this district shortly after 1813 was a small
boxlike building about 20 feet square, located in the hollow on the
south side of Middle Country road, opposite the State Game farm. In
1872 another schoolhouse was built, just up the hill to the west of the
old one. This was in use until the new school building was built a few
years ago. For many years this building was also used for conducting
religious services in connection with the Middle Island Presbyterian
church and services were held Sunday afternoons.
The territory
covered by this school district was mostly forests when it was settled
by Stephen Randall about 1738 and for many years the cutting and
shipping of cordwood was an important industry in this area. Thousands
of cords were cut every winter and hauled to the Sound shore where it
was loaded on sloops and shipped to New York and up the Hudson River to
the brick yards at Haverstraw for curing bricks.
The early settlers
in this isolated section were mostly of the Randall families; and a few
of the men who received their early education in this school, and who in
later years made their mark in the world included Captain Sylvester
Randall, who for 33 years ran a sailing packet line between Port
Jefferson and Bridgeport, before the steamboat line was put into
operation.
There was another
Sylvester Randall who made a strike in the gold fields of California
during the “forty nine" gold rush. There also were Josiah B. Randall,
who for years was manager of a large general store in Port Jefferson;
and Jason Randall who took a load of supplies up the Yukon during the
Klondike gold rush to the miners who were in danger of starving in the
frozen north.
Other prominent men
were Captain Henry M. Randall, who was a sea captain for many years and
afterward became president of the Bank of Port Jefferson; Elbert Smith
who managed a sheep ranch in the Cascade mountains of California; J.
Sturgis Randall, who helped build the city of Norwalk, Conn.; Stephen M.
Randall a contractor and builder who helped develop the Greenpoint
section of Brooklyn; William G. Miller, who was a bank president and
representative in the State Legislature from Queens-Nassau counties for
several years; and John G. Randall called the "Father of Freeport” and
who was influential in the development and building of Freeport.
The first
schoolteacher in the school house built in 1872 was Miss Cynthia
Hutchinson, who was postmaster of Middle Island for many years.
This school
district is a large one and covers Lake Panamoka and the north part of
Shirley. It also includes “Longwood,” with its famous old Manor house
built around 1790.
The old homestead
is now the home of Elbert C. Smith and his family who inherited it from
Miss Helen T. Smith, a direct descendant of Colonel William Smith who
settled in Setauket in 1686. He acquired a vast tract of land from the
Indians extending along Middle Country road eastward from the
Connecticut River in Middle Island to Horn Tavern, and then south to the
ocean. This territory was known as the Manor of St. George and was not
annexed to Brookhaven town until1788.