Footnotes to Long Island History
Early Years in Port
Jefferson
by
Thomas R. Bayles
Navy
Port Jefferson was called Drowned Meadow years ago, and the Indian name
for the locality was Sonasset. The neck of land lying between the west
side of the harbor and Setauket was called by the Indians, Poquott. The
site of this village remained almost unnoticed for a century after the
settlement of Setauket, and in 1805 there were only five houses in Port
Jefferson, but later on the village grew rapidly, and in 1880 there were
2,000 people living here. A steam ferry called the "Brookhaven" was
placed in operation in 1872 between this village and Bridgeport, and the
railroad was extended to Port Jefferson in 1872, but telegraph
connection to the outside world was not established until 1880.
Ship building was the principal industry to which this village owed its
prosperity, and the pioneer in this industry was Capt. John Wilsie, she
began to build vessels here as early as 1797. He purchased of Judge
Strong a piece of land in the northeast part of the village and built
ships on the site of where ship yard of James M. Bayles & Son was later
located. In the early 1800s Richard Mather engaged with Wilsie in the
business, and in later years his son John R. Mather continued the
business.
About 1836 the ship building business boomed and brought prosperity to
the village and through the enterprise of Capt. William L. Jones, who
ventured more capital and energy Port Jefferson than any other man. He
purchased a tract of land from about the Presbyterian church north to
the harbor and in 1837 received a grant from the town to build a dock
into the harbor from the shore of his property. He built a public
highway 18 feet wide over the salt meadow to his dock, which was stoned
up to be above ordinary high tides. This was the busy street that in
later years ran from the hotel square to the shore of the harbor.
During the war of 1812 the shipping of this little port was annoyed by
the British cruisers that sailed up and down the Sound, and a small fort
was built on the west side of the harbor near the Sound and a single
thirty two pound gun was mounted. One time two English frigates the
"Indemnity" and the "Parmoon" made a raid of the harbor at night and
captured seven sloops. One of them grounded on the harbor's mouth and
was set on fire and burned to the water's edge. The others were
afterward ransomed by their owners.
The name Port Jefferson was given to the village in 1838 and at that
time the ship building industry was more important here than any other
village in Suffolk County. For many years the shore of the harbor was
lined with docks, railways and shipyards.
A steam flour mill was established here in 1858 and it was enlarged in
1837 and its capacity for the manufacture of flour was increased. It was
destroyed by fire in 1877 and the following year the Port Jefferson
Milling Co. was incorporated and a new building erected, which was forty
feet square and four stories high. The mill contained four runs of stone
and two sets of rolls with a capacity of one hundred barrels of flour a
day.
Port Jefferson was made a port of entry by an act of Congress in 1852
and a custom house established in 1855, with Sidney S. Norton as the
first surveyor of the port. The number of vessels enrolled in 1874 was
203, which dropped to 110 in 1880.
The first church was a Methodist Episcopal, which was built in 1836 on
Thompson st. This building was moved to a new site in the southern part
of the village in 1873. The Congregational society built a church in
1855 which was purchased by the Baptists in 1861, when their church was
organized. A Presbyterian church was erected in 1854, as a branch of the
old church in Setauket, adn was organized as a seperate church in 1870.
The Suffolk Lodge No. 60, F & A.M. was organized in 1797, and ceased to
meet in 1827, at the time of the anti-masonic excitement. It was
reorganized in 1856.
The first newspaper published in Port Jefferson was the Independent
Press, which was moved here from Stony Brook in 1868, and was continued
by its founder, Harvey Markham until it was suspended in 1874. The Long
Island Leader was started by William A. Overton in 1873. The first issue
of the Port Jefferson Times was printed by Walter R. Burling Dec. 14,
1878.
Cedar Hill Cemetery, which occupies a commanding site on one of the
highest hills was formed March 30, 1859. In April, 13 acres were
purchased from Hubbard Gildersleeve and the first officers were J.B.
Randall, secretary; R. H. Wilson president; Abram Brown, treasuror.
Cumsewogue was an open plain of farming land lying near the railroad
station.