Brook haven town which is
the largest town on Long Island, was settled in 1655 over 300 years
ago, when six men from the colonies of New England bought a large
tract of the land in the Setauket area from Indians.
Setauket was the
seat of the town government for about 100 years and the south side
of the town in the Mastic and South Haven area, it became too far to
go to Setauket, so a more central place was chosen which was Coram.
The town government was located at Coram for over 100 years, and the
annual spring elections were held at the homestead of Lester Davis.
The voters came from all over the town to Coram on "Town Meeting" day,
and the other town business was also conducted there. In 1885 the
town was divided into election districts which ended the "Town
Meeting" days in Coram
The town was divided into school districts in
1813 and shortly after, small one -room school houses about 20 by 24
feet in size were built in each settlement. These had a high
slanting desk around the sides of the room at which the pupils had
to stand, and a stove that burned large chunks of wood was in the
middle of the room, with wooden benches without backs sawed out in
the Yaphank saw mill. The pay of the teacher was small, about $10 a
month and board. He boarded around at the homes of the pupils. As late
as 1890, the pay was only $7 or $8 a week.
The Middle Island
Central
School District No.12 was established in 1959. It was made up of six
small school districts of Ridge East and West Middle Island, Coram
and Yaphank. The districts now has four grade schools, Ridge built in
1951, West Middle Island built in 1956, Coram built in 1953, and
Yaphank built in 1950, and the Longwood high school built in 1961.
The
Longwood high school is located on a 51 acre tract of land donated
by Elbert C. Smith which is part of an enormous tract of thousands of
acres which was purchased from the Indians by Col William Smith in
1691.He held a patent for this from the king and queen of England
through the governor of New York
This extended from the
Middle
Country road south to the ocean, and from Carman's River to the Mastic
River this was called the Manor of St. George and the northern part
where the high school is located was called Longwood the old Manor
House across the road from the school was built in 1790 and has been
occupied by members of the Smith family since that time until the
death of miss Helen Smith several years ago.
Miss
Smith's will gave the
estate at Longwood of about 1,000 acres to her cousin Elbert C. Smith
of California, who with his wife and five children moved here and
occupied the old homestead until his death last summer. Mrs. Smith has
moved to California and the place will be closed and later disposed
of, which will end the long line of the Smith family.
The south part
of the Manor of St. George is located in Mastic near the Great South
Bay and the old manor house was given by the last member of the
Smith family to live there, Miss Eugenie Tangier Smith to the
residents of Brookhaven as a museum. A visit to this old house, filled with priceless furnishings from the
early years is well worth a visit. It is open during the summer.
Cutting and shipping cordwood was a big industry in this area in the
early years up until about 1900. Thousands of cords of woods were cut
each winter and hauled over to the Sound and piled in long piles on
the bluffs.
During the open season wood sloops and schooners would
come as close to the shore at high tide as possible and as the tide
went down the wood was carted across the beach and loaded on the
boats which had to be ready to sail again at high tide. The wood was
shipped down the Sound to New York and much of it went up the Hudson
to the brick yards around Haverstraw where it was burned in curing
bricks in the brick yards. Nothing remains of this once important
business except some of the old landing roads leading down to the
sound shore
The
Carman's River used to rise in Pfeiffer's Pond in
Middle Island. It flows down through Yaphank and South Haven to the
Great south Bay at Brookhaven. This river was important in the early
life of the settlers as several grist and saw mills located on it
ground grain into flour and meal and sawed their logs into lumber.
There was a fuling mill north of Yaphank, a grist and saw mill at the
upper lake in Yaphank and another grist and saw mill at lower lake
in Yaphank, also a grist and saw mill at South Haven just north of
the Montauk highway.
The following item is from the diary of a
Middle
Island woman in 1808: "August 14, we got up very early in the morning
and I got to spinning about sunrise, having had breakfast by candle
light. Carded mixed wool for stocking yarn."
When the railroad came
through Yaphank on the way to Riverhead and Greenport in July 1844,
it was a time of great rejoicing by the people who lived in the east
end villages as a trip to New York which had taken two or three days
by stage coach could now be made in as many hours.