A patron wrote us about this photograph, which has often caught my attention. The image, titled “The Hut Gang,” is part of a collection of early glass plate negatives. Luckily, in the case of this one, from 1884, a photographic print accompanied the negative.
It shows a “gang” of six Bridgehampton boys gathered by a shed, which appears to function as their clubhouse. Chopped wood is piled to the side. From left to right, the boys are identified as Edwin H. Pierson, Frederick Clowes, Albert W. Topping (roof), James W. Ludlow, William I. Halsey, and Clifton H. Topping. The group seems to be armed, except for Frederick Clowes, who sits on the ground. It’s possible he was visiting or lived in Bridgehampton only part time in 1884, as his parents, Theodore and Louise Woodruff Clowes, appear on the census as Brooklyn residents, although Clowes family members had been buried in Bridgehampton’s Edgewood Cemetery.
Most of the boys were around age 11 or 12, except for 14-year-old Clifton H. Topping. Clifton and Albert W. Topping were siblings, born about three years apart to Annie Pierson Topping and Albert E. Topping. Clifton appears to be wearing a Civil War-era military hat, perhaps his father’s, and his friend Edwin Halsey Pierson seems to be wearing part of a Civil War uniform. Edwin’s mother, Harriet R. Halsey Pierson (1852-1946), raised her son as a widow after his father, Henry B. Pierson (1848-1877), died.
Their friend James Watson Ludlow (1873-1938) was the son of Sarah and James M. Ludlow, and like the others he spent most of his life in Bridgehampton, although he died in Amityville. The last of the friends, William I. Halsey (1872-1959), was also born in Bridgehampton, to William M. and Martha Ludlow Halsey. Like several of his friends from the gang, he was buried in Edgewood Cemetery.
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Andrea Meyer is the head of the Long Island Collection at the East Hampton Library.
