125 Years Ago 1900
From The East Hampton Star, October 5
A bush in full blossom in Mrs. A.M. Payne’s yard has attracted considerable attention. A remarkable thing about it is that it has been in blossom continuously since August 24, 1899.
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The eighth regular meeting of the Associated Physicians of Long Island will be held in Clinton Hall, this village, on Saturday afternoon. The meeting will be called to order at four o’clock.
The members of the association will arrive here by special train, and will be met at the station by citizens with carriages. At six o’clock the visiting doctors will be given a banquet by the ladies of the Village Improvement Society, and a bevy of East Hampton’s prettiest young ladies will wait upon the tables. The East Hampton Orchestra will furnish music.
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The annual subscription to the library and the following gift of books have recently been received from Mrs. Hackstaff: “Hilda Wade,” by Grant Allen; “A Gentleman Player,” by R.N. Stephens; “The Phantom Future,” by H.S. Merriman; “Unleavened Bread,” by Robert Grant; “The Reign of Law,” by James Lane Allen.
100 Years Ago 1925
From The East Hampton Star, October 2
That the recent sale of the Montauk property to Carl Fisher, of Miami Beach development fame, has already affected real estate values all over eastern Long Island was made apparent here this week when the building site located between Norman S. Cleaves and the Masonic Club property, Main street, owned by Joseph Dreesen, was reported bought by Armin H. Mittlemann of 300 Madison Avenue, New York. This property, bought a year ago by Mr. Dreesen at a reported figure of $9,500, was said to have been sold for $16,000.
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A nominating committee with its hands tied is the way the committee appointed at the Democratic caucus Monday evening, at Odd Fellows’ Hall, finds itself this week. Unable to decide upon a candidate for supervisor to head their ticket, the members in attendance at the caucus decided to leave it to a nominating committee, or committee to fill vacancies, to fill the offices of supervisor and superintendent of highways.
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After being in business less than a year, Norman S. Cleaves, who conducts the fine hardware store on Main street, across from the post office, has found it necessary to nearly double his store. This will be done by extending the rear partition, adding several feet of display space.
An announcement of interest to East Hampton residents is that Mr. Cleaves has bought the surplus stock of J. Ferris Halsey, who closed his business on Main street last week.
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Charles Gilbert, former village night watchman, met with a rather harrowing experience a week ago Wednesday, when returning home in his Ford sedan from the village. Mr. Gilbert lives on Windmill lane, Amagansett, and to reach his home has to cross the railroad track.
Before his rear wheels had passed over the last rail, the noon train swooped down upon him, carrying his car upon the track for five or six hundred feet. Crew and passengers jumped from the train and ran over to the Ford car, which was completely wrecked. To their great surprise they saw a man emerge and start to walk around.
75 Years Ago 1950
From The East Hampton Star, October 5
A $2,000 contract has been signed by the Amagansett Village Improvement Society, with the Bartlett Tree Expert Company.
This contract, unanimously approved by the Board of Directors, calls for the pruning and feeding of all trees needing attention on Main Street, between Indian Wells Highway and Atlantic Avenue. Better than a hundred trees will be removed of dead wood, stubs, diseased and weak limbs, and all cuts painted with an antiseptic wood preservative.
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Reports from committee chairmen were read at the October meeting of the Ladies’ Village Improvement Society at Guild Hall on Monday afternoon. Mrs. H. Allen Wardle reported for the Tree Committee that contracts with Norman Armstrong and LeRoy Craner have been renewed, and fall tree-pruning is going on, as well as some planting and trimming.
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An early start in training and rigid drilling paid off for the East Hampton High School football team as they rolled over the Lindenhurst eleven by the score of 37 to 13 in the season opener last Saturday. The locals were the masters from the opening kickoff. The E.H.H.S. starting lineup consisted of Larry Flach, John Gosman, Urban Reininger, Newt Tiffany, Dick Webb, Richard Cooper, Dave Leddy, Anthony Nasca, Leroy DeBoard, Robert Brewer and William O’Rourke.
50 Years Ago 1975
From The East Hampton Star, October 2
They are spreading, they can be lethal, and no one knows quite what they are or how to stop them, but a group of scientists has begun trying to raise $234,000 or so to investigate them. The proposed weapons: seduction and contraception.
The American dog tick is an enigmatic insect. For example, it disappears during the winter. “We don’t know how it disappears and why,” said Dr. Eugene T. Premuzic of Montauk, a student of the species. “Apparently it hibernates in some way. We don’t know its complete life-cycle.”
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Everyone is entitled to his opinions, they say, so it is perhaps inevitable that a shift of gubernatorial power in Albany from Nelson A. Rockefeller to Hugh L. Carey should have an impact even here on matters in which State decisions have to be made.
Governor Carey’s election had an immediate effect on at least two things here — the proposed Sunrise Highway Extension and patronage jobs at Hither Hills State Park. Now three other matters are under scrutiny by some of the Governor’s appointees — State funding for the New York Ocean Science Laboratory at Montauk, the proposed acquisition of the former Smith Meal property at Napeague, and the controversy over whether Georgica Pond should be stabilized.
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Though he didn’t dwell on them, there were memories that made Dr. Leon Star’s exhilaration two Sundays ago all the more sweet.
Startop Ranch horses had just won all three of the New York Thoroughbred Breeders’ annual Futurity races at the Finger Lakes track in western New York, while others from his stables had placed twice and showed once.
25 Years Ago 2000
From The East Hampton Star, October 5
The big surf caused by distant Hurricane Isaac was enjoyed by surfers over the weekend, but may have taken the life of one fisherman who remains missing after his boat capsized in Moriches Inlet on Saturday; three companions were rescued. Surfers saved two other fishermen when the large swells capsized two boats near Montauk Point on Saturday. A third man was saved by the Coast Guard on Monday, again in Moriches Inlet.
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Despite the opposition of the East End’s two representatives, the Suffolk Legislature passed a resolution Tuesday night making it illegal to use a cell phone in this county while driving, unless the phone can be used hands-free.
If County Executive Robert J. Gaffney signs the measure — or, if he vetoes it, the Legislature overrides his veto — it will make Suffolk, as of Jan. 1, 2001, the first county in the nation to restrict cell phones.
