125 Years Ago 1900
From The East Hampton Star, November 2
Next Tuesday is election day. A good sized storm is due here about the 6th or 7th, and if it doesn't rain on election day it will be because the election will be just ahead of the storm.
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EDITOR STAR: The Ladies Village Improvement Society, among other almost numberless benefits to the community, some months ago built a bridge and a bit of road across the Village Green near the cemetery, thereby preserving the beauty of said Green in a perfection never before seen. But what good are their efforts in behalf of this beautiful feature to our lovely village if heavy double teams are allowed to drive across it daily, scoring the turf and cutting deep into the now soft earth — under the feeble excuse of driving home the cows.
TAXPAYER
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A Grand Prohibition Rally will be held at Clinton Hall Monday evening, November 5. The speaker of the evening will be Henry Wilbur, editor of The Defender, the Prohibition organ of the state.
100 Years Ago 1925
From The East Hampton Star, October 30
One of the finest properties in East Hampton is offered to the public for development this week, that is, what is known as the Burger property, extending from Main street to Toilsome lane, and including sixty-eight house lots situated on high, level land. A forty foot modern roadway will run through the center of the property with outlets on Main street and Toilsome lane. Every lot will comfortably accommodate a good sized house with garage and lawn. Water and electric lights and a fine permanent sidewalk with trees are among the plans for the improvement of this development.
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The dead body of Mrs. Sophie Monahan of Manhattan, who, it is believed, jumped or fell from the passenger steamer Cambridge, bound from New York to Providence, on Oct. 16, was found on the sound beach west of Horton's Point Light, Southold, on Monday.
Detective Fred L. Booth was notified and had the body removed to William M. Beebe's morgue at Cutchogue, where an examination of the woman's clothing revealed the fact that she had fourteen one-hundred-dollar bills sewed to her corset. Prior to this $90 in bills were found in one of her stockings.
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The engineers and workmen who have been employed the past few weeks at Montauk digging an outlet from Great Pond into Long Island Sound were successful this week in making an opening. Within a few hours the water level of the pond dropped eleven inches. It is understood the engineers only want to lower the level of the pond in order to make necessary surveys around the shores and in the pond itself.
75 Years Ago 1950
From The East Hampton Star, November 2
East Hampton Village Police Chief Richard Steele reports an uncommonly quiet and orderly Halloween celebration Tuesday night. "A few signs were taken down, the windows soaped up, a little noise — nothing very serious this year," he said with considerable relief.
The young people parading the streets in costume or riding up and down squirting water on passers-by also report a fairly tame Halloween. "More cops around than usual," they thought.
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Lawrence Flach, a sixteen year old East Hampton High School student who left East Hampton a week ago last Thursday, returned home early Tuesday morning. He wrote home from Philadelphia, where he had been staying at the Y.M.C.A., and left there for New York, where he met his father and returned home with him.
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With all the hubbub and excitement going on in New York State, this year's election should prove to be interesting.
The now famous "Hanley letter" has stirred up both Republicans and Democrats. Both sides have taken every advantage possible to further their party's strength.
Governor Thomas E. Dewey again heads the state Republican ticket with several well-known candidates. Walter A. Lynch is the head of the Democratic candidates and has made speeches in Suffolk County within the last few weeks.
50 Years Ago 1975
From The East Hampton Star, October 30
"What's My Party Line?" played at Guild Hall Friday night with a live audience and a radio hookup, but without the customary denouement — "Will the real environmentalist please stand up?" Two participants might have stood up together, though. In any case, they are running.
One, who has written school books on environmental subjects, suggested that another, who has been an engineer, was not an environmentalist because he talked like an engineer. The other suggested calmly that he was well known as an environmentalist and that the name of the environmental game was planning.
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In the concluding days of the campaign, Republican and Democratic candidates alike will be doing "a lot of walking." The Democrats gave their candidates a final send-off at a dinner-dance held at Gurney's Inn last Sunday, while the Town Republican Club will wish its candidates good luck at a brunch at the Huntting Inn this Sunday.
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A public hearing will be held tonight on a preliminary East Hampton Town budget of $3,736,022, which carries with it estimated tax rate increases of 69 cents per $100 for those living outside the Villages and 39 cents for those living within them.
It has been said that a budget is an educated guess, but the fact that at this time the Town is negotiating contracts with both of its unions — the Police Benevolent Association and the Civil Service Employees Association — would seem to render the proposition all the more iffy.
25 Years Ago 2000
From The East Hampton Star, November 2
As East End residents prepared to cast their votes Tuesday, many of the key races, including the one for president, were still too close to call.
Local Republican leaders voiced guarded cheerfulness, however, while Democrats admitted outright nervousness. Members of the fledgling local Green Party hoped for enough of a showing nationally to qualify for federal dollars in future election years.
All agreed that Tuesday would be a long night.
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It was a day filled with treats as the annual Sag Harbor ragamuffin parade made its way down Main Street Saturday. Hundreds of people and lots of dogs — many in costume (dogs, too) — turned out on a bright and sunny afternoon that could have been improved only by a little less wind. With the street closed to traffic, it was like a giant moving block party.
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A coalition of environmentalists has formed in the 11th hour to oppose a proposal on Tuesday's ballot that they believe would severely hamstring Suffolk County's ability to buy land for preservation.
Proposal Two does that, they say, by sharply curtailing the county's authority to borrow funds against $176 million in projected future revenues for land purchases from the Drinking Water Protection Act.
"It's anti-environment, and it's not fiscally responsible," said Stuart Lowrie of the Nature Conservancy during an interview at The Star last Thursday. "It unnecessarily shackles planners from using the financial tools that are available."
