125 Years Ago 1900
From The East Hampton Star, June 22
An unusually severe electric storm passed over Floral Park Thursday of last week. John Walters, his brother, Charles Walters, and Jacob Statel were all struck by lightning while endeavoring to find protection from the storm that had overtaken them while working in a large field. John Walters was instantly killed. His brother and Statel, who is a lad, were both seriously injured, but will recover. The two large horses that were attached to the farm wagon were also instantly killed.
They dropped in their tracks without so much as a movement of a muscle. John Walters, who was killed, had his head resting against the rim of the steel tire of the wagon. When the lightning struck the horses it glanced aside and struck the steel tire. The bolt passed down Walter’s spine, burning him and tearing the clothing from him in shreds. His brother and Statel were unconscious for some hours.
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Sayville, L.I., has a case of smallpox, according to advices received at Albany by the State Board of Health. Secretary Smelzer of the board found in his mail Monday morning a letter from the health officer of Sayville telling of the discovery of the case, and the precautions exercised in treating it. The victim is a young girl whose family lives in New York, and whose members are among Sayville’s visiting summer population.
100 Years Ago 1925
From The East Hampton Star, June 19
One of the large tanks containing fish oil, at the Promised Land factory, caught fire Wednesday morning and a still alarm was sent to the East Hampton Fire Department. The pumping engine was sent down to prevent the fire from spreading to adjoining buildings. The fire in the tank continued to burn until the oil was gone. After the pumper had returned to the firehouse, George B. Hand was assisting in cleaning the engine. One of the acid containers on the truck was stuck and while assisting another fireman in loosening it he received a deep cut over the eye, necessitating the taking of one stitch.
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Edward Tuthill of Montauk fell in with a big school of mackerel a few days ago and single handed he caught seventeen bushels of them with hook and line, and landed them at the Montauk dock at night, getting fifteen cents per pound for his catch. Each fish weighed from three to four pounds. The method followed by professional fishermen in trolling for the mackerel is to have jiggers over the side of the craft, trailing several lines. Tuthill’s catch is said to be a record for one man in one day.
75 Years Ago 1950
From The East Hampton Star, June 22
On Monday, a “live” 400-pound mine was found ashore at Amagansett about a mile east of the spot where the saboteurs landed during the war. The mine is not connected with the saboteurs in any way, however, as it is an American make.
There has been much argument between the Navy and Coast Guard over which service should dispose of the dangerous weapon. The Coast Guard says that it will be glad to transport the mine to Fort Pond Bay if the Navy will assure it that the mine is not alive. Tentative plans for disposal today have been made by the Navy, which will bring a disposal vessel from New London if the weather is good.
The Coast Guard has placed a red flag near the mine to keep the curious from getting too close.
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Long Island became the third major potato producing area in the United States to reject a proposed marketing agreement last Thursday when the Department of Agriculture at Washington announced the conclusive result of the growers’ referendum conducted June 5-9. In voting down the mandatory grade and size regulations, the Nassau-Suffolk producers took their $50,000,000 industry out of the government’s price support program and announced their determination to steer their own boat in the future.
According to the official U.S.D.A. announcement, 864 farmers, or more than 74 percent of the eligible producers, representing 88 percent of the eligible production, participated in the referendum.
50 Years Ago 1975
From The East Hampton Star, June 19
“It sounds like rip-off night in Town Hall,” one observer said at last Wednesday’s public meeting of the East Hampton Town Planning Board, as one property owner after another pleaded his case before the Board. Their problems were identical: the requests were for building permits; the complaints, that building permits are conditioned on the provision by the property owner for “reasonable access” to his lot.
But, since these are not planned lots in planned subdivisions, access is not easy to come by. These are lots in old filed subdivision maps which have been bought and sold in helter-skelter transactions. The sudden interest in the development of hundreds of such lots has started a rapid unrolling of these old unplanned maps to confound the Planners.
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There’s an ancient Indian fable about three blind men who were asked to describe an elephant. One man ran his hands over the elephant’s hide and declared that it was like a tree: huge and bumpy. Another stroked the elephant’s tusk: “the animal is smooth,” said he, “and as sharp as a sword.” The third man felt the tail. “An elephant,” he concluded, “resembles a snake.”
In its own elephantine way, the East Hampton School Board has once again completed the ponderous process of getting out a school budget for the coming year, with results whose merits depend very much upon the eye of the beholder. What makes this year’s budget different from all others is that there will be more than twice as many beholders as ever before sizing up the elephant.
25 Years Ago 2000
From The East Hampton Star, June 22
No one in the know, and there are plenty here, would talk this week about the details for Hillary Rodham Clinton’s third fund-raising visit in three summers to the South Fork. However, inside sources said that the first lady, who is the Democratic candidate for United States Senator from New York, will be here on the weekend of July 22 and 23, this time probably without her spouse.
According to Barbara Layton of East Hampton, Mrs. Clinton was to meet early this morning with local Democrats to form up the plans, which are expected to include a Sunday afternoon barbecue on the grounds of a large estate.
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They’re back, and they’re hungry. Gypsy moth caterpillars have returned to the South Fork in epidemic proportions this year, defoliating acres and acres of trees and making it look more like early spring than summer in large areas of Northwest Woods, Wainscott, Springs, and Amagansett. This outbreak is worse than the one in 1989 and may be as bad as a severe gypsy moth invasion here in 1982, said East Hampton Town’s natural resources director, Larry Penny.
“You see the situation out there. It’s terrible,” said Bill Matters, a certified arborist with Bartlett’s Tree Experts in Southampton. Route 114 between Sag Harbor and Stephen Hand’s Path is bordered by miles of brown, leafless trees.
