125 Years Ago 1901
From The East Hampton Star, January 25
Albert Johnson's picture play of "The Little Minister," at Clinton Hall on Saturday evening last, drew a good house for such a cold night. The entertainment gave excellent satisfaction, but the frigidity of the temperature in the hall was an uncomfortable accompaniment which affected both the audience and the performer.
—
J.T. Gardiner is at work upon an experimental wireless telephone for communication between Fire Place and Gardiner's Island. Instruments are to be placed in Samuel Miller's house at the former place and in the manor at Gardiner's Island, and large copper plates will be buried under ground on either shore, and connected with the instruments by wires. The trial of the apparatus is awaited with much interest. The distance between the two points is about 3 1/4 miles.
—
Those who do not believe we have mild winters in East Hampton should see the branch of a cherry tree Mrs. B.H. Van Scoy has at her house. It has clusters of blossoms and leaves upon it, and will probably bear cherries later.
100 Years Ago 1926
From The East Hampton Star, January 22
This week's biggest move in the real estate line here was the laying out of Hedges lane. Surveyors have been at work mapping out lots on this new road, which lies between the farms of Herbert Barnes and C.W. Rackett. Mr. Rackett's land went from the Main street to a point about opposite the old Amagansett Clubhouse, while Mr. Barnes owned all the way to the ocean bluffs. Already each man has sold a good share of his property.
—
A wind and rain storm that reached almost tornado dimensions visited this coast Monday evening, the worst part of the storm striking here between 7 and 8 o'clock. During the progress of the storm the eight-room bungalow, built on skids on Joseph Cassidy's lot, on Apaquogue road, was blown from its position about fifteen feet, ripping the end of the roof off and smashing many of the timbers. The house, which was under construction by Frank Johnson, for Mr. Cassidy, who sold his Apaquogue property recently, was to be moved to a new lot on the McAlpin property, on Bridgehampton road, when finished.
—
East Hampton will soon be proud of its Boy Scout organization, if the plan of action as mapped out by the Lions Club and District Leader A. Royce Wolfe is carried out. The Scouts have been practically a dead organization for some little time, due more or less to non-support of the district headquarters at Huntington.
With a view towards reviving this movement here the Lions Club discussed the matter thoroughly with District Leader Wolfe on the 15th. Mr. Wolfe visited East Hampton and the preliminaries of reorganization were gone over.
75 Years Ago 1951
From The East Hampton Star, January 25
The Bonackers (East Hampton Fire Department) are proud of their ex-Chief and present First Assistant Chief James M. Strong Jr. ("Dick" Strong), who went into action at Selden, L.I., on Monday morning when he saw smoke coming out of a small house by the side of the road and went to investigate. He called neighbors across the street to notify the local fire department and police and helped a very unwilling elderly man out of the house while the neighbors took charge of two small children, James and Jane Russell, aged 4 and 2, respectively. The house was gutted.
—
Long Island farmers last year used less than one-half the amount of water they pumped in the drought year of 1949 to keep their thirsty crops alive, according to the U.S. Geological Survey office at Mineola. In a report filed with the Suffolk Board of Supervisors, N.J. Lusczynski, acting district geologist, says that pumpage for supplemental irrigation showed an estimated decline in excess of 50 percent.
—
The annual fund campaign to combat poliomyelitis is on. Suffolk County raised $91,067.49 last year. One half of that, as usual, went for research work. From the other half, Suffolk County's polio bills were paid. All sufferers who needed financial assistance were aided, and there were more cases in 1950 than 1949. By November, this money had all been used and the county chapter applied to the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis for a loan of $30,000 to carry the work over until the 1951 drive money comes in.
50 Years Ago 1976
From The East Hampton Star, January 22
Tom Paxton of East Hampton will lead off in a concert sponsored by the friends of guitarist John Tooker at the Montauk Yacht Club and Inn Sunday from 2 to 5 p.m. He will be joined by Athena Hendrickson, the Accabonac Highway, Christian Johnson, Lou Stevens, Monte Farber, Winter Sky, Joe and Jan Hanna, and Randy Parsons.
Proceeds will go toward Mr. Tooker's medical and rental expenses. He is laid up from an automobile accident which occurred last autumn.
—
The East Hampton Town Board, in the course of a three-and-a-half-hour meeting Friday, named another four persons to the South Fork Transportation Task Force that Governor Hugh Carey, after vetoing the State's Sunrise Highway Extension project last March, ordered formed to recommend alternatives to the controversial 23-mile bypass. Town Supervisor Eugene Haas, meanwhile, has proposed that the Town in effect bypass the Task Force and build a smaller highway itself, without State participation. How the Town could pay for such a road is unclear.
—
The East Hampton Village Board, in a brief meeting last Friday night, added the back of its hand to those two oft-buffeted institutional whipping boys — the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Long Island Lighting Company.
A Trustee, Joseph F.X. Dunn, had wondered aloud at the Board's December meeting whether any of the $250 million from the Railroad Preservation Bond Act of 1974 would be spent in East Hampton Town.
25 Years Ago 2001
From The East Hampton Star, January 25
An 11th-hour vote that could be the final word on whether all of Jacob's Farm, 165 undeveloped acres of woodland in Springs, will be preserved is expected to take place on Tuesday at the Suffolk Legislature. A majority was lined up to approve $4.5 million to pay for half the land. East Hampton Town has already agreed to buy the other half with Community Preservation Funds.
—
Montauk's tilefish industry is crying foul over a recent United States Food and Drug Administration warning that alleges health risks associated with eating tilefish.
The Montauk Tilefishermen's Association questions the basis of the warnings, and on Monday filed a freedom of information request with the F.D.A. to learn how the tests were conducted, on what kind of tilefish, and from what waters they came.
—
Jose Luis Noa, a representative of the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, which acts in lieu of an embassy, made a visit this week to East Hampton, which has an opportunity to become a "sister city" to a precinct of Havana.
Mr. Noa attended a town board work session on Tuesday to discuss the nonpolitical "people to people" nature of the sister cities program, a worldwide initiative begun by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
