125 Years Ago 1901
From The East Hampton Star, January 11
At the extreme northeastern end of this famous old town is Fire Place, the smallest village in the United States. Its history is closely connected with that of Gardiner's Island, just across Gardiner's Bay, where the first settlement in New York State was made by Lion Gardiner in 1639.
Gardiner's Island was the second manor in the States, the first being that of the Van Rensselaers, and afterward many other manors were granted by the English government.
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The gravel now being placed on Main street and Newtown lane is of excellent quality, even better, it is said, than that used last winter, and it should make good roads. It is taken from a lot owned by David Huntting, who has given the Village Improvement society the privilege of taking the gravel from his property for a period of one year.
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Wm. J. Mills and associates, of Greenport, have purchased from David J. Gardiner of East Hampton a "crack" team of trotting mares, made up of Hazel Bell and Beautiful Chimes, a promising young mare who is full sister to Pet Raven, the fast animal recently sold by Mr. Mills to a city gentleman. — The Watchman
100 Years Ago 1926
From The East Hampton Star, January 8
Ritly & Robinson, New York contractors, who are to build at Montauk Lake for Carl Graham Fisher a bridge and piers, are ready to go about this work when weather will permit, it is reported. A start, it is expected, will be made by March 1. The plans for the opening of a channel from the lake to the sound are very elaborate, it is claimed. The lake is to be used as a yachtsmen's rendezvous, and includes about forty acres. At the outer end of Great Pond Island, as it is locally known, there will be a yachtsmen's pier, and leading to the shore of the lake there will be a bridge. A site for a commercial dock has been planned.
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What vast changes can occur in six months. Last fall the outlook for building in East Hampton and vicinity looked rather dull. Laborers and mechanics were in doubt as to what they would find to do during the long winter months. But how different it is today. Every carpenter who can wield a hammer, mason a trowel or laborer a pick and shovel finds he has all the work he wants. Building contractors, masons, plumbers and other mechanics are kept busy figuring on new work and ordering supplies.
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I.Y. Halsey, proprietor of the I.Y. Halsey Automobile Co., and local dealer in Dodge Brothers motor cars and Graham trucks, accompanied by Herbert L. Van Scoy of Southampton, are attending the annual meeting of Dodge Brothers and Graham Bros. dealers at Detroit this week. They left here Tuesday.
Thirteen special trains, running to Detroit from all the important cities of the United States, carried the thousands of dealers to the convention city.
75 Years Ago 1951
From The East Hampton Star, January 11
A meeting was held at the East Hampton Airport Monday night to organize a Civilian Air Patrol here. About forty air-minded local people were present. Major Robert Van Wagner, Capt. Elmer Carroll, Lieut. Dennis Maude and Lieut. Joseph Trisch were present from Mitchel Field, and were introduced by Mel Lamb, proprietor of the local airport and former Air Force captain.
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About sixty attended Monday night's meeting of the East Hampton Conservation Club; half a dozen women and all the rest men, largely baymen, who turned out in force to express their opinions on the subject of DDT spraying, which they blame for the diminution of shellfish in these parts. Suffolk County Mosquito Control administrator C.T. Williamson of Islip, who had been invited to attend the meeting, stood up well under a hot barrage. No punches were pulled, but the meeting closed on a fairly friendly note, and Mr. Williamson promised to experiment in East Hampton Township with some other mixture than the DDT fuel oil used at the present time to combat the troublesome mosquito.
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Miss Jacqueline Overton, former children's librarian at Old Westbury, L.I., and author of "Long Island's Story," stayed at 1770 House for several days last week and did research at the East Hampton Free Library's Long Island Collection for a new book. It will be a children's book, set on Long Island in the 1860s.
50 Years Ago 1976
From The East Hampton Star, January 8
Montauk
The Friends of Erin held their first meeting of the year on Sunday. Plans have been made for the 14th annual St. Patrick's Day parade, which will be held this year on Sunday, March 14. Any organization wishing to enter bands, floats or marching units has been asked to contact Michael Volk or Don Ross.
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Perhaps if there had been more scallops around this season the whole thing wouldn't have happened. But scallops have been somewhat scarce, and those baymen who depend on the tasty morsels for a good part of their incomes have had to rely on both knowledge of local waters and professional skill to make a living at it this year. Or perhaps a conflict between owners of shorefront properties and those who pursue the old ways of livelihood or of recreation was inevitable.
At any rate, Milton Miller Jr. of Springs went scalloping in Lake Montauk on Friday afternoon, Jan. 2, and will wind up in Town Justice Court at 2 p.m. Monday on charges growing out of his day's work.
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The Federal Fish and Wildlife Service is planning to "mothball" the Morton Wildlife Refuge. In other words, the resident manager guarding the 187-acre nature preserve at Sag Harbor will be transferred elsewhere on Feb. 15; thereafter it will be left unmanned and, its friends say, defenseless.
25 Years Ago 2001
From The East Hampton Star, January 11
It was as if a bomb had been dropped into the laps of members of the Montauk Playhouse Advisory Committee. On Monday, they learned from Barry Cummings that earlier that day, East Hampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman, the guest speaker at the Montauk AARP meeting, had spoken negatively about the playhouse building project because it could cost up to an estimated $15 million to restore.
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The Rev. Jesse Jackson, the civil rights activist and president of the National Rainbow Coalition, will speak at the Ross Institute in East Hampton on Tuesday evening in a program commemorating Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
This is Mr. Jackson's first official visit to the East End.
"It will be impressive to young people, people of color, and all people," commented the Rev. Henry Faison Jr. of the Bridgehampton Baptist Church. "He's a great leader," he added. "He's impacted our society in ways that others have not."
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At the Montauk Citizens Advisory Committee's first meeting of the new year, the chairwoman, Lisa Grenci, read out a letter she planned to send to Lee E. Koppelman, who is updating East Hampton Town's comprehensive plan. The letter cited 17 issues that Ms. Grenci said were the hamlet's most pressing.
