Legends Of Fire Island Beach And The South Side - free ebook by Edward R. (Edward Richard) Shaw

LEGENDS OF FIRE ISLAND BEACH and the SOUTH SIDE

BY EDWARD RICHARD SHAW NEW YORK LOVELL, CORYELL &amp; COMPANY 310-318 Sixth Avenue Copyright, 1895, by United States Book Company TO MY FRIEND WILLIAM S. PELLETREAU OF SOUTHAMPTON, L. I....

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PREFACE.

These stories embody only a small part of the folk-lore and tradition that pertained to the Great South Bay. They were told by a class of men now gone. Fact, imagination, and superstition—each contributed its part. In the tavern, among groups of men collected on shore from wind-bound vessels, at gatherings around the cabin fire, and in those small craft that were constantly going from one part of the bay to another, not only these tales, but others, irrevocably lost, were elaborated and made cur

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THE POT OF GOLD

Fire Island Beach is a barrier of sand, stretching for twenty miles along the south coast of Long Island, and separating the Great South Bay from the Atlantic ocean. To reach it, you must make a sail of from three to seven miles, and once upon it, you find it a wild, desolate, solitary spot, wind-searched and surf-pounded. Its inner shore is covered with a growth of tide-wet sedge, with here and there a spot where dry meadow comes down to make a landing-place. The outline of this inner shore is

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THE BOGY OF THE BEACH

Strange things happen on that Beach and have happened. My experience was no new one, but it takes hold of a man, nevertheless, and he can’t shake it off for months. Ever since white men frequented that Beach, some one at intervals has undergone the same foreboding experience. In the early part of the last century a whaling crew, half Indians, had their hut east of Quanch . They used to land and come off at the point there, where the water is deep, called Whale House Point till this day. From the

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THE MOWERS’ PHANTOM

In the eighties of the last century, on the sparsely settled old country road north of Yaphank, two mowers were arranging, one August evening, to go to the Beach next day, and cut the sedge upon a neighbor’s meadow. “We must make an ’arly start,” said Raner. “By sunrise we ought ’o be well through the Gore in the Hills . Arter wants that piece o’ sedge all laid to-morrer, ef we be men enough to do it.” “How be you goin’ ’cross?” asked Layn. “In the ol’ hay-boat. I got her ready at Squasux week a

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ENCHANTED TREASURE

Purty nigh a hull week that ship hed been seen manoovrin’ outside the Beach. Fust, she’d ’pear to be purty well in, an’ then she’d be way off a’most out o’ sight; an’ so it went, off an’ on, off an’ on. The neighbors—thar wa’n’t many on ’em, the houses bein’ scatterin’—hed seen ’er; an thar wuz a good deal o’ conjectur ’bout what she could be doin’. Nobody could tell. Thar wusn’t no war—ef that hed ’a been, ’twouldn’t ’a been ’tall puzzlin’ what she wur a-manoovrin’ at on the coast. On a Friday

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THE MONEY SHIP

Seventy years ago two boys, one seven years old and the other twelve, made a trip with their father up the Great South Bay. They had been promised that when it became necessary to land and mend the nets, they might run across the Beach to the ocean. So, one afternoon when the nets were spread, away the boys scampered, dragging their outstretched hands through the tall grass. But coming upon a damp spot of meadow when a third of the way over, they were obliged to turn their course. In doing so, t

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WIDOW MOLLY

Westward of Greene’s brook on the road to Oakdale there stands a substantial country residence. You will recognize it in driving by, for just south, across the road is a lot with small spindle cedars growing all irregular, everywhere in fact, some perhaps the height of a man’s waist, but the most not higher than his knee. “Poor land,” you will say. Well, I believe it is. Else why are those little wizened cedars there? They have grown there who knows how long? They never get bigger, and have each

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THE MINERAL-ROD

John was a hand in the paper-mill at Islip in the twenties. The old mill is still standing in the western part of the village, near the road. One might almost touch it with the whip when driving by. It represents something of the Islip of the twenties which was far different from the Islip of to-day—a quiet, steady-going village, with no incoming of summer residents, and no flutter of gay summer life. A few sportsmen made their way thither in the season, but it was a hard day’s stage ride from S

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Page 22.

Watch Hill is a prominent hill on the Beach opposite Patchogue....

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Page 41.

Quanch is a landing-place on the Beach opposite Otis’s Point....

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Page 46.

Between the years 1710 and 1720 as many as twenty whales were taken in a single season by the crews on the Beach....

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Page 47.

Fiddleton is a mile and a half west of Quanch. Pickety Rough is a strip of beach east of Point o’ Woods, so called because of the prickly growth of bushes there....

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Page 59.

“The Gore in the Hills” was a name given to a tract of land near Yaphank, over which a dispute arose in the last century. This dispute was settled by arbitration in 1753....

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Page 60.

“Squasux”—the Indian name for the landing on Carman’s River, at the end of the Brookhaven Neck road. The last owner of the house here alluded to was the late Joseph Carman....

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Page 62.

“The Inlet” referred to began to close up in the early part of this century. Small coasting vessels sailed out of this inlet as late as 1816. The inlet kept filling in, however, and the small channel was at last blocked by a brig which went ashore at the mouth of it. Soon after the channel filled up completely. This brig was loaded with grindstones, and on this account was popularly called the “Grindstone Brig.” This spot of beach has been known ever since as “Old Inlet.” It is opposite the extr

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Pages 63 and 64.

This incident actually occurred as here related....

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Page 65.

Between the years 1780 and 1785 the persecution of Judge William Smith by certain townspeople was so great that he was compelled, in order to save his life, to give up a part of his estate to them. His barns were burned to the ground, with a loss of thirty horses, and all his orchards were girdled. The burning of his dwelling was intended, but for some cause this intention was not carried out. He had, moreover, a narrow escape from being shot through his bedroom window as he was going to bed. It

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Page 99.

The landing, now a thing of the past, was on the shore now embraced in Wood Acres—the estate of Mr. George T. Lyman at Bellport....

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Page 124.

Clam Hollow is situated midway between Bellport and Brookhaven. Within the past forty years the heavy woods have been cut down, the road made somewhat straighter, the hollow raised several feet, and the western hill cut down. Brewster’s Brook, previously called Dayton’s Brook, but known for the past sixty years as Osborn’s Brook, is in the eastern part of Bellport at the foot of the hill....

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Page 128.

The Mills was the old name for South Haven because of the grist and saw mills situated there at the foot of the pond....

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Page 137.

“Near Southampton,” etc., about a mile west of “St. Andrews by the Sea.”...

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Page 139.

After the breaking up of the ship, it was the custom of certain farmers in the fall, when the neap tides would permit, to plow along the shore, and the waves cutting over the upturned furrows would wash out these Spanish coins....

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Page 143.

The present residence alluded to was known for a long time as the Corse Place. Champlin’s stood where the South Side Club House now stands....

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Page 149.

“Inlet near the Manor of St. George.” See note to page 62 ....

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Page 171.

“Penataquit”—an Indian word—the early post-office name of Bay Shore....

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Page 173.

Long Cove is about three-quarters of a mile east of Watch Hill....

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