The Peconic Bay Shopper • Preserving Local History • June 2012 —————————————————————

14 ————————————————————— The Peconic Bay Shopper • Preserving Local History • June 2012 ————————————————————— Continued from page 9... Dogfish were pestiferous bait stealers, and also the horrid-looking sea robins.” In late summer there were “gamey fighting bluefish.” In later years Mrs. Newell recalled that the Bay became a “Mecca for hundreds of ardent fishermen from western Long Island and the city.” She even went on to say that those who visited that did their fishing would say, “Oh, I’ve been out fishing from New Suffolk!” In A Rose of the Nineties, Rosalind Case Newell wrote that the Peconic Bay pounding seas actually piled rows of seaweed along the beach. The windrows would include hundreds of escallops. She continued saying that the New Suffolk shore was lined with little grey-shingled escallop houses. The dredging, opening and shipping of escallops was an industry that was employed by many of the locals. Here’s a recipe for success with good ingredients as taken from the pages of Rose Remembers by Rosalind Case Newell: Dry escallops well in a cloth. You’ll have to change it once or twice. “A piece of old cotton sheet or whatever is much better than paper towels.” Crush 12 or more saltines to a coarse powder with a rolling pin. Saltines are tastier than bread crumbs. Beat one egg in a soup dish with a fork (not a beater). Cut small slices as thin as you can from a strip of fat back with a very sharp knife with enough pieces to cover the bottom of the pan. The fat back will slice easier when frozen. Cut the rind off first. Try out these pieces in an iron frying pan, According to the Cutchogue SPLIA (Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities), the Old watching and turning carefully and constantly. Drain them on a paper towel. Dust the escal- Town Arts & Crafts Guild building on the Main Road in Cutchogue “still contributes to the ambi- lops with flour, pepper and salt and put them in egg. Then dip them out with a split spoon ence of this historic community.” The photo is courtesy of the Whitaker Historical Collection. so they won’t be too wet, and roll them in the cracker crumbs. When the fat is smoking hot, put in the escallops and they will start to brown at once. Turn them over. Add butter if you his name became attributed with it. For a brief time, John Booth also owned Rob- think they are going to burn. As soon as they are brown on both sides, they’re done. A couple ins Island. John Booth received Robins Island from Nathaniel Sylvester who had of minutes is all they need. Serve them at once. Rosalind Case Newell said that the job is so received it as a deed from the Indians. The west side of what is now New Suffolk quick that you could cook the escallops while your guests are getting to the table. She went Road was inherited by John Booth’s son Charles. John Booth’s older son Thomas on to say: “My biggest frying pan holds eighty escallops and I figure on 20 to a person.” inherited the east side. Having mentioned New Suffolk, let’s take a glance of the area in written Mrs. Butterworth shares that the Fence Viewer, an elected office, was of ex- word. According to The New Suffolk Story by Marjorie Moore Butterworth, the treme importance in the 1700s since livestock was the number one enterprise in the Southold Town Fathers did formally lay out lots in the Cutchogue area in 1661 area. A good part of the land was fenced in. Thirty different people owned Great which they reserved for themselves and they were considerable tracts of land. Meadow, a part that lies mostly in Cutchogue with a small tract in New Suffolk. Mrs. Butterworth clarifies that East and West creeks bounded 180 acres that were Each person had the use of two acres. Cattle were supplied with winter fodder that known as Dam Meadow and Peconic Bay and these became the boundaries of was made from salt hay that was grown there. “Meadowland at that time was con- New Suffolk eventually. sidered more valuable than upland. A parcel of meadowland west of Dam Meadow Booth’s Neck was the common name for this land as Mrs. Butterworth point- was set aside for the minister of the Presbyterian Church to provide fodder for his ed out. John Booth was the first owner of a majority of that land and that is how animals.” The parcel was referred to as Parsons Corner and was used until 1940. 15 ————————————————————— The Peconic Bay Shopper • Preserving Local History • June 2012 ————————————————————— There was a Purpose! It’s About Time! New Suffolk garnished the reputation for being a busy port and shipyard from ear- ly times. Porpoises appeared in Peconic Bay around 1780. The porpoise oil was used for the lubrication of clocks and watches. In 1781, the Porpoise Company was formed. Cutchogue and New Suffolk business thrived. But the porpoises disappeared just as quickly as they appeared. Shipping continued and in 1838 Ira Tuthill had acquired by deed from New York State Governor William March un- derwater lands and was able to build New Suffolk’s largest and busiest dock. You see, the men of New Suffolk took naturally to the sea since New Suffolk was surrounded on three sides by Peconic Bay. This 1947 photo features an exterior glimpse of Cutchogue Auto Sales with seven employees standing in front of the main entrance. Felix Doroski is As noted in the Peconic Bay Shopper among the staff pictured. This photo is courtesy of the Charles H. Meredith Photo Collection of the Southold Historical Society article relating Whitaker Historical Collec- tion-related material that I titled Below Sea Level but Ultimately Shining, in 1899, New Suffolk residents saw something unusual: tchogue-New Suffolk Historical Society erected a roadside marker located at the what looked like two masts moving through the water at about five knots. There end of Main Street; a plaque was placed on the waterfront property on Peconic was no boat, no engines and no smoke. The masts belonged to the country’s first Bay down from the New Suffolk post office at the submarine base landmark to submarine launched from an unlikely spot — the hamlet of New Suffolk — where honor the 100th birthday celebration of the USS Holland in April 2000; and be- the J. P. Holland Torpedo Company became its principal industry until 1905. ginning with the intersection on Route 25 and New Suffolk Road in Cutchogue New Suffolk resident Floyd Houston built models of the USS Holland to scale. and ending with its intersection at New Suffolk Avenue and Route 25 in Mat- In 1957, he presented the Mariners Museum at Newport News, Virginia with one tituck are two identical signs revealing that the road has been designated as the of the models and the other model to the Whitaker Historical Collection, which United States Submarine Veterans Memorial Highway. had provided him with the material he needed, including photographs, plans, sto- ries, and more to build the models. For some time, through a shared arrangement This was Oughta Site! Alley-Oop! with the Southold Historical Society, this wonderful gift was seen at the Horton An 1883 copyrighted brochure was re-printed in 1978 as recommended by Point Lighthouse Nautical Museum from May through October during the 20 Rosalind Case Newell. The name of that brochure which was printed in limited weekends the lighthouse is open to the public. There is a wooden model made edition was titled Peconic Park. In 1883 Nassau Point had the name Peconic Park. by the Holland Company located in the Carriage House on the Village Green in The name was given by a real estate development company. The developers did Cutchogue. To pay tribute to the remarkable history of the USS Holland, the Cu- not accept the name “Little Hog Neck” and renamed the area Peconic Park to pay 16 ————————————————————— The Peconic Bay Shopper • Preserving Local History • June 2012 ————————————————————— tribute to a mansion that was located there that was converted into a clubhouse- pendent Congregational Church was erected in 1862. The building has been used hotel and a bowling alley annex. The bowling alley annex accommodated bowlers as a library since 1914); “The School House;” “The Barn;” “The Wickham Farm and later also served as a guest house. A tennis court was on the property. The House;” “The Village Garage;” and the previously mentioned “Carriage House.” kitchen that was available on the grounds garnished some worthy reputation. In The July 2, 1985 Peconic Bay Shopper shared insight on Fort Corchaug. Cu- the spring of 1928, fire destroyed the mansion. The bowling alley was torn down tchogue native, archaeologist and Amerindian authority who is on the faculty of soon after. the Department of Anthropology at Columbia University, Dr. Ralph Solecki, said: “Among the original Indian settlements, the only fort in any state of preservation Friendly and Historically Speaking! Far from a Well-Kept Secret! along the eastern seaboard is Fort Corchaug.” We get reminded that the beaches A committee of Cutchogue citizens met informally at the home of Mr. and Mrs. of Corchaug offered the Indians periwinkle, a shell which the natives handcrafted Corwin Grathwohl on Tuesday, November 17, 1959 to organize the Cutchogue- for their “wampum.” Fort Corchaug was placed on the National Register of His- New Suffolk Historical Council. Mrs. Robert P. Sibley, Mrs. Arthur S. Moore as torical Places in 1974 by the Historical Council.

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