CHATFIELDS HILL. On the present main road from East-Hampton to Sag-Harbor rises an elevation long known as Chatfields Hill, some one-and-a-half miles south thereof, and stretching west nearly to the line between the towns. In the division made June 4th, 1736, Thomas Chatfield drew the 46th lot, containing 236 acres, bounded northwardly by Joseph Conklings lot, eastwardly by Sag-Harbor highway, southwardly by the town commons, and westward by the line between the two towns. In this lot Chatfields Hill, conspicuous in itself and also in the view therefrom is located. It is now in the possession of the children of George B. Brown, deceased, whose mother was a Latham, and inherited from her father, and he from his father. The transfer from the Chatfield to the Latham family is associated with one of the most singular and exceptional events that ever occurred in the tranquil and law-abiding town of East-Hampton. Gifted with the power of speech it could tell this story: Ebenezer Dayton, a merchant and peddler, residing in Bethany, Connecticut, and travelling as such on Long Island and in East-Hampton before the Revolution, was widely known. In 1780 his store in Bethany was broken open and robbed of œœ450, in gold, silver and other property, by Tories from Long Island, who were arrested, convicted, sentenced, and escaped from prison to Canada. After the Revolution Dayton visited East-Hampton with fancy goods for sale, arriving Saturday evening. On Sunday, although having symptoms of the measles, and against the advice of the hostess who had entertained him, he persisted in attending church service, thereby notifying the public of his presence by occupying a conspicuous seat in the church, and indirectly advertising his goods. News of his indiscretion was spread over the town on the dismissal of the afternoon audience from the church, and the indignation of the people was so obvious that he left in the early morning following. He was pursued by a few young men, overtaken, brought back to the village, rode on a rail through the street, ducked repeatedly in Town Pond, and subjected to other indignities before his release. Nearly one hundred took the measles, of whom several died. To this day tradition perpetuates the story of the Dayton Measles. Col. Aaron Burr, then a young aspiring lawyer, advocated the suit of the peddler, and under his powerful presentation the jury rendered a verdict of One Thousand Dollars damages against the young men. One of them was a Chatfield, whose father to raise money for payment of the damages awarded against his son sold Chatfield Hill to a Latham. Both Thompson and Prime record the tradition substantially as my mother told it. Popular opinion in that day justified the young men. The friends of those who died from the contagion so contracted were not moved by the verdict from that opinion. This is almost if not the only case where the supremacy of law has been questioned by the people of the town, from its settlement. The fortunes of the Hamptons were not remotely connected with that of Sag-Harbor. In the prosperous whaling days many ships were owned in shares, called company ships, wherein the residents of the Hamptons were generally large and often majority owners, in numbers and interests. The masters and crews were furnished in large proportions from the Hamptons. From them came the supplies of wood, of vegetables, of provisions. From them recruits for that vast army of mechanics, of riggers, of laborers, that swarmed around the wharf in summer, and whose strong arms moved the incoming cargoes, and refitted, repaired, and stored supplies, for out-going voyagers. The hum of the spindle is soft and low, as becomes the manufactory. The roar of human industry, hammering on Sag-Harbor wharf in its whaling days was like that of the mighty deep whereto its ships would sail. The master mariners from East-Hampton, would fairly represent her share in this stupendous enterprise. Writing from memory, at the distance of half a century, names may be omitted, yet I recall these Captains, born or resident in East-Hampton town: Jonathan Osborn, Sylvanus Miller, Davis Miller, Joshua Bennett, Lewis L. Bennett, Erastus Barnes, Melvin Edwards, Eli Edwards, Howell Babcock, George Brown, Henry Conkling, George Hand, William Osborn, Edward M. Baker, William H. Hedges, Hiram Hedges, Wm. Mulford, Jeremiah Mulford, Davis Osborn, Hiram Osborn, Wickham S. Havens, Ezekiel Howes, William Howes, William Lowen, Thomas Lowen, Freeman Smith, Sylvester Smith, James Madison Tabor, Vincent King. From the earliest days of the Hamptons their people were alive to the genial influence of commerce. Their trade with New England, New-York and the West Indies was almost coeval with their settlement. In the grant of East-Hampton for the wharf, in 1770, they record this intelligent thought: Trade and commerce are in general a benefit to mankind, and in particular to the inhabitants of this town. The allusion may be simply to the pecuniary results. The benefits were larger and grander. The commerce of Sag-Harbor attracted and developed latent powers that might have been dormant. To the enterprising it opened an alluring field. It enlarged the sphere of human activity and thought. It was a school teaching the most complete self-reliance, the most consummate skill, the highest daring. Not a muscle of the body, not a power of the mind but was toned to grandest achievement. It fostered and inspired a patriotism that dared all and gave all to defend the land of its birth. Out of the whale fighter was made the hero mariner. In the Colonial and Revolutionary wars, and in that of 1812, in every battle on the seas, these men certified to American valor, in letters of light that the world has read. Compeers of Paul Jones and Decatur and Commodore Porter, under the stars and stripes they gained for their country a name of undying renown. In the most noble and ignoble lines the commerce of Sag-Harbor was a blessing to the town. The characteristics of the people who tilled the soil were unlike those who sailed the seas; but the caution of the one tempered the adventurous impulse of the other, as the diversity of notes tend to the sweetest harmony. And the commerce of the one was no less secure, that in part it rested upon the bed rock of the agriculture of the other.
Posted on: Wed, 08 Oct 2014 12:27:56 +0000
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