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INTRODUCTION.

As an introduction to this volume, permit these few words concerning its origin. In July, 1896, feeling the need of renovating our church building, a meeting was called to consider the best means for raising the required funds.

Two means were decided upon, namely, the holding of a lawn festival and the circulation of a subscription paper among the members and friends of the church. These were immediately put into execution, with the happy result that we were able to completely renovate the interior of our main audience room by the third Sunday of the following March, at a cost of about fifteen hundred dollars, all of which was paid for, with a small balance besides, which was turned to missionary purposes. With gratitude to God for His favor upon our work, we felt the need of rededicating our renovated building to His service, and prepared accordingly a series of services to begin with Sunday, March 21st, and to continue through the week until and including the following Sunday. On the morning of the first Sunday the renovated building was rededicated, the rededicatory sermon being preached by the Rev. Arthur P. Newman, pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Bridgehampton, L. I. We turned to him for this important service not only because he is an able Presbyter and beloved, but because he is a successor in the pastorate of the Bridgehampton Church of the Rev. Dr. Aaron Woolworth, who preached the first dedicatory sermon when the present building was completed in 1817. Brother Newman's text was the same as Dr. Woolworth's, namely, Ps. 123:6, "The Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad." It was an inspiring discourse, and cheered us on in our renewed endeavor. For the evening service of that Sunday we prepared a historical paper, and it was that effort which has led us on to the present result of this volume. We found so much that was interesting and valuable in our research that we were able but to touch the beginning of things on this island in our first paper. We continued our research and presented another installment on the 4th of April following. Again we resumed our study. With increasing delight we found our effort growing both in interest and in proportions. As we came to the time when Shelter Island was fully organized into a town by the election of town officials, and so met the names of the twenty men who were the founders

of our town, we felt, in view of so much that is creditable and delightful in the history of this place, and of their undying connection with it, that their names were worthy of a more permanent form than had yet been given to them. Thus one thing led on to another until now behold what we have endeavored to do-write a series of historical papers on Shelter Island and its Presbyterian Church, with genealogical tables of most of the founders of the town and church. We say "behold" for the reason that it was something which we least intended to do when we started out in the preparation of an historical paper, to be read in connection with the rededication of our church. We feel that such an effort, had we known it at the beginning, would have made us hesitate to the degree of great reluctance, if not to entire refusal. It is only through the uniform kindness which we have received from one and another that we have been able to accomplish this. Among the many who have thus cheered us on and aided us greatly are the following to whom this public courtesy is due, namely, Rev. Epher Whitaker, D. D., and N. Hubbard Cleveland, of Southold, L. I.; Richard C. Fosdick, of St. Paul, Minn.; Miss Katherine E. Havens, of Stamford, Conn.; Mrs. M. S. D. Lawrence, of Quiogue, L. I.; the Misses Horsfords, of Cambridge, Mass.; Mrs. Daniel Hudson, and Byron Griffing, of Shelter Island; Mrs. Sophar Woodhull, of Laurel, L. I.; Mrs. Stuart Terry, of Peconic, L. I.; Miss Elizabeth M. Brown, of New London, Conn.; Mrs. Mabel L. Huntington, of Rome, N. Y.; Mrs. Emma H. Thomson, of New York city; William Wallace Tooker, of Sag Harbor, L. I.; Rufus King, of Yonkers, N. Y., and George R. Howell, archivist of the State Library, Albany, N. Y.

To them as well as to all who have in any way encouraged and assisted the author he extends most hearty and lasting thanks.

And now the volume is to go forth into the hands of the public. What is sought by its issue is simply this: to help fix in memory and in history the things it records as having occurred upon this beautiful island.

Shelter Island, N. Y.

Faithfully yours,

J. E. MALLMANN.

March 15, 1899.

ERRATA.

Page 42, line 38, for George and Mary Havens of Fisher's Island substitute Jonathan and Hannah (Brown) Havens.

Page 43, line 40, omit daughter of Jonathan and Eliza Brown, and grand-daughter of the first Nathaniel Sylvester.

Page 80, in table and wherever subsequently the name Douglass is so spelt; it should be Douglass.

Page 127, line 16, for Edward read Edgar.

Page 136, line 18, for Annable read Annabal.

AND ITS PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.

CHAPTER I.

"Remember the former things of old."

-PROPHET ISAIAH.

THESE words enjoin upon us a precious duty, the duty of retrospection, of calling up the past. It therefore has to do with history. In complying then with this charge, "Remember the former things of old," we shall endeavor to set before you that part of the past which bears upon the history of this fair isle of the sea, and of this honored Church of God. In other words, I am moved to give you an historical paper; the subject of which is, "Shelter Island and its Presbyterian Church." I am moved to do this, because the occasion of this morning, namely, the rededication of this renovated building to the service and glory of God, gives a fitting opportunity to do what our text exhorts us to do, that is, take a glance backward and "remember the former things of old." For such an event emphasizes the past; is in itself a reminder of former days. A rededication suggests a first or former dedication. It thus turns the mind backward, and the mind once thus turned, seems to take delight in travelling over the whole line of sequence and antecedents. Besides this, as I remarked in my opening sentence, the duty enjoined in our text is a most precious duty, precious not only in the sense of being valuable, a truth in itself sufficient to incite one's powers to such a duty, but precious in the sense of exciting within us peculiar affections and encouragements; in showing us how vitally the present is connected with the past; the present being but the outgrowth of the past, as the man is but the outgrowth or development of the boy. By this study we shall see, that the opportunities of to-day are the flowers of the buds of yesterday. That without a past there could never have been a present, much less a future, all of which is precious, doubly precious, since as Dr. McKenzie says in his introduction to Dr. Byington's recent work on "The Puritan," "no study is more essential than that which makes us wise in our past that we

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may be prudent in our future." By the help of our God, I want to aid you in catching this thread of development; this sequence and consequence in the history of this beautiful island with which the life of our church is so closely interwoven. I can say, that to me it has been both a pleasant and a profitable study. It has excited within me those peculiar affections and encouragements already referred to. I have been thrilled by the many things of interest, the hallowed memories, sacred associations, attractive personalities, etc., connected with this garden spot of earth. And as I was thus affected, I understood, at least in part, why a beautiful daughter of this island and church, should have been moved to write the sweet poem, "My Native Isle," that Mrs. Mary Gardiner Horsford did. The subject is worthy of every line of it. I too have wished that the feelings which have come to me, while pursuing my present purpose, might have been voiced and versed through a poet's skill. This much will do for an introduction.

Let me now proceed to give you what I have been able to gather together from one source and another. The earliest reference bearing upon this island that has come under my notice bears the date of 1637. That, my hearers, is just two hundred and sixty years ago. It is a memorable year in the history of our country. Memorable for the conquest that the New England settlers achieved under the leadership of Capt. John Mason and Capt. John Underhill over the fierce tribe of Indians known as the "Pequoits," who had so long. harassed and terrorized them. But in that year, goaded on to extreme measures by the murders that the Pequoits had committed, those early settlers rose up in their might and exterminated that tribe of savages by the aid of fire, sword and gun. It is in connection with that very work of conquest on the hills of Mystic, Conn., that this first reference touching our island is made. Before mentioning it, however, it will help us in our understanding of it, to know that the Pequoits were the most powerful tribe of Indians east of the Hudson River. Their chief sachem, according to Goodkin's History, "held dominion over divers petty Sagamores, who were chiefs of the tribes on Long Island, over the Mohegans, and over the Sagamores of Quinipiac, yea, over all the people that dwelt on the Connecticut River, and over some of the most southerly inhabitants of the Nipmuck country about Quinebaug." Hence the tribes on Long Island, including Shelter Island, were subject to the Pequoits; and acknowledged it, by paying them tribute. Indeed, the earliest

name of the eastern end of Long Island was "Paumanack," meaning land of tribute. Immediately upon the conquest of the Pequoits in 1637, the Indians that dwelt upon Shelter Island, together with those of Long Island, sent representatives to the Englishmen of New England, desiring to be considered their friends and subjects by the payment of a tribute to them. Winthrop, who was Governor of the Massachusetts colony at the time, says in his journal, that upon the reduction of the Pequoits by the English in 1637, "Sachems from Long Island came voluntarily and brought a tribute to us of twenty fathom of wampum each of them." This is also established by the following statement, made by Lion Gardiner, who afterwards became the owner of Gardiner's Island, but who at this time was commander of the fort at Saybrook, Conn. He says: "Three days after the fight with the Pequoits, came Waiandance to me, to see if we were angry with all Indians. I answered, No; but only with such as killed Englishmen. Then he inquired if he (Gardiner) would trade with them, that is the Indians, adding, 'I will go to my brother, for he is the great Sachem of Long Island, and if we may have peace, and trade with you, we will give you tribute as we did to the Pequoits.' Now, the brother of Waiandance, of whom he speaks as the 'great Sachem of Long Island,' was 'Yovowan,' the Sachem of the tribe of Indians who lived on this Island; and who were known as the Manhasset tribe of Indians. Yovowan's name appears upon the deed of Gardiner's Island, dated 1639. He was also called 'Yenicoe,' 'Yennicok,' or 'Yennicott,' and 'Youco,' or 'Yocow.""

This then, is our starting point, and, as a starting point, it will serve our purpose very well, since it tells us a number of things. First of all it tells us who dwelt here, prior to the advent of the white man; not only to the shores of Shelter Island, but, you might say, to the whole of Long Island; for not a settlement had yet been made on the whole of Long Island save at its most westerly extremity, that of Brooklyn-that information being the familiar one of the red man. It tells us, too, what was the relation of the tribe of Shelter Island Indians to the other tribes of Long Island; namely, that of chief. And it further tells us what was the disposition of these Indians towards the English: namely, to have been a peaceable and friendly one. Besides this, I have been able to gather the following, concerning the Indians who lived in this region at that time; by which I mean all the territory east of an imaginary line

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