[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 138 (Tuesday, October 6, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1926-E1927]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    A TRIBUTE TO THE TOWN OF EAST HAMPTON, LONG ISLAND ON ITS 350TH 
                              ANNIVERSARY

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. MICHAEL P. FORBES

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, October 6, 1998

  Mr. FORBES. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in this hallowed chamber to ask 
my colleagues in the U.S. House of Representatives to join me and my 
family, friends and neighbors in East Hampton, New York, as we 
celebrate the 350th anniversary celebration of this historic, seaside 
Long Island town.
  Located at the eastern tip of Long Island's South Fork, East Hampton 
possesses a rich and storied history as one of this nation's earliest 
settlements, its 350-year legacy intertwined with the history of this 
great nation and the rest of Long Island as well.
  East Hampton boasts the United States' first public works project, 
the Montauk Lighthouse commissioned by George Washington. Sag Harbor, 
on the town's western border with Southampton, served as home port for 
many great whaling ships during the heyday of that long since faded 
industry. Because it still possesses much of the natural beauty and 
idyllic scenery as it did in the 17th century, the Village of East 
Hampton has served as America's preeminent resort community for the 
wealthy for the past 120 years, a summertime magnet for the world's 
artistic, business and social elite.
  The story begins in 1648, when a small band of Puritan settlers from 
Lynn, Massachusetts pushed through the woods of the South

[[Page E1927]]

Fork to settle East Hampton. The town was founded on April 29 with the 
purchase of 31,000 acres from the Montaukett Indians. The settlers 
built their huts and cottages along what is now Main Street, and named 
their new home Maidstone after the English village they left behind. 
Within a few years, 37 families called Maidstone home.
  Like other pioneer towns of the Colonial era, East Hampton grew 
quickly, attracting many artisans, fishermen, craftsmen and farmers who 
were overwhelmed by the area's bountiful waters and rich farmland. 
Soon, the town branched out to the grazing lands of Wainscott, the 
meadows of Acobonac, the fishing port of Montauk and the harbor at 
Northwest.
  My colleagues, the spirit and handiwork of the original East Hampton 
residents still lives in the many venerable homes and schools that 
today stand in the village. Built in 1650, Home Sweet Home is the 
childhood residence of actor-playwright John Howard Payne, who wrote 
the famous song the house is named after. Next door is the Mulford 
House, built in 1680 and also one of Long Island's oldest structures. 
The Huntting Inn encloses the home built in 1699 for the town's second 
minister, and the Clinton Academy became New York State's first college 
prep school when it was established in 1784.

  The Main Street home of artist Thomas Moran, whose large canvasses of 
Yellowstone and Yosemite that helped create the National Park System, 
is on the National Register of Historic Places. Adjacent to the Moran 
home is the ``Summer White House'' used by President John Tyler and his 
wife, the former Julia Gardiner of East Hampton.
  While America's westward expansion continued unabated for the first 
century, East Hampton grew slowly over its first 200 years. That 
changed dramatically in the 1870's, when well-to-do New Yorkers looking 
to escape the city in summer, and artists and writers who were just 
looking to escape the city, simultaneously discovered East Hampton's 
bucolic ambience. By the 1880's, East Hampton was a flourishing resort 
for the financially and artistically gifted. When the Long Island 
Railroad was extended to East Hampton in 1895, the village's population 
was fully into its annual summer explosion.
  Comprised of the incorporated Village of East Hampton and several 
smaller hamlets, each of East Hampton's communities has its own 
district history. The fishing village of Amagansett was home to many 
great whaling captains of centuries past, including the legendary 
Captain Josh Edwards. In 1942, an alert U.S. Coast Guardsman spotted 
four German spies, launched in a rubber boat by a Nazi sub, landing at 
Amagansett. After a 15-day manhunt, all four would-be saboteurs were 
captured, and two more subsequently executed for their crimes.
  Springs is considered by many the artistic heart of the Hamptons. It 
most famour resident was the sublime American artist Jackson Pollock. 
Located on Acobonac Harbor, the denizens of Springs were the original 
``Bonackers,'' formerly a derisive term, like calling some one a hick. 
Today, all East Hamptonites proudly call themselves Bonackers. Few of 
Long Island's many hamlets have retained their historical charm as well 
as Wainscott, in the southwest corner of East Hampton. Where else do 
students still go to school in a one-room schoolhouse.
  There is no area of Long Island that has changed less since English 
settlers first landed here nearly 400 years ago than Gardiners Island. 
Located in Gardiner's Bay between the North and South Fork of Long 
Island, the Island was purchased by Lion Gardiner from Wyandanch, the 
sachem or chief of the Montaukett Indians, in 1639. Today, the crescent 
shaped isle remains in the Gardiner family's possession, in the same 
pristine condition as when Lion acquired it.
  Mr. Speaker, it is with great pride and emotion that I stand here 
today and share East Hampton's 350-year annivesarty with my 
Congressional colleagues. Though still just a small, seaside town on 
the East End of Long Island, Eash Hamption boasts a proud legacy of 
achievement and fame that places it among the world well-known 
communities. I congratulate everyone of my friends and neighbors as 
they celebrate this historic anniversary.

                          ____________________