Footnotes to Long Island History
Manorville: Why its 'Punkshole"
by
Thomas R. Bayles
One often hears a person say "that man lives in Punkshole," meaning Manorville, a scattered village north of Center and East Moriches, but we wonder how many people really know how that village got its nickname.
The following version dates back to the Revolutionary times. During the Revolutionary War there was a captain named punk who made his headquarters on the eastern part of long Island. During the battle of Long Island this captain, who by the way, was a very inefficient one and always afraid of being attacked made his headquarters in Brookfield later changed to Manorville. Through some one, the captain who always tried to hide when an attack was made upon him, heard that enemy would soon attack his army.
At once he set his men to work digging a large hole in the woods between Manorville and Center Moriches. Just as they finished digging the enemy arrived in Brookfield. Captain Punk and his army hurried into the hole where they remained while the enemy stayed in Brookfield. The enemy finally left without finding the hidden army.
When the enemy learned that the Captain and his men had been hiding they called Brookfield, "Punkshole." Natives soon began using the name and when strangers asked the name of the town they were told "Punkshole."