Footnotes to Long Island History
Patchogue Post office had start in colonial days
by
Thomas R. Bayles
In the early years of the settlement of Long Island, the mail was carried through the Island by post riders on horseback once a week and in the later years the mail was carried by stage coach before the opening of the railroad.
Roes hotel was a famous stopping place over a hundred years ago when the stage coaches traveled from Brooklyn to the east end of the Island and was a halfway station between Brooklyn and Sag Harbor. It was built in 1810 by Justus Roe and many well known men enjoyed the hospitality of this old in , among whom were DeWitt Clinton, John Jacob Astor, Daniel Webster and many others. It was under the management of Austin Roe, who was the son of the original proprietor that this famous old hostelry attained its greatest popularity. " "Uncle Austin Roe " as he was familiarly called was known to everyone throughout the Island and he in turn knew everybody.
According to Skinner's New York State Register for 1830, mails were dispatched from New York for Islip, Patchogue, Moriches and the Hamptons and the Sag Harbor every Tuesday and Thursday at 8 a.m. by stage coach.
When the Long Island railroad was opened throughout Greenport on the main line in 1844 the mail was carried by stages connecting with the trains at Medford to Patchogue and the other villages as far east as East Moriches. Chauncey Chichester of Center Moriches operated this route for several years and it is said the mail was all put in one bag and at each post office he waited until the postmaster sorted out the mail for that office and then the bag was relocked and taken on to the next office and so on to the end of the route at East Moriches.
The railroad was not opened to Patchogue until 1868, which was the terminal for several years and it was not until 1881 that it was continued to Eastport, where it connected with the line running from Manorville to Sag Harbor.
According to the records of the post office department in the National Archives at Washington a post office was established at Patchogue shortly before January 1, 1803 and the first postmaster was Nathan Mulford, and the postmasters that followed him were; Jonathan Burwell, July 1803; Samuel Rogers July 1804; James Bowden January 1807; Walter Swan, January, 1807; William Bacon, July, 1807; John Mills, 1810; Nathaniel Smith, 1816; Smith Rider 1831; James Ketcham, 1840; William Wickham 1846; Joseph B. Wilcox, 1849; John S. Havens, 1853; Samuel C. Hawkins, 1861; Sidney S Overton, 1869; John M. Price, 1866; Sidney S. Overturn, 1869; George D. Gerard 1874; Joshua B. Hammond 1882; William H. Sharp 1884; Charles E. Rose 1886; John J Kirkpatrick, 1891; Charles E. Rose 1896; Edward A. Cowles, 1900; John T. Dare 1908; Fredrick M. Walsh, 1916; Harry T. Weeks, 1921.