Footnotes to Long Island History
Middle Section of Long Island Settled In 1730
by
Thomas R. Bayles
Restlessness Of Early North Shore Settlers led to Exploration Of Middle and South Side Areas – Brewsters Were Among The First Middle Island Farmers.
By Thomas R. Bayles
Those first settlers of Brookhaven town at Setauket in 1655 were not content to stay in that locality long and before many years explored the middle and south side of the Island. A settlement was established at Mastic before 1700, but it was about 1730 before any settlement was started in the middle section, and Coram is the oldest part to be settled. The town records tell us that in 1730 one John Smith had a house in Coram and the lot on which it stood was on the Country road. In 1731 and 1734 lands were distributed to individual owners on the north and south side of the middle country road and settlement was started through this part of the town.
The first church in this part of the town was the old Baptist “meeting house” at Coram, which was built on the site of the present Methodist church in 1747. This is supposed to have been the first Baptist church in Suffolk county and its existence is wrapped in much obscurity. However the numerous tombstones marking the graves of the early settlers of Coram in the late 1700's in the old burying ground opposite the church are evidence that the church was active in those years. One of these is the stones marking the grave of Rev Noah Hammond, pastor of the Baptist church which carries the following inscription. "Rev Noah Hammond, Minister of the Gospel and pastor of the Baptist church of Coram, born Feb 24 1718, died November 4, 1774.”
Established Post Office
Coram was the center of the town government for a great many years, as it was a more central place than Setauket, after settlements were made on the south side. The old homestead of Lester H Davis was the headquarters for many years from about 1790 until 1884.
Homes were built and farms established eastward to Middle Island. Before 1750 a settlement had sprung up in Middle Island and members of the Brewster family, grandsons of the first minister of the town at Setauket, Rev Nathaniel Brewster, had established homes here. One of these was the old Hutchinson place that was torn down last year. This was one of the early taverns and later town clerks office for Brookhaven town for many years, and post office until 1901. The first post office was established in Middle Island in 1796 and Apollos Wetmore was the first postmaster. It was called Brookhaven in those days, and in possession of the writer is a receipt dated 1812 from the Postmaster General to Benjamin Hutchinson, who was then postmaster for $3.00, which was the amount of the quarterly receipts.
After the settlers had established their homes here they turned their attention to a church, as it was a long drive to the old church at Setauket, or the one that had been more recently opened at South Haven. In 1766 the Presbyterian church was built in Middle Island and services have been held here continuously since that time. The present church was built in 1837.
The building occupied by Pfeiffer's store dates back to the Brewster family in 1739, and was also a tavern at first and a headquarters for the stage coaches that ran through the middle of the Island. The graves of those old Brewster families lie in a lot on the east side of the farm, but the stones marking them were removed many years ago by the owner of the place at that time and thrown in a hedge and lot plowed up. The stones have been removed to the cemetery opposite the church, which is fitting as they are the oldest legible stones hereabouts, one dating back to 1748.
Artist Lake was called Corwin's pond as Rev Jacob Corwin lived near by. He was one of the first pastors of the Wading River Congregational church in 1787, (which had just been organized in 1785), and was the first pastor of the New Village (Center Reach) Congregational church in 1815. His grave is located in the Middle Island cemetery.