Footnotes to Long Island History
Old Town Roads Described
by
Thomas R. Bayles
An interesting legend has been handed down regarding the Whiskey road.
The story goes that in early years, one of the Randall family that lived
on the farm of the late John G. Randall in the northern part of Ridge,
had a girl friend by the name of Swezey, who lived in Swezeytown, north
of Middle Island, and near where the Whiskey road comes out. In those
days, farmers had slaves. They were ordered to clear a trail from the
Randall farm to the Swezey farm, and as an incentive for the men to
work, a jug of whiskey was set ahead some distance. The slaves were told
that when they had the road cleared to the jug they could have a drink.
Then the jug was set ahead again and each time the course was changed
which is supposed to be the reason why the road is so crooked, and why
it was given its name, Whiskey road.
The old Hay
road which ran across the Island to Mastic was an important road in the
years gone by. The northern entrance to Camp Upton followed this road
from the Middle Country road south. The farmers used this road to go to
the salt meadows around Mastic where they cut salt hay and hauled it to
their farms in the middle and north side of the Island.
At a meeting
of the Town Trustees in 1704 it was decided that the residents should
engage in the work of clearing the highways, according to the orders
given by Thomas Helme, one of the commissioners of the county for laying
out highways. The people of the town were to work according to their
assessments in the county rate. The following year the town ordered that
men should be sent four days a year to clear the commons and repair the
highways. In August of that year men went to clear the Middle Country
road, one gang going east to “Horn Tavern,” and the other west to the
Smithtown line. In 1707 it was ordered that every freeholder should work
two days in clearing the commons and highways of brush and undergrowth.
The oldest
road of any great length opened in the town is that running from
Setauket in a south-easterly direction through Coram to Fireplace
(South Haven), called the Old Town road. It was opened soon after the
town was settled and was the main thoroughfare of travel from the town
capitol at Setauket to the settlement at Mastic and the meadows. For
many years it was used more than any other long road in the town.
Roads were
also opened at an early date from Setauket east to Wading River, and
west to Smithtown. The Old Country road through the middle of the
Island, now Middle Country road, was broken through shortly before 1700,
and the roads parallel to it on the north and south sides of the town
were opened shortly after.
A road laid
out from Old Man’s (Mt. Sinai) south was laid out in 1728, and another
from Old Man’s to Wading River at the same time. Some of the roads laid
out in the 1700’s include: The Horseblock road, running from Southaven
to Stony Brook in a northwesterly direction: the Sill’s road, running
from Bellport to Swezey’s Mill in Yaphank; a road southerly from Coram
to Patchogue; another from Halsey’s Manor and Brookfield southwest to
Fireplace Mills ; the “Wading River Hollow road” from Woodville
(Shoreham to Middle Island; a road from Yaphank to Moriches; another
from Miller Place to Middle Island, then following the bank of the
Connecticut (Carman’s) river through Yaphank and to Mastic; the “Granny
road” running from a point south of Middle Island westerly to a junction
with Horseblock road. Another was the “Crystal Brook Hollow road,” from
the west part of Old Man’s to Coram in a southwesterly direction. The
road from Coram to Drown Meadow (Port Jefferson) was laid out in 1790.
In 1712 a
road was laid out “between John Roberson’s land and Samuel Dayton’s
Lande to ye olde mans Beach a hiwaye layde oute tu Rod wide, a swinging
gate allowed.”
The
commissioners of highways divided the town into 40 road districts in
1830.