View Looking West:
Town Meeting in 1880 at the Davis Home, Photo by Howard S. Conklin,
Davis-Erhardt Collection
Brookhaven town
was settled in 1655 at Setauket, and it wasn’t long before those
early settlers began to explore the south side of the town around
South Haven and Mastic. In 1657 they purchased a tract of meadow
land at Mastic from Tobaccus, chief of the Unkechaug Indians, who
had their headquarters at Mastic, and occupied all the territory on
the south side of the town from Blue Point to Eastport and north to
the middle of the Island.
Around 1700
settlement began to be made in the Mastic and South Haven area, and
as this section of the town grew it was found to be a hardship to
make the long trip on horseback to the town headquarters at
Setauket. About 1750 settlements were made through the middles of
the Island and a few years later Coram was chosen as the town
headquarters as a more central place, and for over a hundred years,
until 1885, the old homestead of Lester H. Davis was used in which
to hold the annual spring town meetings, and for other town
purposes.
The great
population growth in recent years west, south, north and east of
Coram, together with the many roads coming together here, again
makes Coram the center of the town, as it was in the early years.
The Port Jefferson-Patchogue road crosses the Middle Country road
here, the old “Town Road” from Setauket comes in at this place and
continues on to Yaphank and Mastic as the Mill Road and Gerard Rd.
The “Mooney Pond” rd. and the Mt. Sinai rd. come into Coram, making
convenient roads from all parts of the town.
“Town Meeting” day was a big
event in the lives of those early settlers, and in addition to
electing their town office, gave the men assembled here a day of
social get together. The horse drawn box wagon with boards for
seats was the common means of transportation, and the man who rode
to Coram in a buggy was considered an aristocrat. As the wagons
filled with voters came to the town capital from all parts of the
town they were met along the roads by poll workers, each with a
ticket of the candidates for whom he was working.
The old Davis
homestead (built in the mid 1700’s) was a scene of great activity
and outside in the road were baker wagons, oyster stands, farming
implement sales men and others. The Riverhead peanut man was always
on hand with his “her you go, your three legged, humped back, double
jointed peanuts, five cents a pint.”
There was no liquor sold at
town meeting, but there was however, a mecca to the east and long
lines of men would be seen making their way down to “Uncle Oscar’s”,
where the obstinate voter was given something more soothing than
words about the candidates he was asked to vote for.
Town meeting was a sort of
clearing house and horses were swapped, relatives inquired about and
the crop prospects discussed, with a social good time enjoyed by
all. Dinner was served at the town house for fifty cents but the
thrifty farmers brought their lunch along. The west front room of
the house was used for voting and the upper rooms for counting the
votes where a long table with tall glass oil lamps was located. The
Justices of the Peace acted as inspectors and the voting lasted
until sundown, when one of the Justices stepped out on the front
porch and called out, “Hear ye; Hear ye; these polls are now
closed.” The ballot boxes were then taken upstairs and the work of
counting the votes for each candidate begun. It was slow work as
there were no voting machines in those days and sometimes lasted
through the night into the early morning hours. The shaded oil
lamps threw a dim light on the table and the interested candidates
stood looking over the shoulders of the workers.
In the spring of 1884 a
proposition to divide the town into election districts was carried
by a large majority, and the old voters were broken hearted. No
more meeting of old friends from all parts of the town, and this was
the end of “Town Meeting” days at Coram.
Now with all the talk of a new
town hall for Brookhaven town, history may repeat itself and make
the location of Coram the most central and convenient for that
purpose.