Tar Men’s Neck

So far, I have told you only of Fire Place Neck which lies between the Head-of-the Neck line on the north and the Bay on the south and between Little Neck Run and Connecticut river on the east and Beaver Dam or Fire Place Creek on the west. I must now tell you something of the other two Necks — Tar-men’s Neck and Dayton’s Neck to which the name “Fire Place” was in later years generally applied — the three necks making up the village. Tar-men’s Neck is the relatively small tract, south of the Head-of-the-Neck line that lies between Beaver Dam Creek on the east and the Otter Swamp and Otter Hollow on the west. The neck comes to a point at the junction of Otter Creek and Fire Place Creek south east of the Methodist church property — the Otter Creek being the one where Clinton Smith now has a winter storage for small boats. The swamp and creek were evidently much larger than they are today and probably extended across the Montauk Highway through the hollow south west of the late Mrs. Edward Raynor’s and north east of Mrs. Post’s corner. It was also called Tar-men’s Swamp.
Tar-men’s Neck derives its name from the fact that tar was made from the pine trees of the vicinity and the tar-men had a house in the Neck, some time prior to 1678. According to tradition, the house or shack stood a little east of the centre of the neck, probably in the immediate neighbourhood (sic) of Mrs. Amy d’ Arcas’ place. The manufacture of tar and turpentine was carried on quite extensively in the Town at a very early date. By 1715, it had grown to such an extent that the trustees put a duty of “a bit” for every barrel of tar and ten shillings for each barrel of turpentine made in the Town. That they had difficulty in collecting the duty, is evident from that fact that on 2 Dec. 1717, they met for the expressed purpose of calling those men to account that had made or “run tar” upon Town lands, to pay the money they were owing.

Dayton’s Neck

Dayton’s Neck is the next neck to the west. It lies between the Head-of-the Neck and the Bay and from Fire Place Creek on the east to Dayton’s or Osborn’s Brook on the west. It was in later years sometimes called West Fire Place. The neck was named after Samuel Dayton who on 13 Sept. 1678, had 40 acres laid out to him by the Town in lieu of some other land he did not get in a former allotment. At the same time he received “another adition of land aloyning to it of the nor est corner from a lot that was part munces where the tarr mens hous stoode”, hence it is evident that Samuel Dayton owned a part of both Tar-men’s Neck and the neck that bore his name. However, he did not own the fifteen acre lots with their adjoining meadow shares which extended also along the south of his neck as they did along the south of fire Place Neck as I have previously told you. Dayton came from Southampton to Setauket and finally removed to his neck here on the South Side, probably about 1678 and from an entry in Book B of the town records, it appears that he gave the name of “West Hampton” to some part of the section. On 4 July 1690, the day before he died, he deeded his land to his two daughters, Sarah and Elizabeth, with the proviso that his wife was to have it during her lifetime. He was probably the first white man to live in this section. Just where his house stood is not known, but it probably was somewhere in the vicinity of Clam Hollow, (which some of you may not know is the name of the hollow east of the George Washington property), possibly even nearer to Bellport and he may thus properly be claimed by both villages. As the Bellport School District and Fire District boundary line is at Arter’s or the Hollow Road, the western part of Dayton’s Neck is consequently in Bellport.
I do not know the chain of title of the neck and it would be out of place to give it here even if I did. I do know that Elias Bayles owned it sometime after 24 Feb 1714/5. In 1780, it was owned by Micah Mills of Southampton, who sold it that year to Nathaniel Woodruff after which it became known as Woodruff’s Neck, and later as West Fireplace.