Other Early Families

Members of the Hulse family from Setauket also became settlers at an early date and they were followed by members of the Hawkins family also from Setauket. But on a whole, the settlement was small and continued small for a number of years. By 1790, the Federal census taken that year, shows quite some growth and the heads of families of Fire Place and South Haven taken together, gives the following names: Mordecai Homan, Francis Bates, James Greenfield (a Scotchman) (sic), Joseph Terry, John Rose (owner of the land on which this Library building stands), Timothy Rose, Zepheniah Conklin, Margaret Jayne, Jesse Rose, Joseph Hawkins, Isaac Overton, Henry Hulse, David Rose, Benajah Hobart, Joseph Swezey, Jeremiah Hobart, Stephen Swezey, Thomas Colley, Ezekiel Hand, Nathaniel Hulse, Nathan Rose, Barnabas Rider, Abigail Hulse, Eunice Rider, Richard Hulse, William Rogers, Abigail Woodruff, Abraham Corey, David Homan, Morris Homan, Daniel Rose, Mary Gee, George Lambert, Thomas Ellison, Jonathan King and Samuel Carman. It is unfortunate that the census does not give the villages in which these listed lived, but it is fortunate that the names do not appear in alphabetical order, but are in the order in which the persons lived along the various streets and by some little study, it is possible to ascertain from the census, with quite a degree of certainty, the name of the heads of families of the villages and settlements of any town or county in the State. It should be remembered that in 1790, South Haven was the largest settlement on the south side of Brookhaven Town and that probably most of the above names, were residents of that place.

1855

In 1855, on the map of the county, (an enlarged copy of which may be seen in the Brookhaven Planning Board office in Patchogue), there are given the names of property owners. From Alfred Brown’s to Snow’s corner or Yaphank Ave., along the South Country Road, there are 27 owners; 13 on Beaver Dam Road; 1 on the School House Road, or whatever you now call it, and none on Bay Road — evidently an omission for we know that Capt. Augustus Hawkins lived on it at the time. The Stump road is not given at all and none of the roads have names on the map.

Street Names

In regard to the names of your streets, in the Long Island Atlas of 1872, Beaver Dam Road appears as “South Street”, School House Road as “Beaver Street”, Bay Road as “Atlantic Avenue” and the old Fish Road running to Bellport depot from Post’s corner as “Ruland Avenue”. In the 1888 atlas, the name of but one road appears and that is Beaver Dam Road which appears as “Brookhaven Avenue”. From some of the notes left by my late uncle, Dr. Edward Shaw, I learn that an old name of this road was “Fire Place Neck Road” and I vaguely recall hearing it also called the “Squassucks Road” when I was a boy.