Mystery on Long Island
BY CYNDI GREENING, THE HAMPTONS, USA – What an exciting day we had today. No, we didn't go to the film festival. We caught the Long Island Railroad to The Hamptons. In the movies, the two places the wealthy always visit are The Hamptons and Martha's Vineyard. So, when Pamela said she needed to go to The Hamptons to do some research on a story she's been working on (based on her family), I was only too happy to comply. We caught the train at Penn Station. It took about two and one-half hours to get to West Hampton. We drove through terrain was wooded, peaceful, placid. I saw deer and wild fowl. No wonder The Hamptons are the escape of choice for New Yorkers. It reminded me a lot of Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin.
One of the things we hear a lot is, "Since 9/11 ..." The Tribeca Film Festival was borne of that moment in time. Our cabbie was telling us that The Hamptons had changed a lot since 9/11. They were no longer the vacation spot they used to be. New Yorkers snapped up all the property in the area for residential development. They didn't want their families in the city any longer. Our cabbie thought that it had been advantageous for The Hamptons because it brought stability. I wondered if there'd been a loss of tourist income to the area. He drove us down Dune Road, the most expensive strip of land in South Hampton because it bordered the Atlantic and was dotted with secluded beaches. The ocean breeze was invigorating and the gulls beseeching. We asked the cabbie to take us to the town of Riverhead, about eleven miles to the north.
Our goal was to find where Pamela's great-grandfather's house had been in Riverhead. We didn't arrive until mid-afternoon. The historical society was closed on Mondays so our only research resource was the Riverhead Public Library. We had the names of her relatives and a reference birthdate or birth year. The library was located within a few blocks of the LIRR station. The library had a Long Island Collection and the librarians were absolutely wonderful about helping us locate reference books that might have information about residents in the mid-1880's. We could find tantalizing mentions of the Terrys, the Strongs and the Tuttles but nothing definitive. Suddenly, there on the wall, we noticed a Riverhead map from 1870. And, there it was, on a lot just a few blocks from the train station and the library, the home of Jasper G. Terry, the great-grandfather. It had been in front of us the entire time.
We walked over to the mid-block of Griffing, just south of Lincoln. A big ole house was there. It was now a law office. In back, an old carriage house style garage, to the east, the remnants of a hearth. We'd have to do some more research to make sure it is the Terry house. What an exciting and fun adventure we had on the end of Long Island!
