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Nicknamed "Liquor Island," Long Island was rumrunner's paradise during Prohibition. With its proximity to major markets and coastal communities for easy transit, Suffolk County was awash in illegal hooch. Smugglers bringing cases of booze from offshore often secretly hid product temporarily in local garages and sheds, leaving a bottle as a thank-you. Coded communication crisscrossed the county on shortwave radios arranging sales and logistics. Violence from criminal outfits disrupted previously quiet towns, as locals too often were swept up in dangerous unintentional engagements with bootleggers. Pour one out and join author Amy Kasuga Folk as she recounts stories from Suffolk County's Prohibition era
Nicknamed "Liquor Island," Long Island was rumrunner's paradise during Prohibition. With its proximity to major markets and coastal communities for easy transit, Suffolk County was awash in illegal hooch. Smugglers bringing cases of booze from offshore often secretly hid product temporarily in local garages and sheds, leaving a bottle as a thank-you. Coded communication crisscrossed the county on shortwave radios arranging sales and logistics. Violence from criminal outfits disrupted previously quiet towns, as locals too often were swept up in dangerous unintentional engagements with bootleggers. Pour one out and join author Amy Kasuga Folk as she recounts stories from Suffolk County's Prohibition era
Oysterponds, located on Long Island at the eastern end of the North Fork, was inhabited by colonists soon after the settlement of the town of Southold in 1640. The people of the area have a proud heritage divided between the land and the sea. During the first quarter of the 19th century, the hamlet divided into two communities: East Marion and Orient. Little has changed since the Civil War, as the two communities are still composed of graceful homes and shady streets. Popular with tourists during the late 19th century, the area continues to draw artists and photographers, as well as sailing enthusiasts and fishermen, with its rural charm and miles of shoreline. Although many of the commercial enterprises that once made up the business area are long gone, the buildings remain, transformed into elegant houses that give no hint of their commercial pasts. Vintage photographs from the collection of the Oysterponds Historical Society open a window into the past and allow a brief glimpse into the history of the area.
Greenport, New York, a village on the North Fork of Long Island, has become an exemplar of a little-noted national trend—immigrants spreading beyond the big coastal cities, driving much of rural population growth nationally. In Village of Immigrants, Diana R. Gordon illustrates how small-town America has been revitalized by the arrival of these immigrants in Greenport, where she lives. Greenport today boasts a population that is one-third Hispanic. Gordon contends that these immigrants have effectively saved the town’s economy by taking low-skill jobs, increasing the tax base, filling local schools, and patronizing local businesses. Greenport’s seaside beauty still attracts summer tour...
Examines the history of the Italian anarchist movement in New London, Connecticut. In the early twentieth century, the Italian American radical movement thrived in industrial cities throughout the United States, including New London, Connecticut. Facing toward the Dawn tells the history of the vibrant anarchist movement that existed in New Londons Fort Trumbull neighborhood for seventy years. Comprised of immigrants from the Marche region of Italy, especially the city of Fano, the Fort Trumbull anarchists fostered a solidarity subculture based on mutual aid and challenged the reigning forces of capitalism, the state, and organized religion. They began as a circle within the ideological cam...
Although no battles were fought on Long Island, the Civil War deeply affected all of its residents. More than three thousand men-white and black-from current-day Queens, Nassau and Suffolk Counties answered the call to preserve the Union. While Confederate ships lurked within eight miles of Montauk Point, camps in Mincola and Willets Point trained regiments. Local women raised thousands of dollars for Union hospitals, and Long Island companies manufactured uniforms, drums and medicines for the army. At the same time, a little-remembered draft riot occurred in Jamaica in 18G3. Local authors Harrison Hunt and Bill Bleyer explore this fascinating story, from the 1860 presidential campaign that polarized the region to the wartime experiences of Long Islanders on the battlefield and at home. Book jacket.
During World War II, a group of potato farmers opened the first migrant labor camp in Suffolk County to house farmworkers from Jamaica. Over the next twenty years, more than one hundred camps of various sizes would be built throughout the region. Thousands of migrant workers lured by promises of good wages and decent housing flocked to Eastern Long Island, where they were often cheated out of pay and housed in deadly slum-like conditions. Preyed on by corrupt camp operators and entrapped in a feudal system that left them mired in debt, laborers struggled and, in some cases, perished in the shadow of New York's affluence. Author Mark A. Torres reveals the dreadful history of Long Island's migrant labor camps from their inception to their peak in 1960 and their steady decline in the following decades.
A meticulously researched account of one of the North Fork’s most infamous crimes: the Wickham Axe Murders of 1854. In the mid-nineteenth century, James Wickham was a wealthy farmer with a large estate in Cutchogue, Long Island. His extensive property included a mansion and eighty acres of farmland that were maintained by a staff of servants. In 1854, Wickham got into an argument with one of his workers, Nicholas Behan, after Behan harassed another employee who refused to marry him. Several days after Behan’s dismissal, he crept back into the house in the dead of night. With an axe, he butchered Wickham and his wife, Frances, and fled to a nearby swamp. Behan was captured, tried, convicted and, on December 15, became one of the last people to be hanged in Suffolk County. Local historians Geoffrey Fleming and Amy Folk uncover this gruesome story of revenge and murder. Includes photos! “Mr. Fleming and Ms. Folk graphically recreate the crime itself and Behan’s attempts to escape. They describe in detail his capture, incarceration, trial, and conviction ending in his execution.” —The East Hampton Star
Bordered on the south by the Atlantic Ocean and on the north by Long Island Sound, the Peconic Bay region, including the North and South Forks, has only recently been recognized for its environmental and economic significance. The story of the waterway and its contiguous land masses is one of farmers and fishermen, sailing vessels and submarines, wealthy elite residents, and award winning vineyards. Peconic Bay examines the past 400 years of the region’s history, tracing the growth of the fishing industry, the rise of tourism, and the impact of a military presence in the wake of September 11. Weigold introduces readers to the people of Peconic Bay’s colorful history—from Albert Einstein and Captain Kidd, to Clara Barton and Kofi Annan—as well as to the residents who have struggled, and continue to struggle, over the well-being of their community and their estuarine connection to the planet. Throughout, Weigold brings to life the region’s rich sense of place and shines a light on its unique role in our nation’s history.
For centuries, Long Island's beaches have provided sustenance, relaxation, and inspiration. The coastline is renowned for its sandy Atlantic Ocean surf beaches, calm bayfront beaches, and rugged north shore Long Island Sound beaches. First inhabited by Native Americans, the area was called Sewanhacky ("Isle of Shells") in reverence to the offerings received where the water met the land. Drawing from the archives of local libraries, historical societies, museums, and private collections, Long Island Beaches presents a curated selection of vintage postcards illustrating the diversity of Nassau and Suffolk Counties' beautiful shores. Rare photographs and maps accompany the postcards to provide historical context. Through extensive research, author Kristen J. Nyitray documents a facet of Long Island's social and cultural history and the lure of its picturesque beaches.