Suffolk County New York

Suffolk County Center is located at 300 Center Drive, Riverhead NY 11901; phone: 631-852-1400.

Beginnings [1]

Suffolk, which comprehends the eastern and middle parts of Long Island, is bounded northerly by the Sound, which separates it from the state of Connecticut, easterly and southerly by the Atlantic ocean, and westerly by the county of Queens. It is eighty-three miles in length, from east to west, and from two to twenty in breadth, from north to south, containing about eight hundred square miles, or five hundred and twelve thousand acres of land. In the year 1825, the population, agreeable to the state census, was twenty-three thousand six hundred and ninety-five, being almost thirty to every square mile. The improved land, at the same time, amounted to one hundred and sixty seven thousand eight hundred and eighty-six acres, rather over one third of the whole.

Suffolk was erected into a county November 1st, 1683. It is subdivided into nine towns. The first settlement, properly speaking, was made at Southold, in 1640. The county is very much indented with bays, inlets and coves. Gardner's bay, at the easterly end of the county, penetrates about twenty-eight miles; and Peconic bay, which is a continuation of the same bay, about twelve miles farther. The former contains Shelter Island, Gardner's Island, &c. and the latter, Hog and Plumb islands.

The soil of Suffolk, in general, is light, being mostly sandy loams, sand, and gravel. Nearly all the county may be termed alluvial.

Shelter island, containing about eight thousand acres, lies at the eastern extremity of the county. Great Hog island, half a mile southerly of it, is three miles and a half long. Gardiner's island contains twenty-five hundred acres. It was called by the Montauks Manchanock. Plumb is three miles long and one broad. The Montauks called Shelter island La-han-sac-a-quat-wo-mac, that is, the island sheltered from other islands. Fisher's island is nine miles north-easterly of Plumb island, and is nine miles long and one broad.

Sagg Harbour, a post village and port of entry in the north easterly corner of Southampton, the largest village in the country, contains one hundred houses. It has a good harbour, and is distant from the city of New York one hundred miles.

There are no streams in the count that deserve notice in a work of this kind.

1. MaCauley, James, The Natural, Statistical and Civil History of the State of New-York, Vol II., 1829, William Gould & Company (Gould & Banks), Albany New York.