East Quogue

Edison's Dream Was a Washout

Staff Writer

Beginnings: Even before John Ogden purchased lands in the Quogue area from the Indian sachem Wyandanch in 1659, settlers from Southampton traveled there to harvest hay from its broad meadows. They loaded the hay onto barges or rafts and poled them back to their farms in Southampton. By the 1790 census, there were only 12 families said to be living in Quogue, a shortened version of Quaquanantuck, an Indian word denoting a cove or estuary.

Turning Point: Once railroad service reached Riverhead in 1844, summer boarders began pouring into oceanside communities such as Quoque. Locals refer to it as the ``boarding house era,'' when wealthy New Yorkers came east once the weather warmed and rented rooms at hotels and rooming houses. That era lasted well into the early 1900s and also ushered in a building boom of sorts when the regular summer boarders began building homesof their own.

Black Gold: In the late 1800s, the ocean beaches in Quogue gleamed a shiny black. The sand was rich with iron ore deposits, which drew the attention of Thomas Alva Edison. He planned to try to extract the valuable ore from the dunes, but his efforts were dashed by happenstance. Here is Edison's account of what happened: ``Some years ago I heard one day that down in Quogue, Long Island, there were immense deposits of black magnetic sand ... My first thought was that it would be a very easy matter to concentrate this, and I found I could sell the stuff at a good price. I put up a small plant, but just as I got it started a tremendous storm came up, and every bit of that black sand went out to sea. During the twenty-eight years that have intervened, it has never come back.''

Roots in the Community: A very large oak tree, partly hollow, stood for decades along Old Country Road in East Quogue and was a virtual post office for Quogue's early settlers. They called it the ``old box tree'' and placed their mail in the tree's hollow center to be picked up and exchanged by post riders. In 1894, the tree was damaged by fire and removed to the Quogue Post Office. Today, that portion of the tree is still on display at the Old Schoolhouse Museum on Quogue Street.

Where to Find More: ``Notes on Quogue, 1659-1959'' by Richard Post; ``Quogue as We Remember It,'' compiled by the Quogue Historical Society; ``East Quogue Remembered,'' by Anita T.S. Appel; all available in the Riverhead Free Library.