Brookhaven Village

From Whales to Trout, Treasures Attract

Beginnings: The seaside hamlet's natural treasures of salt hay and shellfish were attractive to the English colonists who settled in Setauket in 1655. So much so that many decided to make the place their home, negotiating a deal with the native Unkechaugs in 1664 for land encompassing Brookhaven and neighboring Bellport. As if that weren't enough, the settlers three years laters finagled from Tobaccus, sachem of the Unkechaugs, the rights to every whale pulled from the surrounding waters. The price: 5 pounds of wampum or colored shards of seashell the Indians used as currency.

Turning Points: Brookhaven was originally known simply as Fireplace, for the fires lit along the western edge of Carmans River to guide whaling ships safely ashore. In 1871, a group - ``modernizers,'' in the words of former town historian Osborn Shaw - gathered in Fireplace and decided the hamlet's name needed changing. With apparently little concern for the confusion a new name might cause, they picked Brookhaven, the moniker used since 1666 for the entire township. The new name stuck.

Brush With Fame: In the late 1820s, American statesman Daniel Webster, then a U.S. senator from Massachusetts, rented land bordering the Carmans River and secured fishing rights for himself and a few of his friends, including future President Martin Van Buren. Webster's fishing prowess is immortalized in a Currier & Ives lithograph that depicts him pulling a 14-pound trout out of what locals believe is the Carmans' mill stream.

Where to Find More: Bellport-Brookhaven Historical Society, 31 Bellport Lane, Bellport.