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Bonackers is the name for a group of people from the East Hampton Town area of East Hampton, New York.
The name traditionally refers to the working class families who live in an area called Springs (never, in local parlance, "the Springs") in the north of East Hampton, New York, though for several decades it has been used to refer to residents of East Hampton as a whole. Many of the original Bonac families in Springs were among the very early settlers of the town having come from England, possibly Kent or Dorchester, Dorset, in the 17th and 18th centuries.
The family names associated for generations with the term "Bonacker" include Miller, King, Bennett, Conklin, Strong, Havens, and Lester. The term Bonacker comes from Accabonac Harbor, which in turn derives its name from Montaukett/Algonquian languages term for "root place," or "place of ground nuts" (in most interpretations referring to potatoes). [1]
For some three hundred years, Bonackers made their living as baymen, fishermen, and farmers. Clams and clamming—both hardshell and softshell—were at the heart of Bonac culture and cuisine. Bonac specialties include clam pie, clam fritters, oysters, clam chowder (traditionally, never made with milk, but with tomatoes), bluefish, porgies, blowfish, eel, and blue crabs. The "bay" referred to in relation to a Bonac bayman was Gardiner's Bay, the shoal bay just east of Springs (now often mistakenly called Napeague Bay, a body of water actually to the north and east of Gardiner's). Some Bonac men sometimes also worked at the old Smith Meal plant in Promised Land on Gardiner's Bay, manning boats fishing for menhaden. Gardiner's Bay was the Bonackers' back yard.
In addition to clams, scallops were once also central to Bonac cuisine, but following a die-off in the 1980s, the scallop stocks never recovered.
During the Great Depression, there was great poverty in Springs, and the community got by, as it had for so many generations, by fishing and farming. Until the late 20th century, Springs was an isolated hamlet, without bus service, train service, or even many automobiles. As late as the 1940s, children walked some ten miles, there and back, to attend high school in the village, on Newtown Lane (where East Hampton Middle School now is). It was a very tight-knit community; the Presbyterian Church was an important gathering place.
Now nearly lost forever, there was once a thriving local Bonac dialect, which held strong into the middle of the last century. Today, the Bonac accent is in the process of being lost to the New York City speech patterns of the western portion of Long Island. The Bonac accent is said to be akin to the spoken language of the working class settlers who came from England in the 17th century; and it is also, remarkably, said to be akin to accents of fishing cultures farther down the Atlantic coast, in the Carolinas, for instance, where similar groups of Englishmen settled around the same time. In Bonac, the word "pie," to give one example, was rendered as "poy." (As in, famously: "Boy goy that's good poy.") Archaic English words survived in Bonac dialect into the 20th century, such as the word "Wickus" for rascal. There are only a handful of Bonac speakers left.
Bonackers often also proudly refer to themselves as "bubs" or "bubbies," as in the trademark phrase: "Yes, yes, bub!" A Bonacker wasn't a Bonacker, a bubby wasn't a bubby, unless he had a pickup truck with a Labrador retriever riding in the back. Besides clamming and fishing, Bonackers also trademark local waterfowl and deer hunting, which is a huge part of the true Bonacker lifestyle.
In the 20th and now 21st century, nearly all Bonackers were forced out of their traditional livelihoods and found work in support industries for wealthy vacationers and weekenders on the East End of Long Island. The Bonacker culture has been assaulted by rocketing housing prices on the South Fork—now known worldwide as part of the resort area called, by non-locals, "the Hamptons"—and by troubles in the fishing stocks (troubles both environmental and economic, as well as resulting from controversial Federal government regulation of fishing).
Bonac culture was eulogized in the 1979 book "The South Fork" by Everett Rattray, the longtime editor of the local paper, The East Hampton Star. And, in the early 1980s, the heiress Adelaide de Menil Carpenter—who later donated several historic buildings to serve as the new Town Hall complex in the Village of East Hampton—conducted several hours of interviews on the culture; those tapes now can be found in the East Hampton Library.
The East Hampton High School sports teams are called The Bonackers. [2]
Currently, the East Hampton Historical Farm Museum is a museum dedicated to preserving and presenting the Bonacker lifestyle, and hosts a number of events throughout the year. [3]
Among the phrases attributed to Bonac culture (in addition to those mentioned above):
Amagansett is a census-designated place that roughly corresponds to the hamlet by the same name in the Town of East Hampton in Suffolk County, New York, United States, on the South Shore of Long Island. As of the 2010 United States Census, the CDP population was 1,165. Amagansett hamlet was founded in 1680.
Hampton Bays is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the Town of Southampton in Suffolk County, on Long Island, in New York. It is considered as part of the region of Long Island known as The Hamptons. The population was 13,603 at the 2010 census.
Springs is a census-designated place (CDP) roughly corresponding to the hamlet by the same name in the Town of East Hampton in Suffolk County, New York, United States, on the South Fork of Long Island. As of the 2010 United States Census, the CDP population was 6,592.
The Village of East Hampton is a village in Suffolk County, New York. It is located in the town of East Hampton on the South Fork of eastern Long Island. The population was 1,083 at the time of the 2010 census, 251 less than in the year 2000. It is a center of the summer resort and upscale locality at the East End of Long Island known as The Hamptons and is generally considered one of the area's two most prestigious communities. The Mayor of East Hampton Village is Jerry Larsen, elected on September 15, 2020.
Gardiner's Island is a small island in the Town of East Hampton, New York, in Eastern Suffolk County. It is located in Gardiner's Bay between the two peninsulas at the east end of Long Island. It is 6 miles (9.7 km) long, 3 miles (4.8 km) wide and has 27 miles (43 km) of coastline.
The Town of East Hampton is located in southeastern Suffolk County, New York, at the eastern end of the South Shore of Long Island. It is the easternmost town in the state of New York. At the time of the 2020 United States census, it had a total population of 28,385.
The Peconic Bay is the parent name for two bays between the North Fork and South Fork of Long Island in Suffolk County, New York, United States. It is separated from Gardiners Bay by Shelter Island.
Hither Hills State Park is a 1,755-acre (7.10 km2) state park located on the eastern end of the South Fork of Long Island near the hamlet of Montauk, New York.
The North Fork is a 30-mile- (48 km) long peninsula in the northeast part of Suffolk County, New York, U.S., roughly parallel with a longer peninsula known as the South Fork, both on the East End of Long Island. Although the peninsula begins east of Riverhead hamlet, the term North Fork can also refer collectively to the towns of Riverhead and Southold in their entirety.
The South Fork of Suffolk County, New York is a peninsula in the southeastern section of the county on the South Shore of Long Island. The South Fork includes most of the Hamptons. The shorter, more northerly peninsula is known as the North Fork.
Napeague State Park is a 1,364-acre (5.52 km2) state park in the town of East Hampton in Suffolk County, New York. The largely undeveloped park stretches across the entire narrow width of the South Fork of Long Island from the Atlantic Ocean to Gardiners Bay and Block Island Sound. The park is located on either side of the Montauk Highway on the "Napeague Stretch" between Amagansett and Montauk. The hamlet of Napeague is located on the park's edge.
Hampton Jitney is a family owned, premier commuter motorcoach company, based in Southampton, NY, operating three primary routes from the east end of Long Island to New York City. Hampton Jitney also operates charter and tour services, along with local transit bus service in eastern Suffolk County under contract with Suffolk County Transit.
A fishing dredge, also known as a scallop dredge or oyster dredge, is a kind of dredge which is towed along the bottom of the sea by a fishing boat in order to collect a targeted edible bottom-dwelling species. The gear is used to fish for scallops, oysters and other species of clams, crabs, and sea cucumber. The dredge is then winched up into the boat and emptied. Dredges are also used in connection with the work of the naturalist in marine biology, notably on the Challenger Expedition.
East Hampton Union Free School District is a public school district located in the Town of East Hampton on Long Island, in Suffolk County, New York, United States. It includes the village of East Hampton, the unincorporated area just north of the village, and the hamlet of Northwest Harbor.
Canoe Place was a station stop along the Montauk Branch of the Long Island Rail Road and first opened as a low cinder platform on the south east side of Shinnecock Canal in 1935. The station was in service for "Fisherman's Special" trains and was closed in 1953. "Fisherman's Special" trains operated from Penn Station to Montauk and provided an intermediate stop at Canoe Place for boats waiting to take anglers out on Peconic Bay. The station was located between Hampton Bays and Suffolk Downs Stations. The hamlet where it was located is now part of Hampton Bays, New York.
The Tuckerton Seaport is a working maritime village and museum located in Tuckerton, a borough situated on the Jersey Shore, within Ocean County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The 40-acre (160,000 m2) site, which opened in May 2000, features 17 historic and recreated buildings connected by a boardwalk, a maritime forest and wetlands nature trail. The seaport, which is a member of the Council of American Maritime Museums, celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2010.
A clam pie is a savory meat pie prepared using clams, especially quahogs as a primary ingredient, and it is a part of the cuisine of New England. It likely predated the English settlements in Southern New England, having been a feature of indigenous people's diet. It can also be prepared as a type of pizza pie. White clam pie is a pizza variety that originated in New Haven, Connecticut.
Samuel Schellinger, was a millwright of Amagansett, New York and the craftsman who built the Pantigo windmill (1804), the Hayground Windmill (1809), the Amagansett windmill (1814) and the Beebe Windmill (1820) which are on the NRHP. Later, he built the Setauket windmill. Records show he built or worked on seven windmills and repaired others.
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