Orient windmills

The Tide Mill at Southold, erected in the 1640s by Thomas Benedict, was the first mill on Long Island's east end at Southold. It's uncertain how long it lasted until the Reeve and Vail windmills. ^[1]

Mill four

Long Island windmills. Top left: Windmill, Orient Point, 1887-1882. George Brainerd BPL collection. Top right: Millpond and Windmill, Orient Point. Middle left: Shelter Island windmill. Middle right: Windpump at Harbes farm, Jamesport, New York. Bottom left: Old Mill Inn, Mattituck, New York. Bottom right: Windpump at the Blue Inn, Marion New York.

Amon Taber built the fourth Orient windmill, located just west of the Orient Old Wharf on the waterfront, for Noah Tuthill in 1760. This mill was also used for grinding grain and replaced an earlier windmill. ^[2]

Mill five

Nathaniel Dominy V built an English style windmill on the Southold village green which was operated by the Terry Family. ^{[3] [4]}

Mill VI

Dominy V also built the Shelter Island Windmill. It stands today at Sylvester's educational farm. ^[5]

Windpumps

The use of windmills and water powered gristmills to pump water has a long history on Long Island's North Fork, dating back to the early days of agriculture in the region. ^[6] A Tuthill descendant recalls working on an American Style Windpump Windmill in 1904. Donald Tuthill estimated that the windpump was last used in the 50's. It was restored in 1985 to working order and the farm has been placed on the NRHP ^{[7] [8] [9]}

The North Fork's flat terrain and consistent sea breezes made it an ideal location for windmills, and many were built in the 19th and early 20th centuries. They were typically made of wood, with canvas or wooden blades that could be adjusted to capture the wind. The windmill would turn a shaft that was connected to a pump, which would draw water from a well and distribute it to the fields through a system of pipes. The rise east of Greenport where the hamlet of East Marion lay in 1879 hosted a windmill visible from the bay. ^[10]

Other mills

A windmill was restored in Aquebogue that is a copy of the 1804 "Pantigo" smock mill. ^[11]

The Tidal mill in Mattituck, NY was built in 1821. It was originally a grist mill, which was later converted into a tavern in 1902, and subsequently transformed into a seafood restaurant. The restaurant closed its doors in April 2017.

The Great Western Mill, situated on Pine Neck in Southold on the George W. Phillips lot east of Mill Hill (now known as Willow Hill), was a distinctive windmill with its iron sails and unique features. Although initially equipped with iron sails, an incident involving strong winds led to their replacement with more traditional canvas sails. Hampton Young and George W. Phillips played significant roles in running the mill, but ownership changed hands over time. In 1839, Hampton Young, Ira Corwin, George W. Phillips, and Giles Wells of Southold jointly purchased the mill. They made the remarkable decision to relocate the mill from New Jersey to Eastern Long Island. To accomplish this, the mill was disassembled into sections and transported through Long Island Sound to Southold Harbor. ^[12]

Joshua Horton built a sawmill and a windmill at East Marion. ^[13]

Historic Marker

As many as 40 windmills and 27 tidal mills once dotted the length of Long Island. ^[14]

A Historic Marker in Southold lists a good number of them. ^[15] The Beers map of 1873 in the collection of the New York Public Library show at Mattituck and Peconic Village entries for G.M. (Grist Mill) at Mattituck inlet and Goldsmiths inlet, and a Sorghum Mill near Mattituck lake. On the Orient side the map shows in Orient Harbor, D.B. Horton, G.Mill. ^[16]

See also

• List of windmills in New York

References

1. Kampel, Stewart (July 17, 1987). "The Windmills of Eastern Long Island". The New York Times. p. C26. Retrieved March 6, 2023.
2. Oysterponds Historical Society (July 1959). Historical Review (PDF). Uniondale, NY: Salisbury Printers. p. 16. Retrieved March 6, 2023.
3. "TimesMachine: Sunday January 27, 1980 - NYTimes.com" . Retrieved June 14, 2023– via TimesMachine.
4. Rosenthal, Hebert (August 30, 1959). "Long Island's Windmill Country". The New York Times. Retrieved March 9, 2023.
5. Chinese, Vera (August 6, 2019). "Shelter Island nonprofit spending $300G to return historic windmill to working order". Newsday. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
6. "Town of Southold Local Waterfront Revitalization Program" (PDF). April 2019. p. 32. Retrieved March 6, 2023.
7. Wacker, Ronnie (December 15, 1985). "On North Fork, The Windmills Whirl Anew". The New York Times. Retrieved March 6, 2023.
8. https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/NRIS/15000518
9. "A relic reborn: 60-foot windmill in Southold restored after years of neglect". The Suffolk Times. September 17, 2015. Retrieved December 7, 2023.
10. "Sailing To Montauk Point: A Short Cruise On A Greenport Sloop". The New York Times. August 3, 1879. p. 5. Retrieved March 6, 2023.
11. Liepa, Bob (August 20, 2022). "Damaged Aquebogue windmill receives three sails from Sylvester Manor". Riverhead News Review. Retrieved December 7, 2023.
12. Clarence Ashton Wood in a January 1955 Long Island Forum article
13. Windmills of Long Island, Robert J. Hefner 1983 ISBN   978-0-393-01780-9
14. Delatiner, Barbara (July 17, 1977). "East End Windmills Are Grist for the Historian". The New York Times. Retrieved March 9, 2023.
15. "Historic Sites of Early Mills and Bridges Historical Marker".
16. "Southold and Shelter Island, Suffolk Co. L.I. - Village, North of Greensport, Town of Southold, Suffolk Co. - Part of Town of Southold".

External links

• Images Archived May 10, 2021, at the Wayback Machine
• Nautical chart of Great Peconic Bay Archived January 14, 2020, at the Wayback Machine