Footnotes to Long Island History
Manorville: Why its 'Punkshole"
by
Thomas R. Bayles
One
often hears a person say "that man lives in Punkshole," meaning Manorville, a
scattered village north of Center and East Moriches, but we wonder how many
people really know how that village got its nickname.
The following
version dates back to the Revolutionary times. During the Revolutionary War
there was a captain named punk who made his headquarters on the eastern part of
long Island. During the battle of Long Island this captain, who by the way, was a
very inefficient one and always afraid of being attacked made his headquarters
in Brookfield later changed to Manorville. Through some one, the captain who
always tried to hide when an attack was made upon him, heard that enemy would
soon attack his army.
At once
he set his men to work digging a large hole in the woods between Manorville and
Center Moriches. Just as they finished digging the enemy arrived in Brookfield.
Captain Punk and his army hurried into the hole where they remained while the
enemy stayed in Brookfield. The enemy finally left without finding the hidden
army.
When
the enemy learned that the Captain and his men had been hiding they called
Brookfield, "Punkshole." Natives soon began using the name and when strangers
asked the name of the town they were told "Punkshole."