During the first half of
the nineteenth century, the mail stage coach was the only land
transportation available for passengers and mail from eastern
villages of Long Island to New York and Brooklyn, and the driver
was an important man, In those days, the arrival of the stage was an
exciting event the villages through which it served an attracted great
attention of the residents of each village. The boys shouted, "here comes
the stage," and women and children went to the front doors to see. If
weather was very cold, the driver might be seen wrapping thick garments
and beating his arms against his body to warm his hands. When the
stage stopped a crowd collected to stare at the passengers who got out. Then
the news passed through the stores and blacksmith shops of the villages, Mr.
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of Moriches was in the stage going to New York. In those days a
journey to the city was an event, and a villager who had been "down
to York" was called upon for a week after by his neighbors to
relate what he had seen in the city.
An article in an old Sag Harbor
Express stated that at one time it took three days to reach the city
and three days to return to the east end of the Island, but for some
time before the mail stage service was discontinued there was a tri
weekly stage from New York through the villages of Long Island to
the
east end.
A driver of the mail stage in those days performed many
duties. He acted as driver, baggage master, conductor and expressman.
He carried money to be paid to merchants and for deposit in banks.
Along the way he was handed money with a request to purchase some
article in the city.
About 1827, a great deal of money was carried
by the drivers of the mail stages. One driver, Jeremiah Dayton,
received in New York the proceeds of the sale of the cargoes of two
whale ships, which was placed in canvas bags. As the roads were in
very bad condition, Mr. Dayton decided to remain over night in
Babylon and resume his trip early in the morning. He was a little
nervous about leaving so much money at the stage house, so quietly
took it down to Simon Cooper, the postmaster. Then the stage driver
and postmaster carried the numerous
bags of money upstairs to a room in Mr. Cooper's home, where it was
kept safely overnight, although against the wishes of Mrs. Cooper,
who feared robbery by someone who might have followed the stage.
After the great fire in 1835, the stage from New York brought no
mail, as all the mail had been destroyed in the fire. The New York
post office was then located in the basement of the Merchant's
Exchange, which afterwards was the site of the Customs House.
Among
the names of those who drove the mail stages through the Island in
"ye olden tyme" may be mentioned: Eleazer Hand, Mr. Dayton, John
Thurston, Nathaniel Smith, Scudder Soper, Jesse Conklin, Gilbert H.
Miller and Charles E. Ketcham.
The taverns along the route at which
the stage stopped for meals and for a night's lodging were centers
of interest in the communities, for it was there that some of the
prominent men of the day could be found, and the townspeople would
gather to discuss the latest news brought in by visitors from the
outside world. Here also were left the letters and packages for
people in the settlements round about.
One of the mail stage drivers
who operated in the Patchogue section after the rail road was opened
through the main line to Greenport, was Chauncey Chichester of
Center Moriches. He connected with the railroad at Medford and took
mail for Patchogue and the south side villages to East Moriches. In
1849, Patchogue had one mail each way daily and the villages east of
Patchogue three times a week. He said the mail was all put in one bag
and at each post office he waited until the postmaster sorted out
the mail for that office and then the bag would be relocked and
taken to the next office and so on to the end of the line.
Mr.
Chichester had an old timetable of the Long Island Rail Road in 1860
which carried the following instructions for employees:
"When
passenger trains are more than one hour behind time, a freight train
may proceed with care, but must, without fail, send a flag man ahead
around all curves.
"A very good reason must be given for killing
cattle, or a portion of the damage will be charged to the
engineer."
Mr. Chichester continued to drive the mail stage until the
connecting link of the railroad between Patchogue and Eastport was
built and a station established at Center Moriches. He then bought a
steamboat and ran ferries to the ocean beach a few years, but though
he was popular with his passengers, it was poor substitute for stage
driving to the genial Chauncey, and he gave it up.