He came
from Maidstone, England and located his home in the village now
bearing his name and died in 1717. There have been 11
generations of the Miller family, most of whom have lived in
Miller Place. It is a beautiful village situated on high ground
above Long Island sound.
The old
academy was built in 1834 and for 34 years was active as an
educational institution with students coming from various parts
of Suffolk county. The building now is used as a library.
The home
of Mr. and Mrs. E. J. Stevens built before the Revolution lies
nearly across the road from the academy. Mr. Stevens brother W.
O. Stevens is the author of the well known book "Discovering
Long Island."
The
country stores of Hewlett Davis maintain its charming simplicity
of days gone by in spite of the march of self-service stores,
and is one of the oldest stores in this part of Long Island.
A short
distance of the west is the old Miller-Millard house. Built in
three parts, the west end was built in 1710 the middle in 1756
and the east end in 1790.
Of
interest in the oldest part of this house is the doorway of the
front room leading into the hall which has three loop holes cut
into it. The outer door was secured by a wooden lock and two
heavy iron bars which slipped into wooden sockets fastened on
each door post. During the revolution this was protection
against any Tory raiders, and the three loop holes in the inner
door were provided so that the besieged could still command the
hall with their guns in case of a raid. Part of the front room
is paneled to the ceiling and this is all hand carved as is the
frame around the fireplace.
Driving
towards the Cedar Beach, we follow one of the old landing roads
through the hills towards the sound. This was the scene of great
activity during the past century, when great quantities of cord
wood were carted over it to the sound shore and loaded on sloops
at low tide. Cedar beach lies across the harbor from Mount Sinai
and s a very popular bathing beach maintained by Brookhaven town
for the use of its residents.
Around
the shore we follow the old Pipe Stave Hollow road, which was
the road used by major Benjamin Tallmadge during the Revolution
after he landed on the shore of this harbor with 80 men in open
boats from Fairfield, Conn., on November 21, 1780. They marched
across the Island to Mastic and captured the British fort St.
George located just west of the Tangier Smith homestead at the
manor of St. George, Mastic.
Returning by the way of Coram they burned a large
stack of hay there that had been collected by the British. They
then returned to their boats at Mount Sinai the same day and
sailed across the sound to Fairfield that same night without the
loss of a single man. A letter of commendation was sent to Major
Tallmadge by General Washington for the skillful and daring way
this job was handled.
Around
the shore of the harbor, thousands of bushels of soft and hard
clams were dug and shipped to Bridgeport in years past although
there are not many left now. From the quantities of shells found
on the banks of this harbor it is supposed the locality was once
thickly populated with Indians.
Driving west we come to the Mount Sinai
Congregational church which is located in a beautiful spot on a
hill overlooking the harbor and Long Island sound. The first
church was erected near this spot in 1720, and was a branch of
the "Old Town Church" in Setauket. In 1789 the "First
Congregational Church of Brookhaven" was organized and the
present church was built in 1805. It has been added to and
improved at various times through the years.