During the early years of the settlement of Long Island,
the mail was carried through the island by post riders on horseback
once a week, and in later years before the coming of the railroad,
the mail was carried by stage coach.
According to Skinners New York State Register for 1830,
mails were dispatched from New York City for Islip, Patchogue,
Fireplace, the Hamptons and Sag Harbor every Tuesday and Thursday at
8 a.m.
The prospect of the railroad being extended through the
middle of the Island to Greenport caused great excitement among the
residents of the villages along the line. One historian of that
time records the reaction of the people as follows:
“The inhabitants have scarcely yet recovered from the
consternation produced by the actual openÂing of the railroad. Until
they beheld with their own eyes, the cumbrous train of cars drawn by
an iron horse, spouting forth smoke and steam, passing like a steed
of lightning through their forests and fields, with such velocity
that they could not tell whether the countenances of the passengers
were human, celestial or infernal, they would not believe a railroad
had power almost to annihilate both time and space.”
The completion of the railroad to Greenport in July,
1844, changed the lives and habits of the residents of eastern Long
Island a great deal; many of them who had never been 20 miles from
home now made trips to New York City.
The Boston train, as it was called, made the run to
Greenport with only two stops, one at Hardscrabble (Farmingdale) and
one at Punk’s Hole, (Manor), in 1845, and carried hundreds of
passengers. The Manor station was an important stop, as wood and
water for fuel were taken on there, and the passengers got their
lunch at a lunchroom set up there. This was in one of the most
remote wilderness settlements on the island.
The mail now was brought by the railroad, and stage
lines connected it with the villages along the south side. These
carried freight and passengers besides the mail and operated until
the road was brought to Patchogue in 1868. In 1869 a line was
extended from Manorville to Sag Harbor.
On March 6, 1841, the Long Island Rail Road gave a
mortgage of $40,000 on movable property to the Morris Canal and
Banking company. On June 15, 1843, A. E. Thompson of Islip
purchased the mortgage which covered the following property: “Four
locomotive engines with tenders, viz; an engine called ‘Taglion,’
one called ‘Hicksville,’ one called ‘Ariel,’ and one called ‘Post
Boy.’ Also seventeen passenger cars; forty one burden and freight
cars; three baggage cars; five turning tables; two cranes for
hoisting; one set of Blacksmith’s tools and Engineer’s tools; ten
tons of old scrap iron; two sawing machines; thirteen horses; nine
sets of harness and one hundred cords of wood.”
On December 6, 1845, the mortgage was renewed with the
addition of the following security. “And also the locomotives names
‘Abner Chichester,’ ‘John A. King,’ ‘Elihu Townsend,’ ‘Brooks,’
‘Fisk,’ ‘Henry Ruggles,’ ‘Derby,’ ‘Edwin Post,’ ‘Boston,’ and a new
engine placed on the road in August, 1845. Also twenty-one new
eight-wheel passenger cars, sixteen new eight-wheel burden cars, and
forty five four-wheel cars, and also ten water tanks and their
fixtures at the several water staÂtions on said road. Also engine
‘Crab.’”