MIDDLE
ISLAND—Still active at the age of 92, Lewis E. Ritch of Middle
Island may be seen sawing stove wood at his large woodpile every
good day during the Fall and Winter. The Ritch family burns wood
for heating and cooking, and Mr. Ritch saws it all with his
bucksaw. He has also sawed up 30half cord piles of fire-place wood
this Winter for sale.
Seventy years ago,
before the turn of the century, Mr. Ritch was active in the cord
wood industry in this area, where thousands of cords of wood were
cut every winter. He drove the teams that hauled the wood over to
the “landings” on the sound shore, where it would be ready to load
on the wood sloops and schooners during the summer that sailed from
various landings along the sound, and from the harbors of Port
Jefferson, Setauket and Stony Brook.
Mr. Ritch sailed
with Capt. Jake Mott of Middle Island, on his boat, the “Falcon”,
and made many trips loaded with cord wood down the sound and around
New York harbor and up the Hudson to Haverstraw, where the wood was
sold to the brick yards there and used in baking bricks. His sloop
was a good sized one and carried 40 cords of wood, and many a
thrilling tale Mr. Ritch can tell of those colorful days. He was an
experienced sailor and with Capt. Mott made up the entire crew of
his boat.
Going through
Hell/Gate had to be done when the wind and tide were just right, as
these boats depended on sail altogether for power. He tells of one
afternoon when they had just finished loading at Miller Place when
the wind blew up suddenly from the northwest and would have grounded
the boat if it had started to blow a few minutes earlier. They were
loaded heavily and just managed to get away from shore, and tacking
into the wind took them all night to sail down the sound. Next
morning found them opposite Huntington. It usually took about a
week to make a round trip, and cooking was done on a small stove in
the cabin of the boat. The boats “laid on” as they called it, on
the sound shore at high tide, and as the tide went down, the wood
was loaded and the boat had to be ready when the tide was high
again. Many times men were called out to load the boats during the
night, according to the tide.
Mr. Ritch is still
hale and hearty and says he hasn’t had a doctor in 44 years.
He has a keen mind
and a wonderful memory and tells of the “horse and buggy” days as
though they were yesterday. He has worked in the Union Cemetery for
over 50 years and is able to quote from memory date and inscriptions
of most of the gravestones in the cemetery. He worked with Richard
M. Bayles (father of author of this article) who was a surveyor, for
many years and is familiar with property bounds throughout this
section. His help is sought out by lawyers and surveyors from
neighboring towns and he is always ready to give information to
those looking for it.
He lives in the
old homestead with his son, Raymond and his wife, on the farm which
he has worked all his life. It has been in the Ritch family since
1811. He has always been a great walker, and until recent years
thought nothing of walking to Port Jefferson, a distance of 10
miles. He still walks a couple of miles at night to visit some of
his old neighbors, is interested in sports and always watches the
baseball games on television. He reads the daily papers and keeps
up with the events of the day. Mr. Ritch attributes his healthy old
age to clean, simple living and taking life as it comes without
worrying. Truly, he is the grand old man of Brookhaven Town.