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Fun & Interesting Facts about Oyster Bay

Spy Rings, Secret Tunnels, Romantic Valentines and More
Oyster Bay is known for so many cool things… it was the scene of the first-ever recorded Valentine's Day letter in America; a home that was part of George Washington’s Spy Ring; a historic house that is said to be haunted and more. Still standing are Snouder’s Drug Store, site of the first telegraph/telephone in Oyster Bay, the Moore’s Building (now Wild Honey Restaurant) where Teddy’s Roosevelt’s staff had its offices and many other landmarks.  Please enjoy and share these Fun Facts about Oyster Bay! 

The Townsend Legacy

​The grave site of Robert Townsend, a member of the Culper spy ring who helped to supply the forces of Gen. George Washington with critical information, working between New York City and (British-occupied) Long Island. Townsend's code name was Culper Jr.

Buying Oyster Bay

According to a 1653 document titled "First Purchase," the land, which even then was known as Oyster Bay, was sold to European settlers for "six Indian Coates, sixe Ketles, sixe fathom of wampum, sixe Hoes, sixe Hatchetts; three pairs of stocking[s] thirty Auln-blades or Muxes , twenty Kniues, three shirts, & as much peage black wampum as will amount to ffoure pounds sterling." Pictured: The waters off Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Park in Oyster Bay on April 2, 2015.

President Theodore Roosevelt's Secret Tunnel

Captain Kidd in Oyster Bay

The buccaneer Captain William Kidd (pictured, top) had reportedly stopped to bury booty in Long Island areas we know today as Montauk, Gardiners Island, Setauket, Centre Island and Cove Neck -- the latter two spots located in the current Town of Oyster Bay -- but Kidd also came to what is now the hamlet of Oyster Bay; a stop that led to his eventual capture and death. 

Kidd was high on the wanted list of English law enforcement at the end of the 17th century, but the pirate felt he could negotiate out of his legal problems. Anchoring his ship Antonio in Oyster Bay Harbor in June 1699, the pirate connected with a friend, attorney James Emmot, with confidence that a pardon from Richard Coote, earl of Bellomont, the colonial governor of the then-province of New York (and who at one time was a financial backer of Kidd before he turned to piracy) could be arranged. A deal was struck ... or so Kidd thought. Despite a message offering a likely escape from penalty, Kidd arrived in Boston to meet with Coote (a municipality also under the earl's jurisdiction) and was soon arrested, sent to London for trial, found guilty on several charges and subsequently executed in May 1701.

A Townsend Rejects an Appointment

The aforementioned Richard Coote, earl of Bellomont and colonial governor of the then-province of New York, had made it clear that he was no fan of Long Island in 1699 when he wrote a letter that brought up LI, then known as Nassau Island. The earl stated Long Island was a "great receptacle for Pirates," and that locals of the time "have many of them been pirates themselves, and naturally are not averse to the trade; besides that, they are so lawless and desperate a people that I can get no honest man that will venture to go and collect their excise among them and watch their trade." 
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Coote may have been referring to what happened a year earlier in Oyster Bay, a port where he felt duties owed to the king of England weren't being collected on goods coming through -- and he appointed Oyster Bay customs officer "Justice" John Townsend in March 1698 to also serve as the "Surveyor & Searcher of his Majesties Customs in the Towns of Oyster-bay, Huntington and Masketo Cove" (today known as Glen Cove).
Townsend, however, soon resigned the post, giving cause as that "he hath met with such Discouragement by the Abuses and Menaces of the Inhabitants of the said Oyster-bay, that he dares not execute the said Office," later expressing that his neighbors -- many of which were relatives as the Townsend family were among the earliest and most prolific settlers of Oyster Bay -- were going as far as to threaten his life.
Justice John Townsend is reported as interred at the Fort Hill Townsend Burying Ground (pictured), among his kin from various generations.

The Ghost Vortex

Raynham Hall staffers say that according to paranormal experts, this flue is the focus of otherworldly energy found in this ancient house, which has long been said to be home to a number of ghosts.
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The apparitions that have been reported include a mysterious child, unrecognized servants, a ghost cat and Sarah Townsend, who lived to be 82, never to marry. (She did, however, receive a proposal--a poem believed to be the very first American Valentine...)

The First American Valentine

Although such tokens were already commonplace in Europe, Raynham Hall lays claim to being the location of the first Valentine bestowed on American soil -- in this case from British Lt. Col. John Graves Simcoe to Sarah Townsend.

The circumstances were probably not optimal for romance: the British, occupying Long Island, quartered the Townsend's house and placed 300 troops on the grounds. Simcoe lived on one side of the home, while Robert Townsend, his wife (Sarah) and children (Sally, Phoebe, Robert, David, William, Audrey and Sarah) remained on the other -- and the Townsend girls were pressed into serving Simcoe and his troops. Simcoe became smitten with the daughter Sarah, then 19. He gave her a lengthy poem on Feb. 14, 1779, that included the words: "To you my heart I must resign...O choose me for your Valentine!"

Not only did Sarah refuse, but there is speculation it was this amorous attempt that inspired the offended brother Robert to join the Culper spy ring in the first place.
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Pictured: Harriet Gerard Clark, executive director of Raynham Hall Museum, holds a portrait of Lt. Col. John Graves Simcoe.

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