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| An artist's rendition of the coach that transported President George Washington on his 1790 tour of Long Island. Image from Historic Long Island in Pictures, Prose and Poetry, 1956, by Long Island Historian, Paul Bailey. |
THE
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES VISITS COPIAGUE
Many people are not aware that our
Nation’s Father, our premier leader, President George Washington visited
Copiague. The year after his inauguration, the Commander-in-Chief spent five
days touring Long Island in the spring of 1790. Reportedly, the official reason
for his visit was to survey citizens regarding the fledgling nation’s new
government. Others have theorized that Washington’s visit was, instead, intended
to thank Long Island patriots, and spies, whose efforts aided the defeat of the
British in the Revolutionary War. Regardless of his intentions, the visit is
regarded as a high point in Long Island history.
On April 20, 1790, the 58-year-old
President crossed the East River, by ferry, and traveled to Jamaica. The next
morning, he and his traveling companions began their journey, traveling in a
cream-colored coach led by four gray horses. The excursion would take them
165-miles, traveling east along the south shore Merrick Road/Montauk Highway
(Route 27A), to Patchogue; then, traveling north, they returned west along
Jericho Turnpike (Route 25A).
On their first day, the party made stops
at Hempstead, and Copiague, spending the first night at Sagtikos Manor in West
Bay Shore.
While some historic descriptions state that the President arrived at ‘Amityville’ rather than ‘Copiague,’ it should be noted that neither community name was used in 1790; Amityville came into use in 1842 and Copiague around 1900. At that time, the present Town of Babylon was still part of the Town of Huntington, and the Copiague/Amityville areas was known as Huntington South or West Neck South.
Washington kept a diary, offering his
account of that first day, Wednesday, April 21, 1790. After leaving from
Hempstead, “we fell into the South Rd. [Montauk
Highway] at the distance of about five miles where we came
in view of the Sea & continued to be so the remaining part of the
day's ride, and as near it as the road could run, for the small bays, marshes
and guts, into which the tide flows at all times rendering it impassible from
the [height] of it by the Easterly winds.—We dined at one Ketcham 's [which]
had also been a public House, but now a private one—received pay for what it
furnished—this House was about 14 miles from South Hempstead & a
very neat and decent one.”
The “house”
described was that of Zebulon Ketcham and his wife Hannah (Conklin) Ketcham; an
unpainted shingle-style house. Zebulon Ketcham,
50-years-old at the time of the President’s visit, had been part of the local
militia during the Revolutionary War. The description as a “public house”
refers to its previous use as an inn or tavern. A place for travelers, and
their horses, to rest and eat, and as Washington noted, it was “a very neat and
decent one.”
The Ketcham homestead was located near
the present-day intersection of Deauville Boulevard and Montauk Highway (just
south of the Copiague Memorial Library). In 1927, the Babylon Town Board
erected a memorial stone at that location which reads, “On this spot stood the
Zebulon Ketcham Homestead wherein President Washington dined, April 21, 1790,
while touring Long Island. Razed in 1857.” However, whether the Ketcham home
was demolished is in dispute.
In his book, “Amityville History
Revisited,” William T. Lauder, former Town of Babylon Supervisor and present
Amityville Village Historian, questions the destruction of the Ketcham home,
indicating that there were two Ketcham houses that stood side by side. Mr.
Lauder, and many others, believe that the Ketcham home that entertained the
President, was moved to South Bayview Avenue, in Amityville, where it still
stands.
This postcard, published around 1910, states: “House where Geo. Washington Rested.” With all due respect to the previous Town Historians, including the one who helped install the memorial stone, how could they state in 1927 that the building had been destroyed in 1857, but have a 1910 postcard state that it was still standing? I concur with Mr. Lauder and will continue searching for information to prove that the Amityville residence is the one where the Ketcham family entertained George Washington. For now, however, the memorial stone will stay in place. (The history plaque is “innocent until proven guilty.”)
The details of Washington’s meal at
Ketcham’s were not recorded. However, the table which hosted the meal is in the
collections of the Huntington Historical Society and displayed at the David
Conklin Farmhouse Museum, which was built around 1750.
Several years ago, I visited the David Conklin Farmhouse Museum to take a photograph of the table for the book, Copiague (Images of America). I can recall how amusing it was for the four adults present to try and make the photograph look ‘interesting’; we placed and replaced items on the table and mantle until we thought it looked like ‘something.’ The table is a wonderful piece of local history but it is really just a simple, drop-leaf table.
Some historians report that the President
presented a gold ring to one of Ketcham’s children, while others have said that
he presented a coin to the child. The whereabouts of the mysterious ring or
coin, precious mementos, are unknown.
With their evening’s lodging 8-miles to
the east, it is reasonable to expect that Washington and his companions left Ketcham’s
inn while there was still daylight. Washington’s visit to our community was
brief but purposeful. It is a source of everlasting local historical pride to
have hosted the beloved President, albeit for a brief respite.