History
The first known inhabitants were Algonquian-speaking Native Americans, of the Setauket and Unkechaug tribes. The first English settlers arrived around 1640, and in 1655, several purchased Brookhaven's land from its Tribal inhabitants. Early English settlers farmed, fished, and hunted whales.
The first English settlement was named Setauket after the native American tribe. In 1666, Governor Richard Nicolls granted a Patent for the town which confirmed title to the lands purchased, and permitted additional purchases. Governor Thomas Dongan issued a Patent in 1686 which granted powers to the town and established a representative form of government.
The letter "D" on the official seal, associated with the original Dongan patent officially establishing Brookhaven, is a cattle branding letter assigned to Brookhaven in the mid-17th century, along with whaling harpoons.
Read more about this topic: Brookhaven, New York
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“To care for the quarrels of the past, to identify oneself passionately with a cause that became, politically speaking, a losing cause with the birth of the modern world, is to experience a kind of straining against reality, a rebellious nonconformity that, again, is rare in America, where children are instructed in the virtues of the system they live under, as though history had achieved a happy ending in American civics.”
—Mary McCarthy (1912–1989)
“... all big changes in human history have been arrived at slowly and through many compromises.”
—Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962)
“Every generation rewrites the past. In easy times history is more or less of an ornamental art, but in times of danger we are driven to the written record by a pressing need to find answers to the riddles of today.... In times of change and danger when there is a quicksand of fear under men’s reasoning, a sense of continuity with generations gone before can stretch like a lifeline across the scary present and get us past that idiot delusion of the exceptional Now that blocks good thinking.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)