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Photo of the Week

FROM THE SCHS LIBRARY ARCHIVES

"How shall we know it is us without our past?"
- John Steinbeck

by Wendy Polhemus-Annibell, Head Librarian

Cranberry Pickers, Brown's Marsh, Calverton, 1899, by Hal B. Fullerton. (Image from the Harry T. Tuthill Fullerton Collection of the Suffolk County Historical Society Library Archives. Copyright © Suffolk County Historical Society. All rights reserved.)

In the early 1900s, Suffolk County was the third largest producer of cranberries in the United States, behind only Wisconsin and Massachusetts. Many millers along the Peconic River began around 1875 to switch from using the water to power mill wheels to growing cranberries in bogs. Most of Suffolk County's cranberry marshes were located in the Riverhead-Calverton-Manorville area along the wetlands of the Peconic River. The largest cranberry operation was run by Sylvester Woodhull of Riverhead. Other growers included the Perkins Co. of Riverhead, E. L. Brown of Calverton, and George L. Davis of Manorville. In 1897 the Woodhull Marsh produced over 3,000 bushels of cranberries, which sold for $3 per bushel at the time.

A variety of factors contributed to the eventual decline of the cranberry industry on Long Island. The small bogs of Suffolk County were unable to compete with the larger producers in Massachusetts and New Jersey; the descendants of the Suffolk families that operated the bogs were uninterested in carrying on the agricultural business; and the difficulties of weed and pest control intensified when a carcinogenic herbicide, amino triazole, was banned in 1959. During the peak years of cranberry production, however, some 25,000 bushels were harvested annually from the Peconic River-area cranberry marshes.

Visit us this weekend, Sept. 9 and 10, at the 37th Annual Hallockville Country Fair and Craft Show, where the Suffolk County Historical Society booth will celebrate our county's agricultural history and offer a free raffle of framed historic photographs from our Hal B. Fullerton collection. The museum farm's festival features the wares of local craft guilds and artisan vendors, a tractor pull and display, livestock and farm animals, children’s activities, guided tours of the historic buildings, and more. Click here for more information.

ABOUT Our PHOTO OF THE WEEK Series

The Suffolk County Historical Society’s PHOTO OF THE WEEK Series is created by head research librarian Wendy Polhemus-Annibell using historic primary source materials from our local history library’s extensive archives. To subscribe, visit our website or send an email request to Wendy at librarian@schs-museum.org 

Interested in seeing more historical documents from the Collection of the Suffolk County Historical Society? Spend an afternoon at our Local History Research Library perusing our extensive collections. We're open Weds. - Sat., 12:30 - 4:30 PM.

To view our Photo of the Week archives, visit our website at www.SuffolkCountyHistoricalSociety.org.

 

 

Amazon will donate 0.5% of the price of your eligible AmazonSmile purchases to the Suffolk County Historical Society whenever you shop on AmazonSmile. Click here to get started!

MEMBERSHIP DRIVE
If you've been enjoying our Photo of the Week, please consider becoming a member of SCHS.
The Suffolk County Historical Society, founded in 1886, collects and preserves the rich history of Suffolk County and beyond. We offer a history museum, art galleries, a research library and archives, and a multitude of exhibits, programs, and educational lectures and workshops year-round. Our unique collections reflect more than three centuries of Long Island history. Click here to learn about Member Benefits!

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Copyright © 2017 Suffolk County Historical Society. All rights reserved. No part of this electronic document may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the Suffolk County Historical Society.