Pages from Rev. Epher Whitaker's Scrapbook. (From the Epher Whitaker Collection of the Suffolk County Historical Society Library & Archive. (Image copyright (c) Suffolk County Historical Society. All rights reserved.)
Rev. Epher Whitaker (1820-1916) attended the Union Theological Seminary of New York in 1851 and was thereafter ordained pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Southold, where he served for 40 years. One of Southold’s most illustrious and prominent residents, Rev. Whitaker encouraged the townspeople to save their rich heritage. He authored the book History of Southold, Long Island—Its First Century:1640-1740 and a brief biography, Ready for Duty, of Civil War soldier Lt. Edward Foster Huntting. Largely through Epher Whitaker’s efforts, the town records of Southold from 1651 onward were preserved and published.
Finding no school from Laurel to Orient Point in 1866 where local students could obtain a higher education than the district schools then offered, Rev. Whitaker organized and established Southold Academy. Located on Horton’s Lane for 72 years until its closing in 1939, Southold Academy provided an education to students who could not have afforded to continue their formal education had it not been for this school. These pages from Whitaker's scrapbook are part of a much larger collection of his papers in our library and archive.
by Wendy Polhemus-Annibell, Head Librarian
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