I ; POPULATION AND GROWTH. 



sician in any of the towns before the organization of the county ?) Parents 

 often IWed^o see their descendants number scores and sometimes hun- 

 dreds They were fit in mind and body to make sure of a rapid increase 

 of noDulation, wealth and comfort. ■ j ■ .^ ,„c 



P When the act of 1683 organized the county, it recognized six towns. 

 Soutl^M the oldest, was settfed in 1640, and Southampton m the sarne 

 year Ea^^^^^^^^ 1649; Huntington, a few , years later; Brookhaven 



L I6SS and Smithfield. now Smithtown, soon afterwards though its or- 

 lanizition as a town seems to date from the formation of the county 

 ^ The population of the county, at that time, may have been wo thou- 

 sand persons Fifteen years later, in 1698, it was 2,679; and of this nurn- 

 ber 2 1 2 were white people. Five years later, m .1703, the whole number 

 was Vu6 Twenty years thereafter, in 1723. it had nearly doubled and 

 wa 6 mi" Only eight years later, in 1731, it was 7,675, and without 

 rbatemen 'in the growth; for, six years later, in I737. ^t had becoine 7,9^3, 

 whenhere were 328 freeholders in the county. The causes of this rapid 

 Inlar-er^ent continued; and, in 1746, it had risen to 9,254. Thus, in the 

 nrevfeurfortyel.ht years, the resident population had increased 360 per 

 Lm n 749 it was 9,387. Of these, 8,098 were whites, and i 289 

 were classed 'as blacks^tSe percentage of i-rease - the par of the 

 whites, in the previous half century, outstripping tha «yh%blacks In 

 i7=;6 the numbers were, whites, 9,245; blacks, 1,045. Ihe enumeration 

 if fvV the last census previous to the war of Independence, shows that 

 the^umberorthe people had become 11.676 whites and 1,452 blacks, 

 makino- a total population at that time of I3,i2». • ^^ ;„ 



Thus the increase of that part of the population which remained m 

 the county had been such as to cause the number of the people to advance 

 five-fold n seventy-three years. The increase of the people, born 11 the 

 coumy X haZremoved to other parts of our country, may have been 

 far^Strr in nlber than those who remained here; for our county, from, 

 heist 'enerat on of its christran people, has never ceased to be a busy, 

 ■ruitfu swarm ng hive. Such towns as Chester; New Jersey, and Palmy- 



Ae' Snal Cabmet 'under Presidents Monroe, Jackson, F.taore and 



""'united State Senators Hobart. Smith, Southard, Dickinson SWord 

 Corwin, Seward and Conkling also belong by residence, brrth or ancestry 



'° "VoZZs of States. Ogden, Southard, Cor»in, Seward, Young, 



^''X"ngrreatir4;x-ot^^it:. r^rwxr^^^^^^ 



HobarrToVping Reeve, Nathan Sanford and Selah B. Strong as repre- 



^^"'th'oro:ltl°''nrry^?«:matives ,n Congress can be traced to 



^'"^^UrTtK^rSidents of Yale College were thenrselves or their 

 incestOTS ctizens and Christian pastors of our county. Perhaps half a 

 s're of other college presidents Save been as closely connected wrth us, 

 like Storrs and Wines. 



