Charlie Ferguson posing with Tedwyns Tailagan, Field Trials, Fishers Island, 1931 A Generous Donation from the Charles B. Ferguson Family In the period following Charlie Ferguson’s death on January 7, 2018, his family searched through his many possessions for objects, books and creative works that were a good fit with the Museum’s various
The Museum has sought for years to locate details on the shipwreck that gave Isabella Beach its name. . . Henry L. Ferguson’s history of the island, “Fishers Island, N.Y.: 1614-1925,” published in 1925, had only the sketchiest reference to the wreck: “The schooner Isabella Blake, after which the beach is named, went ashore in
Man standing on south shore of South Dumpling Island, Fishers Island Sound, 1895. Photo by James S. Casey. by Robert P. Anderson, Jr. My earliest memory of the name South Dumpling Island, almost 70 years ago, was hearing my father Robert P. Anderson entertain guests in the main cabin of our ketch Kestrel
by Pierce Rafferty After purchasing the western tip of Fishers Island for fortification purposes in September 1898, one of the U.S. Government’s first tasks was to create a landing dock for supplies. Silver Eel Pond drew immediate attention as a favored site. A letter to the Chief of Engineers, dated December 13, 1898, revealed
Mansion House Cottages on Bell Hill, circa 1913. Postcard published by Brown & Dawson. Museum Collection. Island History by Pierce Rafferty In 1889, two brothers named Edmund and Walton Ferguson, both successful bankers, bought approximately ninetenths of Fishers Island from the Fox family. The new owners immediately began to implement a plan to
by Pierce Rafferty Of all the decades in Fishers Island’s storied history, there are few whose outcome was as unpredictable as the 1870s. The sudden death in 1871 of Fishers Island’s owner, Robert Ralston Fox, derailed his ambitious farm operation and exposed the island to wildly divergent development plans. Robert R. Fox, a wealthy
Two Historic F.I. Leases Purchased by HLFM by Pierce Rafferty It may come as a surprise to many that for much of its fabled history Fishers Island was an absentee-owned rental property. From the mid-1600s until the early 1810s, successive generations of island-owning Winthrops more often than not rented out all of Fishers Island
The Long Forgotten Fishers Island Jail by Pierce Rafferty November 2013 Immediately after E.M. & W. Ferguson purchased almost all of Fishers Island in 1889, they enlarged the Mansion House, extensively renovated the Lyles Beach Hotel, carved new roads, established a West End water system and revived farms throughout the island. One long forgotten improvement
Blimps on Fishers during World War II by Pierce Rafferty September 2013 Aerial view looking south by southwest over Fort H.G. Wright's main reservation, August 21, 1944. The photograph was taken from an altitude of 1000 feet. It provides a clear view of the Fort's extensive facilities, barracks and buildings during the World War
Island Telephone 1890’s ~ Fishers Island’s Telephone Co. is Formed The Fishers Island Telephone Co. was formed in the early 1890s by the Ferguson brothers. 1920’s ~ Olmsted Plan An infrastructure upgrade known as the “Olmsted Plan” brought brand new telephone lines and
Young Eastern Painted Turtle on lily pad, the Peninsula, Darby’s Cove
Photograph by Terry McNamara
