Manhasset, L. I., N. Y., Feb. 24,1906.   Friend Orville B. Ackerly - In return for the many favors and kindnesses I have received at your  hands,   I  herewith submit some remarks concerning the people mentioned in Mr.   Norton's 1825 Census of Parish of Baiting Hollow. The parish then, and later, was much larger than the post office district is now.   The No. 3 School District Schoolhouse (the first one) was built  in 1805, and stood nearly opposite the present post office site and was moved later to opposite the burial ground, and   was burned in 1846. The district then reached from John Robinson's (east) to Samuel Hulse's land (west) and the Manor Line, south. The new (brick) house was built in spring of 1848.  But perhaps individual notices by the numbers as they run will give you the best   idea of the place and people I can convey.
    No. 1.   John Robinson, lived south of the main road, some distance, and out of sight of it.   His was the eastern farm in Baiting Hollow Parish, school and road district.   His sons were substantial men, Deacon Joshua, Christopher, and later Gen. O. Robinson ; Deacon   Joshua no doubt you knew.   The old house stood in or near one of those peculiar isolated depressions found in numbers of places in the whole district.   It was pretty nearly east from John C. Young's present residence.
    No. 2.   John Corwin, Jun,, had been there but a short time.   Between  1784 and 1824 the place had changed owners several times.   Not far from 1700 John Parker Fuller, had secured it from Southold Trustees, by grant or otherwise, from the river to the Sound.   Parker died in 1727.  His daughter Abigail Wickham (wife Joseph) inherited all his lands north of the river, and they were in possession of Major Parker Wickham in 1784, at the close of the Revolutionary War, but he was an ardent Loyalist and had broken with the Commissioners of Confiscation and lost his land.   Nath'l Norton was one of the flu t holders. Rev. Manly Wells and his heirs from  1793   to 1823, then Robert and Charles Corwin, then their brother John, the man mentioned in the census. He was born in1781 at Calverton (then called the mill) and did not find a permanent abiding place in Baiting Hollow until after 1791, then his father located on what is now Lewis Downs' and George Reeve's farms. He died May, 1849, when his nephew, Jas. W. Young, came in possession.
    No. 3.   Jacob Osborn's ancestors were among the oldest (first) settlers of the place.   They are not on record as owning land, but an old record reads "1796, March 25, died Adonijah Osborn, set. 85 years, 9 mouths,4 days (born June, 1670) removed to this place in April, 1749." He lived then on the Wickham property, probably in the old house that used to stand a little east of Roanoke avenue and was demolished about 1870 With the passage of time their home changed hands several times. At this date, 1825, Jacob, the grandson, was living on what was later David Reeves' farm. The late Daniel M, Overton of Riverhead was his grandson. He had four daughters that married and reared families, Mrs. Norton, Hallock, Overton, and Homan, all left families.
    It is recorded that when Mr. Osborn came to Baiting Hollow in 1749 that there was but one other inhabitant east of the pond, and but two, or best, three, at or near the pond ; the two ol,+ houses in the hollow, one on each side of the road, and possibly one southwest of the pond -all now gone, but all standing since 1830. No, 4. Samuel Wells, a few years earlier, lived on the southwest corner of the Corwin place (No. 2), but later moved farther west, a little. At different times there have been a number of small houses there, and it is difficult loc,ting them exactly. Samuel was father of the late David C.   Wells, who was his youngest son.   Samuel was also a son of No. 6 and brother of No. 7, so that the housing would be hard to trace The old house that stood where the Reeves' lived later was the home of one, at least, but the house was demolished before my remembrance.
    In 1810 12, Jeremiah Wells, Riverhead's first Road Commissioner, lived there and his son, Seth H., appears as a "bounder" to adjoining land, in company with his father, Jeremiah, and cousin, Samuel ; of No. 5 I don't know much.   De w itt was not a long resident in the place.   He married a daughter of Higby Raynor, afterward moved to Riverhead. and later went away. People have spoken slightingly of him. I don't know that he deserved it, but you know the good old English custom of "He's a stranger, let him have a brick-bat," sure why not make it cheer. ful for a stranger.
    No. 6. David Wells. He had lived in Baiting Hollow before.   Authorities differ. I won't dispute, but show my credentials.  Hayes, in "William Wells of Southold," says, "David born, 1744, died 14 Jant ary, 1828," so says his grave stone.   Hayes says : "Married 1768, Abigail Young of  Northville (dau. James) etc."   Now, it is a fact, that in Baiting Hollow Cemetery is a stone with the legend, "Bethiah, wife of David Wells, died April 2, 1772, set 31years " The Parshall family records the fact that Bethiah Parshall married Davia Wells, gives dates (badly perverted) from Salmon Records. David's first marriage was no doubt in 1768. Bethiah had two children, 1st, Charlotte, married Benj'n Horton (s. Joseph) had 9 children. Second Mehetabel, married Nathaniel Downs, had 13 children, Joshua and James Y. Downs among them. And David married second Abigail Youngs, and she had seven children, and not nine as some have it.   He lived where Jos L'Hommedieu lived later and L'Hommedieu bought of No. 7. James Y. David's youngest son and child, bought or exchanged, and that is an old house ; its old beams whips and flat on two sides only, oak and too hard to receive a nail, it has been repaired beyond interest, but James Y.   lived there from the death of his father in 1828, until the L'Hommedleu occupation in 1838.   The late Gershom O. Wells, bookseller of Riverhead,   was his son, his wife was Lydia Osborn daughter of Gersbom Osborn.   Do  you know the connection, if any, between Gershom, Dr. Osborn and Jacob of Baiting Hollow?  But James Y. was an influential member of the little settlement.   Mr. Horton writes that he is "attending singing school taught by Mr. Young Wells, and is trying to learn to sing."   No doubt you remember Mr. Horton, but I don't think you ever heard him sing.   I never did. I don't think I could stand it.
    No 8.   I guess you remember Jeffrey Hutchinson's house, where the late Columbus F. Terry made his home for 50 or more years. Perhaps the oldest house standing in the parish. The Hutchinsons may have built it, but I don't know.   The old Hutchinson homestead was not on the road.   Jeffrey's father, Ensign Hutchinson (of Capt. Josiah Lupton's N. Y. State Militia) living up near the cliff.   But Jeffrey lived and reared his family there.
    No. 9. Matthias lived where his father had, and was living there as late as 1840, as witness the testimony of Crowley, who on an independent and solitary cruise up and down Long Island Sound, his sails blown away, his rudder unshipped, and his anchor on shore, after the burning of the Lexington, finally landed on Hutchinson's beach, and reached the house "near the cliff" frozen and exhausted.  He got clearI - I've seen him - he could be induced to talk a little.   But I guess where the old house stood is not good land any more, the cliffs blew down and covered the soil feet deep with fine sand.   The cliffs are probably forty feet lower than fifty years ago.
    No. 10. Was the oldest of the three sons of Jeremiah Wells, he also had a dwelling up under the cliffs,   I don't know how late he stayed there, but the Hutchinson (Nigh?) was built after 1840. Abel's oldest grandson was born 1835, and I think in the house by the road. The farm was originally a part of the Horton place. Probably Wm. Horton sold to Abel, as William's father, Ambrose, only had tenant's interest in it by his fatber's will, Mr. Wells died 7 November, 1842.
    No. 11. Wm. Horton was a younger son, was probably born on the place where be lived and died, August 22, 1763, and the high two story " Horton house" did not then exist. His dwelling was less than ^1/4 mile north of the road on the slope of a considerable hollow, with a small natural pond in it, thus ensuring the first call of necessity - water. On the southern slope they dug a well, stoned it up, the roughest stone wall I ever saw, and used a sweep to draw, but the water was sweet and good. Jonathan writes, " in December 1796 we removed to the new house on the road."   So the Talmage house was built in 17916, and I assure you it's a mucbly house yet. Wm. Horton married twice. His first wife was an aunt of Abel and Robert Corwin, and they had seven children, but three reached maturity.   His second wife was widow Anna (Jennings) Sawyer who survived him and married third David Reeves.   The Horton farm was in the Horton name from the first division of the Aquebogue Division until 1866 when Jonathan died unmarried.   Since then the winds of dispersion have struck it and Horton interests vanished.
    No. 12.   Jacob, a son of Lieut. Nathan (in Josiah Lupton's Co.) Benjamin born 1730, died 1805, the oldest son of Nathan, died 1703 (N. Y. Lib. 24, p. 58)  Lieut. Nathan may have come to Baiting Hollow as early as 1763.   His father   had evidently cared for him previously as no bequest is mentioned, and his ability to provide for his family is shown by several £50 legacies.   Some of his children are minors. Lieut. Nathan has three boys, mentioned Samuel, Benjamin, Joshua. Benjamin later marries Hannah Jessup of West Hampton and went to Herkimer County.   Hannah was sister to Ambrose Horton's wife Anna Jessup, daughters of John. Oh, Jacob, yes ; Jacob was a son of Lieut.   Nathan,   and uncle to the next two, 13, 14 ; he lived where Daniel A. Corwin did later, and still later George F. Terry, but the farm included   William Youngs', J. B, W. Benjamin's and the late Elbert Edwards' holdings, north side of the road, to the Sound, and perbeps as much more south side of the road   He married Rachel Osborn and one of his daughters was Mrs. Dr. A. B. Lure. I think he was born in 1769, died 1850.   The house has been repaired and improved out of all semblance to the old house.
    No. 13.   Nathan, was son of Nathan, the brother of Jacob and grandson of Lieut. Nathan.   As he died in 1855, I guess you didn't know him.   He lived about a mile south of the main road on the way to Riverhead (still called Nathan's Path) and in 1825   Daniel, his brother, must have been there also, but all of my recollection and knowledge of No. 14 places him where he lived many years and died, on Middle Road, where, and in Riverhead, he had numerous descendants.   Nathan's son,   J. B. W.,  is surely the fourth son of the soil in  present occupation.  Lieut. Nathan had sons Jacob, Nathan, Phineas, and three daughters.   I don't know the names.
    No. 15.   Daniel Warner was the oldest son of James Warner and-(?) Edwards. (daughter Stephen of Setawket) and - Petty. James W. was born 1760, died 1802. He probably came to the "Warner" farm after 1780. The first time that "Warner " is mentioned in bounds, is in the Hallook Tract, (where the brick school house now stands) Zernbabel and brother Richard, 1784, b. e. by James Warner. In support of Cong. and Military Cos., no Warner appears in Baiting Hollow.   Per. James father was Nathaniel who (sold Rec. note) lived at Roaoke, but he lived E. of John Robinson.
    I meant to mention the old Warner house. It was exactly the same pattern as the Horton house, and was no doubt some older, but time got the best of it, and to save it from crumbling to pieces it was taken down.   It was said that at its demolition a curious crowd gathered to hunt for "buried treasures."   If any was found, it was not reported.
    No. 16. Abel Corwin 2 was son of Abel 1 and Ruth Hedges. He was born at Mattituck and probably came to Baiting Hollow in 1801. His grand father, John Corwin, and his father had bought land together a few years before (in 1784, of John Downs, both sides of the road, w. of the Hallook lot n. s. of the road was Richard Terrv then and houses are mentioned) but Abel 1 made his first independent purchase several years later.   He did not live on the hill where Abel 2 died, and the house on the hill was not built until 1830 or later.   In 1825, the house stood in the N. E cor. of the little locust lot, by the pond. The cellar dent is still plain.   It is probable that his mother Ruth was born there, born in the house she died in, her mother died there in 1780. But Abel No. 16 lived out his days on the farm, and it is a large place.   The house that he built don't look like a 75 year old house.   It has been well kept.
    No. 17.   Sylvanus Brown, was a school teacher by profession.   He married the widow of Daniel Corwin, and lived in the hollow, north side of the road in the old Downs house.   The house was torn down before or about 1860.   It had got very poor, a small double 1 1/4   story house with lean-to and the tiniest rooms, but it was probably built before 1740.  Do you remember Mr. Brown ?   I do.   I was his pupil.   I know I've told it suddenly, but you would have found it out when you learn all my attainments, Diploma ?   Well, no, not yet.
    No. 18. Widow Jerusha Raynor. I think she was a sister of Ebenezer Terrell, but she was poor, kind, unobtrusive, willing, independent, etc. She wanted a home, she had none, she wanted to work.  What can the old and feeble do?   The people built her a little house at the N. W. corner of the pond by the road, she found a perennial credit so that her oil and meal continued; and some parts of Baiting Hollow stays yet.
    No. 19. Benjamin Tuthill, married William Horton's oldest daughter, Ann, and built and lived in the house standing directly opposite the Congregational Church. I think he died in 1825. That place has had many owners and tenants, and some unrecorded settler lived just south of it and joined its then owner in digging a well on the line, shallow, but never dry, and stoned up roughly.
    There was another Benjamin Tuthill lived there in 1765; he may have built the old house and dug the well; his little ones all died of scarlet fever, and they went away.
    No. 20. John Corwin, son of John Corwin, in 1825 lived in a house that stood where Lewis Downs' house now stands ; a few years later it was pushed across the lane west and north of the old well. Twenty years later it was mounted on wheels and drawn to the west side of Israel Howell's farm, still stands there. John Corwin, Sen., may have been in Baiting Hollow as early as 1775, but there is no certain record of his being on the Baiting Hollow farm before 1793,   as a steady occupant.   He owned a farm in Southold, and perhaps divided his time between.   But No. 20 was at Calverton in 1781-2-3 ; at W. R. In 1784 ; at Fresh Pond Hill 1789, as is known by the birth of his children.   No. 20 John was probably born at Aquebogue. The bricks and rubbish of ruin of the old house are perhaps a half mile north of the south road in a field, west side of Poor House Lane But be had the faculty of getting land.
    No. 21. Abigail Tuthill, born Ashamomac October, 1766 (Griffing's Jour., page 66) built and lived in a small house very near where Mr, George Reeves now lives.   I think she lived to nearly or quite 1860.   She kept a grocery at or near Orient during the troubles of 1812-15, and when peace came she was in peaceable possession of portable property worth $1,000, all gained by honest thrift-no doubt the spoil of the enemy .   But she was unhappy among her old neighbors and perforce sought new ones.   She found them in Baiting Hollow. She bought the lot  (still known as Aunt Abby's lot) but never complied with the formality of payment. But evil days came.   The money was gone and years accumulated, and experience had disillusioned her neighbors. One day her house fell down and she had to move. She never married.   In person, not tall but expansive. The three dimensions were present, but approaching the cube. I think she ended her days in Southold, She was in Baiting Hollow in 1853 or 54.
    No. 22.   Higby Raynor, tradition has said, was a brother of Job of Manor.  I don't know it, but he had a sister in West Hampton or vicinity in 1829, when Higby died.   Higby married a daughter of Matthias Corwin, who lived in the Deep Hole Farm.   She was much older than he ; she was also niece of Rev.  Jacob Corwin, who owned the land where Merritt H. Smith':] house stands in 1832. Higby lived on the south side of the road in the same house where B. H. Wells owned and lived ; died there in 1829. Higby also owned the land afterward the farm of John R. Smith.   It was sold at auction in October, 1829, to Charles Corwin for $350, estimated at 40 acres, but there was no house on it.  In addition he bought out the widow's; dower rights for $25.   It is worth more  than that now-a little.  Higby had two children, Irving and a daughter that married De Witt.
    No. 23.   James Young lived north side of the road, next house west of Higby.  He built the house  (yet standing)   in 1820-21.   It is an old farm.   Many people will remember Israel Howell living on the corner of north and Deep Hole road. Israel, born 1803, was son of David, son of Israel, Jr., son of Israel, Sr., born   before 1720.   This Israel built a house on this farm and two generations of Howells were born there ; then sold to Cook before 1780 ; Cook to Young before 1820. But there were two other houses besides the Howell and Cook houses, and all of them on a hill about 3-8 of a mile north of the road. James Young married Hannah Corwin, daughter of No.   20 John.   But the Youngs left Baiting Hollow in 1875, Newtons occupying the farm.    No. 24.   Calvin Cook was a brother-in law of the last. His father,   Calvin, Sen., bought of the Howells, and the son sold later.  Perhaps he didn't know how to make money, but he knew how to make friends and keep them.   I knew him well, a sociable man-jolly sometimes.   I never heard him use a vulgar term in converse, and, keen for news, he would not injure a neighbor; and he sifted his news that it carried no injury. He and his wife both passed the 80th mark.
    No. 25.   Israel Wells was a brother of No. 10, and his wife, Charlotte, was sister to Jobn Corwin's wife, Julia, and Abel Corwin's wife, Ruth. As the times were he worked at a trade as well as a farmer. He was a shoemaker. His home in 1825 stood between where Israel Howell's and Micah Wells' stood later, but it was gone before my day. But not the man-he stayed until 1860, born 4th April, 1775,   His wife died in 1832, but be never remarried.
    No. 26.   Miss Polly Skidmore was a grand-daughter of Geshorn Edwards, 2d, but I am not sure whose daughter she was. Edwards had two sons-in-law Skidmore, Daniel H. and William.   She might be the child of either.   As there was no other domicile between   Skidmore's house and Israel Wells' than the house lately owned and occupied by Benjamin Wells (s. Micah) I concluded she lived there.
    No. 27. Daniel H. Skidmore lived where the Davises lived later. That farm was an old home of the Edwards, and until 1875 contained a burial ground of theirs covering four generations. D. H. married a daughter of Gershorn (who died in 1805) and he appears as a bounder as late as 1832.
    No. 28.   Micah Howell was a g. grand son of the Israel Howell that lived on the Newton farm.   He came to B. H. and after a short time opened a general country store, which he kept until 1864, when he died. Was postmaster for many years, the second one in the place, Benj. F. Young being the   first.   His commission was signed by Amos Ken. dall, P. M. Gen.   The first year's profits according to papers left (I think,   speaking from memory, in 1838)   was very nearly $5.   But Mr. Howell was a popular man ; he gossiped no gossip,   and kept friends and customers.   Before he came to Baiting Hollow proper he lived in the Country Road section, a   little ways west of the Forge, but he came to N. Road before 1825.
    No. 30.   Daniel, was brother to the last, and lived next farm west.   He had a much larger farm.   His wife, Jemima (daughter Merritt Howell) distantly related, but they lived long and reared their family.   H. H. Howell of Aquebogue, their only son, for many terms a successful teacher. Would it sound queer to you ?   He was (is) not a college man ; others had undoubtedly  taken larger shares of books, but I say,  in all candor, my best teacher.
    No. 29. Seth H. Wells, Jeremiah's youngest child and son. He lived on the north side of the road, next west of Skidmore's, and, like his brothers, Israel and Abel, was noted for his   personal strength. He and his father-in-law, No. 81, David Tuthill, lived on the same farm, Mr. Wells on the road,   Mr.   Tuthill near the Sound.   The farm was a part of the Edwards tract, and   was bought by Mr. Tuthill but a little while before.   It is still in possession of his descendants. His (Wells') son lived until January, 1906, born in 1820.   The location chosen for the Wells house has often been spoken of as the most desirable in Baiting Hollow.
    No. 32.  Phineas S. Edwards, generally spoken of as Deacon, at the time of this census was living in the old Edwards house on the east bank of  the creek, by the Fresh Pond springs, and for years later.  He built the house on the road, the De Friest house,   I think in 1828.   All of his family was born in the old house, which was torn down before my remembrance, but its  mark remains. The Edwards possessions within the parish were large, from the creek east, over 3/4 of a mile from Sound to Manor Line, and they were early there, perhaps the earliest. David, buried in the private ground, was born 1692, died 1785. Their relationships are not clearly traced, i. e. back of Daniel, father of Daniel, Phineas, et. al.
    No. 33.   Jonah Hulse, a son of Jonah Hulse, married a daughter of David Tuthill, and built "in the bollow" at Fresh Ponds.   He was a smallish man, but of rugged health.   It used to be said of him that, driving his cattle, loading sloop on the Sound shore, in cold weather in March or November, it mattered nothing, he walked side of his team,   in the water and out.   If it  was  too cold for him, then it was unfit for the ox ; not once, but many times.   He never took harm.   He had a poor farm, but he was industrious and saving, his credit was good, he kept square with the world and bettered his condition,   and did it honestly.    No. 34.   Capt. Elisha Gl. Turner was son-in-law of the last.   A more obliging disposition than his no man ever  possesased ; he and his family of six children, except the youngest, have tolled the bell.   He was for many years a Sound Captain, and industrious, but his farm was a poor one, and paid him poorly for hard work.
    No. 36.   Jeremiah Terry is the next west on the road, though not on the list. I don't know that I can tell you who he was,   Possibly a son of James, of Terry settlement east of the Forge.
    No. 37. Capt. Dan'( Edwards   lived where Septer Luce has recently   sold. The Sound is visible from the road just near the house, and is is probably one of the oldest building-3 in the town.   My grandmother was born there April, 1789. She said it was an old house then.   It is, I think, 40 x 40, and a long kitchen. The old chimney had three big fire places on the first floor, but the wind used to make trouble for boys sleeping in   the  garret, Ah but it was cool.
    No. 38.   Mr. Richard Skidmore lived next west of Capt. Daniel, his farm also reaching from the road to the Sound.   I expect you have known members of His family, as well as I, in the person of his daughter, Mrs. Silas Terry, at Riverhead, in R. T. Skidmore, his grandson, also of Riverhead, and perhaps others.   In 1825 Skidmores and Edwards in Baiting Hollow were numerous; now there is not one of either name.
    No. 35. Eleazer Dayton (Capt.) When he first came to Baiting Hollow he settled on the farm of No. 30, but soon sold it and bought the old Dickerson farm-a house built its length of house and kitchen on the street, with its three separate entrance ways from the road. When it was destroyed a good type of the old road house or inn was lost. Capt. Dayton was large of body and   voice, and all the place could hear him lecture his team when plowing his rocky fields, and some of them were rocky.   His ancestry went back easily to Ralph of Southampton. A great many anecdotes are told of him, some very amusing, and all more or less truthful, no doubt.   But he was, none the less,  a most earnest and persistent man in anything he undertook.
    No. 39.   Silas Hulse lived on the (now) Samuel Hulse place, but not in the house now there.  The present one may have been built as early as 1855, but the old house of 1825 was off the road southerly, at the end of the short   lane.   I cannot learn who built it,  but  it  was shingled all over, with  long and wide shingles, and had been painted red some time or other.  Capt. Daniel Edwards' father, "Old Daniel," sold it to the Hulses in 1811.   Silas lived there for a  time, later his brother Samuel.   But I 'spect I'm taking coals to New Castle.   Their farm marked the western extremity of the parish, school, and road district.  The brick school house,   No. 3, stands pretty nearly central of the old district, but the old time, the east end traveled a longer route, over level ground, than the west end over the Fresh Pond Hill, and it was a serious matter, then, the securing of the three R's, but there seems to have been sufficient secured to meet the need.
    No. 40.   Was no doubt born on the Newton Farm (No. 23) but when it was sold the Howells removed to Deep Hole, a mile south of the main road, and built and continued there. Their farm is (was) still a part of the first lot ; was in fact the S. end reserved and within the original e. and w. lines.   "Deep Hole' was and is in fact a deep dent, a larger one among several in the vicinity.   When the tail of the great glacier  was receding great crumbs of ice must have tumbled or rolled from its face front,  or side, or rolled on and landed, but  the wash of the perpetual glacial river, as it spread over its sandy moraine,   must have washed out the sand and  undermined them, but the retreat of the ice front, and the diversion of the currents, failed to fill them, so they  remain some larger, some smaller, all very like. That it was ice is clever enough; the absence of stone in them, or of other substance of resistance,  is proof enough that some perishable substance was the exciting cause.  Yes, yes, to be sure Mr. Howell-he married Joanna Wells, daughter of Obadiah, who used to live on the west hill, and lived where No. 36 was living in 1825 (Obi.   still living in Riverbead until 1837) and they reared their family of eight daughters and one son-Israel 3d, whom you knew, and  --
    No. 41.   Jeremiah Young, Jun, lived with his wife and children there with him a short time, hiring a part of his house, just as his brother James had done before building for himself.   The old house stood on th e west side of Deep Hole, to the west of the permanent pond in it-and it's a roomy   "Hole," probably including forty or fifty acres within itself.
    No. 42.   Jeremiah, Sen., was the first of the name to settle within the parish limits.   He came from Aquebogue, and settled on east side of Deep Hole pond in 1805   The house was not then on the hill but at the n. e. corner of the pond, near the foot of the hill.  It may have been settled by Matthias Corwin as early as 1750-but he was surely there in 1730, and he, wife and one child constituted his family proper ; he died 1799.   Jeremiah, Sen., in 1825 had two Sons  and two daughters, ail married and all in the district, but in 1826, one son less,  in 1829 none, in 1832, he changed.  The census shows one child.   He, Lewis H., was the first Young born in  Baiting Hollow, and he lived all of his 76 years on the same farm.
    No. 43.  James Hulse lived at  the cross roads, country road and mill road, probably on the n, e.  corner,  Micah Howell, Sen., had moved from there a few years before (1820) and gone to Alleghany Co.   His brother Joseph from the opposite corner, west,   about  same time.   He (Hulse) later moved to North Road, on the place of No.   27.   James and his wife, Joanna Benjamin,   you perhaps didn't know, but you  knew some of their seven sons,   Hampton, Harrison, Warren, et al. I don't  remember Mr. Hulse, but I do remember his widow, and I assure you she   was worth remembering.
    Nos, 44 and 45.   Lived on Country Road, easterly from No. 43.   I  know  where their homes were, but of  their personality, nothing. They were old people when I was little.   They had another school district in my day.   They didn't come to our meeting, and of course we didn't play  in  their  yard. There was never any feeling in the matter; interest led another way.
    No. 46.   One of the old Wading River family ; had married a Brown and was living near them ; a few years later he was living on n. road, where Micah Wells lived yet later.   He spent much time cutting cord wood, and one day cut his foot with his axe and bled to death.
    No. 47.   Was the oldest son of No. 51. I don't know just where he did  live in 1825.   I can't think that Mr   Horton took the names consecutively here ; in some cases I know he did not. I remember Deacon Terry well enough.
    No. 48. Widow Hannah Benjamin, the widow of John, brother of Nathan, Daniel, etc. She was "Priest Billy" Benjamin's sister, and I guess she lived and owned the premises and farm of the late John Fanning; on the n. side of Middle Road.
    No. 49.   Elkanala Davis, the son  of Jeremiah Davis and Martha, daughter of Deacon Timothy Wells.   At this time he had a piece of land on Country Road, lived there, but later removed to North Road.   He married Sally Benjamin. He was a man of unusual mind and capacities and was able to develop mental feats quite beyond the average man,   An appreciative public affectionately and unanimously styled him Doctor,   and he seemed pleased with the title.  He spent many years in Baiting Hollow,  died there.   Requieseat in pace.
    No. 50.   Jonathan Overton-now I've got to guess some, but maybe I'll guess partly right.   No. 3 is Jacob  Osborn ; one of his daughters married an Overton, I guess Jonthan.   Perhaps they lived at the Rabbit Swamp lane Junction with country road. Doesn't Lucius Mosley live there now, or near there!   And you knew shop keeper Daniel M. in  Riverhead years ago-maybe this Jonathan was related to him, his father,   for  instance.   You see I'm a little dreamy  on this; no doubt you will be able to set me right.
    No. 51.  Lived where his son, the late James Terry, lived.  I can't tell you the location; it is off the regular line  of travel, but s. of middle road,   and west of the Baiting Hollow and Riverhead road.   He had a large family, in two sections, two in the first and a whole page full in the second-John and David and James a d Gabriel,  and some more and a lot of girls.   Irad Corwin's mother was one, Harriet, and James N. Wells' mother another, Esther, and there was Louisa, and some more.   Idle people?   I guess not--strenuous is the word.
    And now I've commented on the people of Baiting Hollow of 1825.   You will notice I've said as little of others as I could and make the subject clear.   I've been assisted some by reference, and by recollections of stories of others,   but mainly of my own knowledge of  the people mentioned who continued to live on into my day; perhaps No. 24   was the last, or next to last in 1872.   I don't know the date of death of No. 49, but I knew both, personally, well. I hope you will take as much comfort reading of them as I have taken in writing - then I am paid.

Yours sincerely,James F. Young.