Southold Free Library & Its Whitaker Historical Collection

By Danny McCarthy
Here’s to the Southold Free Library Whitaker Historical Collection with its unique and fascinating folk history of our East End dating back to our founding fathers!
The Whitaker Historical Collection is online. I was so honored to have had so much to do with having that website get online.
Just for the sake of it folks ~ here's the link:
https://southoldlibrary.pastperfectonline.com/
The Whitaker Historical Collection celebrated its 70th Anniversary in 2010 and rightfully honors Rev. Dr. Epher Whitaker as a suitable monument to his name. It was started for the Southold Town’s Tercentenary Celebration in 1940 and makes available to present and future generations the history of Southold and its people since the settlement of the town in 1640.
Epher Whitaker was born in Fairfield, New Jersey on March 27, 1820 to Reuel and Sarah Whitaker. He was one of ten children who grew up on his father’s farm. After an early career in printing, he graduated from the Union Theological Seminary of New York in 1851 and was then ordained pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Southold. He served as devoted pastor for 40 years and was one of Southold’s most illustrious and prominent townsfolk, encouraging the townspeople to save their rich and unique heritage. Rev. Whitaker wrote History of Southold, Long Island—Its First Century 1640-1740 and Ready for Duty, a brief biography of Lt. Edward Foster Huntting. (Huntting was a Civil War soldier who gave his life for the Union cause.) Through Whitaker’s efforts, the town records of Southold from 1651 onward were preserved and published.
Finding no school from Franklinville (now Laurel) to Orient Point in 1866 where boys and girls could have higher education than the district schools then offered, Rev. Whitaker organized and established the Southold Academy. The Academy was on a lot, not quite an acre, on Horton’s Lane, and was the property of Rev. Whitaker. For 72 years, until its closing in 1939, most of the students who attended the Academy could not have afforded to continue their formal education had it not been for this school.
He was a trained scholar of history who became a leader in preserving and perpetuating the history and traditions of Southold Town and was the Town’s first chief historian. He died in 1916 at the age of 96 leaving quite a legacy. He is buried in the First Presbyterian Church Cemetery along with his wife, Hannah Maria Force Whitaker, a son, Rev. William Whitaker, and daughters, Ellen Bertha, Sarah, and Martha Whitaker.
Mary Howell Wells died in June 1962. William Howell Wells, at his mother’s funeral services, said, “Her friendships extended around the world and through her letters she kept her friendships warm. Her interests extended into many fields. With these interests she helped and encouraged her children in their various careers and activities — and not only her children but also her hundreds of friends, young as well as old. Here in Southold, Mary Howell Wells helped to found the Whitaker Historical Collection. During the past 22 years, she interested many people in contributing priceless letters, documents and pictures that will preserve the history of the town in living terms for future generations.”
William Howell Wells also read at the graveside services of his aunt Lillian Miller Howell on September 16, 1971. During World War I, she became “Aunt Lill” to thousands of American soldiers in France where she served with the YMCA. Mr. Wells said that “Her life was an unusually full one, both in this country and in Europe, and her remarkable memory of all the places she had been and things she had done made her a wonderful story teller, always ready to top someone else’s story with one of her own.” He went on to say, “Of all of Aunt Lill’s interests — and there were many — one of the strongest was her interest in preserving the history and tradition of Southold and its people.” She joined with her sister Mary in co-founding the Whitaker Historical Collection.
The Whitaker Historical Collection is a permanent and ever-growing of material focusing on the people, scenes, events, and changes that make up the complete history of Southold and is available for reference and study. Among thousands of memorabilia are original letters, newspaper clippings, pamphlets and other ephemera, photos and postcards, diaries and maps. There are published genealogies of Southold Town families from Orient to Riverhead, old store ledgers, church records, high school yearbooks, and scrapbooks.
In many an attic, loft, storeroom, perhaps an old desk, lie pictures, books, old diaries, letters, newspapers, and other relative matter of Southold’s past. Perhaps you have a particular item you care to give. If you possess such an item perhaps you’ll consider donating it to the Collection. This ensures that generations to come will benefit from our rich local history.
This library memorial makes for an increasingly fascinating, unique, valuable, and vital Collection as time passes. The Collection represents what may in time become one of America’s important historical collections.