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October 1, 2015
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Volume 28, No. 44
RE FO
R THE ENTIRE FAM ILY Port Jefferson • Belle terre • Port Jefferson stationSp•ecterrYVille ializing in th
Port Jeff goes pink
also: ‘If I Were a Whaler’ exhibit in Cold Spring Harbor; ‘West Side Story’ in Northport; SBU Sports
Page B1
Photos by giselle Barkley
a crowd gathers to celebrate a historic letter detailing the involvement of Port Jefferson brothers in George Washington’s Culper spy ring.
Royals field hockey falls short
Port Jefferson puts up good effort in Shoreham shutout
Page a16-17
Roe bros are spies like us BY Giselle BarkleY
It was such a well-kept secret, it took more than 200 years to come to light. Port Jefferson Village officials unveiled the newest historic addition to the Drowned Meadow Cottage museum last week: a letter that links Port Jefferson’s Roe brothers to then-Gen. George Washington’s Culper Spy Ring, which covertly worked to advance the rebel cause during the Revolutionary War. Loyalist soldier Nehemiah Marks wrote the letter on Dec. 21, 1780, to inform his comrades that Phillips and Nathaniel Roe, among others, helped supply Setauket-based spy Caleb Brewster with information to pass on to the Patriots.
According to Mayor Margot Garant, a former Port Jefferson high school student found the letter two years ago while researching the Revolutionary spy ring at the University of Michigan and contacted the mayor. The next step was getting the letter authenticated. “The authentication for this letter is so critical,” Garant said in an interview before last week’s event at the cottage, the former home of Phillips Roe. Villagers had long had suspicions that he and his brother were important “not only to village history but to the history of the Revolutionary War, and instrumental in the spy ring. That was kicked around as a rumor for many years and never authenticated.” SPIeS continued on page a11
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