Setauket makes front page of New York City newspaper

BY BEVERLY C. TYLER DESK@TBRNEWSMEDIA.COM

“SWAM NUDE. A LONG ISLANDER CROSSES SETAUKET LAKE ON A WAGER. (New York Tribune)”

About three months ago, Kristen J. Nyitray, director of Special Collections and University Archives, and University Archivist, at Stony Brook University, sent a newspaper clipping she came across to the Three Village Historical Society, which forwarded it to my wife and me. Like many clippings, this one was unidentified as to publication and date, and so the search began.

We found a number of clippings with the same story from various newspapers, including the New York Sun. All clippings indicated it came from the New-York Tribune. Based on the individuals mentioned in the article, we finally traced it to the Thursday, February 21, 1896 issue of the New-York Tribune. It was even a frontpage article. Imagine, an article about Setauket on the front page of the New-York Tribune.

Most of the articles on the front page that day had headlines with shocking and gruesome details to attract readers. The 1890s was a period of newspaper publishing competition that cared less about facts than about gaining readership.

The original article in the Tribune started with the headline “SWAM NUDE IN ICY WATER.” The rest of the article was almost the same in every clipping and not one of the various clippings made any attempt to check the facts in this quite interesting story.

“A strange wager was quietly made and won last Sunday night in Setauket, Long Island, with a view of testing human endurance in cold water. William Sickles, a well-known young man of the village, declared that he could swim across Setauket Lake, a quarter of a mile, without a stitch of clothing on him, and with the thermometer considerably below the freezing point. Three wellknown Setauket men, Dr. Bates, Ellis H. Davis and James Fallon, declared that no human being could go through the ordeal without permanent injury.

“The wager was brought about by the four men discussing the death of a horse that happened to fall into freezing water and died simply from the after effects of the exposure soon afterward. Mr. Sickles listened to the discussion and finally declared that a man could endure cold in any form better than a horse. His opinion was opposed. Then he announced his willingness to swim naked across Setauket Lake that night. The three men declared that could not do it, but Sickles insisted that he could and offered to put up money on it. The wager was promptly accepted.

“That night the four men repaired to Davis’ Hotel, which is on the edge of the lake. The attempt was to be made at 8 o’clock in the evening, and the thermometer at that hour indicated 14 degrees below the freezing point. Sickles undressed in the hotel, and, accompanied by the doctor and

Davis and Fallon, ran down to the lake shore and plunged into the icy waters.

“He struck out boldly for the goal on the other side, Captain Hudson’s mill, but the three men who accompanied him did not believe that he could get across, and, supposing that he would return, stood on the shore in readiness to launch a boat if he showed signs of distress.

“But Sickles kept right on, swimming a clean overhand stroke. He soon reached the middle of the lake, and in a few minutes was on the last half and nearing the goal. The three men then hastened to the other side of the lake to wait his arrival, the doctor taking restoratives with him and Davis having several blankets. With the same vigorous stroke with which he started, Sickles neared the goal in a few minutes. He was assisted out of the water, rolled in a blanket and started on a run to regain the hotel kitchen, where a roaring fire was awaiting him.

“In a few minutes he was dressed again, and declared that, aside from the natural exhaustion of such a rapid swim, he felt none the worse for the experiment. As he manifested no indications of a cold since Sunday night or any deleterious results of the exposure, Sickles has claimed the money and received it.

“When seen by a Tribune reporter, Mr. Sickles said, ‘I have always maintained that a man can stand more cold than a horse. I have been some years at sea and have been exposed to fearfully cold weather. Of course, there is some difference in swimming in salt and fresh water, but I have always insisted that a man could endure exposure to cold better than a horse or most any other other animal. I have frequently jumped overboard while at sea in winter and taken a short swim and thought little of it. The fresh water in Setauket Lake, of course, was chillier than I expected and not so buoyant as the salt water, but that is only additional evidence of the endurance of the human body. The temperature at the time I went into the water was eighteen degrees above zero and was rapidly growing colder. Ice had formed along the borders of the lake, so I had to walk out on the ice some distance before I could get into the water. Several times before in my life I have been exposed to the water when the thermometer was below the freezing point. Once I fell from a schooner off Bay Ridge and it was two hours before I could get ashore. On another occasion I fell overboard off the Jersey coast and was three hours in ice cold water.’” (New-York Tribune)

The 1880 census lists Von Sickles, Willis, Black, age 20, living with George Elderkin, next to John Elderkin who ran the Elderkin Hotel. We could not find Sickles listed in any other census.

The “Davis Hotel” in the article was actually the former Elderkin Hotel, inherited by Gussy Elderkin following John Elderkin’s death in 1888. In 1896, it was called the Lakeside House and was owned by Captain Beverly Swift Tyler who had married John Elderkin’s niece Gussy Elderkin in 1893.

Doctor John Ferdinand Bates was a well- known and respected physician who lived in the circa 1800 Dutch colonial house which is next to the Setauket Post Office. ln 1896, a drug store and former post office called the Setauket House stood where the Setauket Post Office is today.

In 1896, “Captain Hudson’s mill” was owned by Lorenzo W. Hudson who sold the mill to Everett Hawkins in 1897. Hawkins operated the mill until he sold the property to Ward Melville who, along with his mother Jennie, established the Frank Melville Memorial Park in 1935.

Ellis Davis appears in the 1900 census, age 32, married, a rubber shoemaker in Naugatuck, Connecticut. He spent most of his life on Long Island and probably moved briefly to Connecticut to find employment after the Setauket rubber factory closed in 1898. He was back in Port Jefferson in the 1910 census and listed as a hotel proprietor.

James Fallon was 50 years old in 1896. He lived with his wife and children in South Setauket, probably along Bennett Road. His daughter Annie Fallon was Setauket’s postmistress from 1936 to 1954. In the 1950s, a group of us, ages 12-15, called her “Hot Rod” since the coupe she drove had tuned exhaust pipes. We thought that was hilarious for who we thought of as an “old lady.” Annie was age 69 when she retired in 1954.

Beverly C. Tyler is a Three Village Historical Society historian and author of books available from the society at 93 North Country Road, Setauket. For more information, call 631-751-3730.