Footnotes to Long Island History
Middle Island’s Country Store
by
Thomas R. Bayles
When Pfeiffer’s
store closed it’s doors for good on Saturday. It brought to a close a
colorful history in the life of Middle Inland and vicinity. For over
100 years this store has been operated as a typical country general
store, supplying the needs of the people living for miles around.
Before that it was conducted as a tavern and stage coach stopping place
for the stages that ran through the middle country road from the city to
the east end villages.
Alexander Hamilton described his stop there in
July, 1744 on his trip on horseback through Long Island as follows: “We
arrived at one Brewster’s (Pfeiffer’s store) at eight o’clock at night,
where we put up all night, and in this house could get nothing to eat or
drink, so were obliged to go to bad fasting and supperless. I was
conducted to a large room upstairs. The people in his house seemed to
be quite savage and rude.”
The store was first operated by Briant Davis, then
by Horace Randall, then by his son, Joseph Randall, who sold it to
Edward Pfeiffer in 1893. It was conducted by him until his retirement
in 1943, and since that time by son, Everett, until his death last
spring, except for three years from 1943 to 1946 when the writer took
over the store while Everett was in the Army. The Brewster who
conducted a tavern here was a grandson of the Rev. Nathaniel Brewster,
the first minister of Brookhaven town in the old town church at Setauket
in 1665.
For over 50 years the Middle Island post office has
been located in this store, since 1901, when Edward Pfeiffer was
appointed postmaster.
In the days gone by before the coming of
automobiles the country store was an important place in the life of the
community, and served the needs of the whole family, from boots and
shoes, clothing, yard goods, groceries, hardware, fee and grain and all
the articles that made up the inventory of a general country store in
those days.
The farmers from miles around came nearly every day to
get their mail and supplies, brought their eggs and butter to trade for
groceries, and to swap the news with their neighbors. The store was a
favorite gathering place for the men and boys of the community, and on
stormy days in winter there was always a crowd around the old pot
bellied stove, with their horses and wagons tied to the old hitching
rain in front of the store.
Here the news of the day was discussed and the fate
of the nation argued. Politics was a favorite topic and may of the
issues of the day were settled behind the old stove. The store was kept
open during the evening and those who couldn’t make it during the day
usually showed up at night.
The old checker board was in daily use, and a game
was nearly always in progress, and some of the men in the neighborhood
were champion players. The old checker board has for several years been
laid away on a shelf to dream of the days when it was the center of
activities in the old store. This social center of the town was a
picturesque scene in those days, with the hanging old lamps and the
benches around the stove in the rear of the store..
In the back end of the store were men’s and
women’s shoes, felt and rubber boots, arctic’s and rubbers. Also men’s
clothing and women’s calico dresses. Around the sides were the counters
with the cracker and sugar barrels and boxes of tea, coffee, oatmeal,
raisins, prunes, etc. as most of the groceries were weighed out in those
days. In the back room hung hams and bacon, barrels of salt pork, big
old fashioned cheeses, and the vinegar and molasses barrels were located
here. “New Orleans molasses” was an important item and sold for 50 cents
a gallon.
The old custom of neighbors stopping in for
awhile to be sociable has gone with, rush of our modern world, and
finally the old store has given up to the super markets and specialty
stores. The old country store will be missed.