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"I, Daniel H.
Buckingham now living at 151 East 66th Street, New York
City, born at Middle Island, town of Brookhaven, county
of Suffolk, state of New York on the 27th day of December
1823, a son of John and Abigail Buckingham and a grandson
of Jonas and Deborah Buckingham who all lived in the town
of Brookhaven, but Jonas Buckingham my grandfather came
from Milford, Conn. whose Ancestor Thomas Buckingham came
from England in 1637, and settled for a while in New
Haven, Conn. but a little later with a little colony went
to Milford, Conn. and settled where my grandfather was
born. My grandmother Abigail Buckingham was the only
child of Daniel Howell after whom I was named. He was
born , lived and died at the old Homestead, at Middle
Island where I was born, and his parents had lived and a
large family of Howells were born. In the fall of 1857,
my mother and I leased the old Homestead to lawyer Wm. O.
Bartlett, a famous lawyer of New York City, the father of
three sons, Willard, Franklin, and Clifford. the former
Willard is a judge of the Court of Appeals of this New
York State and who at the present date, December 1909
owns the property, and has since his father's death. I
will just say here, that the lease ran for three years
ending April, 1861, at which time, W.O. Bartlett paid the
price agreed upon at the first, and took the deed from my
mother and myself. I will say by way of introduction,
that by request of a few of my friends, I am writing this
little scrap of history of myself and others, beginning
on this 17th day of December 1909, and on this coming
27th inst. if I live, I shall be 86 years old, and
through the mercy and goodness of god to me, I am in fair
health for one on my age. When a boy, I lived at my home
at Middle Island, until near 17 years of age, I went to
Port Jefferson as an apprentice with John W. Mather, a
shipbuilder and staid about one year an a half more or
less and as the times were dull and not much doing I
left, and after working with my father for a while, who
was a Millwright who built and repaired some of the first
Mills on L.I. which ran by water. The whaling business
was brisk in those days, in many Ports in the M.A.S.
[Middle Atlantic States] so I went to Sag Harbor and
shipped for a voyage in the ship Henry Esquire. L.
Hommedieu, agent, George B. Brown, Captain, Henry D.
Conklin, 1st Mate, Wm. M. Hunting, 2nd Mate. while in Sag
harbor I saw the Masons, laying the foundation of the
first Presbyterian Church, when built it was one of the
largest churches in the country. It's semi-centennial was
celebrated in 1893. We sailed from Sag Harbor July 5th,
1843. The Henry was a 3 boat ship, carrying about 27 men.
We sailed around Montauk Point and out into the Atlantic
Ocean across the Gulf and on to the Azores or Western
islands where we stopped at two of those islands, viz.
Flores and Fayal and recruited, with vegetables and
fruit, potatoes, onions etx. We went there to get them
because the season at home was not right for them at that
time of the year. We left a Portuguese sailor there that
had been 2 or 3 voyages a whaling and had saved a little
money that in that country would go a long way."
Buckingham then describes the Azore
Islands and his whaling voyage from there around the Cape
of Good Hope and across the Indian Ocean into the Pacific
and his experiences unitl his arrival back to Sag Harbor
9 May 1845. he then proceeds to give an account of his
2nd voyage in the ship Nile out of Greenport, Ireland,
Wells and Carpenter, Agents, with isasc Case, Capt.,
Henry D. Conklin, 1st Mate, Frank Ackerly, 2nd mate,
Elisah Beebe, 3rd mate. This whaling voyage was down the
Atlantic to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where the rudder was
repaired and the Nile and crew left there 1 Jan. 1846
bound for the Pacific Ocean via Cape Horn. When 5 days
out of Rio, Frank Ackerly was knocked overboard in an
accident and went down before help could reach him. he
and his brother, Henry, also on the voyage, were the sons
of Rev. Mr. Ackerly of Greenport, a Baptsist minister.
The voyage was in many sections of the Pacific and North
Pacific in search of whales and then returned back around
Cape Horn with another call at Rio de Janeiro, ending
after 22 months at Greenport 6 June 1848, when Capt. Case
learned that his wife had died during his absence.
Buckingham states that while he was away on this whaling
trip, the war with Mexico had been fought and the United
States had gained control of California. The following
year, 1849, saw the '49ners rush to California and
Australia, too. Among them where Mordecai Homan and Ed.
Terry, both of Middle Island. They went together to the
California mines and also to the Australian mines and
returned home about 6 or 7 years later not very much
richer than when they left home.
Continuing, Buckingham
states: "in a year or two after coming home, the
last time i married, and a little later on I went to Port
Jefferson to live and worked in the ship yard many years,
and was elected Justice of the Peace twice in the town of
Brookhaven for a 4 year term twice, making 8 years.
Having jurisdiction over the county of Suffolk, but
living in Port Jefferson. My last wife died in 1899.
After that I boarded in private houses for a while and
then later on in the Hotel Townsend House, Port
Jefferson, until I came here at the Chapin Home to live
which was on the 18th November, 1902."
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