Mattituck historical marker recalls slavery's presence on the North Fork

More than 200 years after he was freed, Elymus Reeve’s story is finally being told in Mattituck through a new historical roadside marker.

The marker stands at the south side of Main Road at the intersection with Mill Lane, not far from the plot of land overlooking Marratooka Pond where Reeve, a former slave, farmed and raised his family.

It’s the first historical marker honoring Black history and acknowledging slavery’s role in Southold, part of a broader effort by a group of area historians to remember enslaved people on the North Fork.

Southold historians and town officials dedicated the sign Tuesday morning, hailing the commemoration as a more complete retelling of local history, which often focuses on European settlers starting in 1640.

“A lot of times, history is written just around those lives,” Southold Town Supervisor Al Krupski said.

A story worth remembering

Krupski said Reeve’s is an “extraordinary American story” worth remembering.

Reeve was born into slavery in Cutchogue in 1783 and freed in 1813 — 14 years before it was outlawed in New York State, according to Southold Town Historian Amy Folk. His former enslaver, Elizabeth Reeve, left Elymus an acre of land and he inherited another 3½ acres from his father, Reuben.

Reeve and his wife, Hagar, had eight or nine children, Folk said. The couple are both interred at the Old Burying Ground in Cutchogue, where Reeve’s headstone is inscribed with a Bible verse that reads: “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.”

Two of their daughters, Miriam and Parthenia, are also buried there. Their graves were unearthed during a Boy Scout’s Eagle project in 2018.

Town Councilman Brian Mealy, who made history in 2021 as the first Black person elected to the town board, said the marker is an overdue step to recognizing the contributions people of color have had in Southold.

Mealy was particularly moved by Reeve’s progeny. Many freed slaves, or their children, fled the North Fork in search of better opportunities.

Reeve’s son, John Bunyan Reeve, went on to become a minister in Philadelphia and professor of theology at Howard University. Reeve’s granddaughter, Josephine Yates, became the first Black woman to hold full professorship and chair a science department at an American college when she worked at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri, according to the university.

Yates was also active in women's and civil rights movements in the late 19th century.

“It’s such a story of perseverance and survival,” Mealy said in an interview. “Despite being people of color, and discrimination and racism and the system of enslavement, because of how [Elymus] raised his kids and encouraged them, they became great successes on their own.”

Mealy credited Folk, who is working with historians Sandi Brewster-Walker, Richard Wines and former Newsday editor Steve Wick to name onetime slaves, for “making sure we have the most accurate version of our history, even if it is something that is steeped in shame.”

The group, dubbed the North Fork Project, has spent four years researching slavery on the North Fork, poring over town records, wills, store ledgers, newspapers and town and church documents.

Through those records, the group has named more than 350 enslaved people on the North Fork between the 1600s and 1827.

“This is one small step to try and tell a better story,” Wick said Tuesday. “They contributed to this town enormously — let’s remember them.”

In an interview, Wines said naming the enslaved people “gives them a little bit of personhood” and tells a more accurate story. He reviewed many wills calling for slaves to be sold.

“They were dividing up families,” he said. “They were basically treated like cattle. They were bought and sold the same way.”

Other markers coming?

Wines is working on getting two similar markers installed in Riverhead to commemorate two onetime slaves discovered through their research: Sarah Robins and Brister Youngs.

Records indicate Robins may have had a Native American mother, Dorkas, and was born into slavery in the Riverhead area about 1690.

At 8 years old, she was sold to a mill owner and was sold several times after that, once ending up in Madeira until she petitioned New York State for freedom in 1711, citing Indigenous heritage.

Wines hasn’t determined whether she was successful in that effort.

The other proposed marker would commemorate Youngs, who was enslaved by Daniel Youngs, the minister at what is today the Old Steeple Church in Aquebogue.

Census records show he was enslaved in 1790, but records indicate he was freed in 1800 and living in Aquebogue with his wife, Zipporah.

The historical markers are provided by the Syracuse-based William G. Pomeroy Foundation, which has funded over 2,600 markers in 49 states, according to the organization.

Folk, who applied for the grant more than a year ago, hopes the sign is a reminder of the untold history and “terrible institution” of slavery.

“It’s an acknowledgment that they exist, and that slavery existed here,” she said in an interview. “It’s making history whole … finding all of the forgotten people.”