Lizbeth H. White

Lizbeth Halsey White

Lizbeth H. White

Memorial written by and read by Robert Keene at the Annual Meeting of the Southampton Colonial Society, 17 May 1985

Lizbeth White, born Lizbeth [May] Halsey, and the sister of Abigail Halsey and the Rev. Jesse Halsey, has become one of my heroines.

Lizbeth White was the Southampton Town Historian during the 1920s. She succeeded the first Town Historian, William S. Pelletreau, the man who restored and put in order and had reprinted the early Town Records. It is the work that Lizbeth White did as Town Historian that has made me so familiar with her. It was her accomplishments and foresights, along with her remarkable grasp and concept of local history, that has endeared her to me, three Town Historians and some 50 years later.

Lizbeth White as the founding Regent of the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and it was Lizbeth White who was instrumental in brining to the attention of the Town Board in 1928 the design of the Town Flag, as presented by the Daughters of the American Revolution. It was her small typewritten note that I found in the Dunwell papers that led to the adoption, in 1982, of the first Southampton Town Flag.

And it was Lizbeth White who revealed that the first woman to step ashore at what was later to be called Conscience Point was Eleanor, the wife of the leader of the first settlers, Edward Howell. And she was the first to identify that small boy in the boat who was Arthur, Eleanor and Edward Howell’s 8-year-old son.

Lizbeth White lived in what is now known as The Post House, and raised her family there. When The Post House, which is being renovated and restored at the present time, reopens as an inn a room will be named for Lizbeth White. It was while reading an old article by her that I found reference to the Old Post House. She mentioned that when some chimney work was being done in the 1920s some bricks were found that had 1684 scratched on them. Later the Museum acquired one of those bricks and at the present time it is on loan to The Post House, where it can be seen.

In 1915, Southampton celebrated its 275^th anniversary, and at that time the Sea-Side Times published a piece by Lizbeth White. It was in that piece that Lizbeth White proved to me that she had the understanding and inspiration that, over 35 years later, resulted in the founding of the Southampton Historical Museum. The following is what Lizbeth White wrote back in 1915. It was a most remarkable inside into what someday was going to take place.

I quote Lizbeth White, from a Sea-Side Times of 1915: “And now permit me to urge upon you the importance of guarding with greater care the vouchers of your noble descent, the memorials of your venerable history.

“Many of our town’s most precious memorials have vanished forever. Our fathers were too busy planting and colonizing, to think much about leaving behind them personal souvenirs. We have few of their household materials which ministered to the narrow comforts of their life.

“The golden opportunities for constructing the infant history of our colony have for the most part passed away. Those which remain ought to be seized with the greatest avidity. Shall I give you an outline of what ought to be in this fine Old Town? First then, I would like to see the fairest lot of land to be found between Long Springs and the beach devoted to a memorial use. Spare an acre or two from your generous farms, upon it to be erected a modest but dignified structure of stone, or brick, fireproof, which shall contain primarily a library. Then into this repository let every native and every citizen take a pride in gathering whatever shall preserve the memory of the past or throw light upon its life. The place and time to begin are here and now.

“Begin with today and work backward as fast and as far as possible,” she wrote, continuing: “Gradually the past will be restored, the lost will be found. Long hidden treasures will leap from their hiding places and find their companions and congenial associations. How much of value has been thrown away for want of a place to keep it. The spaced upon your shelves or in your cases will appeal powerfully to generous possessions. In the long run things tend to go where they are greatly wanted and where they ought to be.

“The Colonial Society, established in 1898, has held on two occasions, a loan exhibition where a rare and beautiful collection of articles and relics of earlier days were brought together and exhibited. These exhibitions have proved our locality rich in treasures of the past and the Society has long looked forward to making permanent an exhibit of the kind of thing which historical societies everywhere are doing, with a background of incidents far less picturesque than that Southampton possesses.”

Lizbeth White also made the following statement during her talk at the convention of New York Historians, held in Southampton, on October 6^th, 1932, two weeks before she passed away, and I quote, “We bow in grateful tribute today to these representatives both of the old and the new who have sought so successfully to pass on to the future the best of all that has preceded.”

I wonder what Lizbeth White would say today if she could see how Southampton has preserved its heritage, and continues to honor its past, and has created this truly magnificent museum complex which has become a fitting memorial for all that Lizbeth White ever dreamed of. And furthermore, it is a tribute to Lizbeth White, the first woman historian of the Town and the meticulous recorder of our history and our heritage.

I sincerely believe it would be in order at this time to entertain a motion from the membership to the effect that the contents of this building, The Captain Rogers Homestead, be known in the future as the Lizbeth White Memorial, and that an appropriate bronze plague be created and mounted in the building so indicating that designation.