HOW
WHISKEY ROAD GOT ITS NAME
by the late Town Historian, Osborn Shaw
The late Osborn Shaw,
Historian of the town of Brookhaven, wrote the following
account of the origin of the name of Whiskey Road.
"As for the Whiskey Road, there is some uncertainty
as to when the first -part of it was laid out. What is
very probably the west part was laid out in 1753 and
recorded in Book B of our town records on the 4th of
June, that year. The road is stated to run from near
Jonathan Edowes (Edwards) 'As the conveniency of ye Land
will Admit of for a Cart Road to ye Northwest Corner of
Stephen Sweazeys Cleared lot.' As the approximate
locations are known of where Jonathan Edowes or Edwards
and Stephen Swezey lived, this description, though vague,
puts the road definitely in Swezeytown for it is well
known that Stephen Swezey was the one after whom that
community was named.
"About that time, 1753,
the Randall family settled in the north part of 'The
Ridge', cast and northeast of Middle Island. Quite a
number of years later, one of the Randall boys fell in
love with one of the Swezey girls and he, like most
ardent lovers, had frequent calls to make on her but he
had, oh such a long roundabout way to go to reach her
house!
"Traditions had it that
he or his father got several of his friends to join in
petitioning the town to extend the old road of 1753
eastward which would shorten the distance to the Swezey
home and so in May 1796, the road commissioners laid out
a road frorn Mr. Swezey's gate, 'Unto Stephen Randals'
and 'to a pine tree eastward of Jeremiah Randals house'
and so on to the Wading River Road."
"Work of clearing the
road was started right away, the tradition continues, and
as an inducement to speed up the work for the young lover
to reach his sweetheart, a jug of whiskey (some say it
was a cask) was set a rod ahead of the workmen. When the
road was cleared of stumps and trees up to the jug, all
were given a good drink. The jug would then be moved
ahead another rod and so on until the road was completed.
"The jug was not always
placed in line where the road was supposed to go and
this, together with the large amount of whiskey drunk,
not only gave the road its name but is said to have been
the cause of its being so crooked that three years later
and several times afterward, the town had to take
measures to straighten out some of the worse crooks of
this crooked but romantic road."