Winds Way: History

Our property is the southeast corner of the four allotments granted to John Budd by the Town of Southold in the First Aquebogue Dividend of 1661. John Budd was one of the wealthiest of the original band of Puritans who settled Southold in the 1640s. He gave his first house to one of his daughters, who moved it to Cutchogue where it is now known as the “Old House” and serves as the centerpiece to the Cutchogue Village Green museum complex. Budd’s four “Aquebogue” allotments stretched westward almost to Simmons Point and extended north all the way to Long Island Sound – well over 1,000 acres altogether.

John Budd left his “Aquebogue” allotments to another daughter, Mary, who married Christopher Youngs, son of John Youngs, the first minister and leader of the Southold settlement. Neither John Budd nor his daughter and son-in-law ever lived on this land, but two of his grandsons, Christopher and John Youngs, settled on this property around 1700 and were among the first inhabitants in what is now Riverhead Town. Almost a century-and-a-half later, Christopher’s great-grandson, Edward Youngs (Richard’s great-great grandfather) inherited land in the southeast corner of the old Budd-Youngs property and gradually bought back additional adjacent parcels of the original allotment as his improving fortunes allowed.

Edward Youngs built a house on his farm about 1840. This house, which is shown in the Riverhead Bicentennial Album, was the first house on what is now Peconic Bay Boulevard. Indeed, the path originally known as the “road to Edward Youngs’s house” became a segment of Peconic Bay Boulevard when the present road was laid out around 1900. His house, which burned down early in the 20th century, stood just to the west of our west hedgerow. Edward’s farm stretched north to the railroad tracks (where a commercial nursery now operates) and also included all of the land along Lockett Drive -- about 100 acres altogether.

Our land passed through one of Edward’s daughters into the Wines family early in the twentieth century. The name “Winds Way” is based on a 17^th century variant of the Wines family name found in the Southold Town Records.