About Manorville (Our History) Although early land patents made it difficult to determine precise boundaries, historians are certain Manorville lay within the huge tract known in the 1700s as The Manor of St. George, granted to William (Tangier) Smith in a royal patent of 1693. The Smith family did not own Manorville long. In 1721, it was sold to a group of colonists from Southold.
The Revolution: A natural depression in the landscape left by a glacier and known as a kettle hole proved a good hiding place for a band of Patriots during the war. The hole was named for a Captain Punk, who hid there with his men to avoid detection by the British. Some early residents referred to Manorville as Punk's Hole. The hole still exists about 1,000 feet south of Hot Water Road, just east of its intersection with Halsey Manor Road.
Turning
Point: When the railroad reached the hamlet in 1844, the station was
named St. George's Manor. But the first station agent, Seth Raynor,
was an ardent Patriot during the Revolution and detested the label St.
George because of its association with the British king. Raynor brought
paint, brush and ladder from his home one day, erasing "St. George's"
and leaving "Manor." The next year, a post office was opened,
and the hamlet was designated Manorville.
Natural
Bounty: Manorville, mostly forest, was a prime target for harvesters
of cordwood. In fact, it was a fuel stop for the railroad's early wood-burning
locomotives. As passengers dined at hotels such as the Little Delmonico
and The Maples, laborers, equipped with bucksaws, sawed the wood and
stacked it on the train.
By the late 1870s, a Massachusetts entrepreneur by the name of George W. Davis had converted a portion of North Manorville into cranberry bogs. More than 25,000 bushels of cranberries were shipped annually by railroad to New York City. Among the most popular and best-tasting cranberries on the market, they were sold under the name Blue Diamond. The bogs no longer exist, however Manorville still has a strong agricultural presence.