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- [S40] George Borthwick, The Church at the South: A History of the South Haven Church (Mattituck, N.Y. : Cutchogue Presbyterian Church, 1989.. Written c. 1940 in manuscript form.).
- [S38] Cemetery: South Haven Presbyterian Church (1925 & 1938), Stone 7.
- [S35] Munsell's History of Suffolk County, New York, with Illustrations, Portraits, & Sketches of Prominent Families and Individuals (W. W. Munsell & Co., New York. 1882.), p. 84.
- [S80] Stephanie Bigelow, Bellport and Brookhaven: A Saga of the Sibling Hamlets of the Old Purchase South. (Bellport-Brookhaven Historical Society. 1968), p. 5.
"A major tragedy that affected the people of Fireplace occurred on Friday, November 5, 1813. A crew of eleven fishermen went through Smith's Inlet [Old Inlet] to fish from a "dry shoal" several hundred yards out in the ocean. While busy with their nets they did not notice that their boat was insecure and had floated away. It had been caught in the current running through the inlet as the tide began to change. As the water deepened over the sandbar, the men called for help, but none heard or came, and all were drowned. Six widows were left. One had said she was sure she had recognized her husband's voice shouting for help, but no one had believed her. The men were William rose, Isaac Woodruff, Daniel and Lewis Pearshall, Benjamin Brown, Nehemiah Hand, James and Henry Homan, Charles Ellison, James Prior and John Hulse."
- [S40] George Borthwick, The Church at the South: A History of the South Haven Church (Mattituck, N.Y. : Cutchogue Presbyterian Church, 1989.. Written c. 1940 in manuscript form.), p. 180-181.
... eleven men, namely, William Rose, Isaac Woodruff, Henry Homan, Charles Ellison, James Prior, John Hulse, Daniel and Lewis Parshall, Enjamin Brown, Nehemiah Hand, and James Homan went off South Beach in their small boat to fish. Accordingo the tradition, the men landed on the sand bar several hundred yards off shore, which at low tide is above water, to shake the sea-weed out of their nets, and hauled their boat upon the sand. They carelessly failed to anchor it, with the result that in the darkness they did not see that the rising tide was washing around it and lifting it, until finally a wave carried it off the bar. When they made the discovery that their boat was gone, and felt the tide rising about their feet, they began to shout so loudly that they were heard across the Beach and Great South Bay by people on the mainland at Brookhaven. It was a beautiful, calm night. One woman went to her neighbor's and remarked that she thought that something was wrong at the Beach as she was sure she had heard her husband's voice. It has always been a mystery why a rival fishing crew, which that night was in a house on the Beach, did not hear the men's cries and rescue them. One tradition declares that a man who had heard the shouting of the stranded fishermen, broke into the house to ask them to get the men. They evidently had been drinking, for one man drunkenly replied in answer to the intruder's plea: "Damn'em, let 'em drown." All eleven were drowned, and the next morning there were eight widows in the parish of South Haven.
- [S100] Long Island Star (Brooklyn, NY) 17 November 1813, as quoted in: Parshall, James Clark. The History of the Parshall Family from the Conquest of England by William of Normandy, A.D. 1066, to the Close of the 19th Century. Syracuse: Crist, Park and Parshall.
Melancholy Occurrence — Rarely, indeed, has it been our painful duty to record a more melancholy occurrence than one which recently took place in that part of Brooklin [sic, Brookhaven] called Fire Place. On the evening of Friday, the 5th instant, eleven men, belonging to that village, went to the South Shore with a seine for fishing, viz: William Rose, Isaac Woodruff, Lewis Parshall, Benjamin Brown, Nehemiah Hand, James Horner, Charles Ellison, James Prior, Daniel Parshall, Harry Horner and John Hulse. On Saturday morning the affecting discovery was made that they were all drowned. It is supposed the whole party embarked in one boat, and went out to the outer bar, a distance of two miles from the shore, and which at low water is in some places bare, but that by some accident the boat was stove or sunk, and the whole party left to perish by the rising of the tide, which, at high water, is eight or ten feet on the bar. The boat came on shore in pieces, and also eight bodies. The six first named have left families. Long will a whole neighborhood lament this overwhelming affliction, and the tears of the widow and orphan flow for their husband, father and friend.
- [S101] Long Island Forum: journal (http://genealogycds.com), August, 1946. p. 149ff.
- [S28] Osborn Shaw, History of Brookhaven Village: A paper written by Mr. Osborn Shaw of Bellport for the Fireplace Literary Club, and read by him at the Brookhaven Free Library, October 5th, 1933. (Unpublished manuscript (transcription this site). 1933), https://brookhavensouthaven.org/category/osborne-shaw-paper/.
- [S5225] Call Family Tree, Ezekiel HAND.
- [S35] Munsell's History of Suffolk County, New York, with Illustrations, Portraits, & Sketches of Prominent Families and Individuals (W. W. Munsell & Co., New York. 1882.), p. 84.
Son Nehemiah testified that at the death of his father, "My mother being left with five small children to care for."
- [S38] Cemetery: South Haven Presbyterian Church (1925 & 1938), Stone 6.
Mary Mape's gravestone listed all her husbands -- Nehemiah Hand, T. W. Rowland, and David DeForest
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1772 - 1813 (41 years)
