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Yaphank Historic Society
Yaphank was first called Millville, but was changed to Yaphank when the post office was opened in 1846. Yaphank is an Indian name meaning the bank of a river. The railroad was opened through Yaphank to Riverhead and Greenport in 1844, and this event was a great day in the lives of the people through this area, as now a trip to the city could be made in two hours with the iron home, where it had taken two or three days with the stagecoach. Prime, in his history of Long Island in 1845, has this to say: "But, until the people beheld with their own eyes, the cumbrous train of cars drawn by the iron horse, spouting forth smoke and steam, passing like a steed of lightning through their forests and fields with such velocity they could not tell whether the countenances of the passengers were human, celestial or infernal, they would not believe that a railroad had the power almost to annihilate beth time and space. "There was considerable activity in Yaphank around the mid 1850's, as the Presbyterian church was built in 1851, St. Andrews Episcopal Church in 1853, a Baptist church in 1853, which was moved to Port Jefferson about twenty years later, the famous octagon schoolhouse in 1854, used until 1926, and the county home property purchased in 1871. The first schoolhouse was located about one quarter mile north of Swezey's comer on the road to Middle Island. This was built shortly after the district was formed in 1813.
In 1875 Yaphank was a busy village with 2 grist mills, 2 lumber mills, 2 blacksmith shops, 1 printing office, 1 upholstery shop, 1 stage line, 2 doctors, 1 shoe shop, 1 lumber yard, 2 wheelwright shops, 1 meat market, 1 dressmaking shop, 1 general store, according to the book by Beecher Homan, "Yaphank As It Is And Was" published in 1875.
The Yaphank railroad station was an important train order office as well as freight station, with an agent and operator on duty. Now all the stations between Ronkonkoma and Greenport have been removed, except Riverhead, and there is only one train each way daily.
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