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- The East Hampton Star, East Hampton, N.Y., June 22, 1978
The Chairman of the Fair (Picture of Cora Sweeting included)
Cora Sweeting, a lively, sharp-eyed woman, who has been a church worker, first with the Community Church in Montauk and, for the past 34 years, with the Amagansett Presbyterian Church, was honored at a dinner recently by the Amagansett congregation.
?They decided they couldn?t make it a surprise,? Mrs. Sweeting said the other day. ?After all of the pomp and ceremony I told them why they have me the party: They wanted me to be chairman of the fair again. I?ve threatened to quit for the past ten years.?
?I think?, said Mrs. Sweeting, in answer to a question, ?that I?ve been chairman of the fair since 1960. We kept the Church going for a long time just with the fair and the cake sales and rummage sales.?
Ecumenical Spirit
She said, replying to another question, that she thought she had ?worked under ten ministers in this Church.? One of the first of her acquaintance she chauffeured on his first day to Montauk where he was also to preach, and then to East Hampton, where she introduced him to the Episcopalian minister, leaving the new minister ?flabbergasted? by her ecumenical spirit.
Questioned on the subject, Mrs. Sweeting, who had proferred tasty cookies and tea, said, ?I think we?re heading for a revival. The Church is coming together. People are putting aside denominations. I think we?ll find out that it?s the same God over all of us.?
She said she viewed greed as perhaps the worst sin. ?Greed is what is ruining this country,? she said. ?Greed, selfishness, it?s the worst sin. You see it right from the top; yeah, right ? Congress.?
Fishing Community
In contrast to the grasping world she now saw, Mrs. Sweeting recalled fondly Montauk?s fishing village on For Pond Bay where she spent part of her youth and early married life.
?It was like a happy family there. There were mainly one-story houses. They went all the way around from Tuthill?s, right around. The land was leased from the Long Island Raid Road. It was so nice because everyone knew everyone else. If somebody wanted to have a dance, you?d pass the word. There was a YMCA above Duryea?s, on the hill. They had a Victrola. We went up and danced and had a terrific time.?
?The ?38 hurricane wrecked it pretty much. During the War, the Navy took it over. Everybody moved; so we moved up here.?
Mrs. Sweeting, in 1922, married John Sweeting, and Englishman from the Bahamas, who until his death in 1960 captained sportfishing boats here and in Florida.
?The Best?
?There?s his boat, the Ranger,? she said, showing a visitor a photo album replete with pictures of happy sport-fishermen posing with prize marlin, tuna, and swordfish.
?We lost it over to Maidstone in the 1944 storm. The tide came up so high, a pile went through it.?
She said of her husband, with a smile, ?He always caught the most fish, the best fish, and the biggest fish.?
Had she ever fished? ?Nope. Never caught a fish in my life. John was such a good fisherman, to this day, I can?t hardly bring myself to buy a fish.?
Among those who went out with Mr. Sweeting was Ernest Hemingway. ?He reminded me of a tobacco farmer,? Mrs. Sweeting said, when asked for her opinion of the writer. ?Mrs. Hemingway learned to drive on our lawn in Key West.?
?I was born up here in my grandmother?s house,?, Mrs. Sweeting, whose maiden name was Bassett, said, replying to a question. ?That was in December of 1904. I?m an old lady. My father had a farm at First House in Montauk, where the cemetery is at Hither Hills. There was so much snow that my father had to drive a team of Montauk on the shore. I was two-weeks-old then, but I always insisted that I remembered the trip.?
Changes
?We didn?t stay at First House long. Everybody had sheep then. The sheep my father had got into his corn, and he had to quit. After that he fished in Montauk during the summer, and we came back here for school in the winter.?
Mrs. Sweeting said that she and her family were in Florida ? where her husband worked in the wintertime ? when Carl Fisher began his transformation of Montauk. ?When we came back we couldn?t believe it,? she said. ?As far as I?m concerned, he spoiled Montauk. Montauk isn?t Montauk since the fishing village disappeared.?
?I liked Florida,? she said, ?for a few months. We sued to stay six months. I always wanted to get back on Abraham?s Path and feel the northwest breeze.?
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Bassett Family Association Database
1865 - 