Agriculture

Special Report: ‘Dark days’ at the Cutchogue labor camp

Migrant workers and fire department personnel in the aftermath of a 1961 fire that killed four at the camp. (Credit: Courtesy of the Southold Historical Society, Southold, NY)
Migrant workers and fire department personnel in the aftermath of a 1961 fire that killed four at the camp. (Credit: Courtesy of the Southold Historical Society, Southold, NY)

DEATH, VIOLENCE AT THE CAMP

One of the most jarring incidents in the Cutchogue migrant camp’s history was the fire that swept through a barracks on the property, killing three workers trapped inside and a fourth who escaped but later succumbed to his injuries.

At about 7 a.m. on Oct. 8, 1961, a “kerosene space heater-type stove, forbidden by law in labor camp buildings,” exploded in one of the wooden buildings that housed the migrant workers, according to a story in the Riverhead News-Review.

All but three of the 20 workers living in the building made it to safety, the article states. The victims who burned to death were Roy McCoy, a 23-year-old from North Carolina; 42-year-old Charles Jordan from Ohio; and 41-year-old James Davis of Baltimore, Md.

A fourth man, 23-year-old James Overstreet of Louisville, Miss., fled the burning building with “third-degree burns covering most of his body,” according to the story. He later died at Eastern Long Island Hospital in Greenport.

The blaze was extinguished by more than 100 volunteers from the Cutchogue and Mattituck fire departments, who were unable to save the building, which was destroyed.

All told, $25,000 worth of property — including the possessions of the migrants — was destroyed.

Camp manager John Murphy said at the time that workers had brought the illegal stoves into the camp themselves. Assistant district attorney Ted Jaffe said there was “probably no criminal liability against the camp owners” at the time of the fire, but railed against the “disgraceful conditions” in the camp of about 200 migrants.

“There is an air of general sloppiness about the place,” he told the News-Review at the time.

The fire was the biggest disaster to occur at the farm, but it certainly wasn’t the only time emergency responders were called to the property. Over the years, several people were injured during fights in the barracks, according to contemporary news sources.

A 2011 biography, “Preachin’ the Blues,” claims that blues guitarist and singer Eddie “Son” House was arrested while working at the labor camp in October 1955 after stabbing and killing a man who was allegedly trying to rob him. Mr. House was released after a Suffolk County grand jury did not indict him on manslaughter charges, “apparently accepting House’s argument of self-defence,” author Daniel Beaumont wrote.

Another well-known incident during the camp’s later years involved the discovery of a cache of weapons and ammo, as well as Black Panther literature. On July 19, 1972, four Long Island Farm Workers Service Center volunteers were arrested on felony reckless endangerment charges after migrants at the camp reported hearing gunfire, according to an article in The New York Times.

The three men and a teenage girl said they were “just having target practice” and weren’t members of the Black Panthers, according to the article. One of the men told the Times that he was selling the literature and buttons because he would get 10 percent of the profits.