Bethpage Purchase
The Bethpage Purchase was a 1687 land transaction in which Thomas Powell, Sr, bought more than 15 square miles (39 km2; 9,600 acres) in central Long Island, New York for £140 (English pounds sterling) from local Indian tribes, including the Marsapeque, Matinecoc, and Sacatogue. This land, which includes present day Bethpage, East Farmingdale, Farmingdale, Old Bethpage, Plainedge, Plainview, South Farmingdale, and part of Melville, is approximately 3.5 miles (5.6 km) east to west and 5 mi (8.0 km) north to south, covering land on both sides of the present-day border between Nassau and Suffolk counties.
On October 18, 1695, Mawmee (alias Serewanos), William Chepy, Seurushung, and Wamussum made their marks on the sheepskin deed. The deed, which recognizes Powell had already been in possession of part of the land for more than seven years, is recorded in the Queens County Clerks office, and in it, the Indians reserved the right to pick berries and hunt on the property sold. At that time, people would fish in the Massatayun River, which then extended further north than it does now.
Powell called the land he purchased "Bethphage", because it was situated between two other places on Long Island, Jericho and Jerusalem, just as the biblical town of Bethphage (meaning "house of figs") was situated between Jericho and Jerusalem in Israel. Today, the Long Island place formerly called "Jerusalem" is known as Wantagh and Island Trees, while the Jericho, also a Quaker settlement at that time, still has that name. Over time, the second "H" was dropped from the name, to spell "Bethpage". One of two houses Powell built in the area ( 1700) still stands on Merritts Road in Farmingdale, just north of the Bethpage-Hempstead Turnpike.
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