What names were used to describe Freeport before the town officially adopted the name "Freeport?"
Finding information about Freeport in early newspapers and other primary sources can be difficult because different names were used to describe this area until 1853. Below are the names and the approximate dates when they were used:
1659Wasburn’s Neck
Raynor’s Neck
1725
Rayor’s Neck
South Woods
Great South Woods
Early 1800s
Raynor Town
Raynortown
1845
Raynor South
1853
The official town name was chosen after several town names were considered, including:
Raynor Town
Bayside Village
Raynor Village
Freeport
On August 22, 1853, the following resolution was adopted:“Resolved, unanimously, that this village he hereafter known by the name of FREEPORT, and not by those of Raynor Town, Raynor South, and South Hempstead, as heretofore.”
Freeport received its first post office in 1853 and was incorporated on October 22, 1892.
The name Freeport is derived from the fact that ships could land cargo here without paying duties.
Other names associated with this area:Hick’s Neck – used until the late 1700s to describe Baldwin.
Milburn Corners – began being used after the Revolutionary War to describe Baldwin.
Greenwich Point – used until 1902 to describe Roosevelt.
Coe’s Neck – Area around Bayview Avenue in south Freeport that became part of the Village of Freeport in 1892.
Freeport in the U.S. Census(Using the very common Freeport surname “Raynor” on Ancestry.com, these are the approximate locations used in the Census for Freeport):
Census Year/Location1790 – South Hempstead, Queens County
1800 – South Hempstead, Queens County
1810 – Hempstead, Queens County
1820 – Queens, New York
1830 – South Hempstead (Hampstead), Queens County
1840 – Hempstead, Queens
1850 – Hempstead, Queens
1860 – Hempstead, Queens
1870 – Hempstead, Queens
1880 – Freeport, Queens
Sources:
Metz, Clinton. Freeport As It Was. Freeport, NY 1976.
Winsche, Richard A. History of Nassau County Community Place-Names. Hempstead, NY: Hosftra University, 1999.
