Southeast is a town in Putnam County, New York, United States, so named for its location in the southeastern corner of the county. The population was 18,058 at the 2020 census. The town as a whole is informally referred to as Brewster, the town's principal settlement; the latter is also an incorporated village within the town's borders. Interstate 84, Interstate 684, U.S. Route 202, US Route 6, and NY 22 are the primary routes through the town.

History

thumb|left|200px|A 1799 map of Connecticut which shows [[The Oblong. From Low's Encyclopaedia.]]

The first settler arrived circa 1730. The area first exploited was called "The Oblong," and was outside of the land claimed by the Philipse Patent. Due to a border dispute between New York and Connecticut, the area between the undisputed border of New York and the undisputed border of Connecticut was an approximately area which ran the full north-south dimension along the state line, in what are now Westchester, Putnam, Dutchess, and Columbia Counties. This was called the Oblong. Land was sold in this area, both by the governor of New York and the King of England for Connecticut, with conflicting deeds. The boundary was settled in New York's favor by the 1731 Treaty of Dover.

A small portion of the Oblong, namely the portion in the Philipse Patent (now Putnam County), was alternately known as Southeast as it was the southeasternmost town in Dutchess County. It consisted of the four-mile-wide section of land along the Connecticut border, going the full north-south dimension of what is now Putnam County, i.e. the eastern part of the current town of Patterson, and the eastern part of the current town of Southeast. The western parts of those two current towns were part of the large Phillipse Patent which had not yet been divided into towns.

The most heavily settled areas of the "Oblong" version of Southeast were the "city" of Frederickstown, now the hamlet of Patterson, and the area called Sodom. This version of Southeast was founded in 1788, and formed the southeast corner of Dutchess County. In 1795, Frederickstown, the town that had been Southeast's neighbor, was divided into the present towns of Carmel, Kent, and Patterson, the latter two known at first as "Frederick" and "Franklin", and at the same time, Southeast lost its northern half to Patterson, and expanded to the west to become the shape it is now. Putnam County split from Dutchess in 1812. The most densely populated area in the town today is the village of Brewster.

Post offices

The first "South East" post office was established in 1797, when the town was still a municipality in Dutchess County. On June 12, 1812, the county of Putnam was established from six Dutchess County towns: Carmel, Kent, Patterson, Philipstown, Putnam Valley and Southeast. These two dates provide a frame of reference for the dates of operation of each Southeast post office.

Before the establishment of centralized post offices, local offices were established in general stores, railroad depots and other public venues in densely populated areas. In Southeast, there were nine individual post offices, each with distinctive postmarks:

  • Brewster's Station from 1850 to 1883
  • Brewster from 1883 to date
  • Doanesburgh from 1839 to 1855
  • Dykman's from 1851 to 1894
  • Dykemans from 1894 to 1935
  • Milltown from 1826 to 1867
  • Putnam Lake Branch 1959 to 1968
  • South East 1797 to 1812 (Dutchess County)
  • South East 1812 to 1857 (Putnam County)
  • Tilly Foster 1881 to 1958

By September 1968, the last of these local offices was closed, and the only post office for the town of Southeast and village of Brewster was located at 20 Main Street with the postmark "Brewster, New York 10509".

|footnote=U.S. Decennial Census

|2020=18058

As of the census of 2020, there were 18,058, 7,058 households, and 6,516 families residing in the town. The racial makeup of the town was 71.95% White, 0.027% African American, 0.69% Native American, 2.65% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 10.3% from other races, and 11.6% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 24.98% of the population.

  • Chester Beach, sculptor
  • Fanny Crosby, hymnist
  • Ava Fabian, playboy model and actress
  • Maurice R. Greenberg, former chairman and CEO of AIG
  • Dag Hammarskjöld, Secretary General of the United Nations from 1953 until his death in 1961
  • James Kent, Chancellor of New York 1814–23
  • Mark Rivera, saxophone player (Billy Joel, Elton John, Ringo Starr)
  • John Wolff, Georgetown University law professor

References

  • official website