FREE Issue of The Freeholder!
No tricks, no gimmicks, no obligation. You pay the postage ($1.25) and get the feature-packed Summer 2006 edition FREE.  

Back issues of The Freeholder are a popular item in our Bookstore, where folks regularly pay $5.00 plus shipping and handling per issue. For a limited time, you can get the current, Summer 2006 edition for the cost of shipping alone -- $1.25.

This is a simple, no-strings offer.
You pay the postage. We'll send The Freeholder. We won't send any bills. We won't add you to our mailing list, or even to our email list. And we won't sell or share your information. If you want more Freeholders -- and we think you will -- you can buy them in our Bookstore, or, better yet, get them free as a benefit of membership in the Oyster Bay Historical Society.

Grace Fortescue (center) with daughter Thalia and husband Thomas Massie (right). Fortescue, Massie, and two enlisted men (left) were charged with murdering Hawaiian Joseph Kahahawai, Jr., whom Thalia accused of rape.

Meet the Spinzias.
Long Island historians Raymond and Judith Spinzia are anything but dull. Popular with radio, TV and lecture audiences, these lively raconteurs are known for their irreverent, gossipy tales of Tiffany, the Vanderbilts, and North and South Shore estates owners. In a colorful prelude to the Society's forthcoming Fall 2006 Exhibit, Irreplaceable Artifacts, the Spinzias, will "dish" on famous Gold Coast residents in a talk on Sunday, October 29, 2006 at 2:30 p.m. at the Oyster Bay Community Center on Church Street. The talk derives from the research for their latest book, Long Island's Prominent North Shore Families: Their Estates and Their Country Homes, and that just happens to be excerpted in the Summer 2006 edition of The Freeholder. You're sure to love the Spinzias' account of Those Other Roosevelts: The Fortescues -- a tasty tale of Hawaiian murder involving Roosevelt descendants (see photo and caption left).

Get to Know The Freeholder.
As regular contributors to The Freeholder, the Spinzias are in good company. Freeholder authors include Contributing Editor (CE) and Oyster Bay Town Historian John Hammond, whose popular Oyster Bay Guardian columns have been collected in his latest book, Oyster Bay Remembered, CE Elliot M. Sayward, who often writes on the history of publishing, Lee Myles, whose focus is on Oyster Bay's Dutch antecedents, and Philip Blocklyn, whose piquant book reviews are a must for folks interested in Long Island history. Shorter articles, such as Alice Delano Weekes' "Anecdotes of Old Oyster Bay" -- in the FREE Summer 2006 edition -- populate The Freeholder's Gathering Place, where CE Arlene Goodenough sometimes publishes, too. Currents of The Bay focuses on the doings of local historical organizations, while Test Your Knowledge lets you pit historical wits with our editors -- erstwhile refugees from Quizz. And no issue of The Freeholder would be complete without the sometimes rascally column of Uncle Peleg, the Dear Abbot of etymology and historical derivation.

Get to Know OBHS.
Although the Oyster Bay Historical Society hasn't been around as long as Uncle Peleg -- OBHS was founded in 1960 -- it is one of Long Island's longest running and best regarded. From its historic Earle-Wightman House headquarters -- originally a small, circa 1720s one-room dwelling -- OBHS provides tours, lectures, exhibits, and other historically-related events. Its museum and research library serve students, scholars, and historians with a wealth of artifacts, docmuments, maps and photos. Between curating exhibits, editing The Freeholder, and tending the library, the OBHS staff also fields a steady stream of genealogical inquiries. All that activity has the little 1720s house bursting at the seams, so a major fund-raising drive is underway to build a new library and collections storage building to protect and preserve the Society's priceless Oyster Bay artifacts. You are, of course, welcome to help things along with a donation.

Take the Plunge.
Get acquainted with the Spinzias through their article on the feckless Fortescues, enjoy the other offerings in the latest Freeholder, and spend some time in Society -- the Oyster Bay Historical Society.

The Fine Print.
Sorry, no fine print here. Just a fine Freeholder rushed to your door when you click on an orange button, and use your major charge card or PayPal to pay $1.25 for shipping.

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Our special THANKS! to Harry L. Dickran of

who generously prints The Freeholder free of charge. Please patronize our contributors.

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MasterCard, Visa, Discover, and American Express donations and payments to the Oyster Bay Historical Society are processed through PayPal to OBHS advisor Louis J. Bruno and do not require a PayPal account.

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Go to The Oyster Bay Historical Society Homepage

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