Ellis Island the region. The oyster beds remained a major source of food for nearly three centuries. Landfilling to build the railyards of the Lehigh Valley Railroad and the Central Railroad of New Jersey eventually obliterated the oyster beds, engulfed one island, and brought the shoreline much closer to the others. During the colonial period, Little Oyster Island was known as Dyre's, then Bucking Island. In the 1760s, after some pirates were hanged from one of the island's scrubby trees, it became known as Gibbet Island. It was acquired by Samuel Ellis, a colonial New Yorker and merchant possibly from Wales, around
Richmondtown, Staten Island Richmondtown, Staten Island Richmondtown is a neighborhood on Staten Island in New York City, New York, in the United States. Originally known as Coccles Town (sometimes misreckoned as Cuckolds Town) because of the abundance of oyster and clam shells found in the waters of the nearby Fresh Kills, Richmondtown gained its present name in 1728 when the village now preserved as Historic Richmond Town was founded. The village became the county seat of Richmond County (with which Staten Island is coterminous) and remained as such until the emergence of St. George soon after the ferries to Manhattan and Brooklyn began