After 23 years of directing the Cedar Swamp Historical Society, its founder, a trustee and president (a non-paying position) John G. Peterkin has retired.

The trustees and society are looking within their ranks and among new members to form an executive committee of those who know and are interested in the 400-year-old history of the area from Hempstead to Oyster Bay.

Finding a replacement for Mr. Peterkin will be a challenging task. His list of credits for interesting events is long and enviable including a gala at Oheka, a reception at the DNA Learning Center in Huntington and tours of Kennilworth, the Russian Embassy in Glen Cove.

Tom Kuehhas, director of the Oyster Bay Historical Society said, "It's been his labor of love for many years. To my mind, he was the Cedar Swamp Historical Society. The names John Peterkin and Cedar Swamp Historical Society were interchangeable."

"It's been 99 percent of my life, but I'm retired. I can sit back and be a spectator," said John Peterkin. His volunteer job has kept him busy. "I go to the bank 75 times a year, the mail box 50 times a year. I literally work on it for 365 days out of the year," he said.

"I did the right thing for the wrong reasons. It was easier to do it myself. Six years ago we called people to stuff the envelopes," but it took more time to call them and get them to meet, than to stuff the envelopes themselves. He also took over the duties of treasurer. The result was, "I had no time to do the research."

Everything was time consuming. "What people don't understand is how long it takes to get a New York State Temporary Charter and then later an Absolute Charter.

"Getting the post office box took another year. An IRS ID number, was easier to do. Then you have to get the 501 (c) (3) nonprofit designation. That takes about 14 months.

"All this time you need a constitution and at times an amendment, which takes nine months."

Recently Mr. Peterkin has been involved with trying to find a house for the society to keep its collections including 1200 books about Long Island.

"We tried to buy two homesteads. We are supposed to be one of the five wealthiest areas in the country and we don't have a homestead/farmstead. A nice house with a barn to show people how people lived here many years ago.

"I bid on a house four years ago $553,000 and was to sign the papers after Memorial Weekend, instead, it was bought for $5,000 more. It was one of the oldest houses on Long Island," he said.

Then they tried to buy the George Wells residence. It was left to Hallockville in Riverhead. "They called on Jan. 26, 1997 at 2:30 p.m. and said - your bid of $250,000 was accepted." Their lawyer was John Canning. We didn't hear anything.

"Three, four weeks went by and their lawyer said they had gotten another bid. And in August 1997, the for "sale sign" was down. They said they had a bid for $275,000. I said you now have one for $276,000.

"We were in contract and I wrote out the check and our lawyer said, before we send the check, we want to do an EIS, and they said, send the contract back.

"We wanted it done because we were going to have the public in the site." Later they found out the house was sold for $235,000.

While he was sad to lose the deal, he knew it would have been hard to maintain. "We would have had the money to buy the George Wells house, but not the money to do anything else but put a new roof on it.

"We would have kept its wild rural look. But it would have been very strenuous for us. It's a tremendous responsibility. But there are a couple of other homesteads I have my eye on but it's hard to keep it a secret," he said.

Mr. Peterkin said the CSHS was for teenagers at first. "I had a radio program at C.W. Post on Thursdays, on local history. I had students read their winning essays (and photographic contests) about local history.

Today, the CSHS has representatives of the founding fathers of this area: there is George Hegeman; John Youngs; John Pollitt, a Tappen; Peter Rapelje - his 14 generations grandmother was born in 1624 - she was the first baby born at Fort Orange on the Hudson River. She came down to Manhattan because she was the first Dutch person to be born in America. They have the first and the last farm in Brooklyn. He has slides of items from his family that go back to 1624.

"I am a Carpenter in our family line," said Mr. Peterkin. "We are part founders of Mosquito Cove (now Glen Cove) and Carpenterville, what Sea Cliff was called before 1882. They came over from Massachusetts.

He said Cedar Swamp hadn't really changed. He bought a 1786 house in 1961, it really hadn't changed. Cedar Swamp is the name of a region and not a road, as it is today. It was a 350-year-old road.

"Even today, you can see our 1830 Cedar Swamp Post Office on Cedar Swamp Road and Chicken Valley Road," said Mr. Peterkin.

"What hurts me more is what happened to the southern border of my house. A new neighbor moved in and the trees were all cut down and now I can see the six lane highway I never saw before. I lived here for 38 years and never saw a car. Now my house can be seen for miles away. It used to be in the midst of trees. About 42,000 cars and trucks pass this house today."

But much of the area still remains. "The East Hills Cemetery, founded in 1742 was called the Hegeman Cemetery. It is the only cemetery in America that has never been affiliated with a religion and it has the Hessian soldiers buried with the Dutch and the patriots.

"The Hessians camped opposite the cemetery from probably September 1776 after the battle for Long Island in Brooklyn until Dec. 15, 1783, when they marched up to Canada. The first year they didn't have their wives. The second year they brought over their wives and took over some of our houses. A Hegeman house was taken over by a Russian officer," he said.

A project Mr. Peterkin is considering is to put the history of Cedar Swamp on tape and doing a video tape of four seasons of the area showing there are still horses and split rail fences and old houses and landscapes and Long Island Sound - without getting any modern invention in that movie - just as if it was taken in 1776.

To fill Mr. Peterkin's role, the society seeks those candidates who can seek out good speakers; write newsletters; raise funds; are interested in the 1200 books about Long Island the society owns; is concerned about our environment; can be enthusiastic about special events of the society from house tours, to Revolutionary War Memorial events to dinners and to potluck suppers.

If you are interested, write to the Cedar Swamp Historical Society, Cedar Swamp, Long Island 11545. Membership in the group costs $25 annually.