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Founded in
1646, East Marion was first known as Oysterpond Upper Neck (Orient was Oysterpond Lower
Neck). Later, the hamlet was called Rocky Point and was for
over 50 years the headquarters of an active life saving station which saved many men,
women and children, when ships were wrecked on the sound shore. The United States Coast
Guard ran the station during World War II. It's said that the present name is in honor of
General Francis Marion, the "Swamp Fox" of the American Revolution.
In the old days, residents of East Marion were called "shad
eyes" because so many of them were fisherman. (And Orient residents were known a
"turnip-pullers" since they tended to be farmers.)
East Marion has the only Memorial Post Office in the United States. It
opened in 1949 as a working memorial to the veterans of World War II, Korea and Vietnam. |