USA > New York > Queens County > History of Queens County, New York : with illustrations, portraits, and sketches of prominent families and individuals. > Part 34
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Mrs. E. II. Onderdonk .- Among the notable residents of the village of Hempstead is Mrs. Eliza Handy Onder-
donk, widow of the late Rt. Rev. Benjamin Tred- well Onderdonk, I). D., formerly bishop of the diocese of New York. She is residing with her son, the Hon. Henry M. Onderdonk, editor of the Inquirer, and is in the 87th year of her age, and still in the enjoyment of good health. She has in her possession the folio prayer book rescued from the desk of Trinity Church, New York, at the time of the burning of that edifice on the 21st of September 1776, during the occupancy of the city by the British troops, when about one thousand houses were destroyed. It is an interesting relic of the Revolutionary times, and bears upon the cover the marks of the fire from which it was snatched while the building was in flames.
THE OLDEST INHABITANTS.
Robert A. Davidson, M. D., was born November 28th 1793, and settled in Hempstead in 1813. He has been engaged in the practice of medicine over sixty years. He is an active member and elder in the Presbyterian church, and respected throughout the community.
Bernardus Hendrickson, attorney and counsellor at law, is one of the old residents of Hempstead and of the county. He was born in Jamaica, February 14th 1807, and has resided in Hempstead village since 1828. His memory goes back to the time when there were only two houses on Fulton street. His father, Samuel Hendrick- son, was a native of Jamaica.
Zachariah Story, of Christian Hook, 94 years old, is a native of Hempstead, and for many years has lived on the old homestead. He remembers the era of log build- ings and a sparsely populated town. In the spring of 1881 Mr. Story was in the enjoyment of good health.
Harry Sammis was born December 23d 1797 and is 83 years of age. He has from youth been a farmer and hotel-keeper.
Mrs. Snedeker, 95 years old, is the mother of the late Isaac Snedeker.
Henry Mott, Valley Stream, was born February 8th 1807. His father died in 1849, aged 92 years. Mr. Mott remembers when there was only one house at Pear- salls.
Nathaniel Smith, Hempstead village, was born January 7th 1790, and is therefore 91 years old. A large number of friends called on Mr. Smith and were welcomed on the occasion of his ninety-first birthday.
Elizabeth Johnson was 91 years of age December 4th 1880.
Mrs. D. Rhodes, of Freeport, 77 years old, should be mentioned among the oldest residents.
Latton Smith is a native of the county, and has been a business man in Hempstead for many years; he is 73 years old.
Peter T. Hewlett, of East Rockaway, was born in 1792. His father, Oliver Hewlett, moved into the house where P. T. now lives in April 1800. He has been a farmer and carriage-maker. He is a member of St. George's Church at Hempstead, and assisted at the raising of the frame.
RESIDENCE OF GEO. W. BERGEN, FREEPORT, QUEENS CO., N. Y.
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HEMPSTEAD'S OLDEST INHABITANTS-THE JERUSALEM PURCHASE.
William Caffray was born in county Kildare, Ireland, February 28th 1805, and came to America in 1834, settling at Far Rockaway, where he has since resided. At that time what is now Far Rockaway village was the commons, there being only two or three houses on the beach besides the Pavilion (destroyed by fire), the erec- tion of which was commenced in 1832 and finished in 1834. It was built by a company of sixty gentlemen from New York. Mr. Caffray was for several years a laboring man, but in 1845 purchased what is now the Transatlantic Hotel, of which he has since been proprie- tor.
Thomas Jeffrey was born in England, in 1805, and settled in Jerusalem about 1835, clearing his farm from a wilderness of bushes and briars. He has made the raising of trout a business during a number of years, and is the owner of several fine ponds. Near his residence he points out what he claims to be the largest apple tree in the State, which he planted and has watched in its growth.
Daniel Langdon was born at Grassy Pond, in 1796. He was a soldier in the war of 1812, and in 1881 was yet an active man, walking two miles to do his trading at the " old Smith store," near Rockville Center.
Alden J. Spooner, of Hempstead, was stricken down by apoplexy Tuesday evening August 2nd 1881. He was the founder of the Long Island Historical Society, a member of the Hamilton Society, and a member of the Society of Old Brooklyn. His contributions on histori- cal subjects to various publications were highly praised. He practiced law for many years. He was 71 years of age.
Samuel N. Searing has been a resident of Hempstead since 1814. He has been a merchant, and has held the office of village trustee. Dr. James Searing is remem- bered as an old resident, at one time residing in the Har- per residence. He died at the age of 74 years.
JERUSALEM.
One of the earliest permanent English settlements in the eastern part of Queens county was made at Jerusalem, on a tract of land which comprised about all the territory of the present town of Hempstead east of the brushy plains and north of the islands in the South Bay.
Its limits may be defined as follows: Starting at a point on the South Bay a little west of Jackson's Creek and run- ning about north, near the present residence of A. D. Frye, following the west edge of the swamp up to the head of the west branch of the stream, and thence north- wardly along the edge of the brush and pines to the Bethpage turnpike; thence eastwardly to the present Oyster Bay line; thence southwardly by the same to the bay at a creek known as the Island (or Seaman's Island) Creek; and westwardly by said creek to the place of be- ginning.
This tract was about two miles from east to west, and about five miles from north to south. It contained at least six thousand acres, and at the first settlement about one thousand acres on the north end were open rolling
prairie, without trees; four thousand acres were covered by a heavy growth of red, white, black and other oaks, chestnut, hickory, black and white beech, maple, tulip, pepperidge and other varieties of trees. On the south end, bordering the bay, were from 1,200 to 1,500 acres of the never failing black grass, salt and sedge meadows. A large stream known as the Jerusalem River, having five tributaries, ran nearly the whole length of the tract on the western edge. Two other creeks (salt water) intersected the meadows, and ran well up into the upland, dividing the meadows into three necks; the westernmost one was called Great Neck; the middle one, by the In- dians, Muskachong, or Half Neck; the east one Ruska- tux or Seaman's Neck. The stream dividing Hempstead from Oyster Bay flanked the eastern limits of the pur- chase. The present flourishing village of Seaford is near the head of Ruskatux Neck, and Ridgewood near the head of Great Neck. The farming tract along the sides of the brooks and their sources is still called Jerusalem, although the post-office and station is Ridgewood. A settlement on the northeastern limits is known as East Broadway, while the northern portion is still called Plain Edge. On the banks of the creeks, both on Ruskatux and Great Necks, are still left many thousand loads of clam shells, showing that multitudes of the red men must have made them feasting places, perhaps for ages. The resident Indians of the tract were of the Marsapeague tribe, of whom Tackapousha was the sachem.
This tract appears to have claimed the attention of Captain John Seaman and Robert Jackson while acting as a pioneer committee, prior to the permanent settlement at Hempstead made by the colony from Stamford, Conn., in 1644, and a large part of it to have been secured by Captain John Seaman from the Indians at that time; as more than 1,500 acres of the same, lying east of the township purchase of the Indians and the Governor Kieft patent, including all the meadows and uplands of Ruskatux Neck, were held by him individually. The selection of such a body of land shows the remarkable sagacity of these two men; for it is almost certain that the same compact quantity of land of equal fertility cannot elsewhere be found within the limits of the county. At that time on the prairie portion the tall waving grass rose in height to their saddle bows. The timbered portion was mostly a rich sandy loam, on which wheat was grown for many years without any manure, and now with the aid of suitable fertilizers the yield in quantity and quality is fully equal to that of any portion of the State. The beautiful rippling brooks with their white pebbly bottoms and waters of unexcelled sweetness, and swarming with the gamy speckled trout, were continually flowing seaward, with a descent of twenty feet to the mile, giving ample water powers. The wild grapes everywhere hung in luxuriant clusters, while the never failing grass of the salt meadows rendered a dearth of food for vast herds of cattle an impossibility. In the first settlement there is no evidence of any other proprietors than these two men and their families. Captain John Seaman had eight sons and eight daughters. Six of his sons made their first
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HISTORY OF QUEENS COUNTY.
homes on the purchase, and as patentees or proprietors of the town. Robert Jackson had two sons and two daughters. The oldest son, John, also made his home on the purchase, and these two and John's children took up nearly one-fourth of the tract, about a mile in width and three in length north and south, it being the southwest corner of the tract. It is pretty certain that Captain John Seaman, his sons and one or two families with whom the children intermarried, Linningtons and Allens, took up and held up to the date of Captain John's death nearly all of the other three-fourths of the purchase. The will of John Seaman the elder, dated August 25th 1694, gives to his sons some 2,700 acres, 2,200 of which were in the Jerusalem purchase; to his son-in-law, Nathaniel Pearsall, 150, which, added to former gifts and the holdings of the other children, would about take up the timber and meadow lands. The plains not fenced at a certain date were wrested from the proprietors in a suit with the town in after years.
About the year 1680 Nathan Birdsall appears to have acquired the land along the sides of the north half of the west stream and the upland, some five hundred feet in width, between the stream and brushy plains. A ditch some two miles long is still left at the brush edge, known as " Birdsall's ditch."
THE SEAMAN FAMILY.
Captain John Seaman (who with six of his sons may be classed as the first settlers of Jerusalem) came to this country from England not far from the year 1635, and nothing certain of his early life has as yet been discovered. The traditions of the family are that it is of the Danish stock which settled in England after the repulse of the Danes by King Alfred. The heraldic arms of Captain John and copies since taken by some other members of the family from the herald's offices in England seem to bear out this idea, as the crest, a sea-horse, and the mot- to, " We make our name known by our deeds," seem to indicate that they were men of the sea; and the records of Norfolk and, it is said, of Northumberland also, show that the bearers of the name (in Norfolk county spelled Symonde) and the device antedate the Norman conquest, while those of Cornwall claim for the Symondses, its most influential family, a continental origin from the Counts of Severgne. Be the origin as it may, this man nobly bore out the motto in its best sense. He emphatically made his name known by his deeds. In the sketch of Captain John Seaman by Charles B. Moore (see Genealogi- cal and Biographical Record, Vol. XI. No. 4, and other papers contributed by the same, and Onderdonk's " Queens County in the Olden Times " and " Annals of Hempstead," to which gentleman the writer of this is indebted for very many valuable facts) it is evident that a very large part of Captain John's time from 1656 to 1695 must have been taken up in transacting the difficult work of the Hempstead colony. In addition to the above work at one time he was employed by Suffolk county to act for it in a very important matter. That in addition to his great abilities he loved and practiced
justice and fair dealing is proven by the fact that no complaints were ever made by the Indians against him for wrong done them, as was so common with most of the proprietors and settlers. Once, when the Indians had planned a general massacre of the whites, a friendly Indian gave him timely notice and the calamity was averted. While he was a serious man he was also a staunch friend to religious liberty and not much inclined to a belief in witchcraft. (See town records, 1665.)
Being also one of the largest proprietors of the town in the township purchases of the Indians, and by the patents of Governors Kieft, Nicoll and Dongan, after settling six of his sons at Jerusalem-probably because his almost constant employment in some public trust or embassy had made it impossible to carry on his very ex- tensive stock and farming operations-he appears to have removed with his youngest two sons, Nathaniel and Richard, to Hempstead village. At the date of his will, in 1694, he appears to have been residing at what he calls " the home lot, adjoining the land of James Pine."
Space does not permit the tracing of the sons further than that one of the grandsons of John and his descend- ants settled in Hempstead and one, Joseph, became the founder of a very large family at Little Egg Harbor, New Jersey. Of Jonathan's descendants very many went to Kakiat, on the Hudson, and some from there to Virginia. Others were ancestors of the Seamans of Jericho, Jamaica and New York.
The oldest branch of the children of Benjamin went to Staten Island; the others remained at Jerusalem. Two sons of Solomon went to Maryland, the' rest settled near Hempstead village. Most of the descendants of Samuel settled over in Suffolk county.
Most of the descendants of Thomas lived around Jerusalem in 1800.
One branch of Nathaniel's descendants is still at Hempstead, and one settled at Westbury. Richard's children settled near Success, Hempstead Harbor and Jericho, in Oyster Bay.
There are now living of the Seamans from one to two thousand, located in the States and a few in Canada.
Of the daughters of Captain John Seaman Elizabeth married Robert Jackson's son John. Most of the Jacksons of Long Island and New York, and many in the other States, have descended from this pair; as also the numerous de- scendants of William and Phebe Jones, of West Neck, Oyster Bay. Of these their son Justice Samuel Jones, one of the most eminent jurists of his time, and his sons Chancellor Samuel, Judge David S., Major William and their descendants would form a long list of men holding the highest social and official positions in the State for more than one hundred years. Sarah Seaman married. a Mott. Their descendants are numerous, of high char- acter and some of them noteworthy. Martha Seaman married Nathaniel Pearsall. A noted family has followed their union, of whom General James B. Pearsall, of Glen Cove, is a present representative. Deborah Seaman mar- ried a Kirk; there have been several noted men of this family. Benjamin C. Kirk, of Glen Cove, is directly de
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THE SEAMANS AND JACKSONS OF HEMPSTEAD.
scended from them. Hannah Seaman and one other daughter married Caleb and Joshua Carman, and they have numerous and highly respectable descendants. Mary married Thomas, son of Henry and brother of Nathaniel Pearsall; theirs was another much respected and quite numerous family, from whom Gilbert Pearsall, late of Flushing, directly descended.
Of the sons of Captain John Seaman, from Jonathan descended Isaac Seaman, an officer in the colonial force which assisted General Wolfe in the capture of Quebec. He was the grandfather of Alfred Seaman, now of Sea- ford. Also Zebulon Seaman, a very prominent member of the Colonial Legislature for many years, and his son Zebulon, lieutenant of the Jerusalem militia, 100 strong, who joined the patriot army at the outbreak of the Rev- olution, and his second son, John W., of the Oyster Bay militia, 125 in number, who served through the war and was surrogate of Queens county for many years; and John W. Seaman's grandson, the late Hon. John A. Sear- ing, member of Congress from the first district of New York. From Benjamin, third son of Captain John, we trace the Benjamin Seaman who was chairman of the New York committee of correspondence in the early Revolutionary days, and whose report " thiat all attempts of single States must prove futile-that the efforts and organization should be made continental," is supposed to have given origin to the words "Continental Congress." In later years his descendant Henry I. Seaman, of Staten Island, was also a representative in Congress from the first district of New York. Alderman Benjamin B. Sea- man, of the twenty-third ward of Brooklyn, is also a de- scendant of Benjamin of Jerusalem. From Jonathan and Richard descended Jordan Seaman, a sturdy patriot of the Revolution, a judge of Queens county, and brother-in-law to John W. and Zebulon; and his son Henry Onderdonk Seaman, for many years years a justice of Hempstead, county judge, member of Assembly etc. From Thomas, the sixth son of Captain John, we trace James M. Seaman, of Ridgewood, who for many years held the office of justice of the peace for the town of Hempstead, was associate justice of the supreme court, etc.
THE JACKSONS.
Of Robert Jackson but little is known prior to the pur- chase, except that he was also one of the original settlers of Stamford, Conn., in 1640-41. His family record states: "A portion of the settlers of Stamford, becoming dis- satisfied, sent a committee over to Long Island in 1643, who succeeded in making a purchase of the Indians; and in April 1644 the company crossed the sound to Hemp- stead Harbor, and began the settlement on the present site of Hempstead village. Robert Jackson and wife were of this company." He was active in the affairs of the town for many years. His will, dated May 25th 1683, mentions sons John and Samuel, daughters Sarah (wife of Nathaniel Moore) and Martha (wife of Nathaniel Coles). His son John, who was also a patentee of the town from Governor Kieft and from Governor Dongan
in 1685, married Elizabeth, oldest daughter of Captain John Seaman. He was a very influential man; was high sheriff of Qeeens county from 1691 to 1695; in the Leg- islature from 1693 to 1709 and from 1710 to 1716; jus- tice of the peace in 1707; one of the county judges from 1710 to 1723, and after the death of his father-in-law seems to have been selected for the most important town affairs until his death, in 1725.
From Robert Jackson descended his distinguished son Colonel John and grandson Colonel John 2nd; also the Hon. Thomas B. Jackson, who died recently at Newtown, for many years a justice of the peace for Hempstead, county judge and member of Congress for the first dis- trict; and his brother James, a justice for Hempstead and county judge.
PRODUCTS OF THE TRACT.
No record is known of the first crops raised here, but corn and wheat were always staple products of the tract, and the Seamans and the Jacksons were at a very early day large stock owners. No date can be fixed for the planting of the first orchards, but many acres of apple trees of great age were to be seen fifty years ago on the farms of the Seamans, and a great number of pear trees on those of the Jacksons. The farm called Cherrywood, on which the first house was built, came by descent from Captain John to his sixth son, Thomas; from Thomas to his first son, John; from John to his third son, Thomas; from Thomas to his son-in-law Zebulon Seaman (a descendant both of Richard and Jonathan) and daughter Mary; from Zebulon and Mary his wife to their son Ardon, and from Ardon to his son Edward H. Seaman, the present owner. On this farm an apple tree known to successive generations of the family as the old apple tree was standing and bore fruit until 1870, when from decay it became necessary to cut it down. This was done by Albert W. Seaman, counsellor at law, 116 and 117 South street, New York (a son of the present owner). The age of the tree had been passed down from father to son, and it was then two hundred and eight years. Some of the wood from this tree now makes a beautiful frame, which encloses a copy of John Durand's fine engraving of William Cullen Bryant, a verse of Bryant's poem on "Planting the Apple Tree," and his autograph, dated April 1872.
The tract is now noted for its crops of wheat, rye, oats and hay and its large export of milk, known as Ridge- wood milk; while potatoes, root crops, pickles, onions, poultry, eggs, brook trout and cider are annually pro- duced in large quantities.
OLD ROADS AND HOUSES.
When the place was settled is not positively known, but it is supposed to have been in 1644. From the first settlement, a few hundred feet east of the stream called the Jerusalem River and its most eastwardly branch, there seems to have been a road or highway leading from the salt meadows; its course was about north 14º east to the great plains; thence north about 20° west to Jericho.
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160
HISTORY OF QUEENS COUNTY.
The south end of this road was called Jerusalem lane, and ran through nearly the middle of the Jackson pur- chase; and just where the east and west line between Jackson and Seaman crossed this road another road ran off nearly due east, until it passed the Jackson east bounds and divided. One branch or path ran on the line between Jackson and Seaman to the meadows, and was called the Half-Neck path. The other branch ex- tended east about half a mile, and then ran off south to the meadows, and was called the Seaman's Neck path, subdividing Seaman's south part of the purchase. About 450 feet north of the intersection of the Seaman's and Half-Neck road with the Jerusalem lane and Jericho road (making what are now S. Bartholomew and E. H. Seaman's corners), and about 120 feet east of the present line of the north and south road, was built by Captain John Seaman the first chimney and house of the white man on the purchase.
Robert Jackson is said to have built soon after, also on the east side of the lane, about 300 feet south of the corners. For some time these two pioneers, although within 800 feet (including the road) of each other, had the almost impassable wilderness of about sixty miles on the east of them to the nearest white settlement in that direction, and on the west the settlement at Hempstead, which could not then be reached short of eight miles. The road north of the corners subdivided the north part of Seaman's lands. On this north part five of Seaman's sons-John, Jonathan, Benjamin, Solomon and Samuel- as they grew to manhood made their homes; Thomas, the sixth son, remaining under the old roof tree.
South of the corners, on what was called the lane, the Jacksons, sons and grandsons, in due time built south ward until they reached the shore. John first built a brick house on the farm, a portion of which is now owned by a descendant, Robert B. Jackson, of Seaford, and another portion by Elbert Jackson, another descendant. Samuel built on the west side of the road a house long held by descendants of the family; now owned by E. and G. Smith.
The first roads were undoubtedly those described above, and opened by the first owners. After the Bird- salls had become the owners of the upper end of the west stream, and the mill thereon at the lower end of their section of the tract, a road was opened from the mill which ran nearly north for a mile on the west side of the stream and then crossed it, and was continued on to the open plains. This road has been closed for many years. A very crooked path was also opened to Hempstead and Westbury, called the "Cross lane," near where the present north road to Hempstead now leaves Jerusalem. The pres- ent Seaman's Neck road was opened some years later, and both Half-Neck and Seaman's Neck paths were closed or disused.
With the construction of the Hempstead-Babylon turnpike, which crossed the south end of the whole pur- chase, it is probable that the first substantial bridges were made on the dam of the old Jackson pond and near Sea- ford; and all the other bridges, of which there are now many small ones, are of recent construction.
The old post road east crossed the south edge of the purchase. A post-office called Jerusalem South was ob- tained about 1836. Samuel S. Jones was postmaster. Previous to that time mail matter had been brought by stage from Brooklyn after about 1776. John Jackson and John C. Birdsall drove from the place once a week. There are now two post-offices, Ridgewood and Seaford, with a daily mail twice each way.
EARLY MARRIAGES AND BURIALS.
The best record of the marriages is to be found in the monthly meeting records of the Society of Friends at Westbury and Jericho, as very many of these early settlers belonged to those meetings; and a little later in the parish records of St. George's Church, Hempstead. A marriage list containing the names of 164 of the Sea- inans, descendants of Captain John Seaman, with the dates from 1726 to 1825, is to be seen in Ardon Seaman's genealogical record of his family, and most of them were residents of Jerusalem at the date of marriage.
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