USA > New York > Queens County > History of Queens County, New York : with illustrations, portraits, and sketches of prominent families and individuals. > Part 77
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OFFICERS OF NORTH HEMPSTEAD.
The first town meeting for North Hempstead was held at the house of Samuel Searing, at Searingtown, on the 14th of April 1784. Adrian Onderdonk was elected su- pervisor and John Schenck town clerk. Supervisors have since been elected as follows:
1785, Adrian Onderdonk; 1786, Richard Thorn; 1787- 1808, Andries Hegeman; 1809-18, Lawrence Denton; 1819, 1820, John B. Kissam; 1821-28, Singleton Mitchell; 1829, Henry J. Hagner; 1830-37, William L. Mitchell; 1838-45, John Willis; 1846-52, Silvanus S. Smith; 1853, John S. Wood; 1855, Andrew J. Hegeman; 1854, 1856- 67, 1873, 1877-81, John M. Clark; 1868, 1869, Benjamin W. Allen; 1870 72, 1874, Henry J. Remsen; 1875, 1876, Samuel Willets.
John Schenck was town clerk until 1818. His suc. cessors have been as follows: 1819-29, John S. Schenck; 1830-48, George D. Ketcham; 1849, Stephen Taber; 1850-53, John R. Schenck; 1854, 1856-58, 1860, 1861, James M. Stilwell; 1855, J. Louis Poillon; 1859, 1862, James M. Mitchell; 1863-66, William A. Mitchell; 1867, 1868, Samuel V. Searing; 1869-73, Valentine Downing; 1874, 1875, John D. Acker; 1876-80, William U. Nos- trand; 1881, Samuel Hooper.
The following justices have been elected since 1834: Richard Allen, 1835, 1839, 1843, 1847; John A. Searing, 1835, 1837, 1841; Isaac H. Dodge, 1836; Eliphalet Mow- bray, 1836, 1838; Lewis S. Hewlett, 1837; Elias B. Hig- bie, 1839, 1842, 1855; Samuel L. Hewlett, 1840; Warren Mitchell, 1841, 1844, 1848, 1852; Elias Lewis, 1843; Elias Lewis jr., 1844, 1846, 1850; John S. Wood, 1844,
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HISTORY OF QUEENS COUNTY.
1845, 1849, 1870; Leonard A. Seaman, :851, 1856, 1859, 1863, 1867; Francis Skillman, 1851, 1854, 1858, 1862, 1866, 1871; A. S. Mowbray, 1851; George H. Horsfield, 1853; Monroe Henderson, 1856; A. J. Hegeman, 1857; Luke Fleet jr., 1857; Wessel S. Smith. 1858, 1860, 1865, 1868; Stephen Bedell, 1858; Obadiah J. Downing, 1859; David Provost, 1861, 1866, 1869; Silas W. Albertson, 1864; Isaac Sherwood, 1865; Samuel V. Searing, 1871; James L. Baxter, 1872, 1876; Willis P. Baker, 1873; W. W. Kirby, 1874, 1878; Henry C. Morrell, 1874, 1877, 1881; J. D. Armstrong, 1875; Charles A. Van Nostrand, 1879; Selah H. Brush, 1880.
COUNTY INSANE ASYLUM.
On the completion of the new court-house at Long Island City in 1877 the supervisors of Queens county had the old building near Mineola (erected in 1786) repaired, enlarged and fitted up for the accommodation of the in- sane of the county, who had been either sent abroad to other asylums or kept in the poor-house in company with the paupers. The building is 60 feet by 70, with exten- sions on each side. Three acres of ground are enclosed with a high fence. There are over 100 patients under Dr. David Rogers, the keeper. The income from paying patients amounts to nearly $4,000 per year.
AGRICULTURE.
Since its settlement by the whites North Hempstead has always been pre-eminently an agricultural town. A few grist-mills and other small manufactories have been scattered about in favorable locations; but the principal occupation of its inhabitants has been and still continues the tillage of the soil. The location of the township upon Long Island Sound, with its shores indented by deep and safe harbors, offers peculiar facilities for the cheap and easy carriage of its products to market, and before the construction of railways regular lines of market boats made frequent trips to New York and convenient land- ings upon the shore. In recent years the introduction of improved wagons and the laying of plank and macadam- ized roads have given the farmers an opportunity to carry the produce from their farms directly to market, and thus avail themselves of the best prices.
The soil of the town is mostly a yellow loam overlying thick deposits of sand and gravel. This affords excel- lent drainage and makes the land easy to work, although the mold is not of sufficient depth and richness to pro- duce paying crops without the constant and extensive use of fertilizers. These latter are principally the refuse from the stables of New York and Brooklyn, although of late years artificially prepared fertilizers have been intro- duced with some success.
it now remains except occasionally an aged and solitary oak which has served as a landmark or been preserved because of historic or family association. The primitive giants of the forest have been succeeded by a secondary growth, which includes all the native varieties and also several which, like the locust, have been imported from other localities. A locust tree on the lawn of Daniel Bogart's residence at Roslyn is supposed to have been the first planted on Long Island. It was raised from seed brought from Virginia by Captain John Sands in 1701, and is still sound and vigorous. During the pros- perous days of American wooden ship building Long Island locust was much sought after for the making of " trunnels " and for other purposes, and a very profitable business was carried on in the planting and rearing of this quick-growing tree; but with the decay of the ship- ping interest the demand for locust has so diminished that no special attention is now paid to its cultivation. The woodland is now principally confined to the range of hills that traverses the town from east to west; the trees growing more rapidly there than upon the level portion, while the land is less valuable for agricultural purposes.
Both the products of the soil and the manner of obtain- ing them have varied greatly since the first settlement of the country. The early farmers cultivated a great variety of crops, some of which, such as tobacco and flax, have long since been abandoned. The proximity and rapid growth of the great cities of New York and Brooklyn have constantly modified the conditions under which profitable farming could be conducted on Long Island. North Hempstead, being more remote from metropolitan influences than some of her sister towns further west, has escaped the agricultural revolution that has converted their fair farms into productive market gardens. There has nevertheless been a marked change in the agricultur- al products of the town since the early days, when the farmer thought mainly of supplying the wants of his own household and those of his immediate neighbors, and when he had not the great markets to stimulate the rais- ing of special crops. At the present time, while the western section of the town has many acres devoted to market gardening, the great body of arable land is used to produce the two main staples, hay and potatoes, which may be called the chief market products of the town, and those which bring in the largest revenue. All the cereals are raised as rotation crops, and corn grows well and realizes abundant returns.
The farmers of North Hempstead have always kept well abreast of the times in the employment of improved agricultural machinery. Their land being well adapted to the use of the finest and most complicated imple- ments, they have been enterprising and far-sighted in adopting their use as soon as convinced of their utility.
Unlike some of the adjoining towns, North Hemp- stead was originally covered with a growth of forest. This was principally of oak and chestnut, although all The production of niilk for use in the city of Brook- lyn has come to be the source of an important part of daily delivered at the different railway stations in the town and forwarded to agents in the city, who distribute the native diciduous trees flourished in the different and widely varying locations furnished by the diversified the farmer's labor and income. About 9,000 quarts are character of the land. The old forest fell many years ago before the axes of the early settlers, and nothing of
417
INDUSTRIES OF NORTH HEMPSTEAD-SCHOOLS.
the milk to their customers. To produce this large amount of milk necessitates the keeping of a great num- ber of cows, which consume the products of the farms on which they are kept, and thus modify, to a consider- able extent, the agricultural products of the town. It is an undoubted fact that the "raising of milk," as it is called, has been profitable, and has added greatly to the wealth of the farmers.
Stock breeding has always been followed to a greater or less extent by the people of North Hempstead, and some celebrated strains of imported and native blood have been owned and maintained in the town; but it cannot be said that this favorite pursuit of the farmer has ever assumed that paramount importance in this sec- tion of the island that it has in some others.
The old agricultural families of the town have been in the main composed of healthy, thrifty, moral men and women, who have made the very best class of citizens. Brought up to consider hard work honorable, and an honest name their best inheritance, they have labored perseveringly, lived frugally, and prospered by prudence. Their well-tilled farms have afforded them a good living, and in most instances a small yearly income besides. This little surplus, by careful saving, has made many of them rich, and placed nearly all in comfortable circurn- stances. The representatives of the old families cling affectionately to the ancestral acres; and it is not un- usual to find a lineal descendant of the first settler of the name still residing on the old homestead, which in seve- ral instances is held by a deed running back to the first settlement of the country and attested by the curious signs of the Indian chiefs.
The town has had many representatives in the great cities and other busy marts of commerce and industry, as the farmers have been in the habit of encouraging some of their sons to fit themselves for business pur- suits. Some of the most respected and wealthy merchants in New York, both at present and in times past, were born in North Hempstead and were the sons of farmers. These merchants, with scarcely an exception, when they acquired a competence, have themselves returned or sent their sons to occupy and improve some part of the home farm; thus demonstrating that inherited love of the free- dom and independence of a country life survives amid the cares of business and the luxuries of the city.
OYSTER CULTURE.
Cow Bay and other waters of North Hempstead have long been famed for the excellence of their clams, but of late years their oysters, too, have come into promi- nence.
The first oysters were planted here by Henry Cock, in 1832, in his mill pond, the seed being procured from the shores of the bay. In 1840 the first were planted in the waters of Cow Bay by Henry Cock and John Mackey. These men were followed by George Mackey, John H. Allen and others. Seed was obtained from the natural beds in the sound and the beds in the Hudson River. The business was not active until 1855, when Andrew
Van Pelt and son, A. V. N. Thatcher, Albert S. Thatcher, Daniel Van Pelt, John J. Thompson, Henry C. Jones and others removed from Staten Island to this place. When they came there were no laws to regulate the planting of oysters, or for protecting them when planted. The oyster men soon' found themselves a power in politics and demanded legislation for the protection of their in- dustry. Laws for the regulation of planting oysters and protection of the beds have been enacted, giving security to the business. At this time there was only one store of importance in the place. There was a small school- house, no church, and not enough dwellings to shelter the people. Charles W. Mitchel, anticipating the vil- lage's growth, laid out his farm in village lots. The oys- termen bought these and built houses on them. They have succeeded and paid for them. The amount of land utilized under water has been continually increased until about all the available space is taken.
When the business was commenced there were two hundred inhabitants in the place; there are now 1, 200.
SCHOOLS OF NORTH HEMPSTEAD.
The educational history of North Hempstead is similar in most respects to that of the adjoining towns. Running back from beyond the recollections of the oldest inhabitants we find such records and sketches as lead us to helieve that from the earliest settlement to the pres- ent time the cause of education has kept pace with ad- vancing civilization, until now, as regards school buildings, school furniture, and well qualified and well paid teachers, North Hempstead is not excelled by any other town in Queens county, and Queens county is recognized as holding a prominent position in the front rank of the counties of the State.
In colonial days public education was in a crude state; very little was required of teachers, and very little was paid in return for services rendered.
Sometimes there was an exception, but generally the schoolmaster was supposed to teach only the Eng- lish language, arithmetic, orthography and “ de- cent behavior," and was usually paid, in part at least, in farm produce-sometimes in wampum. In 1763 the teachers' pay was £25 and board. After the lapse of fifty years we find the condition of things ma- terially improved. Teachers were then paid from $12 to $15 per month, and taught six hours a day in winter and eight in spring, summer and autumn.
The schools were taught six days in a week, and for fifty- two weeks in the year, but the results obtained were de- cidedly inferior to the results of our present system with five or six hours per day, five days per week and forty weeks per year. The boys cut wood and built fires, the girls swept the school room, and the teacher collected his own wages by a "rate bill."
Since that time the improvement has been even greater. There is not at present a poor school building in the town, and teachers are liberally paid-men re- ceiving from $75 to $90 and women from $35 to $50 per month.
45
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HISTORY OF QUEENS COUNTY.
The intellectual qualifications of teachers and the quality of work done by them are very much higher than fifty years ago.
There are in the town ten school districts, of which six were organized under the common school law of 1812, and four are union free schools organized under the gen- eral free school law of 1864.
On the 22nd of May 1819 the town commissioners of common schools divided the town into nine districts- the tenth was afterward formed from districts No. 2 and No. 9.
District No. 1 is at Old Westbury. The present school building was erected in 1855. In 1863 it was organized as a union free school, and it has at present an average attendance of about forty pupils. The board of educa- tion consists of Edward Hicks, John Post and Abel Payne. Miss Maggie Hawxhurst is and for several years past has been the teacher.
District No. 2 is a common district school at " North Side." John Mollineaux, Valentine Velser and Joshua Powell are the trustees, and Miss J. Florence Cady is the teacher. The average attendance is about thirty. The school-house was built about forty years ago. Dis- trict No. 3-Roslyn-is a union free school, organized in 1864. The present school building was erected in 1862, and in 1868 a colored school was established.
The board of education consists of J. Augustus Prior, J. H. Bogart, M. D., Valentine Downing, Samuel Hoop- er and James K. Davis, and the present teachers are Wilfred M. Peck, Margaret Hennessy, Olivia Griffin, Hattie Hurd and Grace R. Dickinson. The average attendance is 140 white and 15 colored pupils.
District No. 4-" Flower Hill"-has a common dis- trict school, with James R. Willets trustee and Amelia M. Smith teacher. The average attendance is twenty- six. The school-house was built in 1869.
In district No. 5-Port Washington-is a union free school, organized in 1864. In 1870 the "old red school- house " with one room was found to be too small, and a new one (the best in the town) was erected at a cost (with lot) of $6,000. In 1879 it was found necessary to enlarge it. The board of education consists of Warren S. Weeks, George C. McKee, Edwin Henderson, Tilford Stevenson and Henry T. Smith; and Mr. N. L. Bogardus, Mrs. Mary F. Surdam, Elma Brush and Laura B. Weeks are the teachers. The average attendance of pupils is about 130.
Charles E. Surdam was principal of this school for ten years prior to his election to the office of school com- missioner, which office he now fills.
District No. 6-Manhasset-was organized as a union free school in 1866. The school-house was built in 1868. The average attendance is 85. The trastees are Charles Coles, Charles Willets and Isaac Brinkerhoof; teachers, Mary Bunyan, Ella Newman and Minnie Coles.
District No. 7-Great Neck-has a common district school. The trustees are John Birkbeck, Edward L. Crabb and Samuel Hayden. The teachers are Edward T. Allen, Cassie Van Nostrand and Emma Potter. The
school-house was built about 1872. The average attend- ance Is 100.
District No. 8-" Lakeville""-has a common district school, with an average attendance of about 45. Miss Addie Hicks has for several years been the teacher. The trustees are John T. Woolley, John Remsen and Benja- min P. Allen. In 1878 the old school-house burned and the present one (which is probably the finest for one teacher on Long Island) was erected. This district has also a negro school, taught by Mrs. Annie Van Horn.
In district No. 9-" Herricks"-there is a common district school. Miss Annie Hubbs is the teacher and Jacob S. Parsell, Elias C. Everett and Samuel V. Arm- strong are the trustees. The average attendance is about forty. The school-house was built in 1872.
District No. 10 embraces Mineola and has a common district school. The house was erected in 1876. The average attendance is 26. The present teacher is Leo- nora Hubbs, who has taught there ten years, and the trustees are Townsend Albertson, George W. Emory and Silas Shaw.
The only private school of importance is the Friends' school at Old Westbury, which is under the auspices of the " Westbury Educational Association." About sixty years ago the orthodox branch seceded from the Hicks- ite Quakers, and for thirty years each branch maintain- ed a school under the management of a committee ap- pointed by the society. About thirty years ago the building owned by the Hicksite branch was burned, after which the two societies united in organizing the present association, which ever since has maintained a first-class school. The building is furnished with modern apparatus, and for several years the managers have em- ployed none but normal graduates as teachers. One of the first trustees (of whom there are three was Stephen R. Hicks, who appears to have been the active member of the board until about twelve years since. Among the others who served as trustees were William Titus, Wil- liam P. Titus, Joseph Hicks, and Robert W. Titus. The present trustees are John D. Hicks, William E. Hawx- hurst and Edward Hicks. The first two have served in that capacity for the past ten or twelve years. The most prominent teachers have been Cynthia Osborne, Elizabeth Ladd, Lizzie Lutton, James Carey, Orville Libby, Sarah Shotwell, and Mary Bunyan. The present teacher is Miss A. L. Collins, a graduate of the Oswego normal school. About twenty years ago a hall was at- tached to the school building in such a manner that both rooms can be made one. In this lectures have been de- livered by Professor Yeomans, George W. Curtis, Theo- dore Tilton, William Loyd Garrison, Rev. A. A. Willets and many others.
THE NEWSPAPERS OF NORTH HEMPSTEAD.
The first paper printed and published in the town was the North Hempstead Gazette, the initial number of which was issued December 3d 1846 at Manhasset Valley, by William H. Onderdonk, editor and proprietor, who was then a young lawyer, and is now prominent at
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NEWSPAPERS OF NORTH HEMPSTEAD-THE "FRIENDS."
the Queens county bar. In March 1848 the office of publication was removed to Roslyn, and in June of that year Mr. Onderdonk sold the paper to the firm of Cogswell Brothers (John T. and Samuel F. Cogswell), who conducted the same until April 1849, when Samuel F. Cogswell retired from the firm, and the publication was thereafter continued under the proprietorship of John T. Cogswell, who associated with him as editor Eugene A. Hyde. Mr. Hyde was a Connecticut schoolmaster, settled at Roslyn. This continued until about July 1852, when Messrs. Cogswell & Hyde removed the press and material to the town of West Farms in Westchester county, where for some years thereafter they published a local paper under a new name.
On July 12th 1850 the Plaindealer was first issued at Roslyn by the firm of Leggett & Eastman, editors and proprietors. Augustus W. Leggett was a gentleman of considerable literary taste and ability, and his partner, Henry W. Eastman, was then a young lawyer, who some three years before had opened his office at Roslyn, and who was only anxious to find something to do to keep himself busy-law business being then somewhat scarce in that locality. There was a ladies' department in the paper, which was very ably edited by Mrs. Eliza S. Leg- gett, the amiable wife of the senior editor, and a most excellent and worthy woman. The paper was independent in politics, and strongly supported all local interests. It remained a popular and successful local journal until January 1852, when Mr. and Mrs. Leggett removed to Michigan, where they now reside, and the press and material were sold to James L. Crowley, who had been the foreman in the office since it started. Mr. Crowley removed the paper and the office to Glen Cove, in the neighboring town of Oyster Bay, where he continued to publish it under the same name until March 1853, when its title was changed to the Glen Cove Plaindealer and Oyster Bay Standard, under which head it survived until January 1854, when it died a natural death.
During 1876-7 The Tablet, established by Keeler Brothers (William and P. L. A. O. Keeler), was started at Roslyn, and it continued a very erratic existence for about a year. ·
In March 1878 the Roslyn News was established at Roslyn by William R. Burling, the editor and proprietor of the Flushing Times. It is now in the fourth year of its existence.
RELIGIOUS HISTORY OF NORTH HEMPSTEAD. THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS, WESTBURY.
When Friends' principles first took root here we can- not say. The earliest minute is: "1671, 23d of 3d month .- It is adjudged that there shall be a meeting kept at the Woodedge the 25th of 4th month, and so every First-day." Friends met at the houses of Henry Willis and Edmund Titus. In 1678 Henry Willis was fined fio for having his daughter married to George Masters according to Friends' ceremony, and on his re- fusing to pay it, Joseph Lee, under sheriff, seized his barn of corn. In 1682 "the settling of the meeting of
Friends at the Farms [Jericho] and at Woodedge, whether it be convenient for them to be in two meetings or not, is left to the consideration of the monthly meet- ing." In 1690, the matter of dividing Jericho week-day and Westbury meeting into two coming up, the sense of the monthly meeting was " that the Friends of both places keep their weekly meetings all together at each place " alternately. In 1697 it was decided that "a meeting shall be kept every five weeks, on the First-day, to begin at Edmund Titus's, the next First-day at Jericho, next at Bethpage, next at Jerusalem, and next at Hemp- stead." In 1699 "the week-day meeting is kept one Fourth-day at Hempstead, one at Westbury, and one at Jericho, and so to keep their turn." In "1699, 26th of 6th month," Roger Gill says: "We went to quarterly meeting; 27th, we had a far larger and glorious meeting in a field; to it came abundance of people and some ranters, but the Lord's power chained them down so that they made no disturbance. I lodged both nights at Ed- mund Titus's."
In 1701, " 30th of 6th month," in quarterly meeting at Nathaniel Seaman's, Westbury, the building of a meeting- house was spoken of. It was left to N. Pearsall, T. Powell, Richard Willets, B. Seaman and W. Willis to ex- amine the places spoken of, select the most convenient, and treat with the owner for terms. They reported that they had chosen a place (three and a quarter acres for £4) at Plainedge, which William Willis tendered. It was referred to them to consider the model of the meet- ing house and treat with the workmen.
In 1702, "29th of 6th month," Thomas Story, "ac- companied by many Friends, went from John Rodman's, Bayside, over the plains to Westbury quarterly meeting, where we had good service, and the business being all finished, the Lord gave us a glorious meeting on First- day, in a new meeting house fitted up on that occasion, and many hundreds of Friends and abundance of other people were there. The meeting being ended, there came over the Plains with us at least one hundred horse to their several habitations in that quarter."
In 1702, " 27th of 12th month," at a quarterly meeting at Richard Willits's, Jericho, it was " concluded to enter in this minute-book that, since it hath pleased God to increase the number of his dear people so hereaway that at Jericho and Matinecock [the former places of Friends' quarterly meeting] they have not sufficient room; there- fore they have built a meeting-house on Hempstead Plains for that purpose and for what furthtr service may be needed. The first quarterly meeting at the new house shall begin to-morrow."
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