History of Suffolk county, New York, 1683, Part 67

Author: W.W. Munsell & Co., pub; Bayles, Richard M. (Richard Mather); Cooper, James B. (James Brown), 1825-; Pelletreau, William S. (William Smith), 1840-1918; Street, Charles R. (Charles Rufus), 1825-1894; Smith, John Lawrence, 1816-1889
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: New York : W.W. Munsell & co.
Number of Pages: 677

USA > New York > Suffolk County > History of Suffolk county, New York, 1683 > Part 67

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Mr. Prime looks upon this whole matter in a philo- sophical light, regarding all this experience as a part of the allotted path he was to walk in this life. He makes these statements in no spirit of spite or revenge, but in the interest of humanity. His health is now quite good. He manages his thriving business, and finds time to con- stantly improve and add to the many beauties of his very attractive home.

CHARLES R. STREET .*

Charles Rufus Street resides at Huntington, at which place he is engaged in the practice of the law. His father, Shallum B. Street, of Norwalk, Conn., was educat- ed with a view to the Episcopal ministry, but his health failed and he died young, after a few years spent in teaching, as principal of Norwalk Academy, and elsewhere. The mother of our subject was Naomi Scudder, a daughter of Gilbert Scudder of East Neck, Huntington,

was chiefly acquired at the Huntington Academy, under such teachers as Addison L. Hunt and D. G. York, clos- ing with a course of study under Rev. Horace Woodruff. In 1845, at the age of 20 years, he was principal of the grew up in Huntington, he could see little prospect of accomplishing much here, and the next year, 1846, he started on a tour to the west, expecting to return in a few months. It was on a pleasant May morning that he took passage on a steamboat up the Hudson River. When he returned many years had passed, and that re- turn was on the deck of a steamship that steamed in past Sandy Hook, from the opposite direction; Mr. Street having in the meantime crossed the continent to the Pacific Ocean, and taken the voyage home by sea. On this western tour, in 1846, he visited most of the north- western and some of the southern States, and finally located at Niles, Michigan, and went into the office of John Groves, then a noted lawyer and Democratic politician of that State. After two years of close applica- tion he was admitted to the bar, as an attorney and counsellor.

About this time the wonderful gold discoveries in Cal- ifornia created great excitement everywhere. While entertaining doubts as to the truth of the marvelous sto- ries then current concerning the richness of the California mines, Mr. Street, feeling the necessity of a change from a sedentary to a more active life, determined to cross the continent by land to California. He and three com- rades, De Witt Clinton Johnson, Erastus Johnson and James Davis, joined in procuring an outfit early in March 1849, only a few months after the discovery of gold, and started together on their perilous journey of over three thousand miles. It must be remembered that this was 34 years ago, when the vast region lying between the upper Missouri River and the Pacific coast was an un- broken wilderness, destitute of white inhabitants except a small settlement of Mormons at Salt Lake and a few military posts. This was before overland stages and pony expresses, and 20 years before a bar of railroad iron

* Of the hrief biographies here following Mr. Street's history of Huntington only those of Rev. Joshua Hartt, Dr. D. W. Kissam, George Oakes, Dr. Joseph H. Ray, Dr. Carl von der Luehe, Silas Wood and W. W. Wood were written by Mr. Street.

Your mity Chao , Street

THE TOWN OF HUNTINGTON.

had been laid within this region. Two or three military on the question it was decided by flipping a penny in the exploring expeditions and a few companies of emigrants air, head north, tail south. South won, and the line of 2,000 miles of travel was thus determined. Who can tell what destiny was hidden in that whirling bit of money? At Salt Lake Mr. Street called on the Mormon chief, Brigham Young, and traded the light wagon for horses. This was the first light spring wagon that ever went into Salt Lake City. From the South Pass onward the jour- ney was one of constant adventure, and was often at- tended with extreme peril. The emigrants were com- pelled to swim the rivers, often swollen to torrents by the melting snow. They had to cross wide deserts with no knowledge of the location of water for their famishing animals, and cross ranges of mountains over unknown paths, and sometimes lost their way in the labyrinth of deep gorges, ravines and canyons, now well known but then untrodden by the feet of white men. All camp equipage not absolutely necessary was thrown aside to lighten the loads of their starving and weary animals. They slept on the ground wherever night overtook them, and in the open air, with no other roof than the shining firmament, with their horses picketed around them, and in the light of flaming fires to frighten away wild animals. On the last end of the journey, having traveled over 500 miles out of their way, through what is called Applegate's from the frontier to Oregon and Salt Lake had traversed a part of the country, and the fur-trading companies had a few white trappers among the Indians; but very little was known of the different routes, the exact location and direction of rivers and mountain ranges, and the Indian villages. The outfit of the party consisted of two heavy wagons, loaded with provisions and camp equipage, drawn by five yokes of oxen to each wagon, and each man had a good saddle horse, and mules and Indian horses were procured on the way to supply the loss of animals. The journey of about 700 miles to Council Bluffs, then the extreme outpost of civilization, across the States of Indiana, Illinois and Iowa, made just at the breaking up of winter, over miry roads and through al- most incessant rains, was full of hardship and exposure. At Council Bluffs the party found the air full of stories of Indian massacres of emigrants ahead. Leaving Coun- cil Bluffs they passed into the Indian country, over what is now the most fertile and thickly inhabited part of Ne- braska, but was then a silent and almost unknown region. Their first camp in the Indian country was where Omaha is now, with its population of over 30,000, on a spot then without a human habitation other than that of the red man.

Moving along up the valley of the Platte | Pass, into Oregon, they came short of provisions, were two weeks on short rations, and arrived in the Sacra- mento Valley in August 1849, having been over five months on the journey.

River, through first the Sioux and then the Pawnee tribes of Indians, they experienced little difficulty, though prac- ticing extreme vigilance and ever on guaard against attack day and night. Their wagons were small armories California then presented a remarkable spectacle. Fifty thousand people had found their way there. The richness of the mines was no longer questioned; nearly all who had been there a few months had their pockets loaded with gold. Miners were not content to work claims that yielded less that $50 a day, and foolish young men shot birds with slugs of gold instead of lead. Com- panies were rushing hither and thither, wild with excite- ment. Sacramento City had a shifting population of not and magazines of guns and ammunition. One of the party, James Davis, had been in the employ of the American Fur-Trading Company as a trapper and trader among the Indians; could talk their language, knew their habits, and was personally acquainted with some of the chiefs of many of the tribes. This was of immense ad- vantage, and gave to the party a security not enjoyed by many others. The practice was to never avoid Indians, but to go right into their rancharees and villages, greeting less than 15,000 people, living in tents. There was but one house constructed of wood in the place. The bank- ing house of D. O. Mills, now a millionaire, was made of poles, covered with cotton sheeting. San Francisco was a mere village.

and shaking hands with the chiefs pleasantly, and avoid- ing all appearance of fear. Care was always taken, however, that a part of the company kept in reach of the guns and ammunition, and every movement was watched, ready for instant resistance in case of trouble. After

making the chiefs a few presents they passed on. This policy hardly ever failed, though in a few instances it was attended with adventures which would read more like romance than reality. After traveling 1,200 miles and having come near the pass of the Rocky Mountains the heavy wagons were thrown aside, the oxen disposed of, and the luggage was shifted partly to a light spring wagon bought of a Santa Fe trader, and partly to the backs of Indian horses. Thus equipped the party moved on at a more rapid pace. At Pacific Springs, in the South Pass, where water within the space ot a few feet runs one way to the Atlantic Ocean and the other way to the Pacific, the question was whether the party would go on the northern route, via Fort Hall, or the southern route, via Salt Lake. The company being evenly divided

The limits of this paper forbid details; all that can be said is that for many years Mr. Street led a life of adven- ture, chiefly in the mountains, sometimes keeping a trading post for the supply of miners, high up on the rivers; sometimes mining and sometimes ranching in the valley. Goods were sold in great tents, at fabulous prices, and paid for on the spot in gold dust. These goods were transported often hundreds of miles by great pack trains of mules over or along the steep sides of mountains. Mr. Street's mining operations were some- times conducted on a scale which required large expendi- tures. Rivers were turned out of their beds, ditches and flumes constructed many miles in length, and tun- nels were driven in the mountain sides. He often em- ployed over a hundred Chinamen, and in one case em- ployed, fed and clothed a whole tribe of Indians. He

THE TOWN OF HUNTINGTON.

found very little law to practice in those days. Mob law prevailed. The man accused of crime stood in a circle of armed men, while two lines of miners from neighbor- ing camps were formed, one line in favor of hanging, the other against. If the hanging line was longest the man went up the nearest tree. For seven years, with ever varying fortune, and associated with many different per- sons, Mr. Street moved from camp to camp, and river to river, over all the region from Oregon on the north to Mexico on the south, at times the master of a fortune, at other times of little. These were remarkable years. Few ever enjoyed such great opportunities. It was his for- tune or misfortune, like that of thousands of others, to have gone into this whirlpool of human energy and ex- citement at too young an age to derive those benefits which experience and maturer judgment confer.

In 1856 the people of Shasta county elected Mr. Street a member of the Legislature. He abandoned mountain life forever, and devoted himself to the prac- tice of law in Shasta City. The session of the Legisla- ture of 1856-57 was memorable on account of the con- flict over a bill aimed at the punishment of the vigilance committee of San Francisco. Harvey Lee, noted as a leader of the chivalry wing of the Democratic party, was the engineer of the bill, under the patronage of Governor John B. Welles. This was a time when members of the Legislature went to their desks armed, and northern men were sometimes sorely pressed by southern bravos. Mr. Street became the leader of the opposition, and in a bit- ter personal conflict on the floor of the Assembly cham- ber compelled Mr. Lee to apologize for a false statement, and on a vote the bill was defeated. Mr. Street was chosen chairman of the succeeding State convention of the Democratic party as a mark of approval of his course, and was re-elected to the Legislature, and served as chairman of the committee of ways and means. The next year, 1859, he received the nomination for the State Senate from the Shasta district, but declined it, though a nomination then was equivalent to an election. He was the same year offered the nomination for lieutenant-gov- ernor but declined it-the great mistake of his life, as the governor then elected, Milton S. Latham, resigned two days after his election, having been elected United States senator, and the lieutenant-governor, J. I. Downey, became governor of the State.

Mr. Street's ambition then was to build up a great daily newspaper; and, having purchased a share of the California Express, at Maysville, then the leading Demo- cratic paper on the Pacific coast, all his energies were thrown into the editing of that paper. About this time he married Lucy Bedford, at Benicia, Cal. She belonged to an old and honored Kentucky family of that name; on the maternal side she was related to the Clays and Howards of Kentucky. In 1862 Mr. Street was chosen chairman of the California State central committee of the Democratic party, as an approval of the course taken by his paper and the principles it avowed. In 1864 his wife's failing health compelled him to abandon newspa- per work, and, disposing of his interest in the Express, he

moved to the more healthy climate of the bay of San Francisco. His wife and youngest child died in April 1865, and his two remaining children, Quincy and Naomi, being aged only about two and three years respectively, he concluded to visit the east with them, where they could have the care of his mother. He came by the way of the Isthmus of Panama, arriving in Huntington in May 1865. Longing for quiet after so many years of ex- citement, Mr. Street decided to remain in Huntington. He brought the Suffolk Democrat from Babylon to Hunt- ington, and published it here under the name Suffolk Bulletin for two or three years.

In 1869 Mr. Street married his second wife, Josephine E. Hubbell, at Bridgeport, Conn. One child, Charles Hubbell Street, now aged 8 years, enlivens the house- hold as the result of their marriage; while the other children, Quincy Bedford and Naomi L., have grown to manhood and womanhood.

Mr. Street is now 58 years old; enjoys fair health, and pursues his profession of the law with zeal and industry. Since leaving California he has not sought office of con- sequence, and leads a quiet life in the pleasant place where his childhood days were spent.

DR. JOSEPH H. RAY

is a name familiar to nearly all the people of Huntington. For twenty-eight years (1837-65) his carriage was daily on the roads of Huntington as he pursued that large and successful practice which skill and energy always secure. Dr. Ray was born in Baltimore, in 1806. In 1827 he commenced the study of medicine under Dr. Philo Dun- ning, of New York city. He graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in that city in 1831, and re- ceived his diploma to practice medicine from the New York Medical Society in 1832. He was one of the phy- sicians appointed by the board of health in the year of the remarkable cholera epidemic, and practiced with suc- cess in the city. He married Maria Wood, daughter of a distinguished artist and portrait painter of his time. In 1837, for the health of his family, he removed to Hunt- ington, where he resided until 1865; when, feeling unable longer to endure the hard riding incident to a country practice, he removed to Brooklyn, and very soon ob- tained a large practice in that city. He died March 23d 1875, and was buried in the cemetery of St. John's Church in Huntington, where a beautiful monument has been erected by his widow, who resides in Brooklyn. Dr. Ray left a son, Joseph H. Ray, and one daughter, now Louisa Ray Decker, who is noted for her great musical talents. Dr. Ray was a genial, kind-hearted gentleman as well as a skillful physician, and made a host of friends in Huntington. His numerous lectures here on medical science were models in that line of inquiry; his voluminous contributions to the press on all sorts of subjects were read with avidity, and as an orator or writer he was always equal to the occasion.

Wm. W. WOOD.

THE TOWN OF HUNTINGTON.

WILLIAM WOODEN WOOD

was one of the best known men in Huntington, having in the town's history. been engaged in a long and successful business career and identified here with more positions of public and private trust than almost any other man of his time.

He was born in Huntington, at the old Wood home- stead at the corner of Main street and the Bowery, Sep- tember 11th 1818, and died at Huntington, April 9th 1878. He was the eldest son of John and Deborah Wood. There were two sisters older than himself, Esther and Elizabeth, both now deceased; a younger sister, Judith, now the wife of Isaac P. Hull of Danbury, Conn., and three younger brothers-John F. Wood, now one of Huntington's most substantial citizens, James E. Wood, deceased, and Arnold Wood, who was killed at Charles City Court-House, Va., December 13th 1863, while in the service of his country in the war of the Rebellion.

The Wood family settled in Huntington at a very early period. Henry S. Wood, a son of the subject of this biography, now deceased, bestowed upon the geneaology of his family mnuch research and, as appears by notes left by him, traced its lineage back to Jonas Wood of Oakham, who was born in England in 1612, settled in Huntington about 1655 and probably a little earlier, and died in 1689. There was another Jonas Wood here at the same time, who was called Jonas Wood of Halifax. These terms were used in order to distinguish one from the other, and referred to the places in England from which they came.

The line of ancestry settled on by Henry S. Wood is as follows: Jonas Wood of Oakham, Jonas Wood 2nd, Jeremiah Wood, Jeremiah Wood 2nd, Peleg Wood, John Wood, William W. Wood.

The father of Jonas Wood of Oakham was either Ed- mond or Jeremiah Wood. Both were early settlers of Huntington. There are many reasons for believing that Jeremiah was the first ancestor in America. Edmond, Jeremiah, Jonas of Oakham and Jonas of Halifax were all at Springfield, Mass., as early as 1636. Jonas of Halifax came from England with Rev. Richard Denton a little before the last mentioned date, and probably the others came at the same time. From Springfield they went to Wethersfield and thence about 1641 to Stamford, Conn. They left the latter place, in company with Rev. lumber and building materials.

Richard Denton, for Hempstead in 1644. Edmond, Jonas of Oakham and Jonas of Halifax were in Hunt- ington as early as 1655, perhaps earlier. Jeremiah came here in 1660. All of these Woods were prominent in the early settlement. Jonas Wood of Oakham was probably the first justice of the peace in Huntington, having first acted under authority of appointment at New Haven and subsequently by appointment of Governor .Nicolls in 1665. For several years he acted as a member of the court of assize; he was also one of the patentees in the second town patent.

The descendants down to John Wood, the father of the subject of this notice, were large farmers, owning lands in various parts of the town, but the chief home-

stead lay in the western part of the village of Hunting- ton, and the family has always held a prominent position

John, the father of William Wooden Wood, was a man of great business enterprise. He purchased the flour mills at Huntington Harbor, repaired the mill dam and mill machinery, and drove the mills to their utmost capacity, chiefly in flouring western grain. He also car- ried on a large business in lumber and building material. As his son William W. grew up he assisted his father in the business, and acquired largely from him those busi- ness principles which led to success in after life.

Turning now to the maternal ancestry of Mr. Wood we find that his mother was Deborah, a daughter of Ar- nold Fleet of Oyster Bay. The Fleet family, both in Huntington and Oyster Bay, dates back to near the first settlement of each of the towns, and is supposed to have sprung from a common ancestry in England, though the Huntington branch traces back to Thomas, the Oyster Bay Fleets to Gilbert. It is a tradition in the family that the Fleets were descended from Admiral Fleetwood, a noted character in English history, and that the name was changed to Fleet on their arrival in America.

John Wood and his wife both belonged to the Society of Friends, and had strong and decided opinions and convictions. Mrs. Deborah Wood held opinions con- cerning the rights of her sex in advance of the time in which she lived. As an example it is said that she once appeared at a school meeting and demanded the right to vote, putting the claim on the broad ground held by the Revolutionary patriots that representation and taxation were inseparable and that they had no right to tax her property without her consent.

William W. Wood was educated at the Huntington Acad- emy and by private tutors. Having a mind of unusual clearness and quickness of perception, and an extraordi- nary memory, he made rapid progress, and not only ob- tained a substantial education, but acquired a taste for literature and scientific inquiry, which adhered to him through life. After a few years spent in the city of New York in a mercantile house he, about 1849, went into business with his father at Huntington Harbor, under the firm name of John Wood & Son, the business cover- ing the management of the flour mill and the sale of

After the death of his father, in 1853, Mr. Wood con- tinued the mercantile business alone, enlarging all branches and pushing business with such energy and success as to practically control the lumber and coal trade at this point.

About 1860 Edwin Wood, then the principal builder in Huntington, entered into partnership with William W. Wood under the firm name of W. W. & E. Wood, and the business was extended to include building in all branches and the management of the planing-mills on Wall street. This continued until 1867, when, on the death of Edwin Wood, John B. Lefferts, Joseph G. Conklin and William J. Wood entered the firm, and William W. retired from active business.

THE TOWN OF HUNTINGTON.

Mr. Wood was fortunate in the period of his business life. He had built up the business and put himself in a position where in the flush times at the close of the war he could reap its advantages in.the large sales and con- tracts which accompanied those prosperous times. The result was that he retired from business a wealthy man.

In 1848, when 30 years old, he married Eliza S. Scudder, a daughter of Henry Scudder, of Northport. They had two children, Henry Scudder Wood and Wil- liam Wilton Wood. His accomplished lady died in 1860, and in 1863 Mr. Wood married Sarah Coles, a daughter of Thomas Coles, of Glen Cove. She died after a brief period of married life and left no children. In 1867. Mr. Wood married his third wife, Anna J. Hew- lett, a daughter of John Devine Hewlett. This estima- ble lady survived her husband, and now resides at the homestead in Huntington left by him.

The people of Huntington placed unbounded confi- dence in the integrity of William W. Wood. His career was one of advancement, not rapid but constant, certain and permanent, inspiring unlimited public confidence, and achieving solid business success. He was for many years president of the Huntington Mutual Fire Insurance Company. For a long time, and until his death, he was one of the three trustees of the Potter school fund. He held the position of justice of the peace four years; was a member of the board of town trustees, and was once elected president of the board. He was executor and administrator of numerous large estates, and performed his duties with fidelity.

Mr. Wood had a judicial mind and was a close rea- soner; he disdained all shams and worthless shows; his style in conversation or in public speech was crisp and directly to the point. His latest years were spent in beautifying his home, and largely in literary pursuits.

In 1875 Mr. Wood's eldest son, Henry S. Wood, died suddenly, after graduating from Trinity College and completing his law studies in Columbia College. This young man possessed extraordinary acquirements for one of his age, and gave promise of great eminence in his profession.

Mr. Wood left one son, William Wilton Wood, who in- herited his father's estates; married Elizabeth H. Jones, a daughter of Samuel W. Jones, and now resides at the Wood mansion on the heights at the west side of Hunt- ington Harbor.

STEPHEN C. ROGERS.

Stephen C. Rogers, the present supervisor of Hunting- ton, was born on the 29th of October 1816, at Cold Spring. His father, Conklin Rogers, was born on Lloyd's Neck, Queens county. In 1820 he moved to Huntington, where he spent the remainder of his life and died February 21st 1876, aged 84 years. He was a house carpenter by trade and followed no other business.

The subject of this sketch went to the common school when a boy and afterward to the village academy. He

Stephen. C. Rogens

worked a short time with his father at the carpenter's trade, but quit in the middle of the winter, when it got so cold that the dinners carried in baskets and pails by the workmen was frozen solid before noon. Mr. Rogers says the winters were much colder when he was a boy than they have been of late years. At the age of 17 he went to Oyster Bay and learned the tailor's trade of Stephen Bayles, with whom he staid till he was 21. His time was out one Saturday night, and Monday morn- ing he bid tailoring good-bye, and went to Cold Spring and engaged in mercantile business, which he followed till the spring of 1840, when he sold his stock and came to Huntington village. Here he entered into partner- ship with his uncle, David C. Brush, and they at once began building a hotel, and so vigorously was the work pushed that they completed and opened it to the public in November of the same year. The house was named the Suffolk Hotel, which name it has preserved for over 40 years. Brush & Rogers dispensed the good things of this life in that liberal and hospitable way that always makes a hotel home-like and popular, until the year 1852, when the senior partner died. Mr. Rogers at once purchased the interest of his uncle's estate in the Suffolk Hotel, and for the next twelve years he was its sole proprietor.

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