USA > New York > Nassau County > Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume I > Part 44
USA > New York > Suffolk County > Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume I > Part 44
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62
The State in return for the gifts of 1928 to 1930, built for the town three underpasses on the Ocean Boulevard at locations agreed upon, two inclined ramps from the north side of the Boulevard to town lands, and two plazas adjacent to the two ramps. The State also gave the town the right to construct and maintain on the south side of the road "for use and benefit of the Town of Babylon for- ever" not more than two bathing pavilions of acceptable design. In addition, the State built Cedar Beach parking field; moved, without expense to individuals, all cottages on the right of way; and dredged boat channels which gave direct access to town beach lands.
On the mainland in a section north of Babylon village the New York State Park Commission acquired in 1925, by purchase from Cadman Frederick, a Babylon real estate developer, over 200 acres of land lying wholly within the township. The property was formerly the estate of August Belmont, banker and diplomat. Mr. Belmont had purchased the Burling and Swezey farms, the pond and the mill in 1865, and created there an attractive country estate. He estab- lished a stock and nursery farm on the premises and some of Amer- ica's greatest Hambletonian trotters were bred and trained there. A large residence, farmhouses, greenhouses, stables, sheds, barns, and a private chapel and school were included in the many buildings on the grounds. A private race track and a polo field were also on the property. This estate remained in Belmont possession for two generations.
The State named this new recreational area the Belmont Lake State Park. The thirty-room Belmont mansion was used as the Long Island Park Commission headquarters until 1933, at which time the TERA, a federal relief project, established its office in the building. The Park office was moved to a large brick structure of attractive design which had been erected to the rear. In 1935, the seventy-year- old Belmont home was razed. Two large cannons captured during the Battle of Lake Erie by Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, an uncle of Mrs. August Belmont, Sr., still remain on the spacious lawn over- looking the lake. The cannons were recovered by Mrs. Belmont from a Pittsburgh junk yard.
Belmont Lake State Park, which presently consists of 349 acres, may be reached by the Southern State Parkway which passes through the center of the township in an easterly and westerly direction.
The Town Board of Trustees, having power to hold and convey land, sold to the Pinelawn Cemetery Association in the early 1890s, a 2300-acre tract on either side of the Long Island Rail Road west of Wyandanch. The Association agreed in addition to the purchase price to pay the town a fee of 50¢ for each interment. The Associa- tion replaced the existing railroad depot with a large stone structure which accommodated both the depot and a chapel. In 1927, this building was partially destroyed by fire. The present Pinelawn
373
THE TOWN OF BABYLON
station built by the railroad company is located a short distance farther east.
The Pinelawn Cemetery Association has from time to time sold part of its acreage to other associations. As a result of these trans- actions the following cemeteries are now located within township boundaries: Roman Catholic Cemetery of the Resurrection, Mount Ararat, Emmanuel Fields, New Montefiore, St. Charles, Wellwood, Babylon Town Field of Honor, and the National Cemetery. The latter consists of 175 acres purchased by the United States Govern- ment in 1937. Arrangements have been made with each of the above associations, excepting the Wellwood Cemetery, for the con- tinuance of the collection by the town of the 50c burial fee.
Transportation between communities in South Huntington's early days was limited to horse-drawn vehicles along unimproved rights of way, which by courtesy were called "roads". Sumpwams, Santa- pogue, Neguntatogue, and West Neck Roads connecting Huntington village with the South Necks were the lanes of travel in the early 1700s. An east and west road was authorized on October 4, 1732, when the Colonial Assembly directed the laying out of the South Country Road. This followed the route of the old Indian Path at the head of the necks. The portion of the road located within the township became a part of the South Oyster Bay Turnpike Company's toll road in 1817. The toll road began at the Episcopal Church in Hempstead and terminated at Ichabod Bedell's hotel west of Babylon village. A toll house was placed at the Huntington-Oyster Bay town line at Amityville. The revenue was insufficient for continuance of the road on a profitable basis and the Turnpike Company abandoned it in 1870. The toll house was sold to J. E. Ireland for $121 and removed for use as a private dwelling; the road and its upkeep reverted to the township.
Elected overseers of the highway supervised road repairs in the township under the unsatisfactory method of the labor tax system until 1902. In that year at a town meeting a resolution was passed inaugurating the present system of a money tax for highway main- tenance. Babylon township laid its first concrete road in 1916. The South Country Road (Montauk Highway) became a twenty-foot concreted highway in 1920.
Montauk Highway in 1900, was the location of the first automobile race in America. The turning point in a round trip race from Spring- field, Long Island, on April 14, was the "village square" in Babylon. Two barrels marked the turn and "one driver came to grief making such a short turn that he lost a tire". Nine automobiles entered the race-three propelled by steam, five by gasoline, and one by electricity. The latter operated by A. L. Riker won in 2 hours, 3 minutes, 30 seconds. It is reported that "the 'new fangled' machines attracted a great deal of attention". Town cyclists had no difficulty in keeping apace with the autoists from Amityville to Babylon.
An east and west stage coach route was the only public vehicular means of travel until 1842, when the Long Island Rail Road built its main line across the northern section of South Huntington. Depots were established within the township at Deer Park and West Deer
374
LONG ISLAND-NASSAU AND SUFFOLK
Park, now Wyandanch. A stop at Pinelawn was added later. Stages from the south shore villages met all trains at Farmingdale and Deer Park.
In 1867, the South Side Rail Road laid a single track across the heads of the south necks a mile above the South Country Road. Sta- tions were established at Amityville and Babylon and two years later at Wellwood now Lindenhurst. Copiague was added after the turn of the century.
When polling arrangements in the township necessitated voters traveling to another village for the exercise of franchise, the South Side Rail Road conveyed these citizens without charge. This coop- erative spirit of the railroad was extended to mail deliveries. In 1869, the road carried a second mail, both east and west, without compensa- tion from the government, which had contracted for but one mail train daily.
The Stewart Line of the Central Rail Road Company was opened August 1, 1873. Its route through the township was southeasterly from East Farmingdale to Fire Island Avenue, Babylon. At first the road connected with the Babylon Railroad Company, a horsecar line to Fire Island dock. The route was changed in 1876 by curving the roadbed at Belmont Junction (West Babylon) and joining the Stewart Line with the South Side Rail Road at that point.
The Stewart Line was the location on June 30, 1899, of an inter- esting demonstration of human endurance. Charles Murphy, famous racing representative of the Kings County Wheelmen, rode a bicycle behind a locomotive and car of the Long Island Rail Road for the distance of one mile in 57 4/5 seconds of time. Boards were laid for a distance of over a mile between the rails on the Stewart Line beginning at Maywood, a former station at the Broad Hollow Road between Farmingdale and Babylon. On the rear of the railroad car was a specially constructed hood to protect the rider from pressure and wind eddies and under the rear platform was a miniature snow plow to sweep the boards clear of obstacles. The race began at 5:10 in the afternoon with official timers and referee riding on the observation platform and hundreds of spectators lining the tracks. At the conclusion of the race and just 200 yards from the end of the boarded tracks, Murphy and wheel were pulled aboard the obser- vation car by three stalwart men. After a short rest "Mile a Minute Murphy", as he was thereafter to be known, was pronounced none the worse for the physical exertion.
In 1876, the Stewart Line, the Southern Rail Road (formerly the South Side Rail Road, which had changed control and name in 1874), and the central line of the Long Island Rail Road came under the one management of the latter company. The Long Island Rail Road, now a subsidiary of the Pennsylvania Rail Road, electrified its Montauk Division to Babylon in 1925.
The Babylon Rail Road Company, chartered in 1871, operated a horsecar trolley line from the South Side Rail Road depot to Fire Island ferry dock in the village of Babylon. The company possessed one of the earliest trolley charters to be issued in New York State. The horsecar line was patronized once by Horace Greeley, New
375
THE TOWN OF BABYLON
York newspaper publisher. While he was a passenger, the car ran off the track-a not too infrequent occurrence. Mr. Greeley alighted with others and assisted in lifting it back in place.
A steam system of railway motive power supplied by a Kinetic motor supplanted the faithful horse in 1898. Seven years later the charter was amended to read "cars on said road shall be drawn by horses, mules or propelled by electric power". The trolley, operated since 1871, had survived to greet the age of electricity.
The Babylon Rail Road became a subsidiary of the South Shore Traction Company when an electric trolley line was opened on June 11, 1910, from the Amityville railroad depot through Copiague and Lindenhurst to the Babylon dock. The ferry service from Babylon to Oak Island Beach came under control of the same company and a round trip excursion between Amityville and Oak Beach via trolley and ferry was advertised at 40¢.
In 1920, financial difficulties compelled the suspension of the township trolley system. The last trip was made on May 15, thus ending for all time trolley transportation within Babylon town. The trolley roadbed between the Babylon and Lindenhurst village lines was purchased by the town in 1928 and converted into a highway.
The only cross-island system of transportation to be established was that of the Huntington Rail Road Company, a trolley service from Huntington to Farmingdale and terminating at the Great South Bay, Amityville. The line was formally opened August 25, 1909, with Assemblyman Alfred E. Smith, an Amityville summer resident, as one of the speakers. A newspaper of the day reports that "Mr. Smith, who is blessed with an excellent pair of lungs and a vocabulary that did not cause him to look long for a lost word, spoke for about ten minutes". The trip from "bay to harbor" cost 30; each way and took 11/4 hours.
The Huntington Rail Road Company dissolved in 1919. The present foot bridge, a trestle-like structure, over the Long Island Rail Road tracks west of the Amityville station is a remnant of the trolley bridge.
Stage coaches and trolley lines within the township have given way to 20th century motor bus travel. Several companies now operate north and south, east and west routes, to all corners of Babylon town.
Travel by bicycle as it reached a high in the 1890s was given official recognition in the township. A cycle path movement begun by the Brooklyn and Long Island Good Roads Association became a reality in the town when $250 was appropriated at the 1898 annual town meeting for a path paralleling the South Road from the east to the west boundaries. Users of the bicyle path paid a yearly license fee, payment of which was indicated by the issuance of a metal tag to be attached to the fork of the bicycle. No such path exists today- in its place is a concrete sidewalk paralleling a four-lane paved Montauk Highway.
Babylon town has played its part in the history of communication. In 1877, arrangements were made whereby signal flag messages were received and sent between the Fire Island Surf Hotel and passing steamers. Word of the ship's passing was relayed by the Fire Island
376
LONG ISLAND-NASSAU AND SUFFOLK
cable telegraph from the Hotel to Oak Island to Sumpwams Point at Babylon and on to New York. Thus was inaugurated a service giving New York and the country advance news of the arrival of boats from foreign waters.
Antedating Marconi's experiments in transoceanic radio com- munication a shack 12' x 14' was erected late in 1900, by Henry J. Kellum, on the former Chew property just off Fire Island Avenue near the corner of Virginia Avenue in Babylon. This was the first commercial wireless station in America. It was used by Marconi and the American Marconi Company for ten years before a wider radio range made this relay station unnecessary. An early associate of Marconi, Captain H. J. Round of the British Marconi Wireless Company called the attention of Major Edwin H. Armstrong, radio engineer and inventor, to the significance of the shack in 1930 while the former was visiting Armstrong at his Bayport, Long Island, home. Major Armstrong purchased the building and presented it to the Radio Corporation of America, successor to Marconi's company. The shack was moved to the Rocky Point station on Long Island and still stands beneath the transmitting and receiving towers of RCA.
Huntington South, although sparsely settled at the time of the American Revolution, played a role in that conflict. Raiding parties of British soldiers visited the farms of Thomas Fleet, Platt Conklin, and Joshua Ketcham, commandeering grain and hay for use of the army encamped at the village of Huntington. The first church edifice of the Presbyterian congregation in this area (built in 1730) and located a mile east of Sumpwams River was razed in 1778 by the British. The lumber was taken to Hempstead for barrack and fort construction. A small group of Huntington South men enlisted in the American cause in 1776, and were officered by Captain John Buffet, Lieutenant Isaac Thompson and Ensign Zebulon Ketcham.
The concluding chapter of an episode of the War of 1812, had as its locale the shores of Babylon. Following the Battle of Val- paraiso, Chile, in 1814, the Essex, Jr., commanded by Captain David Porter, was made a cartel ship by the British. However, while en route to New York the ship was overtaken by a British man-of-war and Captain Porter, to evade an arrest which seemed imminent, escaped with ten of his sailors in a whaleboat. Under cover of fog the men sailed and rowed their boat to Fire Island. James Montfort of Babylon who found them there piloted the seamen to Sumpwams Creek. After Captain Porter satisfactorily proved his connection with the American Navy, the Babylonians mounted the whaleboat on a wagon and hauled boat and crew to the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The Captain followed "in a fine carriage with the best horses available".
In 1814, town records show that money was voted for ammuni- tion to be used in the event of a British invasion. One cask of powder and a "6th of the balls and shot were deposited with Captain Samuel Muncy at South".
A monument to Captain Joel Cooke, who served with distinction in both the American Revolution and the War of 1812, was erected in 1908 on the Babylon Public School grounds by people of that
377
THE TOWN OF BABYLON
village. The last several years of Captain Cooke's life were spent in Babylon and he died there in 1851. His home on Prospect Street still stands.
The call for volunteers during the Civil War was met by several young men of South Huntington. Most of them became a part of the 127th Regiment of the New York Volunteers under Captain Richard Allison. The regiment's war activities reached a climax when it par- ticipated in Sherman's March to the Sea. On the home front Henry M. Purdy of Amityville and Isaac Willets of Babylon were part of a Huntington town committee for the disbursement of bounties and dependency payments. More than one-third of the total monies raised for this purpose in the town came from the generous contri- butions of South Huntington.
A Grand Army of the Republic unit was organized in Amityville under the name of Hugh P. Knickerbocker Post No. 643. The charter was issued November 25, 1889, and at the first muster call on Decem- ber 7th, ten Civil War veterans responded. Edward B. Austin was selected Commander. In 1901, twenty members were in "good stand- ing" and were reported "partly uniformed and equipped". They were regular in meeting attendance, records were complete, and the prospects for the future were considered "good". It was not until August 21, 1937, that the last G. A. R. man answered the final roll call. He was John Gardner Tyler, a negro of Amityville, who was ninety years of age.
World War I brought to Babylon town an encampment of soldiers located on land leased from August Belmont at North Babylon. The 280 acres dedicated to army use included the famous mile-long race track. Camp Damm, as it was named, was formally opened June 13, 1918, by the 261st and 350th aero squadrons under command of Lieutenant Harold P. Mills. For the next eight months there was intense activitity at the camp and its aviation field. At one period there were 1200 men quartered there. The people of the township, thinking of their own hundreds of men in service, made every arrangement possible for the pleasure and comfort of the boys at Camp Damm.
The call to active service in World War II was met by several thousand Babylon town men and women. The home front cooperated in the civilian defense program, war fund drives, bond purchase campaigns, and Red Cross activities. U. S. O. centers were estab- lished in each of the three incorporated villages. Several army encampments of anti-aircraft units were scattered throughout the town, most of them being in close proximity to the aviation plants. Edgewood Hospital, located east of Deer Park, became an army rehabilitation center during the war period. The town is at present assisting veterans in locating peacetime employment.
Copies of Huntington township's first paper The Long Islander edited and published by Walt Whitman in 1838 found their way to the southern portion of the town. The editor of the sheet made weekly deliveries "by crossing the Island and traveling east to Babylon". Whitman said, "I bought a good horse, and every week went all around the country serving my papers, devoting one day
378
LONG ISLAND-NASSAU AND SUFFOLK
and night to it. I never had happier jaunts-going over to the South Side to Babylon, down the South Road across to Smithtown and Comac and back home".
The Babylon scene was not unfamiliar to the young man who was to become the "Good Gray Poet". Two years before in 1836 he was a teacher at the district school in West Babylon. He made his home with his father in a small farmhouse near a lake on the South Road just east of Lindenhurst's village line. When the property was bought by Malcolm Ford about 1890, plans were made for the building of a large residence and the general remodeling of the estate. The small dwelling near the lake was ordered moved. Captain William J. Ketcham purchased the house and moved it to its present location at 41 Park Avenue, Amityville, where it is attached to a smaller home built earlier by Joshua Heartt. The two and a half story left wing is the former Whitman residence. The estate upon which the Whitman house was originally located is now owned by the Gilmore family.
Legal records give an amusing story of one incident in Walt Whitman's life in West Babylon. Whitman, while fishing from a rowboat on the lake, was annoyed by a youth of the name of Benjamin Carman. The lad threw stones from the shore and, encouraged by the fisherman's apparent indifference, entered a skiff and disturbed the water in the vicinity of the fishing boat. The inwardly enraged Whitman waited until the lad drew closer; the fishing rod broke over the back and shoulders of the incorrigible youth. Walt Whitman became his own counsel in an assault and battery case in the local court of Justice of the Peace Joel Jarvis of East Amityville. General Richard A. Udall was the plaintiff's attorney. The jury's verdict as announced by foreman John Edwards is still a matter of court record: " 'E didn't 'it 'im 'ard enough". The Judge broke his glasses in attempting to suppress the uproar which greeted this verdict. The adamant Edwards would not recant the wording of the jury's decision even upon the Judge's insistence.
South Huntington's first newspaper was the Suffolk Democrat of Hon. John R. Reid of Babylon. The paper had been founded in the village of Huntington in 1847, by Edward Strayham. Purchased by Reid in 1859, the paper became one' of the leading Democratic papers in the county. Charles Jayne succeeded Judge Reid as pub- lisher and in 1865, the publication of the sheet returned to Hunting- ton as the Suffolk Bulletin of Charles R. Street.
Judge Reid again entered the newspaper field when he with others purchased the Islip Index and removed all material to Babylon. The first issue appeared March 25, 1876, as the Babylon Budget. Judge Reid was responsible for most of the editorials which were noted for their brilliance. Successive owners of the Budget were W. S. Overton, Jesse S. Pettit, John Lowden, Charles T. Duryea, and again John R. Reid, all of Babylon town. Stephen A. Titus and A. L. Cheney followed as publishers and in 1889 the paper was sold to Henry Livingston and became part of the South Side Signal.
Henry Livingston of Babylon who had worked on the Suffolk Democrat founded the South Side Signal, the first issue of which
379
THE TOWN OF BABYLON
was published July 7, 1869. The paper was a new departure in journalism for it contained no editorials and was independent politi- cally. It was called by one New York paper "a spicy country journal".
The first power printing machine used in Suffolk County-one of A. B. Taylor & Company's-was used by the Signal in its first anniversary number of 1870.
Elbert Carll Livingston succeeded his father as editor and pub- lisher. In 1910, he sold the paper to the Signal Publishing Company whose president was W. C. Abbott of Babylon. J. Fred Flugrath of Patchogue became editor and manager. The Signal changed hands again in 1920 when purchased by Russell Raymond Voorhees, who became its editor. Within a year the paper ceased publication.
James C. Cooper, who had been associated with the South Side Signal since 1890, severed his connection with that newspaper when Elbert Carll Livingston sold it to new interests. Mr. Cooper on July 8, 1910, issued his own paper The Babylon Leader and in his words "began its labors without a feeling of confidence and with much uncertainty". The press of the Bay Shore Independent printed the first issue of 500 copies. In January of the next year the news- paper came under the control of the Babylon Publishing Company, Mr. Cooper, president. A modern plant was set up on Deer Park Avenue, Babylon. The weekly four page newspaper expanded at one time to a sixteen page issue. James B. Cooper, the Leader founder, died in 1940 but his son of the same name carries on.
The Babylon Publishing Company broadened its field by estab- lishing the Lindenhurst Star on September 21, 1927. This eight page newspaper is "published weekly in and for the best interests of the village of Lindenhurst". Another Lindenhurst weekly newspaper is the Villager which first appeared as an eight page mimeographed publication in September of 1941. A group of three local business men, namely, James B. Wilson, Leon J. Cohen and J. Philip Denton, were its founders. A year later it was taken over by the Villpubco, Inc. and became the four page printed newspaper it is today.
Two other Lindenhurst newspapers were published for short periods. One was the Lindenhurst News of Walter Kennedy who was a brilliant journalist of national experience. The News was founded in 1905 and continued for about five years. Arthur E. Parthe, a native of Lindenhurst, established another Lindenhurst News on February 22, 1934. His son Arthur C. Parthe assumed control of the sheet a year later and continued publication until 1939. The paper came off the presses of Parthe's Lindy Print Shop each week-the only newspaper ever to be printed within Lindenhurst village.
In Amityville, Chauncey L. C. Ditmars, as proprietor and editor, published a weekly paper called The Amityville Press. The first issue which bears the date June 8, 1895, was considered "bright and chipper" by a rival journalist. The paper, however, was of short duration and was followed in 1900 by the Long Island Enterprise of Walter Kennedy, who continued to publish the latter for ten years. Henry De Languillette's newspaper the Amityville Dispatch, another local publication, was bought by Charles F. Delano and under the
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.