USA > New York > Nassau County > Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume I > Part 50
USA > New York > Suffolk County > Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume I > Part 50
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Following the building of a railroad line from Lynbrook to Long Beach, a distance of some six miles, outside capital erected the fabu- lous Long Beach Hotel, nine hundred feet long, together with twenty- two summer cottages, with the announced intention of making the resort the playground of the wealthy. When a few years later finan- cial difficulties forced the proprietors to dispose of their holdings, a new company took over but only after the town had agreed to sell rather than lease the site. This arrangement, which permitted the new owners to mortgage the property, produced a brief boom for the little summer village by the sea before its title again changed hands.
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Although other owners in succession, each backed by new capital, tried and failed to bring lasting prosperity, the future of Long Beach finally became so dark that the City of New York took steps to pur- chase the entire tract for use of its poor.
At this juncture, soon after the turn of the century, Senator William Reynolds who had prospered in Brooklyn real estate, Henry
Hempstead High School
Morgenthau, Senator "Pat" McCarren and Frank Bailey, president of the Title Guarantee and Trust Company, purchased the area, acquired adjoining property from the town and set about creating what they declared would be a rival to Atlantic City as a summer playground.
In fulfillment of this assurance, the new owners, organized as the Estates of Long Beach, reclaimed thousands of acres of marshland, created deeper and broader waterways, built roads and bridges and, finally, when the Long Beach Hotel went up in flames, erected first the Nassau Hotel and later Lido, in its day one of America's most imposing beach hotel structures.
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Under the skillful hand of Reynolds, who was the active head of the group, Long Beach experienced its first substantial development. A school was established in the Nassau Hotel; a union chapel in Lido. Stores were built and rented to sufficiently optimistic merchants. A postoffice was procured and finally the village was incorporated in 1914 with Reynolds its first village president. When in 1922 Long Beach received its charter as a city he became its first mayor. A man hated by some, exalted by others, he died in 1931, leaving an estate of some ten million dollars.
The growth of Hempstead Town as a whole in recent years has been stupendous. The federal census of 1940 placed its population at 259,318; that of Hempstead Village at 20,856, Freeport, 20,410, Rockville Centre 18,613, Valley Stream 16,679, Lynbrook 14,557, Floral Park 12,950, Garden City 11,223, and Long Beach 9,036, the latter showing an increase since the census of 1920 of, believe it or not, 8,754. The present population of the town is estimated at close to 400,000. Today as in 1940 it is greater than those of North Hempstead and Oyster Bay towns combined. It is not only the oldest but the wealthi- est town in the county. As a matter of fact, it has been referred to as the wealthiest suburban town in the State of New York and among the wealthiest in the nation.
The part played by Hempstead Town in the creation of Nassau County and forty years later in the adoption of the county charter is given in other chapters as are the individual histories of those leading denominations whose churches have contributed so greatly to the development of Long Island as a whole.
Although the story of Hempstead Town could never be com- pletely told in this limited space, it is hoped that the information here presented may give a general picture of its steady expansion through more than three centuries from Town Spot to State and national eminence.
CHAPTER XIV
Town of North Hempstead HENRY WILSON LOWEREE Staff Writer, the Griscom Publications
T HE Town of North Hempstead comprises the entire northern portion of the original Town of Hempstead. It is bounded on the north by Long Island Sound, on the east by the Town of Oyster Bay, on the south by the Town of Hempstead and on the west by the Borough of Queens, City of New York. The original town called Hempstead was created by letters patent issued by William Kieft, Governor of the then New Netherland, to Robert Fordham and his five associates in 1643. One hundred and fifty-one years later, on April 6, 1784, the Legislature of the State of New York passed an act dividing it into two towns called North Hempstead and South Hempstead.
Now let us look at the period of the Revolutionary War to see what led up to this separation. A large number of the inhabitants of Hempstead Town were opposed to the Revolution and to sending delegates to the Provincial Congress. However, this was not the atti- tude of many of those living in the northern section of the town. On March 16, 1775, the Committee of the Sons of Liberty in New York requested neighboring counties to send delegates to the Continental Congress to be held on May 10, 1775.
At a town meeting on April 4, 1775, Hempstead passed a resolu- tion "That as we have already borne true and faithful allegiance to his Majesty King George III, our gracious and lawful sovereign, so we are firmly resolved to continue in the same line of duty. * We therefore determined not to choose any Deputies nor consent to it but do solemnly bear our testimony against it." Nevertheless four voluntary delegates attended the convention on April 20 and approved the proceedings.
The Battle of Lexington, April 19, 1775, caused so much excite- ment that a call was sent for another convention of delegates to assemble on May 24. Hempstead again refused to participate but delegates nevertheless attended the convention, Cow Neck and Great Neck being represented by Benjamin Sands, Adrian Onderdonk, John Farmer, Martin Schenck, William Cornwell, D. W. Kissam, John Cornwell, Peter Onderdonk, Thomas Dodge and Simeon Sands. About this time printed forms were circulated throughout the Colonies pledg- ing support to the Continental Congress. The one dated Cow Neck, January, 1776, contained 30 names, among which were: Sands, Corn- well, Allen, Farmer, Mott, Weeks, Burtis, Onderdonk, Townsend, Hulett, Smith and others.
Thus it is seen that the northern part of the town of Hempstead differed from the southern portion and, seeing no chance of having its views recognized, the northern part determined to secede from the town and issued a Declaration of Independence.
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THE DECLARATION
"At a meeting of us, the freemen, freeholders and other inhabitants of Great Neck, Cow Neck and all such as lately belonged to the company of Capt. Stephen Thorne in Queens County being duly warned, on Saturday, Sept 23, 1775, and taking into our serious consideration our distressed and calamitous situation, and being convinced of our total inability to pursue proper measures for our common safety which we in all cases are considered as a part of the township of Hempstead, and being conscious that self preservation, the immutable law of nature, is indispensible, do therefore,
"RESOLVE-That during the present controversy or so long as their general conduct is inimical to freedom, we be no further considered as a part of the Township of Hemp- stead than is consistent with peace, liberty and safety; there- fore in all matters relative to the Congressional plan we shall consider ourselves as an entire separate and independent beat or district."
"Signed by John Farmer, (Clerk of the meeting.)"
At a subsequent meeting of the committee for this district on October 7, 1775, the following officers for the local militia company were selected: John Sands, Captain; Henry Allen, first Lieutenant ; Thomas Mitchell, second Lieutenant; Aspinwall Cornwell, ensign.
These appointments were approved by the Continental Congress on October 12, 1775. That body passed a resolution on January 3, 1776, declaring that those who declined to support the Continental Congress "should be excluded from its protection and prevented from doing injury," and sent 600 militia and 300 trained soldiers, a fort- night later, to Hempstead where the Royalist sympathizers quietly gave up 300 stand of arms, also considerable power and lead, which were subsequently used to arm the militia companies.
The foregoing Declaration of Independence is not be confounded with the Declaration of Allegiance to the Continental Congress, which was generally signed some months before (but not at Cow Neck until three months after its secession from the town of Hempstead). Both documents are of considerable historical interest.
In the Act of Legislature of April 6, 1784, dividing the town into North and South Hempstead there was a provision that the people of each town should have the right of oystering, fishing and clamming in each other's creeks, bays and harbors, the same as before the divi- sion. After the division the people of North Hempstead continued to cut sedge (salt hay) from the south side marshes without objection from the town of South Hempstead for several years, but at the annual town meeting in April, 1797, the people of the latter town voted that no person, not a town resident, should cut sedge on the marshes before the twentieth day of September in each year. At the same time South Hempstead authorized its own residents to begin cutting the sedge ten days earlier, to wit, on the tenth day of Sep-
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tember, thus enabling them to obtain the best sedge before North Hempstead people could get any sedge at all.
In 1801 the name of South Hempstead was changed to Hemp- stead by Legislative Act.
On January 10, 1821, the town of Hempstead having practically denied the right of North Hempstead residents to cut any sedge at all on the marshes, a suit was commenced in the Court of Chancery by the town of North Hempstead for a partition of these commons between the towns. In October, 1824, Chancellor Sanford decided the suit against North Hempstead which town appealed to the Court of Errors. The case was argued in December, 1828, by Robert Emmett and John Duer for North Hempstead and by David S. Jones and David B. Ogden, counsel for Hempstead, and judgment of Chancellor Sanford against the town of North Hempstead was affirmed. For arguing this case in the highest court, North Hempstead paid Emmett the princely fee of $100!
Following this litigation a number of North Hempstead farmers purchased Hempstead plots of ten to fifty acres for cutting salt hay. Others bought Hempstead hay at about $4 a team load.
The land lying in the northerly section of the town embracing Great Neck and Cow Neck was always considered the most fertile. Great Neck was earliest occupied by prosperous and, for the most part, wealthy farmers. The practice of raising hay for the New York market was commenced here in 1818 and soon became a profitable busi- ness, which eventually extended to all parts of the town.
The soil of this town was specially adapted to the growth of fruit trees. There were many fine apple orchards, from which the owners derived large annual returns, some of them selling a thousand barrels or more in a good season. Among the orchard farmers who more than a hundred years ago specialized in fruit raising may be mentioned Elijah Allen of Great Neck, Joseph Onderdonk of Cow Neck and Benjamin Platt of Herricks.
During the Revolutionary War the British tore down the old court house in Jamaica, built in 1669, to construct barracks. On March 31, 1785, two thousand pounds was appropriated for a new court house and jail to stand within a mile of "Windmill Pond" near the house of Benjamin Cheeseman. The project was completed early in 1787.
On court days many people gathered at the court house to make merry. About 1825 the sheriff was prohibited from selling liquor in the court house but he evaded the law by erecting a shed against the front of the building, sold liquor and passed it through a window into the court house. Political meetings, fairs and other public gatherings were held in the court house. This building served Queens County until an imposing edifice was completed in Long Island City in April, 1877, at a cost of $276,000 with an additional $2,500 for furniture and fixtures.
L. I .- I-28
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TOWN HALL FIGHT
There was no Town Hall in North Hempstead until 1907 before which time the Town Board met in Roslyn, in an old building opposite the Clock Tower, where the Lincoln Building is now located.
On May 23, 1905, the Town Board held a meeting to decide which village would have the proposed new Town Hall. It required ballot- ing six times before the final vote showed Manhasset 4 and Roslyn 2. Luther Birdsall of Roslyn was selected as architect, and a special bond issue of $20,000 was voted for the improvement. However, an injunction was obtained by opponents of the plan to rescind the bond issue. The building was finally erected on Plandome Road in Man- hasset by Smull and Walsh of Port Washington and was enlarged in 1928.
HOW THE TOWN GOT BAR BEACH
Bar Beach, the Town's popular bathing resort, formerly known as Barrow Beach, was once the subject of litigation.
When Rudolph Oelsner purchased the George A. Thayer property in 1906, he claimed the strip of beach land that extended into Hemp- stead Harbor and fenced the public out.
In 1908, the people of the Town voted $10,000 to eject Oelsner and the Port Washington News of April 23, 1910, tells how this was accomplished.
"The jury in the ejectment suit brought by the Town of North Hempstead against Rudolph Oelsner handed up a sealed verdict on Monday, in favor of the Town. Title to Barrow Beach. a nine acre peninsula of beach land which juts from the west shore of Hempstead Harbor, opposite what is known as the Thayer place, was the issue.
"The trial of the case began a week ago last Monday and ended at 1 o'clock the following Friday. Supreme Court Jus- tice Kapper, before whom the case was tried, instructed the jury to bring in a sealed verdict and although the jury were out only a short time the result was not made known until Monday.
"Ex-Lieut. Governor M. Linn Bruce and Lawyer John J. Graham, who had charge of the Town's case, and the town officials, were congratulated on all sides upon their success. Town Clerk Monroe S. Wood, who offered the resolution several months ago that the Town commence action of eject- ment against Mr. Oelsner, came in for the lion's share of the praise.
"The trial was watched daily with keen interest by the people of North Hempstead, people who from time imme- morial had been accustomed to having free and open use to the property, and who, a year ago this month, at the biennial town meeting, voted for a resolution which was carried by a substantial majority appropriating $10,000 for the purpose of
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erecting and maintaining a public park, bath house, and other facilities for the general enjoyment of the public.
"The Town's title to Barrow Beach was never questioned by anyone until Rudolph Oelsner, about two years ago, erected a fence shutting off the public, claiming title by virtue of a quit claim deed given when he purchased the estate of the late George A. Thayer. Then action was begun by the Town. After the suit was brought Oelsner sold the property to the Gallagher Bros., sand merchants, who assumed the law suit.
"Town Clerk Wood, who from the start urged action be taken against Oelsner, and who was perhaps as well posted on town records and laws as any other man in town, was of much assistance to the town's attorneys. The testimony in the case was mostly documentary in character and the town clerk knew just where to put his hands on anything among the town records the attorneys had occasion to call for."
One of the witnesses for the town was Stephen Speedling of Roslyn. He testified to the effect that during the months of May, June and part of July in the years 1849-51, he, Dobson Allen, Jack Mott, David Meisner and others lived on the beach and followed net fishing for a livelihood. He said at high water a channel with about two feet of water, separated a large portion of the beach from the main land. Jacob Van Wicklen, also of Roslyn, who was born in 1840, was errand boy for a fishing crew which lived on the beach unmolested during the same time. Robert Jarvis of Port Washington told the jury how things were on the beach in 1853. Charles Dodge, son of Henry T. Dodge, owner of the old Dodge Homestead in Port Washington, verified a map of Cow Neck from a survey made in 1703. No little surprise was expressed in the courtroom at the time when Mr. Dodge exhibited the map of 200 years ago.
But this court decision did not end the fight waged by the defend- ant. The case was taken to a higher court and in April, 1912, the Appellate Division of the Second Department affirmed the verdict of the lower court.
The town claimed title under a patent granted by Colonial authori- ties in 1664, which was the foundation of the case. The property in question was for the first time included in the deed but not described when, in 1883, the upland of 276 acres, which is separated from Barrow Beach by a public highway, was sold by Peter Bogart to the late George A. Thayer.
COLD, STORMS AND FLOOD
North Hempstead suffered greatly from the "cold summer" of 1816. All growing crops were destroyed by the cold weather causing a complete loss to the farmers.
Another calamity was the hurricane of September 3, 1821, which wrecked buildings, trees, fences and growing crops, causing tre- mendous damage.
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On August 10-13, 1826, came the "great flood", when torrential rains, long continued, caused the overflow of the streams with con- sequent serious damage. The flood broke through the dam of John Mitchell's pond in Manhasset Valley and carried away the grist-mill and the adjoining saw-mill. It also carried away the dam of William Hewlett's millpond at Cow Neck. On the 12th and 13th nine inches of rain fell.
A marine disaster that affected North Hempstead was the burn- ing of the steamboat Seawanhaka which ran daily between Roslyn and Peck Slip, New York City, with stops at Glenwood, Sea Cliff, Glen Cove, Sands Point, Great Neck and Whitestone.
The Seawanhaka left New York at 4:15 p. m. on June 28, 1880, with 300 passengers and freight and when proceeding through Hell Gate fire broke out in the hold. The vessel was in charge of Capt. Charles P. Smith, a resident of Roslyn and a veteran Long Island Sound Pilot who, upon discovery of the fire, immediately headed the vessel for Sunken Meadow, a shoal spot between Ward's and Rand- all's Islands. The flames quickly spread and formed an impassable barrier between the fore and aft parts of the vessel on the main deck. Capt. Smith remained at his post, in the wheelhouse, imploring the passengers not to jump, until the vessel was beached on the shoal. He was so badly burned that he died a year later from the effects. Among the passengers who escaped uninjured were William R. Grace. Mayor of New York City; Charles A. Dana, Editor of the New York Sun; and John Harper of Harper Bros. and his daughter Mabel. The dead numbered 40.
THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR
Soon after the defeat of the American Army in Brooklyn, August 27, 1775, a detachment of British light dragoons rode into North Hempstead and carried off to the Provost prison in New York such prominent Whigs as Colonel John Sands, Adrian Onderdonk and Major Richard Thorne. The British Army also appropriated the livestock and products of local farms.
Bands of Continental sympathizers, commissioned by the Gover- nors of Connecticut and Massachusetts crossed the sound in whale- boats to attack and rob the Tories of this section. One raid ended in the murder of Benjamin Mitchell, a boy of 18 years, in front of his home, now "The Anchorage" on Main Street, Port Washington. When the whaleboatmen raided his homestead, John Mitchell went for help. On his return he found his son lying in the yard with a bullet hole in his abdomen. The boy had recognized one of the raiders who had thereupon shot him. The man was captured and hanged.
On the evening of October 26, 1782, two whaleboats landed a number of men at the head of Cow Bay. They proceeded to Burr's Store in Manhasset Valley. Burr was shot and killed and his store looted. Later in an exchange of shots with neighbors, their leader, Capt. Martin, was killed. In his pocket was found a list of his men and a commission from the State of Massachusetts authorizing him
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"to cruise against the enemies of the United States, but not to go on land."
JERICHO TURNPIKE, OLD INDIAN TRAIL
Few people who now roll along Jericho Turnpike realize it was once an Indian trail. Discovery of several stone hatchets and arrow heads, while excavating for residences along the Turnpike, near New Hyde Park, was a recent reminder that this was part of the Indian trail that traversed Long Island from the East River to Montauk Point.
Before Henry Hudson visited these shores the Algonquin Indians had blazed a trail down the middle of the Island. Beginning near the location of the old Fulton Ferry, it ran directly east for thirty miles to a point that is now Jericho. This trail eventually became the principal artery of travel for farmers through what is now Jamaica, Queens Village, Floral Park, New Hyde Park, Mineola, West- bury and Jericho-thus constituting the oldest through route on Long Island. As a natural consequence of its location, it also became one of the first publicly maintained highways in what is now New York State. Leading men in time formulated the idea of a toll road over the course of this trail. The introduction of the toll turnpike was an event of great interest and produced not a little excitement in the public mind. There was some opposition from those who regarded a toll as an infringement of their natural rights but the plan was adopted and practical experience soon produced a change in public opinion. The farmers found that the road saved time as well as wear and tear on their wagons and teams, and the turnpike was extended to Smithtown.
A REVOLUTIONARY HEROINE
While the Continental naval militia was encamped at Sands Point on July 2, 1776, Sergeant Manes and a detail of his mounted guards- men hoisted the first American flag ever to fly in this part of Long Island. Captain John Sands, after whose family Sands Point was named, was at this time at his farm on Sands Point where he was collecting all the powder and lead he could find for the Continental Army. When the British advance caused the American army to fall back, Sands, now a Colonel, left his farm to join Washington's forces, hoping soon to return.
After Washington and his forces had been driven from Long Island, Colonel Sands managed to send a messenger to his wife asking her to deliver the much-needed gunpowder he had cached on the farm to a party of Continentals who would meet her at the Point in a whale- boat. Mrs. Sands, in spite of the danger of the mission, told the messenger she would be at the Point the next morning with the powder.
The Sands homestead was located between Port Washington and Roslyn on Middle Neck Road (now Port Washington Boulevard). A company of Hessian soldiers were stationed on the Onderdonk home- stead, near where the Port Washington Post Office is now located, then
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known as Monfort's Corner. With the keg of powder hidden in an old-fashioned gig of the box-and-leather-spring variety, accompanied by her husband's most trusted negro slave, Mrs. Sands set forth to pass the enemy's outpost. This she succeeded in doing by posing as
(Photo Courtesy of Mrs. Roswell Eldridge)
The Saddle Rock Grist Mill, on the Peninsula of Great Neck, Built in 1668, Rebuilt in 1702, and Owned by the Udall Family Since 1831, Still in Operation
a much older woman enroute to market. Reaching the Point and finding her husband's men waiting in a whaleboat, she delivered the powder. In the meantime the Hessians, learning that it was the wife of a rebel officer whom they had let pass, hurried to the Point. As they came in sight, Mrs. Sands clambered into the whaleboat, for she had decided to join her husband. The Hessians fired at the occupants of the boat but no one was hit and the husky rowers soon had the craft out of range of the old flintlock muskets. Mrs. Sands, the heroine of this episode, was the great-grandmother of Judge Henry C. Morrell of Great Neck.
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O'GORMAN'S ISLAND
O'Gorman's Island, previously known as Dodge's Island (now Manhasset Isle) has quite an interesting history. It is now a part of the incorporated village of Manor Haven and comprises approxi- mately sixty acres. Originally an island, in recent years it has been filled in on the north side. In the early days there was a high hill on the Island which was found to contain a fine quality of building sand and large quantities of the material were shipped to New York for building purposes.
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