Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume III, Part 19

Author: Bailey, Paul, 1885-1962, editor
Publication date: 1949
Publisher: New York, Lewis Historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 922

USA > New York > Nassau County > Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume III > Part 19
USA > New York > Suffolk County > Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume III > Part 19

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William F. Ploch was born September 6, 1893, at

Wheeling, West Virginia, the son of Henry and Anna Elizabeth (Knierim) Ploch. He concluded his second- ary education upon graduation from the high school of Amityville, Long Island, and, at the age of eighteen, secured a position as assistant cashier in the First National Bank and Trust Company of Amityville. While so active, and to further an aptitude and in- terest, he pursued specialized courses at the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Banking, being graduated in 1914, and at the School of Com- merce, Accounts and Finance of New York Uni- versity, the following year. In 1917 he left the Amityville institution to accept the office of assistant treasurer with the Merchants & Manufacturers Trust Company of Union Hill, New Jersey. It was during his tenure there that he served with the United States Army, from 1918 to 1919, as a member of the 152nd Depot Brigade. Upon his return to civilian life, he entered the foreign department of the National City Bank of New York, to remain for two years. He returned to Long Island and Nassau County in 1920, to become cashier of the Peoples National Bank of Lynbrook. In 1927 he was chosen president of the National City Bank of Long Beach, and continued as such until 1946, when he was elected president and a director of the Nassau County Trust Company at Mineola, his present affiliation.

While he was directing the affairs of the Long Beach bank, Mr. Ploch became chairman of the im- portant Nassau County Clearing House Association, a post he held until 1943. This was during the diffi- cult depression period. and the measure of his services to banks and to banking in general at that time, is presented in the words of the Hon. Leone D. Howell, Surrogate of Nassau County, who wrote under the date, February 2, 1948:

William F. Ploch has earned a unique standing among bankers. Hc came into prominence in 1934 when banking was in distress. He won the respect and confidence of the bankers of Nassau County as no other man had won it in the history of banking in Nassau County. The books of all the County's banks were thrown open to him. The results of his examinations and his recom- mendations thereafter were accepted and, as Chairman of the Nassau County Clearing House Association, he brought about a mutual cooperative understanding among all the banks. This association was formed at the time when one particular bank was in difficulties. The situation was cured then through the efforts of the Clearing House under Mr. Ploch's management, and the banks of the County were prepared for the difficulties that came later.

When the Comptroller of the Currency closed the National banks and the Governor of this State closed the State banks, Mr. Ploch was called in by both Departments. He had a complete knowledge of all the banks of Nassau County. He had the complete confidence of all the bankers of the County. His word was accepted by the Federal and State banking departments and his recommendations were adopted by the bankers. The President had stated that none but sound banks would reopen but without giving any definition of what was a sound bank. Mr. Ploch undertook to specify what would be a sound bank under the conditions which confronted banking at that particular time, and presented his statement to the Federal Reserve Bank in New York. His judgment was accepted and he immediately arranged for the banks of Nassau County to conform to that statement. As the result of his forethought, Nassau County banks were the first to be cleared under the reopening plan as he had outlined it and Nassau County banks were among the first in the country to reopen their doors to the public.

In the aftermath came the discussions of assets, good, bad and doubtful. Mr. Ploch was constantly in attendance with the Federal and State authorities in deciding that question, as important to the banks of the country as the opening of the banks after the holiday.

Mr. Ploch was on every committee formed in the New York hanking area by the State Superintendent of Banks. by the Chief Bank Examiner and by the Federal Reserve Bank. His clear judgment and knowledge of the situation were acknowledged to be most helpful.

Having brought the Clearing House of Nassau County into such prominence. Mr. Ploch was called upon throughout the State of New York to confer with groups desiring to organize

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local clearing houses under the plans as outlined by him. He gave freely of his time, and was looked upon throughout the State as a sound, straightforward authority on banking. His services today are sought by many civic and public enterprises and he gives freely of his time and thought to the welfare of Nassau County.

In addition to the chairmanship of the Clearing House, he has been state vice president of the American Bankers Association, 1936; director of the Federal Reserve Bank, 1936-1939; and member of the executive committee of the American Bankers Association, 1942-1945. He was Nassau County chair- man for the Long Island Tercentenary Celebration of 1936, and during World War II he served as chairman of the Long Beach Price and Rationing Board and as vice chairman of the Nassau County War Finance Committee. He continues in association with the National City Bank of Long Beach, as a director, and he is also a director of the Queens Borough Gas and Electric Company.

Among present affiliations of a civic, cultural, and social nature, he is a director of The Nassau Hos- pital at Mineola; treasurer and a trustee of Adelphi College at Garden City; a commissioner of the Nas- sau County Bridge Authority; chairman of the finance committee of the Nassau County Chapter of the American Red Cross; and a director of the Nassau County Historical and Genealogical Society. He is also president of the Long Island Association. A member of the Nassau County Chapter of the Ameri- can Institute of Banking, his more sociable interests are served through his memberships in the Amity- ville Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons; Amityville Post, American Legion; and the Mineola-Garden City Rotary Club.

William F. Ploch married Agnes Ramon, the daughter of Russel and Pearl (Collins) Ramon. They are the parents of one child: Cynthia Agnes. The family attends the Lutheran Church.

LOUIS BEHRINGER-Well-known among Shel- ter Island's hotels is the Shelter Island House, founded in 1905 by Louis Behringer.

Mr. Behringer was born in Munich, Germany, on May 5, 1876. After completing his education there he chose culinary art as his profession and held positions as chef in prominently known hotels in various countries in Europe, including Germany, Bel- gium, France, England and Ireland before coming to the United States of America in 1900.

Mr. Behringer was naturalized in 1905, and before opening the Shelter Island House was at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City, Schenectady and Sharon Springs, New York, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Lake St. John. Province of Quebec, and Nassau, the Bahama Islands.

Since its establishment the Shelter Island House has become one of the best known resort hotels on Eastern Long Island. The hotel provides facilities for all sports including bathing, golfing, lawn tennis. bicycling, horseback riding, dancing, boating and fishing. It is situated amid woodland three minutes walk from sandy beach and the Long Island Airlines landing ramp, and three hundred feet from the Shelter Island Country Club Golf Course. The House ac- commodates seventy-five guests in a congenial and homelike atmosphere. A popular rendezvous for the guests and other Shelter Island visitors is Louis' Arbor, where there is service in the screened out- door arbor, and also dancing.

Mr. Behringer married Anna Veit, daughter of Franz Veit and Juliana Veit Meinhardt of Brooklyn, at Shelter Island on October 14, 1906. From that

time until her death on August 3, 1945 Mrs. Behringer was active in the business. Of the six children born to them, three sons, Alois John, Jr. (After living in France Mr. Behringer became known as Louis), Richard Frank and Paul Everett died in childhood.

The surviving three children were also born on Shelter Island. The son, George F. Behringer was graduated from Cornell University, Hotel Adminis- tration Department in 1934 with a degree of Bachelor of Science. He served with the United States Army Air Forces, Combat Intelligence Corps in the Euro- pean Theater of Operations during World War II. He was awarded the Air Medal for meritorious achievement in aerial combat. He is now a member and first vice commander of Mitchell Post No. 28: of the American Legion, at Shelter Island; a member of Peconic Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons at Greenport, New York; Sigma Pi fraternity and the Cornell Society of Hotelmen.

The daughters, Anna V. and Juliana Behringer at- tended Shelter Island High School and postgraduate business classes at Greenport High School.

Following Mrs. Behringer's death, Mr. Behringer formed a corporation, the Shelter Island House, Inc. with these three children, and they are conducting the business together, with Mr. Behringer as president, George F. Behringer, vice president, Anna V. Beh- ringer the treasurer, and Juliana Behringer, secre- tary.

DANIEL A. ELDREDGE-When the Eldredges settled in Suffolk County, in the early 1700s, seafaring was the Island's typical industry-men went "down to the sea in ships" either to trade with distant lands or to follow the rich lure of the whale to still more distant waters. Some of the Eldredges had their part in those characteristic Long Island occupations two centuries ago, and some of the Eldredges have always stayed on the Island, identified in each generation with various indigenous activities. Today when men go down to the seashore in automobiles, and the long stretches of lovely country and splendid roads make motoring almost as typical a Long Island occupa- tion as whaling was of old, Daniel A. Eldredge of Hempstead is one of the largest-scale dealers in auto- mobiles to be found in all of the Island's four counties.

Mr. Eldredge is a native Long Islander, for he was born in the old city of Brooklyn on July 24, 1878, some nineteen years before that municipality was ab- sorbed into Greater New York. His father was Henry C. Eldredge, who was born in New York City on July 15, 1855, and died in his eighty-seventh year. He married Mary Banks Hull, a native Brooklyn girl whose ancestry was traced to Jacob Hull, a gallant soldier of the American Revolution who fought under the command of General Lincoln. In the same battle in which Count Pulaski, the gallant Polish soldier who enlisted under Washington in the cause of freedom, was killed, Jacob Hull was taken prisoner by the British, and remained in their hands until the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown brought an end to British rule in the young United States. Mrs. Mary Banks (Hull) Eldredge was born on June 28, 1854, and passed away in her eighty-ninth year.

Daniel A. Eldredge was brought to Hempstead in Nassau County as a boy, and attended public school in that village. After leaving school he tried his hand at various lines of work before becoming associated with the automobile business as a salesman for the Garden City Garage. That was in 1916. Mr. Eldredge was quick to realize the vast business possibilities in

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the motor car field, which was then, if not in its infancy, still very much in its youth; and on July I, 1919, he secured the dealership for the Buick car at Hempstead, with an office and show room at 281 Main Street. This dealership Mr. Eldredge has held ever since that time, through more than a quarter of a century of continuous growth, based on the good business principles which have always guided his sales of a good car. The Eldredge Buick agency at times employs as many as forty-eight people in its various departments and activities.

Mr. Eldredge takes a keen interest in the business and civic life of his community, particularly as a member of the Hempstead Rotary Club. He is also a long-time member of Lodge, No. 1485, of the Benevo- lent and Protective Order of Elks. He is a Presby- terian in religious faith, and in politics, a supporter of the Republican party.

In 1902 Daniel A. Eldredge was married to Caroline Southard Weeks of Hempstead, by whom he was the father of one child, a daughter, Florence, who became Mrs. Burgevin and the mother of three children: namely Jules, Michael and Judy. Mrs. Caroline Southard (Weeks) Eldredge died in 1925. In 1927 Mr. Eldredge married a second time, the bride being the former Josephine Meighan of Floral Park, Nassau County. Of this marriage there is one child, a son, Daniel A., Jr., who was born on May 19, 1929.

CHARLES OLIVER BANKS-An industrial en- gineer with a long career, in peace and war time, in nationwide industries manufacturing vital products, Charles Oliver Banks is now head of the Islip Coal and Feed Company of Islip and Bay Shore.

Mr. Banks was born at Culver, Indiana, on De- cember 20, 1907, the son of Franklin S. and Joanne S. (McDougle) Banks. His father was a building contractor. Mr. Banks had a long and intensive edu- cation. Following graduation from the Culver High School in 1925, he studied at the University of In- diana, Bloomington, from which he was graduated in 1930. He did graduate work in industrial engineering at the University of Buffalo, Buffalo, New York, and the University of Delaware at Newark. For a time he was on the faculty of the University of Buffalo, where he taught industrial engineering sub- jects.

From 1930 to 1941, Mr. Banks was an industrial engineer with E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Com- pany, Inc., at Buffalo. His activities were centered in the concern's cellophane and rayon plants. In the en- suing four years of World War II, he was first (1942 to 1944) in the Bridgeport, Connecticut, executive of- fices of the Remington Arms Division of the DuPont company, then (1944) at the Lowell, Massachusetts, plant of the Remington Arms Division and, finally, (1944-1945) at the main offices of duPont in Wilming- ton, Delaware. When in 1945, Mr. Banks resigned from the duPont company, he became controller of Milprint, Incorporated, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in which company his activities extended to its plants in Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Tucson, Arizona, and Los Angeles and San Francisco, California. In 1946, he came to Long Island and took over the Islip Coal and Feed Company, whose organization of some twenty employees serves the Islip and Bay Shore area from its headquarters at 146 Nassau Avenue, Islip. Mr. Banks was recently elected a director of the South Side Bank and Trust Company of Bay Shore.

As an outstanding citizen of his community Mr.

Banks is a member of the Rotary Club of Bay Shore, the Lions Club of the Islips, and the Islip Chamber of Commerce while through his scholastic and profession- al activities, he is also a member of Sigma Pi, Sigma Delta Psi and Beta Gainma Sigma.

Mr. Banks married Dorothy Greenwood, daugh- ter of Ernest and Sarah Emma (Mosley) Greenwood, at Bay Shore on June 14, 1941, and they have one daughter, Penelope Ann, born at Bay Shore, June 26, 1947. Mr. Greenwood, an outstanding educator and until his retirement in 1947 headmaster of the Dwight School for Boys in New York, has since de- voted much of his time to civic affairs, being widely recognized as an effective public speaker on educa- tional matters.

IRVING RYERSON ADDIS has been active in business and social life in Port Jefferson, Long Island, for twenty-fve years.

He was born at Setauket, Long Island, April 15, 1898, the son of John W. and Mary E. (Hawkins) Addis. His father is a retired farmer. He attended the Setauket public schools and was graduated from the Renouard School of Embalming, New York City, in 1924. He saw service in the United States Marine Corps in World War I, being assigned to the 433rd Company, Battalion A. He became associated with his father-in-law O. B. Davis in 1922 before he finished his embalming course, and following the death of Mr. Davis in 1927, when the business was incorporated about one year later, he became an officer, director and stockholder in that organization known as the O. B. Davis Inc. This business was established in 1858 by E. A. Raynor. Mr. Davis was associated with Mr. Raynor from 1900 until 1915, when Mr. Raynor passed away. Mr. Davis then purchased the business from the E. A. Raynor estate and operated it under his own name until his death in 1927. This business was first furniture and undertaking. Today it is operated as three units. Retail furniture at the modern store, 4II East Main Street, the funeral directing business at 218 East Main Street and the monument business at 706 Main Street, all under the name of O. B. Davis Inc., employing approximately twelve people. It is a family corporation. Mr. Addis is a licensed funeral director and embalmer. He is a member of the Port Jefferson Rotary Club, and is a director in that or- ganization; is a past director in the Metropolitan Funeral Directors Association and a member of the New York State and the National Funeral Directors Association. He is a past commander of Harbor Post, 417, American Legion, and a member of Suffolk Lodge, No. 60, Free and Accepted Masons; the Junior Order of United American Mechanics, the Port Jefferson Fire Department, the Stony Brook Yacht Club and Loyal Order of the Moose, No. 1379, at Port Jefferson. He is a member of the Episcopal faith.

Mr. Addis was married June 24, 1920, in the Pres- byterian Church at Port Jefferson, to Fayette Estelle Davis, daughter of Orlando B. and Wennie W. (Robinson) Davis. They are the parents of a daugh- ter, Fayette Davis Addis, who married October 26, 1947, Philip J. Stroh of Stony Brook, New York. He served in World War II in the United States Navy in the Pacific Theater of War.

JOSEPH CHARLES MAUCERI, M.D., is a member of that group of Suffolk County medical men who distinguished themselves in battle zones in World War II and who are now contributing to the health, welfare and progress of their individual communities

LONG ISLAND - NASSAU AND SUFFOLK

and the county as a whole. In general practice at Kings Park, he is also physician to the Village school system.

Dr. Mauceri was born in Brooklyn on May 31, 1909, the son of Ignatius Edward and Rose (Barbera) Mauceri. His father, born in Italy, came to the United States in boyhood and settled with his family in Brooklyn. He is an ironworker and blacksmith.

Following his graduation from the Bushwick High School in Brooklyn in 1926, Dr. Mauceri matriculated at St. John's University, from which four years later he received the degree of Bachelor of Science. In 1934, he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Medi- cine, cum laude, by the Boston University School of Medicine. Until 1935, Dr. Mauceri was an intern at Lutheran Hospital, Brooklyn, and for another year at Mary Immaculate Hospital in Jamaica.

In 1936, Dr. Mauceri began his practice as physician and surgeon at Kings Park. His career in his civilian profession was broken by World War II. In August, 1942, eight months after the nation was plunged into the conflict by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he was commissioned a captain in the United States Army Medical Coros Command and was made a com- pany commander in the Fourth Armored Division. He served in the European Theater of Operations and in the process received such decorations as the Bronze Star Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Distinguished Unit Badge and Medal, the Combat Medical Badge and the European Theater of Operations Ribbon with five battle stars. Separated from the service in Novem- ber, 1945, Dr. Mauceri returned to Kings Park and resumed his practice.

In addition to his work for the village school system, Dr. Mauceri is active in the Kings Park Volunteer Firemen, the American Legion, the Suffolk County and the New York State Medical Societies and St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church in Kings Park. He is actively interested in all athletics-this interest being a survival of his soccer-playing days when he was a student.

Dr. Mauceri married Kathryn F. Bird, daughter of George and Katherine Bird, in Freeport, Long Is- land, on August 30, 1940. They are the parents of three children: Kathleen, born in September, 1941; Rose- mary, born in September, 1943, and Edward George, born in July, 1946. All the children were born at Southside Hospital, Bay Shore. Dr. Mauceri is on the attending staff of this hospital as well as of the John T. Mather Memorial Hospital, Port Jefferson and Huntington Hospital in New York.

THOMAS P. ABBOTT-There was a time when Thomas P. Abbott was known as "The Child Magi- cian" and walked the vaudeville boards from coast to coast one of the most successful and popular per- formers in that medium. But long before the vogue for vaudeville waned, Mr. Abbott had deserted the theater for the field in which he has so successfully operated since-real estate. To this field he has brought the charm and personality which won him acclaim on the stage, and from the theatrical world too he brought a style of advertising appropriate to his personality and unique in the real estate world. As Tom Abbott he is headquartered at Merrick, but he is known throughout the South Shore and indeed all of Long Island as a real estate man, a Lion, a lay churchman and a Democratic party leader.

Mr. Abbott was born at Millville, New Jersey, on July 31, 1889, the son of Harmon J. and Mary (Branon) Abbott, both also natives of that New Jersey community and both now deceased. The elder Mr. Abbott was also a stage magician and it was from him that the young Tom Abbott learned the sleight-of-hand and the legerdemain which earned him the soubriquet of "The Child Magician." Before he began to give full time to a stage career, Tom Abbott went to elementary school in his native Mill- ville, then to high school at Camden, New Jersey. Years later he took extension courses given by Rutgers University in real estate and economics. But before he entered the real estate business he dazzled audiences with his stage feats for sixteen years.

Finally stepping off the boards, Mr. Abbott be- came a salesman in a real estate office at Audubon, New Jersey. There he remained for four years. For another twelve years he operated his own real estate business in Audubon. During this period he opened a branch of his firm in Camden, operating both the Audubon and Camden offices for several years. In 1928 he closed the Camden office. Later he sold out at Audubon. He then became property manager in the eastern part of the United States for Sears, Roe- buck and Company, a position he held for six years.

In 1934 Mr. Abbott came to Long Island and opened a real estate office in Bellmore. After six years he transferred the business to Merrick, where, as has been noted, the name of Tom Abbott has been made synonymous with a unique and arresting style of advertising. He is the author of the book "The Realtor as I Know Him," which is recognized and recommended by the National Association of Real Estate Boards and can be found in many of the leading libraries throughout the country. Mr. Abbott has succeeded in numerous areas of activity. He is on the board of directors of the Long Island real estate board. He is a founder and former president of the South Shore chapter of that board. He is a former president of the Real Estate Board of Camden and the only honorary life member of that organization. He is also an honorary life member of Lions Interna- tional and is president of the Merrick Chamber of Commerce. A chieftain of the Democratic party, he is past president of the fifteenth and thirty-first dis- trict Democratic clubs of Long Island. In addition, hc is a member of Spartan Lodge, No. 960, Free and Accepted Masons, and of the Presbyterian Church of Merrick. His hobbies are painting and fishing.

He is married to the former Maude E. Schuler of Colorado. There are four children, William, Thomas, Robert, now a partner with his father in the real estate business, and Mrs. Dorothy Abbott Johnson. The three sons are also married. There are eight grand- children.

JOSEPH G. PATIKY, M. D .- A skilled surgeon and an adept student of forensic medicine, Dr. Joseph G. Patiky of Huntington Station is coroner of Suf- folk County and chief of the surgical staff of Hunt- ington Hospital as well as surgeon to two fire depart- ments in Suffolk County. In addition to his medical work and coroner's duties, he has played an important part in the development of education at Huntington and in the banking field. A veteran of World War I, he served the nation as a medical examiner for the Selective Service System in World War II.

Dr. Patiky was born in New York City on June 12,

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LONG ISLAND - NASSAU AND SUFFOLK

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Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume III, Part 19

Author: Bailey, Paul, 1885-1962, editor Publication date: 1949 Publisher: New York, Lewis Historical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 922

Author: Bailey, Paul, 1885-1962, editor
Publication date: 1949
Publisher: New York, Lewis Historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 922