Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume III, Part 22

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 22
USA > New York > Suffolk County > Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume III > Part 22

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Mr. Ketcham was born in Islip on September 8, 1896, the son of Benjamin F. and Phoebe E. Ketcham. His father, a carpenter and builder, was a native of Amityville; his mother of Great River. Both have been dead for many years, and both lie buried at Oak- wood Cemetery, Bay Shore.

Mr. Ketcham was graduated from the Islip High School in 1914 and the Webb Institute of Naval Ar- chitecture in 1918. In World War I he was an ensign in the United States Naval Reserve. After the war, he followed his profession until in 1925 he was appointed postmaster of Islip. This post he re- tained until 1937, when he resigned to enter the insur- ance field. He has been an agent and broker, with offices in the First National Bank Building, Bay Shore, since then. Through the years, however, he has con- tinued active in many aspects of public life, including the Republican party. He is a member of the Timber Point Republican Club. In the World War II period, he was a member of Local Board 703. Selective Service System, Islip. He is a member of the Bay Shore Country Club; the Rusy Bohm Post, No. 41I, American Legion, Islip; the Southward Ho Golf Club and the Lions Club of Bay Shore. His church is the Christian Science in Bay Shore. Golf is his favorite outdoor activity.

Mr. Ketcham married Lillian Rowlinson, daughter of Henry and Caroline Rowlinson, in St. Mark's Epis- copal Church, Islip, on June 19, 1926. Mrs. Ketcham had two children by a former marriage whom Mr. Ketcham adopted: Harry R., born October 6, 1920, and Patricia, born March 30, 1923. Harry R. Ketcham is a graduate of the Islip High School and the Whar- ton School of Finance of the University of Pennsyl- vania. Patricia Ketcham is also a graduate of the Islip High School.

WALTER H. FASBENDER-An outstanding public official of the Town of Huntington, Walter H. Fasbender has demonstrated his qualities of leader- ship in a relatively short time, and this, combined wth his popularity with the electorate, won his re- election to the administrative post of supervisor, which he has served since 1943.

Born in Brooklyn, on August 2, 1905, Mr. Fas- bender was brought to Huntington as a boy of seven by his parents, George and Anna (Eckel) Fasbender. Raised in the Long Island community of Hunting- ton, young Fasbender attended public schools there and was later graduated from Huntington High School. His first employment was with the coal and lumber concern of A. S. Pettit and Sons in Hunting- ton, where he worked as a salesman from 1924 to 1929. He then established a business as funeral di- rector, which he continues to supervise to the present time. In 1943 he was elected supervisor of the Town of Huntington, and was again chosen for the post in 1945.

Prominent in fraternal circles, Mr. Fasbender is a member of Jeptha Lodge No. 494, Free and Accepted Masons of Huntington; the Ashroken Chapter of Royal Arch Masons of Huntington, and the Indepen- dent Order of Odd Fellows. He is a member of St. Peter's Lutheran Church, and is generous in his contributions to religious and philanthropic causes. In his leisure time, Mr. Fasbender enjoys baseball.

Walter H. Fasbender was married for the first time to the former Janet M. Doughty, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Doughty. Mrs. Fasbender, a direct descendant of Mayflower Pilgrims, died in 1944. They became the parents of two daughters: I. Carol, born in Huntington on January 18, 1936. 2. Ann, born in Huntington, too, on October 27, 1937. Mr. Fasbender married for the second time the former Dorothy Rae of Greenlawn in January, 1946.

Walter farbuday

LONG ISLAND - NASSAU AND SUFFOLK

WALTER WILLIAM BURNS-Born in the his- toric old seaside village of Greenport on Long Is- land's North Fork, Walter William Burns is con- strained by the exigencies of a busy and successful professional career to spend most of his time in Wash- ington, D. C., and for convenience he maintains a residence where he spends most of the year at Falls Church, Virginia. But Greenport remains his home, both in the sentimental sense and in the legal mean- ing, and during the summer season he contrives to enjoy a long holiday in his native Suffolk County, among the little hills and dunes and salt sea breezes which were familiar to him in his boyhood days.

Walter William Burns' father, a native of Glasgow, Scotland, was raised on Shelter Island, which looms across the bay from Greenport, was a man whose career has typified the essentially nautical character of Suffolk County, especially its bay-indented eastern reaches. For some years he was captain of various steamers engaged in the menhaden fisheries, and later he captained both the S. S. "Montauk" and the S. S. "Shinnecock" of the Montauk Steamboat Com- pany, before becoming assistant superintendent of all lines of that company. Capt. John William Burns married Rose A. Downs, of Riverhead, and to them Walter William Burns was born at Greenport on May 9, 1884. He attended local public schools, gradu- ating from the Greenport High School with the class of 1901, after which he entered Cornell University at Ithaca, New York. His vocation, he had decided, was engineering, and when he graduated from Cornell in 1906 it was with the degree of Mechanical Engineer. At this time also he became interested in natent law and patent problems, and after going to Washington as an employee of the United States Patent Office, he enrolled for the study of law at George Washington University in that city, from which he graduated in 1912.

After leaving Cornell, Mr. Burns had first taken employment in the shops of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, remaining with that company until 1907, in which year he joined the engineering department of the New York Telephone Company; this association lasted until some time in 1908. In the latter year he became a member of the examining corps of the United States Patent Office, and so re- mained until 1919, with time out for military service.

From some time in 1909 until May, 1912, Mr. Burns was an ordinary seaman in the District of Columbia naval militia. On May 28, 1912, he was commissioned an ensign in this service, and on February 5, 1914, he received the rank of lieutenant (junior grade). Subse- quently he organized the first company of coast artil- lery in the District of Columbia national guard, of which he became captain on January 16, 1916. This militia company was mustered into the Federal service on July 25, 1917. Later Mr. Burns held the rank of captain in the 60th Regiment Coast Artillery Corps, and in the 57th Regiment, Coast Artillery Corps. He saw active service, after being sent abroad with the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I, in the Defensive Sector, at St. Mihiel and in the Meuse- Argonne. As a member of the National Guard, Capt. Burns conducted schools, and more than eighty officers who served in World War I came from the first com- pany, D. C. C. A. Captain Burns himself went to the French Tractor Artillery School at Vincennes and to

the Heavy Artillery School at Angers, from both of which he graduated. On November 5, 1918, he re- turned to the United States with an assignment to serve as an instructor of newly-recruited troops. A few days later the armistice signalled the end of the long and costly war, and on December 24, 1918, Cap- tain Burns's Christmas present was an honorable discharge from active military service.

In June 1924, Captain Burns reorganized the first company of the D. C. C. A. as Battery A of the 260th Coast Artillery, National Guard of the District of Columbia. In this organization Captain Burns rose through intermediate ranks to that of colonel. The full regiment was mustered into the Federal service on January 6, 1941. For a time the outfit was stationed at Fort Bliss, Texas. Colonel Burns, however, was re- tired from the District of Columbia National Guard before the year 1941 came to a close.

Meanwhile, in 1919, he had entered on the practice of patent law in Washington, where he has continued to have his office since that time, in the Columbian Building. Deeply learned in that intricate branch of the law, Colonel Burns has an extensive clientele and a lucrative practice. He is a member of the bar in the District of Columbia and in the state of Virginia, and is entitled to practice in various Federal courts and in the Supreme Court of the United States.

Colonel Burns organized the Burton Potter Post 185, New York, of the American Legion at Greenport, Suffolk County, and now holds membership in this post. He is a past commander of Cooley-Mccullough Post 22, D. C., and he holds the same distinction in the military Masonic organization known as Heroes of '76. He is also past president of the Cornell Club of Washington, D. C. He organized and is at this time president of the Stirling Historical Society of Southold, Suffolk County. Colonel Burns is a member of the Masonic order, belongs to the Sojourners, and is affiliated with the Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity. In religion he adheres to the Congregational Church, and in Political matters he is a follower of the Repub- lican party.

Colonel Burns has several inventions to his credit in the field of internal combustion motors.

On June 9, 1909, Walter William Burns married Marguerite Fielding, a daughter of John Allan and Justina (Edwards) Fielding. Of this marriage there are three children: 1. John Fielding, who was born on April 5, 1910. He now holds the rank of captain. 2. Margaret Helen, who died on May 15, 1913. 3. Wal- ter W., born on November 20, 1920. He is now a first lieutenant.

ALBERT H. SILKWORTH-The real estate and insurance business of Albert H. Silkworth, with its offices in Lake Success, Great Neck, and in Mattituck, is known throughout Long Island. Mr. Silkworth is active in both communities.

He was born in Brooklyn on December 23, 1889, the son of Amos W. and Sara (Ormerod) Silkworth. His father, also a native of Brooklyn, was a photogra- pher who died in 1917 and was buried in Mattituck. Sara Silkworth, born in Jersey City, New Jersey, now lives on Long Island, at Huntington.

Albert Silkworth began his schooling in Brooklyn, continuing at Mattituck when the family moved there in 1900. After completing the work of the Mattituck elementary schools, he went to Southport Academy,

LONG ISLAND - NASSAU AND SUFFOLK

from which he was graduated in 1908. Soon after leaving the academy he entered his present field of business in association with Walter C. Grabie. In 1912 he and Mr. Grabie formed a partnership, but a year later Mr. Silkworth purchased his partner's in- terest and since then has been in business indepen- dently. At that time Mr. Silkworth was the only established broker between Riverhead and Greenport. Under his guidance the enterprise has grown exten- sively, with the result that two offices, one in Matti- tuck, the other in Great Neck, are needed.

Mr. Silkworth is the present president of the Ki- wanis Club of Great Neck, of which he was secretary in 1945, and a member of the real estate board of Great Neck. Fishing is his major recreational enthu- siasm and he has his own private trout pond and stream. His religion is the Episcopalian.

Mr. Silkworth married Helen M. Radcliffe, of Hollis in Patchogue, on March 15, 1930. Mrs. Silkworth is the daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. Charles Rad- cliffe of Bancroft, Wisconsin. There are no children.

JAMES MacINTOSH-Long a leading citizen of the Town of Islip, James MacIntosh is its former fire commissioner and in the fiscal year 1946-47 was president of its Chamber of Commerce. Since 1920 he has been in the landscape, horticultural and florist business, through which he has become known throughout Suffolk County.

Mr. MacIntosh was born in Islip on December 17, 1899, the son of David and Alice (Hunt) MacIntosh. His father's vocation somewhat shaped the son's career, for the elder Mr. MacIntosh was a gardener. He died in 1912 and was buried in Oakwood Cemetery, Bay Shore. His widow followed him in death in 1943 and was laid to rest beside him.

James MacIntosh was educated in the public schools. He was graduated from the Islip High School in 1917. Immediately on leaving the high school, he entered the employ of Williams and Peters, New York City wholesale coal distributors whose offices were located at I Broadway. Mr. MacIntosh spent the next three years as a clerk in their harbor shipping division.

In 1920 he returned to Islip and went to work for William C. McCollom, now sheriff of Suffolk County, who owned a landscape and horticultural busi- ness. In 1935 Mr. MacIntosh purchased this business from Sheriff McCollom and has continued in its opera- tion until the present time. It is known as The Gar- den House, and employs four people. From his earliest days, Mr. MacIntosh has taken a leading part in Islip's public affairs. For years he was fire com- missioner; today he is treasurer of the Islip Fire Dis- trict. Until he was elected president of the Islip Chamber of Commerce, he had held high offices in that organization and done important committee work on behalf of the community. He is a member of the Suffolk County Farm Bureau, Meridian Lodge, No. 691, Free and Accepted Masons, Penataquit Chap- ter, Royal Arch Masons, and the National Association of Gardeners. He is a member of the board of vestry- men of St. Mark's Episcopal Church.

Mr. MacIntosh married Dorothy Griffiths, daughter of Judge Arthur G. and Amelia (Calvert) Griffiths, in Islip on August 21, 1926. Mrs. MacIntosh is also a native of Islip. Mr. and Mrs. MacIntosh have a

daughter, Judith Anne, born in Islip on December 17, 1928, who in 1947 was at the LaSalle School for Girls at Auburndale, Massachusetts.

JOHN RITCHIE HILL-A master builder of notable mansions and public structures throughout Long Island and beyond its borders, John Ritchie Hill has also been throughout an active life that spans more than half a century, one of the architects and builders of the high standards of community life and civic progress which characterize the towns and vil- lages of Nassau County. With respect to the town of Westbury in particular, the influence of Mr. Hill's personality, ability, leadership and generosity has been widely manifest.

A son of Adam and Catherine (Ritchie) Hill, John Ritchie Hill was born in Bay Shore, on September 21, 1872. His father was a native of Abroath in Scot- land, where he was born in 1843, coming to the United States in 1870. Settling on Long Island, he estab- lished at Islip a prosperous contracting business which he managed for many years before his death in 1913. Mrs. Catherine, or as she was also known, Anne (Ritchie) Hill, was like her husband a native Scot, born in the beautiful capital city of that ancient kingdom, Edinburgh, in 1843. She died in 1909. The young John Ritchie Hill's formal education did not go beyond the public schools of Islip, but being am- bitious to follow his father's trade and even surpass that sound craftsman, he also took a course in archi- tecture and design from the International Correspon- dence School. Meanwhile, he had made his start on the road to his future career by serving an apprentice- ship in the carpenter's trade with W. S. Vesler of Islip, remaining with this employer for three years. At the end of that period he felt equipped to join his father in the activities of contracting and build- ing. During his four years of association with his father, John Ritchie Hill built the residence of the late Schuler L. Parsons, the East Islip school, and the hotel at Islip station. In 1893 he moved from Islip to Westbury, and there from 1897 on we find him established as a contractor and builder in his own right and under his own firm name.

From Mr. Hill's workshop in Westbury have come the plans for many notable structures, and under his supervision homes of manorial proportions were built for people who required and could command the best. Among the country seats which owe much of their charm and dignity to his sound and able craftsman- ship are those of the late William K. Vanderbilt, Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt, and Miss Virginia Van- derbilt, at Jericho; Robert W. Winthrop at Westbury; Mrs. Robert Stafford at Lloyd's Neck; F. C. Have- meyer at Old Westbury; at Old Westbury also, the residence of the late Robert Bacon of the firm of J. P. Morgan and Company, who was Secretary of State of the United States under President Theodore Roosevelt; and the mansions of H. M. Harriman, Thomas Hitchcock and Mrs. F. C. Havemeyer.

Not confined to residential construction, Mr. Hill also built the beautiful Church of the Advent at Westbury, Winthrop Hall, and other important public edifices. His influence moreover extended far be- yond Long Island and even beyond New York State, when his plans for the construction of governmental barracks, involving a system of ventilation of his devising, were applied in the construction of build- ings for the use of the United States Army.

Mr. Hill has the organizing type of mind, which he

gren R. Hill

LONG ISLAND - NASSAU AND SUFFOLK

has applied in various directions, including the field of banking. Thus in 1910 he was one of the organizers of the Bank of Westbury, becoming its vice presi- dent in that year, a position he held until 1935. He has also been a member of the board of directors of that financial institution. Another of his business interests is the Westbury Holding Company, of which he is president.

In 1918, during the first World War, Mr. Hill volunteered for service. He was. commissioned a captain in the United States Army, and after filling an assigned position in Washington, D. C., for four months, he was transferred to Pittsburgh, Pennsyl- vania, where he served as constructing quartermaster and disbursing officer for the army in that area. Dur- ing this time he gave valuable advice in construction matters to officials of the Army in Washington, and installed improved ventilating devices in barracks. He received his honorable discharge from the United States Corps of Engineers on April 3, 1919.

Mr. Hill has given freely of his time and abilities in public service and in the cause of religion. In 1925 he was clerk of the school board of Westbury, and he also served as chairman of the board of education of the Carle Place School. For several years he was chief of the Westbury fire department. He was one of the organizers of the Church of the Advent at Westbury, and since 1910 has been senior warden of that congregation. A veteran member of the Free and Accepted Masons and long devoted to the work of that great order, Mr. Hill is a past master of Morton Lodge No. 63 in Hempstead, and holds the same dis- tinction with respect to Meadow Brook Lodge No. 1005 at Westbury.

At St. Mark's Church in Islip, on April 26, 1894. John Ritchie Hill was joined in marriage with Edith Frazer, a daughter of John M. Frazer, postmaster of Islip. Of this marriage there is one son. Hamilton Richard, who was born on January 19, 1895; gradu- ated from Lafayette College a'id served as a flying ensign in the United States Navy in World War I. Married Mary Anderson of Easton, Pennsylvania, daughter of Dr. George A. Anderson, M.D., a gradu- ate of Oxford University. They had two children: i. Georgine, wife of Dr. John Mendellis, M. D. ii. Edith Hamilton Hill, graduate of Centenary Col- lege of Hackettstown, New Jersey.

C. ARTHUR BAUMANN-Although C. Arthur Baumann was called to the presidency of the Sag Harbor Savings Bank at the unusually early age of thirty-five years, he brought to that post an excel- lent equipment of knowledge and competency, for his entire business experience had been in the field of finance, which as a young man he seems instinctively to have realized was his true vocation.

Born at Richmond Hill, Borough of Queens, New York City, on February 21, 1910, being thus a native Long Islander, C. Arthur Baumann, after completing his elementary schooling, attended the Borough Hall Academy in the Borough of Brooklyn, receiving there an excellent grounding in commercial subiects, and graduating with the class of 1929. In the follow- ing year he took his first employment, with the Prudence Company of New York, and with this in- vestment corporation he remained for some seven years, filling successively various positions of increas- ing importance.

In 1937 Mr. Baumann joined the Stirling Bank and

Mortgage Company of Mineola, Nassau County, in an executive capacity, and was also elected to mem- bership on the board of directors of that financial in- stitution. He remained with the Stirling Bank and Mortgage concern until October, 1945. Meanwhile, during World War II he became a member of the New York State Guard, holding the rank of a lieu- tenant and being connected with the headquarters bat- talion of the Fifth Brigade, stationed at the armory in Jamaica, Borough of Queens. He continued to serve in the State Guard from 1942 to some time in 1945.

In October, 1945, Mr. Baumann became president of the Sag Harbor Savings Bank, in the Suffolk Coun- ty village of that name. He also sits on the board of directors of this bank, and must be considered an important figure in banking affairs in that wealthy area of prosperous and ever-growing Suffolk County. He takes an active part in the civic and business coun- cils of the community as a member of the Sag Har- bor Round Table Club. He is a member of the local school board and of the Episcopal Church of Sag Harbor, and his fraternal affiliation is with a unit of the Free and Accepted Masons in his native Rich- mond Hill. He finds recreation in gardening.

At Richmond Hill also, on June 25, 1931, C. Ar- thur Baumann married Elizabeth L. Weil of that place, a daughter of William H. and Clara (Oesting) Weil. Of this marriage the children are: 1. Alice M., who was born at Richmond Hill on April 28, 1933. She is now a student at St. Mary's Academy in Sag Harbor. 2. Eileen W., born at St. Albans, New York, on January 4, 1937. 3. Mary J., born at St. Albans on May 22, 1942. Eileen W. and Mary J. attend the Pitkin School at Sag Harbor.

C. Arthur Baumann's parents, Charles F. Baumann, a retired building contractor, and Celestine (Preiss) Baumann now reside at Woodhaven, Borough of Queens.

A. DULANEY TIPTON, M.D .- Prominent among the younger physicians and surgeons of Suffolk Coun- ty is Dr. A. Dulaney Tipton, who, born in the South, has made his career in the North, eventually choosing Bay Shore as his residence and the scene of his pro- fessional activities.

Stony Point, Tennessee, was Dr. Tipton's birth place, where he first saw the light of day on June 27, 1905. He is a son of A. Dulaney and Kate (Phipps) Tipton. His father, now deceased, was a prosperous farmer, specializing in raising stock. The younger A. Dulaney Tipton began his education in public school at his birth place and graduated from the Church Hill High School there before entering King College at Bristol, Tennessee, from which he received his degree of Bachelor of Science upon graduating with the class of 1927. Medicine was his early choice of a profession, and accordingly he en- rolled in the medical school of the University of Tennessee at Memphis, and there he took his Doctor of Medicine degree in 1932.

Coming 'North immediately upon his graduation, the young physician passed the period of his internship first at the Alexian Brothers Hospital in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and later at the Northern Westchester Hospital in Mt. Kisco, Westchester County, New York. In 1934 he became associated with Dr. King's Hospital in Bay Shore, Suffolk County, as physician and surgeon, and with this noted Long Island institu-

LONG ISLAND - NASSAU AND SUFFOLK

tion he has remained connected from that time to the present writing. Dr. Tipton is well-known and highly regarded by his Professional colleagues on the Island. and remembered with gratitude by a wide circle of patients. He holds membership in the Suffolk County and in the New York State medical societies.

A. Dulaney Tipton in 1930 married the former Thelma Blake, a daughter of the late John and Mattie Blake. The ceremony took place at Marion, Arkan- sas. Of this union there are two children: I. A. Dulaney, Jr., who was born at Bay Shore, Long Island, on July 23, 1937. 2. Richard John, born at Bay Shore on July 21 1944.

H. C. BARRY-In the village of Sag Harbor in Suffolk County, the name of Barry has been for more than forty years synonymous with sound merchandise and courteous, progressive merchandising methods. Founded by Robert C. Barry, the business has been developed and extended by his son, H. C. Barry, in the second generation, and already the third genera- tion is actively engaged in carrying on the long-estab- lished tradition of service to the community.

Robert C. Barry was a native of Toronto, Province of Ontario, Canada, who came to Long Island as a young man and established a plumbing and heating business at Sag Harbor in the year 1905. From this beginning he added hardware, household utensils, fur- niture, toys, floor coverings and other lines of mer- chandise. Robert C. Barry married Loretta Vaughn, and to them the son known as H. C. Barry was born at Sag Harbor in 1892. H. C. Barry eventually suc- ceeded his father as head of the firm of R. C. Barry and Son, in the management of which he is now as- sisted by his two sons Robert I. Barry and Frank C. Barry. The firm conducts two stores in Sag Harbor, one of which deals in hardware, household utensils, furniture, toys, floor coverings and related merchandise. The other deals in jewelry and electrical annliances. The business employs twenty-five people.

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Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume III, Part 22

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