USA > New York > Nassau County > Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume III > Part 38
USA > New York > Suffolk County > Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume III > Part 38
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Mr. Thorp married Winifred Klipp of Greenport who is a daughter of William D. and Winifred (Mc- Dermott) Klipp. Mr. and Mrs. Thorp have six children: I. John S., who was an ensign in the Navy in World War II; 2. William T., who served in China with the Marines; 3. Francis A .; 4. Thomas J., II; 5. Winifred M. and 6. Mary W.
HARRY JAMISON-Always alert to new de- velopments in the world and willing to experiment with practical possibilities, Harry Jamison has be- come a leading manufacturer of moulded plastics.
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From a golf ball manufacturing concern Mr. Jami- son's operations in the plastics field have grown to the point where he has a large modern plant at Free- port, which, running twenty-four hours a day, en- ploys fifty to seventy persons. The Jamison Plastic Products Company is located at 71 East Sunrise Highway, Freeport.
Mr. Jamison was born in New York City on May 26, 1898, the son of Louis and Anne (Silber) Jamison. The elder Mr. Jamison, a native of London, England, came to the United States in the 1880's and was in the coal reclaiming business at Shamokin, Pennsyl- vania, until his death. Mrs. Anne Jamison is also deceased.
Harry Jamison was educated in New York City at DeWitt Clinton High School, from which he was graduated in 1916, and Cooper Union Institute. For several years he was in the employ of the L. E. Waterman Fountain Pen Company, New York City. For two years he was with his father in the coal re- claiming business at Shamokin. In 1923 Mr. Jamison organized the Gotham Golf Ball Manufacturing Con- pany, which he operated in New York until 1931. Throughout this period he was president of the com- pany. While lie was engaged in golf ball making he became interested in plastics and began to experi- ment with them. He found the new material so promising that he gave up golf ball manufacture to become a plastics manufacturer. He made a small start in the field in a plant on Twenty-first Street, New York, in 1931. The business developed rapidly and by 1941 had grown to such proportions that he was obliged to seek larger quarters. It was then that he purchased his present plant in Freeport, and his operations have since expanded manifold. Mr. Jamison produces all types of moulded plastics, some individually owned by himself. Mr. Jamison is a mem- ber of the Freeport Chamber of Commerce, the Exchange Club and Valorous Lodge No. 1063, Free and Accepted Masons, in New York City and also holds the thirty-second degree of Scottish Rite Ma- sonry and membership in Kismet Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, in Brooklyn. He is a Republican and is a member of the Republican Club at Malverne.
He is married and makes his home in Malverne. .
LESLIE C. DISBROW-When he was only seven- teen years old Leslie C. Disbrow formed a partnership with his father, the late Nelson H. Disbrow, and to- gether they established the Oyster Bay "Guardian." The first issue of that weekly came out on February 10, 1889, and the paper has been published continuously ever since by the Disbrow family.
In the intervening years Mr. Disbrow, active in all the important civic movements and groups in Oyster Bay and Nassau County, has achieved wide promi- nence and influence. He has been twice elected town clerk of Oyster Bay, is former president of the Oyster Bay Chamber of Commerce and a former member of its board of education. He is chairman of the advisory committee of the Theodore Roose- velt Memorial Park, a $750,000, forty-five-acre park in Oyster Bay, a trustee of the Presbyterian church and a member of the board of the Oyster Bay Chap- ter of the American Red Cross. He is a member of the Masonic order in New York State.
Mr. Disbrow was born in Prattsville, New York, on September 26, 1881. His father. also born in Pratts- ville, died in November, 1928. His mother, another
native of that community, is the former Emma Rosalie Shoemaker. She lives in Oyster Bay.
Leslie Disbrow attended the public schools of Prattsville and Oyster Bay. On January 1. 1899. he and his father established the Oyster Bay "Guardian," a Republican weekly published on Fridays. Father and son operated the paper together until the elder Mr. Disbrow's death. Then the son carried on alone, in time to be assisted by his own son, Leslie Douglas Disbrow. The paper, flourishing, has won a wide audience and is constantly extending its influence.
On January 1, 1945, Mr. Disbrow took office as Oyster Bay's town clerk. In November 1945, he was elected to fill the unexpired term of the late Edwin M. McQueen. Besides the honors he has achieved in the community and in the Red Cross and his church, he was chairman of the Oyster Bay Relief Committee during World War II. In Masonry, his leadership runs far beyond Long Island. A member of Matinecock Lodge, No. 806, Free and Accepted Masons, he was grand director of ceremonies of the Grand Lodge of Masons in 1942. He is a member, also, of the Oyster Bay Square Club and is a past vice president of the New York State organization of the Square clubs. He is one of the "daddies" of the Triangle Girls of the Daughters of the Eastern Star.
Mr. Disbrow married (first) Jennie York Knapp, daughter of Samuel Knapp, of Jersey City, on Sep- tember 26, 1905. Their son was a war correspondent in World War II, sponsored by the American Red Cross. Leslie C. Disbrow married (second) Jean Brierly of Locust Valley and they have three children; Jeanne, Jack and Bill.
WILLIAM H. ROSS, M.D., F.A.C.P .- Honored and beloved, Dr. William H. Ross holds a place in Suffolk County, that is wholly admirable. He was rightfully and well designated as "The Leading Citizen of Brentwood," upon the celebration of his eighty- fifth birthday in 1947. His career has been one of achievement in more fields than that of medicine from which he has retired from practice, but not from activities in professional organizations, for he has endeavored, and with marked success, devoted his energies to civic and public affairs, philanthropies and humanitarian enterprises that have made the lives of others richer and fuller.
Dr. Ross was born in Sparta, Livingston County, New York, in 1862, son of William C. and Mary Ann (Mulholland) Ross. After acquiring a sound formal and professional education he started in to use it for the benefit of humanity as a "horse and buggy doctor" at the beck and call of anyone at any time and in any place that he could reach. He found it necessary to practice medicine and surgery under none too sanitary conditions, for there was no hospital or specialist in every small town, and frequently the physician had been called too late for anything but immediate treatment.
Early in his practice he learned that it was wise to keep in touch with colleagues and the latest develop- ments in his profession, and it is noteworthy that he never lost this attitude of keeping abreast of his times. Down through the years. Dr. Ross has been an honor to his profession, and by it has been often honored with positions requiring the gift of leader- ship. Although retired from active practice he is a director of the New York State Medical Society; member of the American Medical Association; a Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine, and
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the American College of Physicians. He served the Medical Society of the state of New York as president in 1931, and was a trustee from 1928 to 1930, and again from 1932 to the present writing (1948). For a decade he was member of the committee on public relations of the state organization. He is an author of at least forty-four articles on medical and scientific subjects, mainly on problems in the field of public relations, written in an effort to find the solution of the difficulties of bringing adequate medical care to all people. Some of his articles are kept in libraries in the United States and abroad, notably Manila, Philippine Islands. He also has addressed many audi- ences in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, and numerous other cities. In brief, Dr. Ross has headed medical organizations since shortly after the turn of the century. He is president of the Suffolk County Department of Health, chairman of the executive committee of the Tuberculosis and Public Health Association, and president of the Board of Managers of the County Tuberculosis Sanitarium, chairman of the Suffolk County Medical Advisory Council to the Welfare Department, and a director of the New York State Plan for Medical Care for Veter- ans, Inc.
Dr. Ross's connection with services rendered by the medical profession during two World wars is notable. He was head of the advisory committee of the Selective Service in World War I and identi- fied with many of the drives and similar projects of that same period. Among his prized possessions are official recognitions of his work in World War II, such as the Certificate of Merit from the Congress of the United States, known as the Selective Service Medal, and the Certificate of Appreciation from the late President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in "grate- ful recognition of uncompensated services rendered his country in the administration of the Selective Service for a period of four years."
Two other records made by Dr. Ross are fifty years membership on the Brentwood School Board, in- cluded in which are thirty-six years as its president; and four decades of membership on the Brentwood Fire Department, which incidentally he helped to organize, and long service on its board of commis- sioners. During the George Washington Bi-Centen- nial, celebrated by New York in 1932, he was ap- pointed by Mayor James J. Walker to act on the com- mission having it in charge. In business Dr. Ross is president of the Central National Bank, and fra- ternally he is a life member of Meridian Lodge No. 691, Free and Accepted Masons. Most recent of his activities is sponsorship of a public park in Brent- wood. He gave the acreage that is under improve- ment and planting, donates annually to the project that is to be a memorial to his wife, Frances E. Dodge Ross. Dr. Ross maintains an interest in the development of the park by giving advice and lending a hand whenever necessary.
In 1889 William H. Ross. M.D., married Frances Ellen Dodge, born in Nunda, New York, daughter of William E. and Harriett (Bergen) Dodge. Dr. and Mrs. Ross became the parents of two daughters: I. Gladys E., who married Emil Hubert Chanvin, who was a practicing surgeon: he died in 1923. 2. Harriett Bergen. who married Randall J. LeBoeuf. an attorney, son of Supreme Court Judge Randall J. LeBoeuf, and they have three children: Joan Ross, Susan and Elizabeth LeBoeuf.
W. ELLERY FOLLETT, D.D.S .. was born April 23, 1897, in Schenevus, New York. His father, DeLos,
(deceased) was born in Middleford, New York. Dur- ing his lifetime he was a railroad engineer by pro- fession. Mr. Follett's mother, Charlotte (Houghton), deceased, was a native of Schenevus.
Mr. Follett received his early education in his home town and was graduated from the high school at Oneonta, New York. Following his graduation in 1918 from the University of Buffalo with a Doctor of Dental Surgery degree, he enlisted in the United States Navy Dental Corps served throughout World War I. In 1920 he began his private practice in Farmingdale where he has continued his practice to date. He has devoted much of his time and experi- ence to service in the North Country Community Hospital as a member of the dental staff.
He is a director of the Bethpage Federal Savings and Loan Association of Farmingdale; a member of the Rotary Club; and he is active in the Bethpage Lodge No. 975, Free and Accepted Masons. He continues his dental education as a member of the Nassau County Dental Society. As a veteran of World War I, Mr. Follett is interested in the wel- fare of veterans and participates in the activities of the Talbonard Post, American Legion. He is a Re- publican and attends the Methodist Church. Al- though his hobby is hunting, he finds recreation as a member of the Bethpage Country Club.
In 1922, W. Ellery Follett married Dorothy (Conklin) Follett of Roslyn, New York. They are the parents of two children. I. Bruce, born in 1925, who served in the United States Army during World War II, is a graduate of Syracuse University with the Bachelor of Arts degree. 2. Barry, born in 1930, graduated from Farmingdale High School in 1947 and is now a college student.
HENRY G. EISEMANN-Active in the insur- ance and real estate field in Hicksville, Henry G. Eisemann has, since 1921, filled a place of broad use- fulness in this region. Born August 2, 1896, at Flushing, he is the son of Charles and Katherine (Schwerdtfager) Eisemann, his father deceased.
After attending the public schools at Flushing, Henry G. Eisemann continued his education at the Hicksville High School and at the Packard Com- mercial School. For two years he served in a clerical position in the Hicksville bank. With the advent of World War I, he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps and served overseas for one and a half years. Soon after his return he entered the insur- ance and real estate business and, since 1921, has served his community as a member of the Seaman and Eisemann Insurance and Real Estate Company, Inc., a business employing a group of fifteen. Mr. Eisemany is vice president and treasurer of this company with offices located at 90 Broadway.
He is a member of the Manetto Lodge No. 1025, Hicksville, Free and Accepted Masons; Hempstead Lodge No. 1485, of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks; Charles Wagner Post No. 421, Ameri- can Legion; William M. Gouse, Jr., Post No. 3211, Veterans of Foreign Wars; and the Garden City Golf Club. He is vice president and director of the Bank of Hicksville and is a commissioner of the planning commission of Nassau County. During World War II, he was active on the supervisory panel of the Nassau County rationing board. He finds diversion in golf, fishing and hunting.
In June, 1924, Mr. Eisemann married Florence Bauer, daughter of George and Charlotte (Quaritius)
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Bauer. of Hicksville. The Quaritius family is among the oldest in Hicksville.
ROY WILBUR HARROLD-When on January 21, 1936-one day before his sixty-second birthday- Roy Wilbur Harrold, native and lifelong resident of Glen Cove, passed away at his home, one news- paper in the community wrote:
"Glen Cove loses one of its first citizens. A native of this community and a member of a family located here for five generations, Mr. Harrold had taken an active interest in the welfare and activities of his home town. . . Unspectacular, Mr. Harrold was nevertheless a solid citizen, back-bone of communi- ties like Glen Cove. He did his job well, was respected both by friends and business associates and lived a worthwhile life."
Another editorial said:
"During all these years Roy Harrold has been one of Glen Cove's leading citizens, upright, indus- trious, working long hours, yet taking his part in the activities of the community. He was a good, honest merchant and a good neighbor. Another real native Glen Cove citizen has passed on, and we shall miss him."
Descended on the paternal and maternal sides from pioneer Long Island families-the Harrolds came from England in 1774-Mr. Harrold had been a stationer, gift shop operator and newsdealer at 23 Glen Street, Glen Cove, from 1889 until the day of his death, a period of fifty years.
Since his death his widow, Mrs. Ethel (Smead) Harrold, also long prominent in the community, has been operating the business. A former teacher, she has been on the Glen Cove Board of Education since 1936, having been appointed three times by the city council. Descended from early American patriots, she is active in the Daughters of the Ameri- can Revolution as well as other organizations.
The late Mr. Harrold was born in Glen Cove, Jan- uary 22, 1874, the son of Captain James and Mary Anna (Downing) Harrold. Captain Harrold, a tug boat skipper, was a veteran of the Civil War and a lcader in the Grand Army of the Republic. He was born also in Glen Cove, his birthdate being October II, 1841, had brief schooling and early in the Civil War volunteered for service. He became a member of the Harris Light Cavalry (Company M, Second Regiment, New York State Cavalry), and was so severely wounded in the left arm that in the third year of the war he was honorably discharged. He became a pilot on Long Island Sound and for many years was captain of the Duryea Starch Works' tug- boat plying between Glen Cove and New York City. He was commander of the Daniel L. Downing Post, Grand Army of the Republic, for several years and also served as the post quartermaster. Even before his death this post became extinct, as most of the members died, Captain Harrold being among the few survivors. When he himself died in 1924. at the age of eighty-three, it was his Masonic lodge, the Glen Cove No. 580 instead of the G. A. R., which conducted interment services for him. These took place in St. Paul's Church yard, Glen Cove. The funeral services were held in the home of his son, Roy Harrold, at 14 Forest Avenue, with the Reverend F. B. Cowan, pastor of the Glen Cove Presbyterian Church. officiating. Besides Roy, two other sons sur- vived him: W. Irving Harrold, former justice of the peace and city attorney of Glen Cove, then in Cuba
and unable to return in time for the funeral; and James Arthur Harrold, of Paterson, New Jersey; both now deceased.
Roy Wilbur Harrold was educated in the public schools of Glen Cove. At an early age he started a butter and cheese business on Pulaski Street, then called Mill Street, near where the Exempt Firemen's Association Building now stands. In 1889 he entered the stationery and newspaper vending business, and in this he remained until his death. He kept renov- ating and expanding his Glen Street establishment in accordance with increasing demands for his wares.
Although interested and active in the civic life of Glen Cove, as indicated by the editorials, Mr. Har- rold avoided holding public office. He was a charter miember and until a year before his death secretary of the Rotary Club of Glen Cove; a member of Glen Cove Lodge No. 580, Free and Accepted Masons; Melchizedek Chapter, Royal Arch Masons; and of the Royal Arcanum. He worshiped at the First Presby- terian Church.
On May 15, 1907, at Potsdam, in St. Lawrence County, New York, Mr. Harrold married Ethel Smead, daughter of the late David Marcellus and Malinda Hulda (Olin) Smead, the former a descend- ant of patriots who fought in the American Revolu- tion.
Mrs. Harrold, born at Madrid Springs, New York, on June 6, 1879, was educated at the Madrid Union Free School, and the Potsdam State Normal College. She was graduated from the college with the class of June 1900. For many years Mrs. Harrold taught in Glen Cove schools. She had begun her first term on the Glen Cove Board of Education even before her husband's death. She has been active in organi- zational and educational work, as well as in the management of the business, since his death. She is a member of the Seawanhaka Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, and a charter member of Glen Cove Chapter No. 580, Order of the Eastern Star. She has been secretary of the latter and regent of the former. She worships at the First Presbyterian Church in Glen Cove.
Mr. Harrold is buried in St. Paul's Churchyard, the resting place also of Captain Harrold and other mem- bers of the family.
On the North Shore the memory of Roy Wilbur Harrold is honored. Mrs. Harrold like her husband, is making an important contribution to the life and advancement of the community.
FRED SCHEID ROBBINS-A citizen of Baby- lon, and widely known throughout Long Island for his work in the plumbing and steamfitting industry, Fred Scheid Robbins has gained an excellent reputation for efficiency and good service.
Mr. Robbins was born June 21, 1890, at Chicago, Illinois, son of James Wellington and Emily (Scheid) Robbins. His father was engaged in the printing business at Chicago.
After having finished his formal education in local grade schools, Fred Scheid Robbins, in 1903, en- tered the plumbing business and soon became a jour- neyman plumber and steamfitter, the position he held until 1922, at which time he was made a fore- man. Two years later he became associated with Alex Orr, of Miami, Florida, as superintendent. In 1926 he came to Long Island, for Alex Orr and made the entire installation for the Montauk Beach at Montauk. In the summer of 1929 he entered busi-
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ness for himself, and the following year formed the Fred S. Robbins Company which he has continued to own and operate efficiently and successfully. Some of the large projects which he completed were the whole of Jones Beach, the Riverhead High School, the Bay Shore High School, the Lynbrook High School, the Elmont Grade School and the new Nassau County Court House groups. He also has assembled the plumbing fixtures for the Republic Aviation Plant, the Ranger Aircraft and Engine Plant, one hundred- thirty-eight government buildings at Newport, Rhode Island, Boston, Massachusetts, and Portland, Maine, thirty-five government buildings at Camp Mills and Mitchel Field, one hundred government buildings at Camp Upton, several New York State buildings at Farmingdale, Central Islip and Kings Park, numer- ous government housing projects for the state of New York at Farmingdale, and United States Atomic Energy Commission projects at the Brookhaven Na- tional Laboratory. All these projects have been car- ried out with dispatch and excellent workmanship.
Mr. Robbins is active in his community as a mem- ber of the Free and Accepted Masons and the Rotary Club of Babylon. For three years he was a member of the National Guard, serving in the Seventh Illinois Regiment, and during 1942 and 1943 he flew on coastal patrol, with the commission of captain. He worships at the Montauk Community Church. His hobby is flying. He holds a pilot's rating and has owned his own plane for the past nine years, as he considers driving not safe.
On July 30, 1927, at Montauk, Fred Scheid Robbins married Pearl Estelle Potter, daughter of John Blanchard and Grace Olive (Coan) Potter. Mrs. Robbins is also a flying enthusiast, being a licensed pilot. She was born at Streator, Illinois, and attended school at South Bend, Indiana and studied nursing, which profession she followed for several years in Florida and other states. She was supervisor of the operating room in several of the hospitals. Mrs. Robbins served in World War I as a nurse, and serves at present as nurse vice chairman of the Medical and Nursing Aid sub committee, American Red Cross, Babylon Chapter.
DONALD M. STEELE-A couple of centuries ago, that part of Long Island's Nassau County ex- tending between Parsonage and Milburn Creeks was known as Hick's Neck or, in the old town records, as Hick's His Neck. It was part of the area which later was called South Hempstead. The section south of the Hempstead Plains subsequently became known as Bethel, from Bethel Chapel, and two of the sub- sections of this area were commonly called Milburn Corners and Baldwin Corners. The latter evolved in- to Baldwinsville and later simply Baldwins. About the turn of the present century the Long Island Rail- road decided to call the whole neighborhood Milburn, but vigorous protest on the part of the local resi- dents resulted in restoration of the name Baldwins, which in recent years has come to probably its final form, Baldwin.
This much of history it is reasonable to recall in connection with the story of the Steele family, who have had so much to do with the modern growth and development of the village which since the early days of the present century has changed from an area of old farms green with corn and potatoes, to a suburban neighborhood the population of which doubled in the decade from 1920 to 1930, has continued to grow since then, and is plainly destined in the
post-World War II era to become as populous a com- munity as Freeport or Rockville Centre.
The late Dr. William J. Steele was a native of Illinois who was educated in the public schools of that state and at McKendry University. Coming east to Long Island in 1898 he established a lucrative medical practice at Baldwin and became a leading citizen of that village. He served for many years as president of the Baldwin school board and also for several years was postmaster of the village. More to the point of our present consideration of the career of his son, he became a leading business man as proprietor of the Silver Lake Pharmacy and as one of the organizers of the Baldwin National Bank and Trust Company, of which he was the first presi- dent, an office which he held until his death on April 12, 1938.
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