Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume III, Part 39

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 39
USA > New York > Suffolk County > Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume III > Part 39

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

William J. Steele married Ora MacArthur, who died in 1935. Of this marriage the son whom they called Donald M. was born at Baldwin on March 27, 1902. After attending public grade and high schools in his native village and graduating from the latter with the class of 1918, he studied for two years at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and did special work at New York University in the city of New York. After leaving college his first employment was with the Long Island Title Guaran- tee and Trust Company, located in Jamaica, borough of Queens. With this concern he remained four years.

In 1930 Donald M. Steele first became associated with the Baldwin National Bank and Trust Com- pany, of which his father, as we have noted, was a founder and served as president. He joined this company as trust officer and subsequently was made vice president. At his father's death Donald M. Steele became president of this bank, also retaining the title of trust officer, and these two positions he continues to administer to the present time.

On the twentieth anniversary of the founding of the Baldwin National Bank and Trust Company, that institution published a handsome booklet replete with interesting chapters from the annals of the vil- lage, copiously illustrated. This was compiled by workers of the Writers' Program of the Work Pro- jects Administration in the state of New York, and the illustrations were supplied by the Arts Program of the Work Projects Administration. Bertram M. Wainger, state supervisor of the New York State Writer's Project, wrote in a preface to this work that "a banking institution is built largely on the faith and confidence that prevail in its community; and faith and confidence are essentially a matter of tradition. It is therefore eminently fitting that, in celebration of its anniversary, a bank revive interest in com- munity history by a publication of this kind."

This booklet recalls that Baldwin had its origins across the "North Sea," as Long Island Sound was called, when religious disputes caused a group of people under the leadership of John Carman and the Rev. Robert Fordham to settle in this region of Long Island, where they induced the Indians, not without liberal use of "fire water," to sell them a tract of land. Under Dutch and later English rule the settlement had its excitements and struggles, but was mainly concerned with drawing a plentiful living from the bay and the creeks while clearing the land and erecting grist mills and sawmills. It was a farming-pastoral, home-industry community, where life centered in the church-and the taverns. During the American Revolution, the plots of the Tories, smuggling, and encounters with British warships made

abrah BrGoldsmith

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life exciting. In the early decades of American inde- pendence, sheep raising and wool carding and spin- ning became an important industry in this section. The Long Island Railroad originally by-passed Hick's Neck, until the late 1860s. Interurban trolley lines came thirty years later. At the close of the nineteenth century the Hick's Neck section was still a "rather isolated farming and fishing community partly lost in the bulrushes about the Bay."

But it was not long after the turn of the century that the typical modern development of Nassau County as an area of choice home suburbs of metro- politan New York began, and it was in 1919 that the Baldwin National Bank and Trust Company was founded, largely on the initiative, as we have seen, of Dr. William J. Steele, who was already an eminent physician who had brought more than one thousand, five hundred babies into the world, and had strengthened Baldwin's school system until it attained one of the highest ratings in the State of New York. During the 1920s when money was plentiful, new schools were erected, hundreds of new homes built, gas and water systems were put in, better paving, lighting and fire protection were provided. Eighty-two percent of the householders of Baldwin owned their own homes. In 1921 the bank, originally housed in the Sorrentino building behind the Morgan drug store, built its own home on what was formerly the lawn of the Elisha Baldwin estate. In all these developments the Steeles, father and son, had a constructive part second to no other citizen of the community. By 1939 Baldwin had a popula- tion of about eighteen thousand, which bids fair to be multiplied in the post-war era.

Donald M. Steel has always taken an active part in civic and community affairs. One of his great in- terests is the South Nassau Community Hospital, lo- cated in Oceanside, and he is a member of the board of directors of this worthy institution. He is a loyal supporter of all good works of the Methodist Church. He is a member of the Baldwin Lodge No. 1047, of the Free and Accepted Masons, of the Consistory, in which he holds the thirty-second degree, and of Kismet Shrine, Brooklyn, of the Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He also belongs to the Knights of Pythias.

On December 21, 1929, Donald M. Steele was married to Martha Areskog, a native of Baldwin and a daughter of Otton and Beda Areskog.

FRED C. BERGE-Known as an outstanding pro- fessional of Freeport for many years, Mr. Fred C. Berge is a native of the state of New York, born March 5, 1889, in Brooklyn, son of John and Mary (Kies) Berge, deceased. Mr. John Berge, who was born in Pennsylvania, was a dealer in chemists', assayers', and refiners' supplies.

Educated in the public schools and graduated from high school in Brooklyn, Mr. Fred C. Berge first be- came interested in the field of accounting when he was associated with the United States Revenue Service. He entered business for himself in profes- sional accounting and tax consultation in January 1920 in Freeport. Establishing a reputation for integrity and efficiency during his years in the town, Mr. Berge has expanded his office and is now located at 31 South Grove Street. Among his business affilia- tions is a membership in the Accountants Association of New York City, and in community life he partici- pates in the following organizations: Free and Ac- cepted Masons, Spartan Lodge No. 956 of Freeport; L.I .- 14

and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks Lodge No. 1253; and the Exchange Club-member and past president. Fishing and baseball are Mr. Berge's hobbies.

In 1916 Mr. Fred C. Berge married Mary Berker of Brooklyn, daughter of Charles and Bertha (Foel- ler) Berker. Mr. and Mrs. Berge are the parents of two children: I. Dorothy, married to Lieutenant James A. Simson, and they have three children: David, Cynthia and Martha Susan. 2. Miriam.

RAYMOND H. PIERCE-Throughout his work- ing life Raymond H. Pierce has been associated with youth and welfare work either as a professional or a volunteer leader, and to him is credited much of the success of the Glen Cove social agencies in reaching the social problems that arise in that com- munity. He is active in a half dozen important civic and welfare agencies, in community organization as a whole, and in the business world and church life. His business connections are with the Columbia Ribbon and Carbon Manufacturing Company, Inc., of which he is secretary and assistant treasurer.

Mr. Pierce was born in Brooklyn, New York, on May 30, 1889, the son of the late Allen R. and Mary (White) Pierce. His father, a native of Boston, was a chocolate manufacturer in that city. The Pierce family started the chocolate business that is now the Baker Chocolate Company. Mrs. Pierce was a native of Brooklyn.

Raymond H. Pierce was educated in the elementary and high schools of Braintree, Massachusetts. For two years he was a portrait photographer in Boston. He left this work to enter the field of social welfare. For twenty years Mr. Pierce was engaged in Young Men's Christian Association work throughout the New England states and then for two years he was a secretary of the National Council of the Young Men's Christian Association in New York City.

In 1934, he became secretary and assistant treas- urer with the Columbia Ribbon and Carbon Manufac- turing Company, Inc., at Glen Cove. In this com- munity he has not refused any request to participate in civic or welfare activities. He is president of the Glen Cove Neighborhood Association, formerly chair- man of the recreation commission of the city of Glen Cove and a member of the board of directors of the fund-raising and coordinating central agency, the Community Chest of Glen Cove. He has been active in the Chest since 1935. Mr. Pierce is also a member of the Rotary Club of Glen Cove and the Presby- terian Church, being an elder of the latter.

On June 2, 1913, at Cambridge, Massachusetts, he married Mildred Farrow, daughter of William G. and Elizabeth (White) Farrow. Mr. and Mrs. Pierce are the parents of two children; Mary Elizabeth and Breta Mitchell Pierce.

ALVAH B. GOLDSMITH-All of Long Island is maritime country, but especially is this true of Suffolk County, where the waves of the Atlantic Ocean not only lash the southern shore, but, rounding Montauk Point which looks toward Europe, flow deeply into the land in the Great Peconic Bay and meet the waters of the Sound where it broadens out to the north. The men of Suffolk for three centuries have gone down to the sea in ships, and Alvah B. Goldsmith, a native son of those parts, for more than twenty years has been engaged in facilitating their salt water labors and enjoyments by building boats

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for work or pleasure and keeping them in repair. Many a native Suffolk mariner or visitor from far parts can today, thanks to Goldsmith boats and Goldsmith facilities, go down to the sea in thoroughly modern style.

Suffolk has always been an agricultural area also, and Alvah B. Goldsmith's father, the late Harrison C. Goldsmith, who was a native of Cutchogue, spent his busy and successful life as a farmer at Peconic. There on July 4, 1905, the boy who was to be named Alvah B. was born to Harrison C. Goldsmith and his wife Louise (Case) Goldsmith, who is still living. The youngster attended the public schools of Peconic and the Southold high school, after which he spent six years as a mechanic in the automobile business in his native village before turning to the boat business in which he was to find a permanent career at once useful, rewarding and lucrative.

Alvah B. Goldsmith established The Boat Shop in 1923, but it was not until 1931 that he moved the busi- ness to its present location at Founder's Landing in Southold, Suffolk County. Founder's Landing is a landmark of eastern Long Island, for it is the place which history, or at least tradition, name as the scene of the first landing of the hardy and intrepid pioneers who settled at Southold and in its vicinity in the year 1640.

At his Founder's Landing boat shop, Mr. Gold- smith engages in the manufacture, sale, servicing and storage of various types and sorts of boats, his busi- ness in all departments running largely to pleasure craft. Here he has docking space for about fifty boats of all sizes, in addition to a marine railway and a gasoline dock. During World War II, the Gold- smith Boat Shop was dedicated to the cause of national defense. There boats were manufactured for the United States Navy, and in addition, hoisting slings were turned out on sub-contracts for many navy contractors. In 1946 he established a second yard called Wing and Wave, Inc., at Mill Creek (Southold), adding to this yard in 1948 and at this same time combining the two yards under the name Goldsmith's Boat Shop, Inc. He employs in both yards twenty-three people, and is distributor for Chris Craft, Richardson, Zobel Sea Skiffs, Evinrude Outboard Motors and all marine equipment.

Mr. Goldsmith takes an active part in the life of his adopted community. During the three hundredth Anniversary celebration of the founding of the Town of Southold, he served untiringly as the general chairman of the celebration committee, and is credited with much of the success of that event. He is a member of the Custer Institute, an organization of local people who are interested in the various sciences. Of this unique and worthy group Mr. Goldsmith is a past president. It was founded in the year 1930 or thereabouts. A member of the Presbyterian Church, Mr. Goldsmith is also one of the most active and best known Masons in that section of Long Island. He is a past master of Peconic Lodge Number 349 of the Free and Accepted Masons; past high priest of the Sithra chapter, Royal Arch Masons; and as- sistant grand lecturer of the East Suffolk school of instruction.

At Mattituck, on September 26, 1931, Alvah B. Goldsmith was married to Jeanette Cooper, a daugh- ter of Joseph W. and Gertrude (Bass) Cooper. To this marriage have been born three children: I. Alvah B. Jr., at the Greenport Hospital, on August 19, 1938. 2. Allan Terry, born at the same institution on January 19, 1943. 3. Bruce Cooper, a twin of Allan Terry.

H. WILLARD GRIFFITHS-The Griffiths family name has been well-known in the history of the state of New York since Revolutionary days and Mr. H. Willard Griffiths has added distinction to the present generation through his eminent career in law and his responsible position in the community of Hempstead. Born in Utica, New York, February 12, 1873, H. Willard Griffiths is the son of David G. and Elizabeth (Watkins) Griffiths, deceased. Mrs. David G. Griffiths was a native of Leamington, Eng- land.

Mr. David G. Griffiths was born at the old Griffiths homestead "Deerfield Hills," in historic Oneida County where the Griffiths family settled in 1770. He established a wholesale and retail grocery business in Utica and, remaining in this area during the en- suing years, attained the age of ninety-three.

Beginning his formal education in the public schools of Utica and continuing in the public school system of Brooklyn, H. Willard Griffiths later at- tended preparatory school and subsequently matri- culated at New York Law School. After graduation from law school he was admitted to the bar in 1898 and entered the legal profession in New York City. Mr. Griffiths demonstrated his thorough knowledge of law during the period when he followed his pro- fession in the city of New York. In 1936 he opened his Hempstead office where he has continued in the general practice of law and in 1948 will celebrate his fiftieth year in this profession.

An active participant in the social and political life of the community, Mr. Griffiths has served in many organizations. He was village counsel for Hempstead for six terms, has assisted in the church of his faith as chairman of the board of trustees of the Baptist Church, and is a member of the Hempstead Republican Club.

For more than fifty years Mr. Griffiths has been a member of the Free and Accepted Masons Morton Lodge No. 63, and Brooklyn Consistory No. I, being a thirty-second degree Mason.

In 1896 Mr. H. Willard Griffiths married Ella May Parsons, daughter of Homer L. and Elizabeth (Smith) Parsons of Hempstead. Mr. and Mrs. Griffiths are the parents of four children: I. Dorothy, married to Paul J. Sawrie of Memphis, Tennessee, and they have two children. 2. Gertrude, (now de- ceased) married to Harry A. Hanington of Hemp- stead. They have one daughter, Audrey. 3. Irma, married to Ralph Dauch of Hempstead. They have a son, Bruce and a daughter Lois. 4. Minerva, who died April 6, 1947, married Alfred J. Hess of Nassau Shores. They have two children, Gail and Donald Griffiths.

S. WALTER FRANK, prominent in his profes- sional career as a lawyer, is an active member of the social and political life of the community of Bald- win. He was born in the city of New York, February 20, 1905, the son of Bernard and Jeanette (Appel) Frank. Both his parents were born in Germany. Mr. Bernard Frank, deceased, came to this country as a boy and in later life entered the field of com- merce.

The early education of S. Walter Frank was at- tained in the public schools of Monticello and New York City. After his graduation from high school Mr. Frank studied for three years at the City College of New York. He then acted as secretary to Con- gressman Anthony J. Griffin of the Bronx for a period

Harry a. Schmidt

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of two years, and followed commercial lines and music for a period of four years. Returning to aca- demic pursuits, Mr. Frank entered the School of Law at St. John's College in Brooklyn and upon completion of his legal studies he was awarded the degree of Bachelor of Laws in 1928.

Admission to the bar in January, 1930, marked the beginning of Mr. Frank's career in the general practice of law, which he continued in New York City under his own name until 1940 when he opened his law offices under his own name in Baldwin. In his legal capacity he has been admitted to the Federal Courts in the eastern and southern districts of New York. The business world has recognized Mr. Frank's ability and he holds the position of treasurer in Benmur Builders, Incorporated, and is an officer of the Planned Homes, Incorporated.

Mr. Frank participates in many civic organizations, including the Baldwin Kiwanis Club, where he is a past secretary and is chairman of the Baldwin Hos- pital committee. He is a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks Lodge No. 1253, of Freeport, and Goethe Arminia Lodge of the Knights of Pythias of New York City where he is a past chancellor. In politics he is a Republican and a mem- ber of the Baldwin and Oceanside Republican Club. Mr. Frank's favorite sport is swimming, but his re- creation is music, having followed music profession- ally for many years.

In 1941 S. Walter Frank married Ellen Savochka who was born in Nesquehoning, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Michael and Mary (Driggin) Savochka. Mr. and Mrs. Frank are the parents of two children: I. Pamela Gail, born November 30, 1942. 2. Joyce Marshia, born February 9, 1945. Mr. Frank has one son by a previous marriage. I. Bruce Howard Frank, born May 15, 1937.

PHILIP HUNTINGTON-In taking to the law as a profession, Philip Huntington followed his father's example, as well as in his participation in public life and in judicial office.

The late Backus W. Huntington was a native of New Brunswick, New Jersey, born in 1818. As a young man he went South, where he became a leader of the bar and a well-known jurist. For a number of years he was a member of the circuit court of the state of Alabama, and he also sat in the legislature of that state. Returning to the North in later life, he died at Hempstead, in 1891. His second wife was Helen Elizabeth Seavey, born in Maine, who died at Greenville, South Carolina, in 1929.

Philip Huntington, son of Judge Backus W. and Helen Elizabeth (Seavey) Huntington, was born at White Plains, New York, on December 25, 1885. His early schooling was obtained on Long Island and in Brooklyn, New York. He graduated from Pratt In- stitute High School, with the class of 1904. Having already picked the law as his career, he attended the New York Law School in New York City, graduat- ing in 1907, and being admitted in November of that year to the New York State bar. For some years Mr. Huntington practiced in New York City, but pre- sently he moved his office to the pleasant and pros- perous community of Glen Cove on Nassau County's North Shore, where for many years he has enjoyed a substantial practice. Among his clients are the Nas- sau Light and Power Company and its successor, the Long Island Lighting Company, and the State Bank of Sea Cliff.

In 1922, Mr. Huntington was justice of the peace of the town of Oyster Bay, from January 1, 1922, to January 1, 1928. Since January, 1928, he has been law and appeal assistant in the office of the district attorney of Nassau County. Mr. Huntington is a Re- publican. For several years he served as village attorney of the village of Sea Cliff, where he resides, and where he was one of the organizers of the State Bank of Sea Cliff, in which he serves as a member of the board of directors.

Mr. Huntington is a member of the Nassau County Bar Association, and the New York State Bar Associa- tion, and is affiliated with the Glen Cove Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons; Melchizedek Chapter, Royal Arch Masons; Huntington Council, Royal and Select Masters; and Huntington Commandery, Knights Tem- plar. He is a member. of the Church of the New Jerusalem, also known as the Swedenborgian Church.

In October, 1911, Philip Huntington married Ade- line Golden Maidment of Sea Cliff, and they are the parents of twins, born in 1910: I. Frederick M., a me- chanical engineer; he married Barbara Evelyn Thiel- en, of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and they have three daughters, Anne, Emily Jane and Barbara Adeline. 2. Helen Elizabeth, who married Herbert E. Walmsley, of Great Neck, Nassau County.

HARRY ANDREWS SCHMIDT-The Schmidt name is known throughout Nassau County and is as- sociated especially with the growth and prosperity of Mineola. Edward Schmidt, who was first president and then mayor of the village, was the initial member of the family to achieve prominence in that area of Long Island. Mr. Edward Schmidt died in August 1943. His son, successful in a variety of commercial, cultural and political affairs, now also enjoys renown. Harry Andrews Schmidt operates the Birdsall Coal Company at Mineola, and formerly the Lindenhurst Coal Company at Lindenhurst, and still operates the Vass Ice Company, Inc., at Middletown. He was a trustee of the village of Mineola and a former trustee of the School District No. 10 at Mineola. In addition he is a director and executive committee member of the Nassau County Trust Company.

Mr. Schmidt was born at Mineola on March 26, 1906. His mother was Mary A. (Osso) Schmidt. His father was president of Mineola almost at its forma- tion as a municipality and later became its mayor. Harry Schmidt was educated in Mineola's public schools, being graduated from the Mineola High School in 1923. He then went to Ithaca to study at Cornell University, where he spent three years. He became associated with the Birdsall Coal Company and the Vass Ice Company in 1926. He is now presi- dent of both of these companies. In 1934 he started the Lindenhurst Coal Company which he sold in July 1947. His association with the Nassau County Trust Company began in 1940. His keen interest in education and public affairs led to his service on the village board and the school district governing body. He is, in addition, active in fraternal circles and is past district deputy of Mineola Lodge, No. 125, Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows, and is a member of Mineola Lodge, No. 985, Free and Accepted Masons, the Cherry Valley Club at Garden City, and the Cor- nell Club. His church is the Presbyterian. He is member and past secretary of the Mineola-Garden City Rotary Club.

Mr. Schmidt married Lillian Estelle Parsons at Mineola on June 30, 1928. Mrs. Schmidt is the daugh-

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ter of Mrs. Estelle Parsons. The Schmidts have two children; Richard H., born January 2, 1930, and Rhoda B., born October 28, 1933.

HARRY G. HALL-After many years of success- ful practice in the advertising field, during the course of which he had occasion to acquaint himself with the possibilities of profit in Long Island real estate, Harry G. Hall determined not merely to advertise those profits to others, but to garner some of them for himself. Since opening his own office in 1931, Mr. Hall has become one of the most successful and best known realtors in the Hempstead area of Nassau County.

Born on June 17, 1889, at Farmersville in Cattarau- gus County, New York, Mr. Hall is a son of Ralph S. Hall, a native of Houghton and Rushford, New York, and a farmer who is still living at the age of eighty-one years, and his wife Georgia (Thomas) Hall, who was born in Farmersville and is also still living. They recently celebrated their sixtieth wed- ding anniversary. Receiving his elementary educa- tion in the public grade school of his native place, the young Harry G. Hall attended the Rushford High School, from which he graduated with the class of 1907, and subsequently took special courses in advertising and salesmanship. After leaving school he was employed as a teacher at Farmersville and at Jasper, New York, for two years before beginning his advertising career with the Hagen store, Lan- caster, Pennsylvania, and Carson, Pirie, Scott & Com- pany, one of the great department stores of Chicago, Illinois. After leaving Carson, Pirie, Scott & Com- pany, Mr. Hall established his own advertising agency in Cincinnati, Ohio, which he managed for about ten years.

In 1928 Mr. Hall came to Hempstead to handle ad- vertising and promotion for the Franklin shops. After one year of this association he accepted the position of promotion manager of the Nassau "Daily Review Star," published at Rockville Centre. During his five years' incumbency of this position Mr. Hall produced for the "Review Star" an analysis of con- ditions and opportunities in those areas of Long Island adjacent to metropolitan New York, under the title of "A Commercial Survey of Metropolitan Long Island," also published under the title "Prophets and Profits."

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Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume III, Part 39

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