USA > New York > Nassau County > Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume III > Part 43
USA > New York > Suffolk County > Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume III > Part 43
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Mr. Oettinger is also a leader in banking circles in that part of Long Island, being the vice president and a member of the board of directors of the First National Bank of Port Jefferson. He is one of the most active members of the Port Jefferson Chamber of Commerce, of which in the past he has served as president. He is also an enthusiastic Rotarian, and a past president of the Port Jefferson Rotary Club. A Roman Catholic in religion, Mr. Oettinger serves as a trustee of the Infant Jesus Church at Port Jeffer- son, and he is a member and past grand knight of the Joan of Arc Council, in that village, of the Catholic fraternal order, the Knights of Columbus.
In Long Island City, borough of Queens, New York City, Thaddeus Oettinger was married on No- vember 8, 1906, to Ida Catherine Lohmann, a native of New York City and a daughter of August and Anna (Willie) Lohmann. Of this marriage there are two children: I. Thaddeus J., Jr., who was born at Long Island City on February 23, 1910. For a time he attended the Port Jefferson High School, but graduated from St. John's High School in the borough of Brooklyn, New York City. He has been for sime time associated with his father in the conduct of the Oettinger store. Married to the for- mer Catherine McQuade of Brooklyn, a daughter of Fergus and Josephine (Lynch) McQuade, he is the father of two children by this marriage, namely Mary Catherine, who was born on August 25, 1937, and Margaret Anne, born on January 19, 1943. 2. Ada. who is a graduate of the Port Jefferson High School and is now the wife of James McQuade of Brooklyn, a son of Fergus and Josephine (Lynch) McQuade. Of this marriage there are two children: James T .. born at Brooklyn on July 29, 1939; and Virginia Katherine, born at Port Jefferson on February 18, 1944. Both of the children of Thaddeus P. Oettinger, Jr. and Catherine (McQuade) Oettinger were also born in Port Jefferson. Like his father, the younger Mr. Oettinger is a member of the Knights of Colum- bus, and he serves the community as assistant chief of the Port Jefferson Volunteer Fire Department.
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AUSTIN HAMMOND WARNER-The present owner of a farm in Baiting Hollow, which for several generations has brought prosperity to the Warner family, Austin Hammond Warner is actively inter- ested in the civic affairs of his community.
He was born on a farm in Baiting Hollow, town of Riverhead, September 19, 1897, son of Eugene Gold- smith and Alice (Hammond) Warner, the former of whom is a director in the Eastport National Bank, and at the age of eighty-one operates a farm in East- port, consisting of over two hundred and twenty- five acres of potatoes and cauliflower. The family farm property, originally owned by the present own- er's great-grandfather, was passed down to his grand- father, Daniel Warner, then to his father, Eugene Warner, and then to Austin H. Warner and con- sists of two hundred acres devoted to the raising of potatoes and cauliflower.
Austin Warner, after graduating from Baiting Hollow High School in 1914, attended the College of the City of New York. He is president of the Riverhead Production Credit Association, and he was formerly a member of the board of education of the Baiting Hollow school system. He has served his community as justice of the peace of the town of Riverhead continuously since 1935. A trustee of the Baiting Hollow Congregational Church, Mr. Warner is a member of the Free and Accepted Masons, Riverhead Lodge No. 745, and of the Suffolk County Farm Buerau.
He married November 19, 1921, at Baiting Hollow, Lena Young of that town, daughter of Chauncey and Florence (Reeve) Young. Their children are: 1. De Witt Y., a graduate of Riverhead High School, associated with his father on the farm. 2. Eugene A., attended the Cornell School of Agriculture after graduation from Riverhead High School and now is associated with his father on the farm; he married Dorothea Frey of Eastport. 3. Marlyn I., at present a student at Riverhead High School. 4. Austin Ham- mond, Jr.
RUDOLPH H. WEBER-For . many years Rudolph H. Weber has been influential in the politi- cal and economic life of Farmingdale. As the owner of a textile dyeing concern, he has been confronted with the problems of the businessman, and his affilia- tion with Farmingdale's banks has led to a thorough understanding of the financial world. Together these experiences, plus a natural ability in the intricacies of business and banking, have made him the leader he is today.
Born in College Point, March 7, 1890, Rudolph H. Weber is the son of Rudolph A. and Hannah (Dono) Weber. Mr. Weber's father, born in Elberfeld, Ger- many, came to the United States in 1881. A textile dyer by profession. Mr. Weber's father founded the R. A. Weber Silk Dyeing Company at College Point. He died in 1920. Hannah Weber, a native of College Point. died in 1941.
Rudolph H. Weber received his formal education in the College Point public school and was graduated from Flushing High School in 1909. He then became associated with his father in the silk dyeing busi- ness, where. under the tutelage of his highly skilled father, he learned the details of the textile work. In 1914, the R. A. Weber Silk Dyeing Company was sold and the Independent Silk Dyeing Company was organized at Farmingdale with Mr. F. C. Wettlaufer. president: Mr. Rudolph A. Weber. treasurer; and Mr. Rudolph H. Weber, secretary. In 1920, Rudolph
A. Weber died and Rudolph H. Weber became trea- surer and general manager, the position he now holds. The business is now engaged in the dyeing and finish- ing of rayon fabrics, and employs approximately two hundred and fifty people. Through the years, Mr. Weber's management of both personnel and finances has lead to his election as president of the Bethpage Federal Savings and Loan Association and as vice president of the First National Bank of Farmingdale. In these positions, Mr. Weber has established a repu- tation for integrity and dependability in his community. Politically, his contributions to good government led to his election as a Republican mayor of Farmingdale in 1926 and he operated to the general satisfaction of the populace throughout his term. Earlier, he had served as president of the local board of education from 1920 until 1922.
Mr. Weber is active in the social and fraternal life of Farmingdale. He is a member of the Free and Accepted Masons, Bethpage Lodge No. 975, the Ro- tary Club, and the Wheatley Hills Golf Club; and is a warden in the Episcopal Church.
Rudolph H. Weber is the father of three sons and two daughters. I. Rudolph R. married to Eleanor Kuhn. They have four children: i. Carol Ann, ii. Gail Ellen, iii. Bonnie Eleanor, iv. Rudolph R., Jr. 2. Allen C., married Marjorie Blee and they have two children: Susan M. and Allan Bruce. 3. Willard C. married to Anne Esposito and they are the parents of three children: Willard C., Jr., Anne, Richard An- thony. 4. Eleanor E., wife of Robert Griffiths, of Port- land, Oregon; they have one son Michael. 5. Beverly Lorraine, who is a student at Cathedral School of St. Mary's at Garden City.
JOHN McKAY-The famous and inexhaustibly fertile agricultural area of Suffolk County on Long Island's eastern tip, where many farms today are owned and cultivated by direct descendants of pioneers who first broke the soil a century or even two cen- turies ago, have also long since attracted many very capable and industrious immigrants who brought with them from the various countries of Europe the agri- cultural skills and farming love that are the accu- mulation of generations of hard toil on the land. Among these newer Suffolk County agriculturalists, those from Poland are conspicuous by their industry, their genuine love of the land, and the success which they have achieved by skill and hard work cheer- fully undertaken.
Such a farmer was the late Adam Mckay, a native of Poland, from which country he came to the United States in 1883, settling in Riverhead, where eventu- ally with the aid of eight sons he cultivated a farmi of two hundred and twenty-five acres. He made use of four regular employees in addition to his boys, and during the harvesting season he hired as many as twenty men.
To Adam Mckay, who died in 1926, and his wife Rose McKay, who passed away in 1933, the son whom they named John was born, on Sound Avenue in the town of Riverhead, in June. . 1888. John McKay attended the district school on Sound Avenue. before starting farming for himself west of Riverhead in 1909. Subsequently he moved to his present location at 95 Sound Avenue. Riverhead. He bought his present farm in 1919. This property, which he owns, and which is operated under the name of John Mc- Kay and Sons. supplies New York growers and shippers of potatoes and cauliflower and also raises
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numerous other vegetables. Its produce is well-known in metropolitan commission circles and always com- mands good prices. John McKay is a member of the Suffolk County farm bureau.
Mr. McKay and his family are communicants of the Roman Catholic Church at Riverhead. All of his family are musically gifted. The boys of the family have all played in the Riverhead band, and the girls have all been members of the Riverhead High School band. Mr. Mckay's hobby is music, and he played the baritone in the old Riverhead Band.
At Riverhead, Suffolk County, on January 22, 1908, John McKay was married to Mary Bilski, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Bilski, who were of Polish origin and early settlers on Sound Avenue in Riverhead. To John McKay and Mary (Bilski) Mckay, seven children have been born, Riverhead being the native place in each instance. These children are: I. Ray- mond. 2. Edward. 3. Frank, who is now associated with his father in the farming operations of John Mckay and Sons. 4. Lottie, who is now Mrs. Bonki- ski. 5. Jennie, who is married to Nelson Aliff. Dur- ing the second World War she served in the United States Army. 6. Frances, who is married to Frank Bush, and now resides at Southold, Suffolk County. 7. Florence, who during World War II was a member of the United States Army, married Ernest Mackey. She now resides in the state of Ohio. All the seven children of John and Mary (Bilski) Mckay received their education in Riverhead.
JOHN L. PLOCK-A native of the city of New York, John L. Plock was in business in the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn in that city for some fifteen years before locating in Greenport, Suffolk County. That his business had to do with oysters was the factor which brought him to the pleasant and historic old village far out toward the eastern tip of Long Island, which is thus strategically situated in the midst of one of the greatest oyster growing and packing areas along the Atlantic seaboard.
Mr. Plock's father, Henry Plock, is a native of Germany, who was brought to the United States as a boy. A brewer by profession, Henry Plock mar- ried Wilhelmina Schultz, like himself of German nativity, and of this union John L. Plock was born on May 1, 1903. Educated in public grade schools of New York City and at the High School of Com- merce there, he went to work in 1921 at the famous old Fulton Market on New York's lower East Side, as a bookkeeper, in which capacity he served until 1928. In that year he went into business for him- self at Fulton Market as a distributor of shell fish, oysters and clams.
Industrious, shrewd, and a student of the business in which he was engaged, Mr. Plock prospered as a distributor and in 1931 entered the packing end of the business with the establishment of his own pack- ing house, located in Brooklyn. By 1936 he was con- vinced of the advantages of conducting packing opera- tions closer to the source of supply, and accordingly he moved his plant to Greenport. Probably at that time he had already determined to expand his opera- tions to include the cultivation of oysters, and in 1939 he did become a cultivator. The Shelter Island Oyster Company of which Mr. Plock is the owner and which engages both in the growing and the pack- ing of oysters and clams, has prospered and expanded under his management, and is always found among the leading concerns in the industry in the development
and adoption of advanced modern methods for the improvement of the oyster crop and for the wider distribution of this favorite sea food which is relished by so many millions of consumers.
The oyster industry, which Mr. Plock says can be traced back as far as the time of Julius Caesar, has more aspects than the general public knows of. It is a business full of interest, offering excellent possi- bilities of profit but also presenting many problems and risks, and requiring unflagging care and watch- fulness as well as lots of hard work. Oyster grow- ing, says Mr. Plock, calls to mind the old question of the chicken and the egg-which came first ?- for the first step in oyster cultivation is the planting of oyster shells.
With the United States Government giving invalu- able help in determining the best time for planting, which should be done as close as possible to the time when the oysters in a particular underwater area are spawning, the shells, loaded on schooners, are planted on beds especially reserved for this use. The oyster spat-which is the young oyster immediately after spawning-swims around for several days be- fore attaching itself to something; if there are plenty of shells in a bed, the spat is most likely to choose one of them to which to moor, so to speak. At this stage the young oyster becomes known as a set; and as it grows it becomes a seed oyster, which it remains until it is about three years old. The under- water areas chosen for planting are selected for their past records in catching set and turning them into seed oysters. Anywhere from one to seventy-five seed oysters may be found attached to a single shell; and if three or four out of seventy-five grow to maturity and live to be marketed. the oysterman is well satis- fied. There are times when violent storms or sudden drops in temperature will kill all the spat in an area before it sets; this is one, but not the only one, of the hazards of the business.
Planting time for oysters along the Atlantic coast varies from May I to about July 15. During Sep- tember, October and November, before frost sets in, the oyster set are transplanted to growing beds in deeper water, where they are spread out to facilitate growth. Experience has determined that growth is more rapid in some growing grounds, slower in others, and both sorts are utilized; for it sometimes happens that in a particular year there may be no set at all in a particular area, and three or four years later there would be shortage of oysters of a particular marketable size, if the rate of growth was uniform throughout an area; but this is avoided by starting the growth of a proportion of the set in slower grow- ing grounds.
The operations up to this point are carried out by firms known as producers. The next operations are performed by planters. In many cases, however, the producers also are the planters. What is known as cultivation now begins. When the set becomes a year old, it is again taken up for transplanting and thinning out. At this stage there are clusters of from two to perhaps ten seed oysters attached to each shell. The clusters must be carefully broken up without injury to the very delicate young oysters. At this stage, where the producer is not also a planter, he sells his year-old oysters to planters. At the age of two years, the oysters must again be thinned out. At all times they must be continually watched and guarded as far as possible from their natural enemies, of which the two most common are the drill and the star fish. The drill is a very small
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creature with a shell somewhat like a snail, which attaches itself to an oyster, being particularly fond of young, tender set, drills a hole in the oyster shell and devours the meat. The star fish smothers the oyster in its five arms and sucks out the meat.
The oyster beds must also be patrolled constantly against poachers, known to the trade as pirates, who use regular dredge boats to gather what others have planted and tended.
Dredge boats are usually from thirty-five to seventy-five feet in length, and can carry from five hundred to four thousand bushels of oysters. From one to three dredges on each side are dropped into the water and dragged along the bottom until the captain of the boat judges that they are full, when they are raised by mechanical hoisters, dumping their loads on the deck. These operations are repeated until the boat has a capacity load, which it should do in one day with a proper equipment of dredges and a sufficiently large crew.
At the age of three years some oysters are large enough to be sold to packers, who ship them for use on the half shell. Packers maintain shops on the shore, which are under the strictest supervision of the Conservation Department of the state of New York, regularly inspected to check on sanitary conditions and also on the source of all shell fish through each plant. Only oysters from beds approved by the Con- servation Department can be handled and a record must be kept of the name of the bay and the number of the bed from which each consignment comes. A record must also be kept of each shipment leaving a packer's shop, and each package must have a tag attached showing the source of supply, the bed num- ber, the name and address of the packer, his permit number, and the date of shipment.
The oyster packer packs two types of packages- oysters in the shell and oysters removed from the shell, known as shucked oysters. The shell oysters are graded into four sizes-large, medium, half shell and small-and packed in barrels for shipment to distributors or direct to hotels and restaurants. Usu- ally only well-shaped oysters are packed in the shell; the misshaped ones are opened in the shucking de- partment by skilled operators who must remove the meats without cutting or tearing. In the packing room the oyster meats are again checked for cuts or tears before being put into a tank of clear water agitated by air, to remove sand, grit and foreign particles. They are then graded according to size and packed in containers made either of metal or of heavily waxed paper. Oysters so packed are not preserved but fresh, and must be kept continually refrigerated to maintain freshness in the packages which range in size from five gallons down to half pints, and are shipped to dstributors or direct to hotels and restau- rants. The wholesale distributors sell to the retail markets, to seafood purveyors, hotels and restaurants.
The shells which accumulate in the shucking de- partments of the packing plants are piled up on an adjacent dock or wharf until the following spring, when they are loaded on schooners and taken to the setting grounds to catch more spat.
A recent development in the oyster industry, in which the Shelter Island Oyster Company of Green- port is a leader, is the use of air transport to achieve quicker and particularly wider distribution of oysters in prime conditions. A recent newspaper article says that "Long Island's choice oysters are rushed to various parts of the country today in greater quan- tities than ever before, thanks to well-coordinated
handling and speedy air travel," and illustrations to this article show Shelter Island Oyster Company product being prepared in gallon containers for pack- ing in iced barrels which are trucked to an airport and stowed in special compartments of a plane be- tween slabs of dry ice. An oyster brought ashore at Greenport, Long Island, at eight o'clock in the morning, arrives at Chicago, Illinois, at five o'clock that afternoon-using eastern standard time in each instance-and is the heart of an oyster cocktail or the substance of an oyster stew on some dinner table that evening.
The newspaper article referred to above, noting that perishable fruits and vegetables are also now being transported by air, says that a "new eating day has dawned for folks all over America." It pre- dicts that the shipment of perishable foods will in the next five years "expand to proportions deemed beyond consideration as recently as five years ago." "The sea food of the East Coast and Gulf cities becomes available to inland and West Coast com- munities," this article continues, "and in turn their ripe fruits and vegetables are flown to other regions," and it adds that people engaged in food research and food transportation development believe that "the elimination of seasons in food can become a reality." John L. Plock is doing his part to ensure that the un- witting oysters living their placid lives in the beds of the Peconic Bays, Gardiner's Bay and the waters of the Atlantic that lap the eastern tip of Long Island, will have their place of honor in this modern devel- opment.
Mr. Plock, a busy man, is not deeply involved in civic and social doings, but he is an active supporter of the Presbyterian Church to which he belongs, and is a member of Astoria Lodge No. 963, of the Free and Accepted Masons.
On June 15, 1927, at New York City, John L. Plock was married to Anna Holub, a daughter of Fred and Marie (Rines) Holub. Of this marriage there is one child, a son named John L., Jr., who was born in New York City on January 31, 1937.
A. HERBERT REEVE-The fertile land of Suf- folk County is still one of the rich agricultural areas of the Eastern States, and many families are to be found where farms and the occupation of farming has passed on from father to son for several genera- tions. Thus A. Herbert Reeve, who before his re- tirement carried on farming operations on sixty acres located on Sound Avenue in Riverhead, followed the example of his father Alson S. Reeve, who was a farmer living on his lots on Roanoke Avenue in the same town.
Alson S. Reeve married Ruth L. Davis, a native of Riverhead, and of this union A. Herbert Reeve was born at Riverhead Village on February 3, 1882. He was educated at the district school of Roanoke. In addition to his farming interests, A. Herbert Reeve is a factor in banking in that area, and sits on the board of directors of the Suffolk County National Bank. He belongs to the First Methodist Church of Riverhead, and his politics are indicated by his mem- bership in the Republican Club. He is also a well- known figure in the affairs of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
At Hammonton, New Jersey, December 12, 1936, A. Herbert Reeve was married to Ruth Carr, a daugh- ter of Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Crusen. By a previous marriage there are two children: I. Dorothy E., who
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Charles Zek
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was born at Riverhead in 19II. After graduation from the Riverhead High School she became the wife of Kenneth Pugsley, by whom she is the mother of Emily Ann, and Harriet Elizabeth. 2. Mabel R., who was born at Riverhead in 1917 and was educated at the Riverhead High School and the Rider Institute of New Jersey. She is married to John P. Murphy of Belmore, and they are the parents of two children, namely Herbert and Patricia Diane.
CHARLES ZEH-One of the outstanding farmers among those who maintain the leadership of Suffolk County as purveyors of the finest fruits and vege- tables to the tables of homes and hotels throughout the Eastern States, is Charles Zeh of Calverton, Long Island, several members of whose family are associated with him in his highly successful conduct of one of the world's oldest, yet ever-youngest, businesses.
Born at Glendale, on July 9, 1893, Charles Zeh was a son of the late William Zeh, who died when he was twenty-nine years of age, and his wife whose maiden name was Rebecca Zeh but who was not a relative of her husband. Mrs. Rebecca Zeh subse- quently married Horatio Lowe. When Charles Zeh was a boy about eight years old, the family moved to Elmhurst in Queens County or the Borough of Queens, New York City, and the young Charles at- tended public schools in Elmhurst and in nearby Newtown. On December 7, 1906, the Zehs moved to Calverton, Suffolk County, and Charles Zeh finished his schooling in district school number four at that place. At that time parts of Suffolk County were still remote rural areas, and it took two days, as Charles Zeh remembers, to travel from Elmhurst to Calverton by two teams of horses.
Leaving school at about the age of fifteen, Charles Zeh worked on a farm with his father until the latter's death, and continued in the same occupation after that event. When he became twenty-one years of age he received from his step-father, Horatio Lowe, a one- fourth share of the revenue from the farm, which was then managed by Mr. Lowe. After Charles Zeh married, he associated himself with his brother Fred Zeh for a number of years. Around the year 1931 he dissolved the partnership. Subsequently he carried on farming operations for himself on Route 25 in Cal- verton. The original farm worked by Charles Zeh comprised about eighty acres. During the past fifteen years he has added largely to these holdings and is now the owner of two hundred and forty acres, in addi- tion to which he rents and operates seventy acres of other land.
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