USA > New York > Nassau County > Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume III > Part 47
USA > New York > Suffolk County > Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume III > Part 47
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at Lake Champlain, New York, in early life was en- gaged as a weaver and machinist, and later became a farmer and stone mason at Crystal Lake. His mother was a native of Montreal, Canada.
Joseph Minor received his early education at the Stafford Springs and Crystal Lake Grammar Schools, later took courses in contracting and building with the International Correspondence School, and, after service in the first World War, he participated in night study at the Cooper Union Institute, of New York City. During the first World War he spent two years in the United States Navy. He enlisted in May, 1917, as an apprentice carpenter's mate, and gained promotions until he became a carpenter's mate, first class. On two occasions he had to abandon ship, once when the U. S. S. "President Lincoln" was torpedoed and sunk six hundred miles off the coast of France, and when the U.S.S. "Sixaola" caught fire and sank at pier nine in Hoboken, New Jersey. He received his honorable discharge from the service in April, 1919. After service he worked as a ship's joiner and assisted in reconverting numerous ships to their pre-war service-The George Washington, City of Columbus, DeWitt Clinton were some of the ships worked on.
In 1921, Mr. Minor settled at Lindenhurst, and entered the building and contracting business, which work he has carried on since with substantial suc- cess. Among the prominent business buildings in this region which he has helped build are: the Suffolk County Savings and Loan Building at Babylon, which was constructed about 1928, and the Eichemer Stores and Apartments at Lindenhurst. He built the Linden- hurst Methodist Church in 1931, Lindenhurst Post Office, and has been responsible for the erection of numerous outstanding and picturesque residences at Lindenhurst, Merrick, Westbury, Babylon, Sayville, Bayport, Blue Point, Amityville and numerous other towns. He has also constructed fifteen or twenty resi- dences at Bay Shore, and at peak production periods has employed seventy-five men. In 1943, Mr. Minor purchased the Muller Lumber Company, and re- named it the West Babylon Lumber Company. The enterprise, which is situated at 393 Little East Neck Road, at West Babylon, deals in all materials needed to build a home: mason supplies, lumber, millwork, asbestos supplies, rockwool, asphalt shingles, etc. Un- der the management of Mr. Minor, the firm has ex- perienced a steady growth accompanied by a good measure of prosperity.
Active in the life of his community, Mr. Minor is a member of the Lindenhurst Volunteer Fire Depart- ment, the Sunrise Square Club of Lindenhurst, the Puritan Lodge No. 85, in Hoboken, of the Free and Accepted Masons and the Babylon Economy League.
In religious affiliation he is a Methodist, and at- tends the Lindenhurst Methodist Church, acting at present as president of its board of trustees. For exercise and relaxation he enjoys boating.
On June 30, 1923, at New London, Connecticut, Joseph E. Minor married Elizabeth Chapman, daugh- ter of Elias and Julia (Budington) Chapman, of Gro- ton, Connecticut, and they became the parents of the following children: I. Josephine Eugenia, who was born June 13, 1927; was graduated from the Linden- hurst High School in 1945; attended the Washington School for Secretaries in New York City, and is now employed as a secretary at West Babylon Lumber Company. 2. Joyce Irene, who was born June 19, 1930, was graduated from the Lindenhurst High School in 1947, and is now a student at Cortland College, Cortland, New York.
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LESTER S. HOLDEN-In the commercial life of Southampton, the late Lester S. Holden played important roles. He equally well engaged in local activities, civil and social, and was held in highest esteem by all associated with him or who came in contact with his personality and influence.
Mr. Holden was a native of Brooklyn, New York, born on August 26, 1895, son of the late John W. Holden. He completed his academic education in the schools of his birth city, and went on to engage in varied business enterprises, initiating a career that was interrupted by military service during World War I. A soldier in the 305th Infantry Regiment, 7. th Division, he trained at Camp Upton, from which he went overseas with the American Expeditionary Forces, until his honorable discharge from the Ameri- can Armed Forces late in 1918. It is a matter of more than passing note that during World War II, he was a member of the Civil Air Patrol with the rank of lieutenant. At that period Mr. Holden, who had been a licensed pilot and an aviation enthusiast for a number of years, enlisted in the Civil Air Patrol, was commissioned a lieutenant and stationed at the Westhampton Airport where he served in the intelligence division for about two years, until his health failed.
Early in his business career (1916), Mr. Holden was connected with the stationery trade until the out- break of World War I. At the beginning of the year 1919 he embarked on his own enterprise, The Holden Stationery Shop on Main Street, Southampton, which he operated most successfully to his passing a num- ber of years later. Quoting a newspaper report: "He was very popular with all who knew him, having a pleasing personality and always ready and willing to lend a helping hand in advancing the interests of Southampton village or in assisting the needy. He was an efficient and successful business man. Mr. Holden was a member of Malcolm R. White Post, American Legion, of Southampton, and the South- ampton Lodge of Elks." He likewise was a member of the Southampton Chamber of Commerce and the Southampton Men's Club. He worshipped in the Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary, Roman Catholic, of Southampton, and was liberal in his con- tributions to religious and charitable activities.
On April 8, 1918, at Camp Upton, Lester S. Holden married Marion A. Burling, born in Southampton, daughter of George H. and Mary E. (Cavanagh) Burling. Mr. and Mrs. Holden became the parents of the following children: I. John I., born at South- ampton in 1921; a graduate of Southampton High School and Cornell University, class of 1943; served in the United States Army during World War II with the Engineers, European Theater of War. He mar- ried September 20, 1947, Bernice Lewis, of South- ampton, daughter of Dr. Harold Lewis, D.D.S., and Elfreda Garypie. 2. Mary Elizabeth, born in 1922; a graduate of Southampton High School and Ryder College, Trenton, New Jersey; married November 2, 1946, Dr. William P. Nugent, Jr., D.D.S., of South- ampton. 3. Nancy Ann, born at Southampton, in 1028, a graduate of Southampton High School, at the present writing (1947) a student at the Roosevelt Hospital School for Nurses in New York City. 4. James Lester, born in Southampton in 1931, a gradu- ate of Southampton High School.
In what should have been the prime of life, Lester S. Holden passed away on November 4, 1911. at the age of fortv-nine years. In his various activities he had failed to conserve his own physical resources, and in his death deprived Southampton of one of its
progressive citizens, a man who furthered the well- being of that place with which the most of his life had been associated. His memory is one that deserves to be cherished by his fellowmen.
ARTHUR WOOD POST-Prominent in the tele- phone industry in Manhattan, Arthur Wood Post is also prominent in his home community, Westbury. With the American Telephone and Telegraph Com- pany since 1909, he was an engineer in its long lines department. At home Mr. Post is active in various civic and social groups and has been a member of the Westbury board of education.
Mr. Post was born at Westbury on. August 27, 1886, the son of John Wood and Phoebe (Hicks) Post. His father was a farmer. Arthur Wood Post was educated in the Brooklyn Polytechnic Prepara- tory School, from which he was graduated in 1904, and in the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, from which he was graduated in 1908 with the degree of Electrical Engineer. .
A year after completing his training, he entered the employ of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company. This was in September, 1909. He began in the plans department, specializing in long distance research and planning, and remained in that specialty with constantly increasing success and value until his retirement September, 1946.
At Westbury he has been treasurer of the school board and later a trustee. He is also a life member of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, the North Hempstead Country Club and Phi Kappa Psi fraternity. His religious association is with the Society of Friends.
Mr. Post married Ethel M. Albertson, daughter of John Augustus and Mary (Willis) Albertson, at Westbury on October 29, 1913. They are the parents of two children-Richard, born January 26, 1915, and Arthur Willis, born May 3, 1918.
Richard graduated from Swarthmore College in 1936 with a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering; he married Helen M. Shilcock of Jenkin- town, Pennsylvania, and they have three children: i. Richard Willis. ii. Barbara. iii. Margery. He has been with Bethlehem Steel Company at Sparrow Point, Marvland for the past ten years.
Arthur Willis Post graduated from Swarthmore College in 1940, receiving the Bachelor of Science de- gree in electrical engineering. He married Margaret P. Wood of Ridley Park, Pennsylvania. During World War II he served three and one-half years in the United States Navy, being promoted from the rank of ensign to that of lieutenant. senior grade. He is with the American Telephone and Telegraph Com- pany located in Newark, New Jersey.
EDWARD A. NASH-In the banking business on Long Island since 1917, Edward A. Nash is now vice president and a director of the Garden City Bank and Trust Company.
He was born at Brooklyn on October 21, 1900, the son of Robert T. and Mattie S. Nash. Mr. Nash had completed grammar school and gone partly through high school when at the age of seventeen he entered the employ of the First National Bank of Jamaica. Recognizing the banking field as the one in which he wished to remain and to make his career. he took the training course of the American Institute of Banking and afterward attended the Rutgers Uni- versity School of Banking, from which he was gradu-
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ated. In the nine years he remained with the Ja- maica bank he rose steadily in responsibility until he was assistant cashier. When he resigned, he assumed the same position at the Garden City Bank and Trust Company, which he held from November 1, 1926, to October 1, 1927, and has been vice president since January 1, 1939. Mr. Nash is a member of the Masonic fraternity and of the Rotary Club of Garden City. Mr. Nash was president of the Grand Chapter of the Chamber of Commerce in 1938 and of the Mineola Grand Chapter of the Rotary Club from 1945 to 1946. He is secretary-treasurer of Group VII of the New York State Bankers Association and was chair- man of the Nassau County Clearing House Associa- tion in 1946 and of the War Bond Committee, Grand Chapter. He attends the Dutch Reformed Church.
He married Marion Dean Cole, daughter of Eduard R. and Evelyn N. Cole, in the Dutch Reformed Church at Queens Village on July 25, 1925. They are the parents of four children: Robert E., born May 23, 1926; Patricia E., born May 18, 1928; Frank T., born January 20, 1931, and Marion A., born November 24, 1942.
HENRY JORALEMON DAVENPORT-Presi- dent of the Home Title Guaranty Company, of New York, Henry Joralemon Davenport, attorney, heads one of the large corporations of the American me- tropolis. During his exceptionally active career he has not only engaged in the practice of his profession, but with banking, finance, real estate and public affairs.
Mr. Davenport was born in Brooklyn, New York, on February 3, 1880, son of Henry Benedict and Flora D. (Lufkin) Davenport, and a descendant from a member of old families in Brooklyn. Joralemon Street there is named for one of his ancestors, one James Joralemon. His father, a lawyer, was one of the founders and the first president of the Home Title Insurance Company. Henry Joralemon Daven- port prepared for higher education in the Polytechnic Preparatory School. Brooklyn, from which he was graduated in 1896. He then took a liberal arts course at Harvard University, from which he received a Bachelor of Arts degree. class of 1900. After one year of study at Harvard University School of Law, he transferred to the New York University School of Law. Admitted to the New York bar in October, 1902, he established a general practice of his profession in Brooklyn and later became senior member of Daven- port and Corner. Mr. Davenport specialized in probate, real estate and corporation law, and established an en- viable reputation especially in the conduct of difficult equity trials, in which he was frequently engaged as counsel. On May 1, 1920, he succeeded his father as president of the Home Title Insurance Company. Mr. Davenport is now president of the successor company, Home Title Guaranty Company, whose principal office is located in Brooklyn, with branch offices in New York, Jamaica, Mineola and White Plains. Mr. Davenport is president of the Down- town Brooklyn Association; director of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, Long Island Association, Brooklyn Real Estate Board. Regional Plan Associa- tion; chairman of the city planning committee of the real estate board of New York; trustee. Flatbush Savings Bank; trustee and chairman of the finance committee, Brooklyn Public Library; member of ad- visorv committee. Hamilton Trust Branch. Chase Na- tional Bank; trustee, Brooklyn Association for Im- proving the Condition of the Poor. Mr. Davenport
has been for upwards of thirty-five years chairman of the scholarship committee of the Long Island Harvard Club, which has annually awarded scholar- ships enabling boys who might otherwise be unable to go to college to attend Harvard. In 1946 and 1947, Mr. Davenport served as chairman of the annual dinner of the Flatbush Boys' Club. As presi- dent of the Downtown Brooklyn Association, he has awarded, over the past years, the Association's Gold Medal for Most Distinguished Service to Brooklyn to eighteen Brooklynites who have been described as members of Brooklyn's "Legion of Honor."
On June 1, 1909, at Brooklyn, Henry Joralemon Davenport married Louise Morgan Strong, daughter of Robert Grier and Harriet (Zabriskie) Strong. Mr. and Mrs. Davenport are the parents of a son: John Joralemon, born in 1910. The Davenport homes are in Brooklyn, New York, and "Cranage," at New Canaan, Connecticut.
BYRON T. SAMMIS-The Sammis family is one of the oldest on Long Island. Byron T. Sammis is the operator of an insurance agency at Huntington which, when established by a member of the family, was a pioneer in its field in Suffolk County. He is a leader in the political, civic and fraternal life of the com- munity.
Mr. Sammis was born in Northport on December 29, 1899, the son of Gilbert B. and Mildred (Robbins) Sammis, both of whom were also born at Northport. Mrs. Sammis died in 1941 and is buried at Freehold, New Jersey. When Byron T. Sammis was eight years old, the family moved from Long Island to the New Jersey community. The elder Mr. Sammis has been a farmer there since then. Byron Sammis was edu- cated in the Freehold public schools. From 1919 to 1922 he was in the real estate business at Freehold. In 1922 he returned to Huntington and established his present business. In March, 1942, he purchased the insurance agency of Theron H. Sammis, which is not only a pioneer in Suffolk County but one of the oldest agencies in the representation of insurance companies in the United States. The firm is now Sammis and Smith, General Insurance, with offices at 381 New York Avenue, Huntington, New York.
In the development of his business, Mr. Sammis has come to be one of the most active and best known citizens of Suffolk County. He is a member of the board of managers of the Huntington Young Men's Christian Association, and is secretary-treasurer of the H. B. M. Parking Corporation. He is also secre- tary and a director of the Huntington Business Men's Association and is president and a director of the Huntington Chamber of Commerce, 1947-48. He was secretary of the Lions Club of Huntington for thir- teen years. He is also a member of the Suffolk County Insurance Agents Association and of Jephtha Lodge, No. 494, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, at Huntington. With his family he attends the First Presbyterian Church of Huntington.
Mr. Sammis married Lillian A. Sammis, daughter of Jacob H. and Carrie (Howell) Sammis, at Hunting- ton on September 30, 1922. They are the parents of two children: Quentin Byron, born May 16, 1924, and Vera M .. born October 26, 1926. The son, a graduate of Huntington High School and Georgia School of Technology, with the degree of Electrical Engineer, served in the navy in World War II and was commissioned an ensign. Vera Sammis, a gradu- ate of Huntington High School and Mrs. Skinner's Secretarial School, was in 194" a student at Boston University.
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MEAD WILMER STONE-As co-owner of George Malvese and Company of Garden City Park, Mead Wilner Stone is contributing much to the agricultural, commercial and industrial development of a large section of Long Island, for his firm is one of the largest of its kind-a farm and construction machinery organization. He is a director of the Cen- tral National Bank of Mineola and of the Bank of Hempstead. He is a leading Rotarian of the Mineola- Garden City area. During World War I he was an officer in the United States Navy.
Mr. Stone was born on Staten Island on March 5, 1893, the son of Medad Elisha and Emma Sterling (Bones) Stone. The elder Mr. Stone was president of the Tucker Company, wholesale hardware firm with headquarters at 75 Murray Street, New York City. Mead W. Stone was educated in the Staten Island Academy, from which he was graduated in 1909, and at Cornell University, from which he received the degree of Mechanical Engineer in 1914.
On completing his education, Mr. Stone became a research engineer for the Studebaker Corporation. He was with this concern until 1917, when he entered the Navy as a lieutenant junior grade. He served with the Navy until 1919. After his discharge, he joined the staff of the Cleveland Tractor Company, Cleve- land, Ohio, as a sales engineer. On January I, 1923, he formed a partnership with George Malvese and they have been in business together ever since. Their present location is on the Jericho Turnpike at Garden City Park. The partners started with two thousand, five hundred square feet of floor space. Indicative of their success is the fact that today they have ten times that much space. Aside from his banking connections, Mr. Stone is past president of the Ro- tary Club of Mineola-Garden City, and a member of Elks. He attends the Cathedral of the Incarnation at Garden City.
Mr. Stone married Lillie Seemann, daughter of Frederick C. and Elise (Garbe) Seemann, at New Brighton, Staten Island, in May, 1917. They have four children: Elise Emma, now Mrs. C. Robert Bell; Mead Wilmer, Jr., Jean and William Frederick. The Stone family makes its home at Garden City.
RICHARD TIMOTHY CHILDS-Born on Oc- tober 22, 1878, at Grahamsville, a small though his- toric village in the northeastern corner of Sullivan County, New York, Richard Timothy Childs, whose parents were George Bradley and Nancy Porter (Smith) Childs, was perhaps influenced by the rela- tive isolation and loneliness of his native place in those days of dirt roads and horse-and-buggy, to determine on a career which would take him to great cities and busy centers of life. In this he was successful.
When he was only nineteen years of age, the young Richard Timothy Childs established a business of his own at Ellenville in Ulster County, the nearest sizeable village to his birthplace, and already by that time. a thriving resort frequented by great numbers of visitors from New York City in the summer sea- son. Ambitious for a broader education, and in- terested in engineering, he enrolled at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at Troy, New York, from which he graduated in 1903 with the degree of Civil Engi- neer. For the next few years Mr. Childs worked in various engineering employments, before becoming a market reporter on the magazine, "Iron Age." Subse- quently he worked in a similar capacity for the pub- lication, "Engineering News."
These employments aroused Mr. Childs' interest in financial matters, an interest which he perhaps in- herited from his father, who was a banker as well as a farmer. Perceiving the great possibilities for useful and profitable development of real estate pro- jects in the areas of Long Island lying within com- muting distance of New York City, he organized a syndicate of Boston and New York capitalists who acquired upwards of five hundred acres of land in and around the small village of New Hyde Park in Nassau County. This area, so close to the metropolis but until that time a sort of sleepy, sparsely-popu- lated backwater, Mr. Childs and his associates de- veloped into a populous suburb by building and sell- ing hundreds of well-built, reasonably-priced homes.
Since that time Mr. Childs has continued to be an important figure in the tremendous modern develop- ment of Long Island real estate. He has been presi- dent of the Long Island Real Estate Board and of the New York State Association of Real Estate Boards. But one holding with which he will not part is the Sullivan County farm on which he was born.
Mr. Childs is a thirty-second degree Mason, a member of the Knights Templar and of the Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. In religion he is a member of the Society of Friends, or Quakers.
At Troy, New York, on July 8, 1903, Richard Tim- othy Childs was married to Mabel Munson Lord, a daughter of Joseph and Delia (Gordenier) Lord. Mr. Childs is a communicant of the Episcopal Church.
HERMAN J. HERBERT, JR .- One of the young- er attorneys at the Nassau County bar, Herman J. Herbert, Jr., of Roslyn, has already impressed his colleagues in the legal profession with his sound grasp of the law, and is building up a notable and lucrative practice as the attorney for many important clients.
A native of New York City, where he was born on March 29, 1913, Mr. Herbert is the son of Herman J. and Anna S. Herbert. His father was the proprietor of a retail food market and is now retired. Brought to Roslyn in childhood, the younger Herman J. grew up in that delightful Long Island town, attending the public schools and graduating from Roslyn High School in 1931. In that same year he entered Fordham University, where he manifested exceptional scholar- ship, graduating with the degree of Bachelor of Arts cum laude in 1935. Having determined upon a legal career, he enrolled in the famous Fordham Uni- versity School of Law, alma mater of so many emi- nent practitioners at the bar, graduating therefrom with his degree of Bachelor of Laws in 1938.
In December of that year Mr. Herbert set up in the independent practice of his profession in his home town, where he has continued with growing success to the present time. He has also entered the field of public service as a member of the Roslyn board of education, and as director-at-large of the Roslyn chapter of the American Red Cross. He participates in the business life of his community as a member of the Kiwanis Club of Roslyn. He also holds mem- bership in the Nassau County Bar Association. In religion, Mr. Herbert and his family are communi- cants of the Roman Catholic Church.
At Floral Park, New York, on May 30, 1940, Her- man J. Herbert, Jr., was married to Agnes Paus, a daughter of Thomas and Rose Paus. Of this union there are now two children: I. Judith Anne, who
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was born on November 12, 1943. 2. Rosemary, born on December 30, 1945.
FRED J. MUNDER-By virtue of his legal at- tainments one of the most prominent members of the Suffolk County bar, the Hon. Fred J. Munder of Huntington has also been active in an unusually wide range of civic movements and causes; and in recogni- tion alike of his abilities and his services, he has been called to fill important public offices.
A native Long Islander, Fred J. Munder was born at Sunnyside, Queens County, on September 16, 1903. His father, the late Charles T. Munder, was also a native of Queens, in the days when that county was as rural as Suffolk is now, before its incorporation into Greater New York City as the Borough of Queens made it a populous urban area. Charles T. Munder was a merchant. His wife was Mary C. Mun- der.
The young Fred J. Munder attended public schools and the Bryant High School before enttering the Law School of Fordham University in New York City, from which he received his degree of Bachelor of Laws upon graduating with the class of 1924. In 1926 he was admitted to the bar of the State of New York. His marked legal abilities and his lively in- terest in public and political affairs led to his becoming assistant district attorney of Suffolk County in Janu- ary, 1930. This office he held through December, 1935. During the next two years he served as town attorney of the Town of Huntington. In 1938 he be- came district attorney of Suffolk County, and this re- sponsible office he continued to fill until December 31, 1946, highly regarded by the public without regard to party feeling, and respected by the members of the bar.
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