USA > New York > Nassau County > Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume III > Part 51
USA > New York > Suffolk County > Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume III > Part 51
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Rufus H. Smith, born on March 10, 1878, was educated in the public schools of Oceanside and at the New York Preparatory School and the New York University Law School. Upon leaving the law school, however, he returned to Oceanside and be- came associated with the Smith Dairy, also engaging in farming. The dairy business was sold by Mr. Smith's mother in 1906, at which time Rufus H. Smith entered the real estate field in association with the firm of McNulty and Fitzgerald of Brook- lyn, New York. This firm were the pioneers in the acreage end of the real estate business of Queens and Nassau counties and Mr. Smith was in charge of their Jamaica office. This association lasted until 1913, when Mr. Smith entered the real estate business for himself, with offices in New York City and in Oceanside. During twelve years of his real estate career he was associated with the late Stephen P. Pettit, with an office at 110 West Thirty-fourth Street, New York City. Mr. Smith continued active in this field until his death, October 26, 1948.
More than twenty years ago Mr. Smith became interested in banking and perceived that there was an opportunity to afford additional banking facilities to his native village. In 1923 he participated in the or- ganization of the Oceanside National Bank, of which he became the first president. Under his astute and able guidance this bank grew to be an important financial institution serving a populous area. Mr. Smith continued to hold the office of president of the Oceanside National Bank until 1943, when he resigned from considerations of health, becoming vice presi- dent. He was also a member of the board of directors.
Mr. Smith had been one of the most active and con- structive leaders in civic affairs in his part of Long Island. He was one of the organizers of the board of zoning appeals of the town of Hempstead, and for ten years served on that body. He belonged to the Ocean- side Board of Trade and to the Kiwanis Club of Oceanside. A member of the Republican party, politics always held a great interest for him, and he was the district leader of his party in Oceanside for years. He was a delegate to a national convention at Saratoga, New York, many years ago when the late Theodore Roosevelt, later President of the United States, was chairman of the delegation.
A Presbyterian by faith, Mr. Smith had also been unselfishly at the service of religion, having been a trustee of his church for some thirty years. His fraternal interests were with the Free and Accepted Masons, in which he held membership through Mas- sapequa Lodge No. 822, as well as through the Consistory. He was a Thirty-second degree Mason.
On December 30, 1902, Rufus H. Smith married Lottie P. Bedell of Brooklyn, New York City, a. daughter of George W. and Mary Jane (Hadley) Bedell. Of this marriage there are two children: I. Mary S., now the wife of Ernest M. Vandeweghe, who is president of the American Beaver Lamb Company. Mr. and Mrs. Vandeweghe are the parents of four children, namely Ernest M., Jr., Diane, Gary and Charlotte. 2. E. Kenneth, who married Camille Koehler, by whom he is the father of one child, named Laird.
CHARLES O. IRELAND-As a banker Charles O. Ireland was as well-known in Brooklyn and Man- hattan as he was in his native Suffolk County, of which he had been a lifelong resident. He was president of the First National Bank of Islip, vice president of the Bank of Amityville and vice president of the Bank of Lindenhurst.
Mr. Ireland was born in Amityville on August 8, 1873, the son of John Edward and Annie (Trembly) Ireland. The Ireland family at Amityville dates back to the early eighteenth century. Charles Ireland's grandfather, Samuel, purchased the present Ireland home in Amityville in 1783. John Edward Ireland was a grist-mill operator, a partner of the firm of Ireland and Ketcham of Amityville and in his later # years was superintendent of the Brunswick Home at Amityville. Annie Trembly Ireland was a native of Linden, New Jersey.
The future banker was educated in the elementary and high schools of Amityville, the Peddie School at Hightstown, New Jersey, and the Brooklyn Poly- technic Institute. He began his banking career at the age of eighteen in 1891 by becoming a clerk in the Bank of Amityville. He remained with that institu- tion until 1920. When he resigned, he was the bank's cashier. From 1920 to 1930, Mr. Ireland was with the Midwood Trust Company of Brooklyn, initially as cashier, subsequently as cashier and vice president.
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He resigned the Brooklyn post to become vice presi- dent of the Manufacturers Trust Company of New York. an office he held for three years. In 1933 he became president and a director of the Bank of Islip. As vice president of the Bank of Amityville and the Bank of Lindenhurst, he was also on the boards of those two institutions. Mr. Ireland was a member of the Rotary Club of Bay Shore and of the board of trustees of the Methodist Church at Amityville.
Mr. Ireland married Maud L. Howell, daughter of George B. and Clarissa D. (Brown) Howell of Islip, in St. Mark's Church there in 1889. Three children, one of whom survives, were born to Mr. and Mrs. Ireland: Elsie was born in Amityville in 1910. She is a graduate of the Amityville High School, Packer Col- legiate Institute, Brooklyn and Adelphi College. She is now the wife of George Fleming Yates of Amity- ville and the mother of two children, Phyllis Ann, born in 1937, and George Bradford, born in 1941.
Charles O. Ireland died March 3, 1948.
HAROLD REED FREEMAN explored several business fields before he was inspired with an enthu- siasm for police work and became a criminal investi- gator in Suffolk County, Long Island.
Mr. Freeman was born at Binghamton, New York. on August 7, 1897, the son of the late Harry C. and Edith (Barney) Freeman. His father was a promi- nent manufacturer of working and hunting clothes, operating at Binghamton and Brooklyn. He died in November, 1945. Harold R. Freeman's great-grand- father, Dwight S. Freeman, for many years was a Broome County, New York, judge and a figure in judicial circles. His first American forebear, John Edmund Freeman, an Englishman, settled at Sand- wich. Massachusetts, in 1636.
After his service in World War I, Mr. Freeman began his business life as a representative of the Rome Hosiery Mills of Rome, Georgia, operating from New York City. He for some years was in the automobile field in Brooklyn. He was living in Brooklyn, New York, when he enlisted in the United States Navy April 7, 1917, serving for twenty-seven months as gunner's mate aboard submarine chasers in convoy duty, also doing intelligence and cable cen- sorship work.
Some time after he was discharged from the Navy he became interested in police work and attended several outstanding police schools. He specialized in finger identification. He took special training under the late Cant. Louis Streck of Nassau County, a pioneer in this field in the United States. For over fourteen years he has been a member of the staff of criminal investigators of the Suffolk County District Attorney's office. In recent vears he has headed that office's bureau of criminal identification. For six and a half years he was a member of the Greenport Vil- lage police force. In 1935 Mr. Freeman served as president of the National Identification Association. In 1946 he was chairman of that group's board of directors. From 1937 to date he served as a director of the organization and also is a member of the Inter- national Association of Identification. He served as president in 1940 of the Police Association of Suf- folk County Inc., was a charter member serving in all the offices and has been a director since 1941.
Mr. Freeman is a charter member and former sec- retarv of Greenport Lodge No. 1690, Loval Order of Moose. Originally affiliated with Field and Sea Lodge No. I. Free and Accepted Masons. of New York City. he now is a member of Delta Lodge No. 451, Free and Accepted Masons, of Brooklyn. He
also is a member of Patchogue Lodge No. 1323, Bene- volent and Protective Order of Elks. In July, 1947, Mr. Freeman was elected county commander of the Suffolk County American Legion Organization. He had previously served as liaison officer for the Suf- folk county organization and the American Legion Mountain Camp at Tupper Lake, New York, and for two years was county vice commander in charge of the third division, also served one year as county chaplain. He served three terms as post commander of Burton Potter Post No. 185 American Legion, Greenport. For the past eleven years he has served the veterans in the area in and about Greenport as Post Service Officer.
Mr. Freeman married Jennie Richards, daughter of Edward and Abbie (Griffing) Richards of Staten Island, New York. His wife was born in Greenport. They have three children living: 1. Harold R., born May 13, 1932. 2. Margaret Louise, born December 9, 1933. 3. Georgia Ann, born November 24, 1943. Their first child, Jacquelyn Edythe, was born May, 1931 and died in infancy.
JOHN F. LOUDEN-One of the citizens of Amity- ville, John F. Louden has made valuable contribu- tions to the development of this region of New York. He was born in Amityville, May 15, 1902, son of Dr. John Franklin and Gertrude (Florence) Louden and grandson of John and Sarah (Trimble) Louden.
There have been four successive generations of John Loundens in Long Island. Of the second generation was Dr. John Franklin Louden, born at Yaphank, June II, 1875, a son of John and Sarah (Trimble) Louden. He was educated in the public schools of Amityville, at Brighthampton, and in the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University, also in the Bellevue Hospital Medical School, and Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, where he received the degree of Doctor of Medicine, class of 1900, where he majored in mental and nervous diseases. He then entered Knickerbocker Hall, at Amityville, an institution founded by his father for the care of mild mental cases, and was also the manager of Louden Hall, an institution for the convalescence and care of aged and decrepit nervous persons who are in search of better health, also founded by his father in 1884. In 1907, Dr. Louden was elected president of the village of Amityville, a post from which he retired shortly before his death. During his terms of office the Village Law was amended and the office changed from president to mayor, and Dr. Louden automatically became the first mayor of Amityville. He was a member of the board of governors of the Unqua Corinthian Yacht Club, and vice president of the First National Bank of Amityville. Dr. Louden was one of the organizers of the Bellmore National Bank and a vice president of the Unqua Fire and Auto Insurance Company. Fraternally he was affili- ated with Brooklyn Lodge, No. 22, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks; the Royal Arcanum; Amity Lodge, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and the Junior Order of United American Mechanics. It was largely owing to Dr. Louden's influence that the municipal building was secured. He had been in- strumental in increasing the police force. paving streets, building up the fire department and reor- ganizing the health department, appointing a district nurse with the ambulance service, and many other civic improvements. having been one of the real lead- ers of his community full of initiative and desire to help and to serve. Dr. Louden was a member of the board of governors of the Southside Hospital, and
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his personal qualifications as a medical man en- deared him to a large circle of admiring and grateful patients. In April, 1901, Dr. Louden married Ger- trude Florence Mansfield, daughter of Franklin and Mary Mansfield of Seaford, and they were the parents of John F., of whom further. Dr. Louden died May 22, 1928.
John F. Louden received his early education in the public schools of Amityville, the Polytechnic Pre- paratory Day School, at Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, and was graduated from that institution in 1922. After finishing his formal education, he became associated with his father in the operation of Louden-Knicker- bocker Hall, and at the death of the elder man be- came president. Mr. Louden is also president of the Unqua Agency, Inc., of Amityville, a real estate and insurance firm. He is a vice president and a director of the First National Bank and Trust Company of Amityville, and is a director of the First National Bank of Bellmore. In addition he served as a trustee of the village of Amityville for one term of two years.
Mr. Louden is active in community affairs. He is president of the Amityville Business Men's Club. Fraternally he is affiliated with Amityville Lodge No. 947, Free and Accepted Masons, and Freeport Lodge No. 1253, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He is a member of the board of governors of the Timber Point Club, and is a former commodore of the Unqua Corinthian Yacht Club, now serving on its board of governors. In politics he is a staunch Republican, and is a member of the Suffolk County Republican Club. His favorite source of recreation is boating.
On July 15, 1929, in New York City, John F. Lou- den married Mary Florence Parsons, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William L. Parsons. Mr. and Mrs. Louden are the parents of the following children: I. Janet Gertrude, who was born August 10, 1930, and in 1947 was graduated from the Amityville High School, now attending Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory of Music at Berea, Ohio. 2. John F., Jr., who was born on October 5, 1937, at the Southside Hospital, Bay Shore, of the fourth generation to hold the name.
MALCOLM A. BEERS-In the post-war days of urgent construction Malcolm A. Beers is, and will probably long continue to be, one of the busiest men in the progressive community of Oceanside in Nassau County, for many home owners and home builders look to him to supply that prime need of convenience, comfort and sanitation, namely modern iceless refrigeration, in which Mr. Beers has been a specialist for many years.
Born at Du Bois, Centre County, Pennsylvania, on June 29, 1901, a son of Creighton G. Beers, who conducted a successful wholesale shoe business until his retirement. and his wife Anna G. (Kinkead) Beers, Malcolm A. Beers attended public school in his native town and in the city of Pittsburgh, includ- ing the Pittsburgh High School. His first employ- ment was in one of Pittsburgh's famous steel mills, where he remained for two years, before going to work for one year in the boat yard of the Dravo Construction Company. The direction of his future business career was set when he joined the McClel- land Refrigeration Company in Chicago, Illinois; with this concern he remained connected for four years, doing installation and construction work.
In those days automatic iceless refrigeration had not yet conquered the field. but Mr. Beers shrewedly per- ceived that it was destined to do so and he deter-
mined to grow with this rapidly growing business. After four years with the McClelland concern, he re- turned to the Pittsburgh district and became asso- ciated with the Copeland Refrigerator Company, at that time a leader in this field. After five years with Copeland, Mr. Beers joined the organization of the Kelvinator Corporation at Pittsburgh, later trans- ferring to the New York City territory of the same company, and finally to Rockville Centre in Nassau County.
In 1933 Mr. Beers purchased the Kelvinator Cor- poration Long Island branch, and this he has con- tinued to own and manage since that date. In 1946 he erected a new office and show room on Long Beach Road at Atlantic Avenue in Oceanside. Few more advantageous locations could be imagined for a refrigeration business, for from Oceanside he can conveniently meet all demands for new installations and replacements in a large area of Nassau County, especially among the South Shore communities. Mr. Beers now employs nine people in his office and show room and on installation jobs.
Energetic in promoting all movements for the in- creased prosperity and the civic good of his village and its vicinity, Mr. Beers is a vice president of the Oceanside Board of Trade and a member of the Kiwanis Club of Oceanside, which he helped to organize. His political views are expressed in his membership in the Republican Club of Oceanside. In religion he is a Presbyterian. Masonry is another of his enthusiams, and he holds membership in the Massapequa Lodge No. 822 of the Free and Accepted Masons, and also to the Consistory.
At Wellsburg, West Virginia, on March 22, 1920, Malcolm A. Beers was married to Norma Tomaseck, a daughter of William and Anna (Schulte) Tomaseck. This union has been blessed with three children: I. Malcolm A., Jr., who was born on January 29, 1921. During the second World War he served in the United States Navy, holding the rank of ensign and saw service in the Pacific Theater of Operations. He married March I, 1947, Mary Louise Rowe of Rockville Centre. 2. William C., born on May 31, 1922. During the late war he was a member of the United States Army, with the grade of master ser- geant, serving overseas in the Pacific Theater of Oper- ations. He married December 4. 1943, Alice Thomp- son of Rockville Centre. 3. Marilyn, born on January 17, 1928.
LESTER HOPKINS DAVIS-The Davis family of Coram, of which the principal representative today on Long Island is the Hon. Lester Hopkins Davis, justice of the peace of the town of Brookhaven, is one of the oldest families in all of Suffolk County, and one of which the annals, fortunately, have been well preserved.
A latter-day member of the family some time ago wrote a most interesting essay on the history of Coram, finding, upon research, that it is a more not- able place than is generally realized. It has been written of before, and historians agree that it is "an ancient settlement." It is supposed to be the site of the highest hills in Suffolk County and of the deepest sand on Long Island. The name comes either from an Indian chief or an eighteenth cen- tury British captain. The earliest record of a town meeting held in Coram dates back to 1695.
At least eight citizens of Coram fought for the liberties of America in the War of the Revolution, one being a Dr. Hulse, others being Isaac Smith and
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his sons, Joshua and Goldsmith Davis, and his son of the same name, and twin brothers named John and James Overton. A very old house still standing on the Port Jefferson road was taken possession of by the British, who killed the oxen and frightened the baby. Isaac Davis and his wife, residing near the church, were ordered by the enemy to provide a dinner. Be- fore she complied, Mrs. Davis fearlessly gave the British troops her opinion of them. They comman- deered all the fowl on the place except one rooster which escaped them, and, as it left, let out a lusty crow, for which he was ever afterward called "King of Coram." Goldsmith Davis, because he refused to divulge military secrets, was hanged head down- ward in a well, from which he was rescued after his wife ran half a mile to secure help. Isaac Smith was taken prisoner but escaped in female garb, as a result of which he was afterward known as Petticoat Smith. His son Joshua joined a whale boat expedition which took British prisoners and exchanged them for Americans held by the enemy. The Isaac Smith home was occupied by the British who converted the oldest part of it into a stable for their horses. This dwell- ing, seventy-two by thirty feet in dimensions and two and a half stories high, with a barroom in one corner and a piazza in front, stood near the country road at a point near the present traffic light.
It was in this house that General Washington, in the summer after the victorious close of the war, had dinner during a tour of Long Island. His hostess was Lucy Wallace Smith, wife of Joshua Smith, who, during the Revolution, had entertained General La- fayette at North Salem in Westchester County, where she then resided. Coram was a place not un- known to Washington, for during the war, on No- vember II, 1780, he approved a recommendation that forage collected at Coram for the British should be destroyed, and, accordingly, about three hundred tons of hay were burned. There is now a monument, suitably inscribed, commemorating this event.
During the Civil War, Richard Smith helped to capture four deserters from the United States Army in Coram, but they escaped, and later set fire to his straw-filled barn, from which the blaze spread to the shed, carriage house, carpenter shop, granary and, finally, the Smith residence, everything being con- sumed except some of the furniture. The deserters were apprehended and tried for arson, and two of them were sentenced to Sing Sing prison for terms of ten years.
In the first World War, Coram again served its country. A number of its young men joined the na- tion's armed forces. Later in the second World War, the youths served their country and two made the supreme sacrifice.
The first church in Coram was a Baptist meeting house, erected in 1747, and demolished in 1847. A Methodist Episcopal Church was built in 1858. This is the only church now standing in the community. In 1817 a town poor house was built in Coram on a small farm purchased for $900. Prior to this, the town's dependents were boarded out to the lowest bidder. The poor house was used until 1872, when its occupants were moved to the new county building. A town pump, built with public money in 1832, was used until recently, when road construction required its removal. Two school houses have been built in Coram, the first in the early part of the nineteenth century, which was abandoned only in 1899 when the present structure was erected. In the minutes of a meeting held on October 23, 1899, it is recorded that an acre of land for the site of the school cost $50,
and the building contract was awarded for $640. Other items from these minutes reveal that Thomas J. Smith agreed to furnish wood for a year at a cost of $10, while wages paid during the school year ran to $8.50 per week.
Town meetings were held in Coram from the seven- teenth century, and it was known as "the capital of Brookhaven." Meetings were held first in the Smith house and later in the Davis homestead. Both the Goldsmith Davises are buried on this property, which in 1818 was bought by Daniel Davis, great-grand- father of the present owner. All qualified voters of the town of Brookhaven came here to vote, and trus- tee meetings as well as meetings of the town assessors were held here. Those who desired could purchase meals at the Davis house, and when the gatherings were large, stands were erected outside, where trades- folk sold oysters, cider and other victuals. This elec- toral system continued until 1882.
In the middle of the nineteenth century Lester H. Davis was captain of a militia company of cavalry who trained in a field known even to this day as "the training lot." This Lester H. Davis was a man six feet tall in his stocking feet, and on training days wore a cocked hat with plumes of feathers seventeen and twenty-one inches tall, black, red and white in color. He and his mounted company doubtless presented a dashing appearance.
Agriculture was the chief occupation in Coram in old days. Sheep were raised and sheared, and the wool was spun and made into cloth in the home. Geese were raised and plucked while alive. Candles were home-made. One farmer, evidently desiring variety, attempted to raise silk worms, and also stocked his ponds with goldfish. Blackberries were plentiful, where today mushrooms are more common and are gathered by the Italians of the vicinity. A skilled cabinet maker, Ludlow Clark, made excellent furniture in Coram long ago, and some of it survives to this day. There was a cobbler who came from Virginia in the pioneer days, and in the early 1860s there was a millinery store in Coram, and also a tailoress who was born in 1822 and lived to see more than ninety years. She made men's suits as well as ladies' gowns, and when she sewed in private homes, her wages were twenty-five cents a day or five cents less if she did not work at night, by candlelight.
A number of Coram people became teachers in early days. Several Coramites held public offices: Lewis H. Overton was superintendent of schools of the town- ship as well as a school teacher, and also served as town clerk. In 1854-1855 Lester H. Davis was county treasurer. Another Lester Davis, commonly called Squire Davis, was justice of the peace, and Daniel R. Davis was town clerk for two terms and commis- sioner of highways for four years.
Some years ago an ode was composed in honor of Coram, beginning :
"A quiet and sequestered spot Between the Sound and Ocean Was Coram, rural, knowing not Aught of the city's rude commotion."
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