USA > New York > Nassau County > Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume III > Part 60
USA > New York > Suffolk County > Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume III > Part 60
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Mr. Roberts was born in England, near Long Eaton, on December 25, 1870, the son of William and Mary (Carter) Roberts. After completing his educa- tion, Samuel Roberts, Sr., worked in the textile in- dustry. In 1903. after he had married and become the father of three children, Mr. Roberts brought his family to America.
He immediately entered the lace manufacturing field. In 1916 he established the firm of S. H. Roberts and Son, Lace Manufacturers, at Alton, Rhode
Island. His son, Samuel H. Roberts, Jr., was his partner. In 1921 father and son moved their plant to Port Jefferson. There the firm name was changed to Port Jefferson Lace Company. But the new firm was later merged with the Thomas Wilson Lace Company, Inc., whch had been founded in 1839. From the time of the merger until his death, Mr. Roberts guided the firm through the period of its greatest growth. In 1937 he was named to the Brookhaven Zoning Board of Appeals and in the 1920s he became a charter member of the Rotary Club of Port Jeffer- son, which he not only helped organize but served as a director and treasurer for several years. He was also active in the Wood River Junction Congre- gational Church and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, having been a member of the Port Jefferson Lodge.
Mr. Roberts' wife was the former Kate Newton, daughter of William and Kate (Brecknock) Newton, also of Long Eaton, England. They were married in that community on October 27, 1895. All three of their children were born there: Vivien Roberts, in 1897, Katherine Beryl Roberts, on October 16, 1898, and Samuel Henry, Jr., on April 5, 1901. Mrs. Roberts died in 1941. In addition to the children, Mr. Roberts is survived by two grandchildren, Warren Carter Roberts and Doreen Joyce Roberts; three sisters, Annie of New York City, and Bertha and Mary of England, and three brothers, Arthur, of Charleston, Rhode Island, and George and William, of England.
Mr. Roberts died on October 12, 1945, two months before his seventy-sixth birthday. He had been ill and confined at Mather Memorial Hospital for nearly six months. Funeral services were conducted in the Presbyterian Church at Port Jefferson on October 15, 1945, wth the Reverend Ray Kiely officiating. Interment was in the Roberts family plot at Cedar Hill Cemetery, Port Jefferson.
SAMUEL H. ROBERTS, JR .- His father's part- ner in the lace manufacturing business since he was fifteen years old, Samuel Henry Roberts, Jr., has fol- lowed in the senior Mr. Roberts' footsteps to the present day. He is now manager of the Port Jeffer- son mill and second vice president of the Thomas Wilson Company, one of the oldest lace making firms in the United States.
Mr. Roberts was born at Long Eaton, England, on April 5, 1901, the son of Samuel H. and Kate (Newton) Roberts and the grandson of William and Mary (Carter) Roberts. Samuel Henry Roberts, Sr., who at the time of his death in October, 1945, was in his seventy-sixth year, was general manager and vice president of the Thomas Wilson Company, with whom he had merged a firm he had himself founded. The family came to the United States in 1903.
On completing his schooling, Samuel Henry Rob- erts, Jr., joined his father in the formation of the firm of S. H. Roberts and Son, Lace Manufacturers, at Alton, Rhode Island. This was in 1916, when he was only fifteen years old. Five years later, he and his father moved their plant to Port Jefferson, where they renamed the company Port Jefferson Lace Company. Later, they merged their firm with the Thomas Wilson Company, which had been estab- lished in 1839, and Mr. Roberts, Jr., was superinten- dent of the consolidated firm's plant at Port Jefferson until 1946. During this period his father was general manager and vice president. In 1946, the younger Mr. Roberts was appointed manager of the Port Jeffer-
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son mill and elected second vice president of the company. He is a member of the Suffolk Lodge, No. 60, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and the St. George Golf Country Club.
Mr. Roberts married Katherine Gladys Petty, daughter of Merwin and Ada (Davis) Petty, at Port Jefferson Station on August 18, 1923. They have two children: Warren Carter, born May 25, 1924, and Doreen Joyce, born February 26, 1928.
NELSON COOK OSBORNE-Long identified with important commercial and financial interests in Suffolk County, Nelson Osborne has been well called a typical representative of the modern progressive spirit which pervades the present-day communities of Long Island. A leader in civic affairs, he brings to them both a forward looking spirit and an eminently practical ability of which the community and the people are the beneficiaries. Over the course of the years he has done much to promote both the pros- perity and the public welfare of the East Hampton section of the Island.
A son of Joseph Septimus and Florence Nightingale (Worthington) Osborne, Nelson Cook Osborne is a present-day representative of two families long asso- ciated with life and progress on Long Island. Joseph Septimus Osborne has had an active and successful career in the real estate and insurance business. It was on March 4, 1888, that Nelson Cook Osborne was born at East Hampton, Suffolk County. His educa- tion he received in the public schools of his native village. Keenly interested in business even as a young man, he became associated at an early age with his father's operations in real estate and insurance, gain- ing a thorough knowledge of all branches of this business. He has continued to be his father's asso- ciate in this field to the present time. The Osbornes represent many of the leading fire, life, and casualty insurance companies.
In 1917 the Osborne Trust Company was organized, and through its successful operations Nelson Cook Osborne has become a financial leader in East Hamp- ton, holding the position of vice president since the company was established. Nelson Cook Osborne is also identified with many industrial, public service and commercial enterprises in various parts of Long Island. He sits on the directorate of the East Hamp- ton Lumber and Coal Company.
During World War I Mr. Osborne joined the naval air force and saw active service for nine months. He has been deeply interested since boyhood in civic affairs and good government, and since attaining his majority he has been an ardent supporter of the Re- publican party. He never sought public honors or the emoluments of office, but his popularity and the confi- dence of his fellow-citizens in his integrity and ad- ministrative ability led to his election in March, 1922, as president of the village of East Hampton, to serve until June, 1925.
Mr. Osborne's memberships in business organiza- tions include the New York State Local Agents As- sociation, the American Bankers Association and the New York State Bankers Association. He is a sup- porter of the Presbyterian Church, and a Mason en- joying unusually numerous affiliations. Thus he be- longs to the Star of the East Lodge, No. 843, of the Free and Accepted Masons; to Nunnakoma Lodge No. 308 of the Royal Arch Masons; Patchogue Com- mandery of the Knights Templar; and to the great "playground" order of Masonry, the Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, in which his affiliation is with the well-known Kismet Temple of
Brooklyn, New York City. For recreation and social life he belongs to the Munchogue Club and the Maid- stone Club.
At Hornell in northern New York State, Nelson Cook Osborne married on August 3, 1921, Eleanor Clark, a daughter of Charles Jay and Lucy S. (Fair- child) Clark. To Nelson Cook and Eleanor (Clark) Osborne the following children have been born: I. Charles Joseph, on June 15, 1922. 2. Nelson, Jr., on July 12, 1924. 3. Robert C., born December 24, 1928. 4. Eleanor F., born March 21, 1931.
FREDERICK W. SHAW-A native of Oceanside and the son of a native of that brisk little Nassau County village, Frederick W. Shaw has found his birthplace and home community the satisfactory set- ting of a career that has brought him success in the legal profession and in the banking business, and has made him one of the leading and most highly regarded of Oceanside's citizens.
Mr. Shaw's father was the late Lorenzo D. Shaw, born in Oceanside and for many years prior to his death in 1944, superintendent of public schools in that village. Lorenzo D. Shaw married Eliza A. Wood, a native of Baldwin, Nassau County, who is still living. Of this marriage Frederick W. Shaw was born on December 15, 1887. His education began in the public school of Oceanside, continued at the high school in near-by Rockville Centre, from which he graduated with the class of 1907. The law was his early choice of a career, and he prepared himself for that profession at Syracuse Unversity in Syra- cuse, New York, where he took his degree of Bache- lor of Laws in 1910. In the following year he was admitted to the bar.
Mr. Shaw hung out his shingle in his native Ocean- side, and there he has continued to have his office as well as his residence to the present time. In his prac- tice he has represented many important clients, and his standing is high at the bar of Nassau County.
Mr. Shaw has long been a leader in the banking field in that section of the county, and is today the president and a member of the board of directors of the Oceanside National Bank, the only banking insti- tution in that village. Organized in 1923, the Ocean- side National Bank in 1928 moved into the handsome modern bank building which it continues to occupy today. In addition to Mr. Shaw the officers are Christian Binner, vice president; Rufus H. Smth, vice president; Oliver Proctor, vice president; Ferdi- nand Rebenstreit, cashier; Louis B. Krummenacker, assistant cashier; and the directors are given as Christian Binner, Fred Shaw, John A. Wright, Frank Ploth, Rufus H. Smith, Sanford Story and Ferdinand Hebenstreit.
Mr. Shaw is a member of the Episcopal Church, in which he sits on the board of trustees. In politics he is an independent.
On August 17, 1913, Frederick W. Shaw married Eleanor Pearsall, of Oceanside, a daughter of Alexan- der A. and Eleanor (Ghee) Pearsall. Of this marri- age one child has been born, a daughter, Winifred, who is now the wife of Leon Cota, of Oceanside, by whom she is the mother of a son, John Frederick.
ARTHUR EUSTACE-A native of England, where he was born in the County of Yorkshire on February 14, 1878, Arthur Eustace was brought to the United States when he was a boy eight years of age, by his parents Charles and Mary (Davison) Eustace, both of whom are now deceased. Charles Eustace was an interior decorator and engaged in
Hubert & Couvin
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that art in New York City and in Brooklyn, where the young Arthur Eustace attended the public schools.
After his school days Arthur Eustace followed a number of different lines of work until November of the year 1914., At that time the automobile was fully established as the modern means of transportation, though it had not yet become a taken-for-granted necessity in almost every family, and the movement to provide hard-surfaced highways for motor travel was still in its earlier stages. Mr. Eustace correctly foresaw the great future business possibilities in motor cars, and at the time referred to he entered the garage and automobile field under his own name in East Rockaway. At first he had an agency for the Overland and Willys-Knight cars, and later he held the franchise for the Marmon line until 1932.
In 1932 Mr. Eustace secured the franchise for the Chrysler line, which he has held to the present time. He is one of the oldest dealers in automobiles, in point of being continuously in business, in all of Nassau County if not in all of Long Island.
Mr. Eustace has from the beginning of his residence in East Rockaway, been a dynamic and constructive factor in the business and civic life of that village. He was one of the organizers of the East Rockaway National Bank and Trust Company, and today holds membership on the board of directors of that financial institution. He is a Republican by political faith and active in the affairs of his party, and he has served for one term of two years in public office, as a trustee of the village of East Rockaway. He is an active member and a past president of the Lions Club of Lynbrook, and has long been a member of the East Rockaway Board of Trade, which he did head as president in 1946-47. In religion Mr. Eustace is a member of the Presbyterian Church. His hobbies are baseball, fishing and horseback riding.
In the borough of Brooklyn, New York City, on January 1, 1901, Arthur Eustace married Eva Jones, a native of Brooklyn and a daughter of Smith and Mary (Yerks) Jones. Of this marriage there is one child, a daughter, Edna May, who is now the wife of Kenneth Hulbert, by whom she is the mother of a daughter, Barbara Joy.
CLARENCE FRANK SIMONSON-Member of a family that settled on Long Island in the Colonial days before the Revolution, Clarence Frank Simon- son has done much to forward the progress of a large section of the island. He operates the Clarence Simonson Agency at 377 Sunrise Highway, in Lyn- brook, and is well known in the real estate and insur- ance field throughout Long Island and the metropoli- tan district.
Mr. Simonson was born in Lynbrook on January 27, 1902, the son of Edward and Eliza (Scott) Simonson. Edward Simonson, who was also in the real estate and insurance business, was once president of the Lynbrook Board of Education and a member of the board of trustees of the village of Lynbrook. He was one of the original group that obtained the charter for the Lynbrook National Bank and served that insti- tution as a director for many years.
Clarence Frank Simonson was first educated in the public schools of Lynbrook. In 1920 he was graduated from the Lynbrook High School where he had established a fame for athletics which was to continue for many years. He was captain of both the high school baseball team and a non-scholastic team. Also, he played shortstop on a semi-profes- sional baseball team. After leaving the high school,
he spent three years at Springfield College, Spring- field, Massachusetts, where he was on the wrestling and boxing teams. In 1945 Mr. Simonson was gradu- ated from Fordham University Law School with the degree of Bachelor of Laws and was admitted to the bar in 1945 and is a member of the New York Bar Association.
In the years between his Springfield College days and the Fordham law studies, Mr. Simonson had al- ready established himself in his present business. On leaving Springfield, he followed semi-pro baseball for a time. Then, in 1925, he opened his agency. As real estate man he has promoted the development of many areas that have contributed to the growth of the island.
Mr. Simonson married Elizabeth Marie Schu- macher, daughter of the late Conrad R. and Marie (Wirth) Schumacher, in Lynbrook on September 24, 1931. Conrad R. Schumacher was an inventor and was vice president of the Auto-Strop Safety Razor Company and later vice president of The Gillette Safety Razor Company. He later resigned and or- ganized his own company, the Conrad Razor Blade Company in Long Island City, which is still in operation. He served as its president, and later chair- man of the board until his death, December 20, 1939.
HUBERT F. CORWIN-The Corwin and Vail Lumber Company, located at 402 Griffing Avenue in Riverhead, dates back to 1880 though it has passed through numerous mutations since then, several of the major ones under the guidance of Hubert F. Corwin, the present sole owner. The company, managed by Mr. Corwin's son, Leone W. Corwin, is one of the largest dealing in general lumber, paint, hardware, millwork, masons' supplies and insulation in Suffolk County. Hubert F. Corwin is one of the county's leading citizens. He is one of the Riverhead business group which was instrumental in bringing about the construction of the famous Hotel Henry Perkins in the county seat and is now a director of the Riverhead Hotel Association. He is also a director of the Nassau-Suffolk County Supply Corporation and di- rector of the Riverhead News, vice president of the Eastern Oil & Gas Corporation, commissioner of the Riverhead Fire Department.
Hubert F. Corwin was born at Riverhead on Sep- tember 25, 1876, the son of Henry Harrison Corwin and nephew of George M. Vail, both of whom were prominent in the affairs of Long Island in the last decades and the first decades of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, respectively. It was Henry Har- rison Corwin who established the lumber firm in 1880, later taking Mr. Vail into partnership.
Hubert F. Corwin was educated in the district school at Riverhead and the Riverhead High School, and at Allander Heffley Business College in Brooklyn. In 1896, when he was twenty years old, he entered his father's and uncle's business. His first job was as a yard employee. In 1910, the business was in- corporated under its present name, the Corwin and Vail Lumber Company. At this time Hubert Corwin became a stockholder. The corporation was afterward dissolved, the business being taken over by Hubert Corwin and John R. Terrell, who retained the Corwin and Vail firm name. Henry Corwin had in the meantime retired and Mr. Vail had withdrawn from the business to become president of the Suffolk County Trust Company. Both passed away some years ago, Henry Corwin at the age of ninety-six.
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In 1929 Mr. Corwin affiliated the Riverhead enter- prise with the Nassau-Suffolk Lumber Supply Corpo- ration. This affiliation continued for twelve years. In 1941 he purchased interests in the affiliate and at the same time became sole owner of the Corwin and Vail Lumber Company. Leone W. Corwin joined his father in the business in 1923 and now has the respon- sibility of its administration.
Hubert F. Corwin is a member of the Riverhead Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons; the Rotary Club of Riverhead, and is past noble grand of the Roanoke Lodge, Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
He and Minnie C. Woodhull, daughter of Sopher and Cornelia (Brown) Woodhull and native of Laurel, were married in that community in June, 1902. Be- sides Leone, their children are Florence M., now Mrs. James Nicholson of Hampton Bays; Cornelia, and Muriel, now Mrs. Orville Brown of Port Jefferson. All four children were born in Riverhead and all are graduates of Riverhead High School. Mr. and Mrs. Hubert F. Corwin have eight grandchildren.
Leone W. Corwin married Clarissa Fleming of Queens Village and they are the parents of three children-Mary Lou, Leone H. and Clarissa.
Leone Corwin is active in numerous spheres of interest in Suffolk County. He is a director of the Riverhead Hotel Association, director of the Long Island State Bank and Trust Company, a member of the Riverhead Hospital Association, past president of the Riverhead Republican Club and a member of the National Republican Club. He is a member of the board of trustees of the Methodist Church of Riverhead and is on the hospital association's building committee. He is past president of the Rotary Club of Riverhead, past noble grand of Roanoke Lodge, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and past master of Riverhead Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons. During World War II, he was with the United States Coast Guard, (TR).
Besides Mr. and Mrs. Leone Corwin's children, the grandchildren of Mr. and Mrs. Hubert F. Corwin are James, Allen and Helen, the sons and daughter of Mr. and Mrs. James Nicholson, and Orville and Jerry, the sons of Mr. and Mrs. Orville Brown.
WILLIAM L. NAGLE-After some years in other lines of work, William L. Nagle entered the real estate field as a salesman, only to turn after a few years to the oil business; but it was not long before he returned to real estate, doubtless realizing that few lines of business endeavor offer as rich rewards as are possible in the development of the opportunities presented by the amazing growth of Nassau County's villages as preferred suburban home areas for the overflowing population of nearby metropolitan New York City.
Mr. Nagle was born in Brooklyn, before that larg- est of Long Island communities became a borough of the city of New York. His father, William J. Nagle, is the inventor and patentee of "Wright's Bias Seam Tape," which he manufactured for many years in New York City as a partner in the firm of Wright and Nagle. William J. Nagle married Mary F. Crawford, and of this marriage William L. Nagle was born on April 7, 1893. He was educated in the public grade schools and at the Boys High School in Brook- lyn, graduating from the latter in 1911. School days over, he was employed in various capacities for some time by the New York Edison Company and also by the New York Telephone Company.
In 1929 Mr. Nagle became associated as a sales- man with the Controlling Realty Company in Ocean- side, Nassau County, and so continued for approxi- mately four years. At that time he took a position with the Gulf Oil Company at Bayonne, New Jersey, where he remained for four years. In 1933 he returned to Oceanside and entered the real estate business in his own name, establishing a business which has pros- pered with the growth of that progressive village and can look forward to even greater opportunities in the post-war years. His office is now at 363 Long Beach Road, Oceanside.
During World War I Mr. Nagle joined the United States Army and served a total of fourteen months with the 102nd Signal Battalion. Of this period, ten months were in active service overseas.
Mr. Nagle is an active member of the Oceanside Board of Trade, and in the past has served as presi- dent of that group. In religion he is a Roman Catholic, and a communicant of St. Anthony's Church of that denomination in Oceanside. His hobbies are wood- working and sports.
In Bayonne, New Jersey, on October 20, 1924, Wil- liam L. Nagle married Blanche D. Billings, of Chi- cago, Illinois.
COMUNARDO L. RENZULLI-Although he is a comparatively new figure at the bar, Comunardo L. Renzulli is no stranger to the principles and prac- tice of the law. A career in this profession was his early ambition, and while its fulfillment was delayed, the intervening years were spent in close association with lawyers and legal procedures.
Born at Phladelphia, Pennsylvania, on March II, 1905, a son of Salvatore and Angelina (Martinelli) Renzulli, Comunardo L. Renzulli attended public school at Landisville, Atlantic County, New Jersey, and graduated from high school at Vineland in that state in 1924. Entering the New Jersey Law School, he graduated from that institution with the class of 1927. In 1927 he returned to his father's farm in south Jersey and then came to New York in the fall of 1929 and worked for two years with Bloomingdale Broth- ers. He then enrolled for further law study at the St. John's University Law School in Brooklyn. There- after for two years he read law in the office of D. Joseph De Andrea in Brooklyn, New York. Becom- ing associated with the fidelity and surety claims de- partment of the Ocean Accident and Guarantee Cor- poration, Ltd., of One Park Avenue, New York City, he remained with them for twelve years. In 1943 he was admitted to the bar, and in January, 1946, began the active practice of his profession, and now has an office at 118 Doughty Boulevard, Inwood.
Among Mr. Renzulli's clients is the Peninsula Golf Club, Inc., of which he is a member and for which he acts as attorney. He is also an active member and attorney for the Kiwanis Club of Oceanside, Nassau County. His hobby is photography. In politics he is a member of the Republican party. He and his family are communicants of St. Agnes' Roman Catholic Church in Rockville Centre, Nassau County.
At Rockville Centre on June 19, 1932, Comunardo L. Renzulli was married to Assunta F. Sorrentino, and daughter of the late Michael Sorrentino and his wife Angelina (Marucci) Sorrentino, who is still liv- ing. Comunardo and Assunta F. (Sorrentino) Ren- zulli are the parents of two children: I. Franklin C., who was born on September 2, 1935. 2. Michael Winston, born on October 5, 1943.
Brad Labor
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HAROLD R. ROBERT, M.D .- Dr. Harold R. Robert, long known as a leading physician, contributes to many phases of community life in Farmingdale. His professional career has included service to his country in two World Wars. On March 15, 1918, he entered the United States Army as a first lieu- tenant in psychiatric service in the medical corps and served until his discharge in November, 1919. During World War II Dr. Robert was a medical examiner on the Hicksville draft board. In addition to the heavy responsibilities of his profession and his volun- tary patriotic functions, he has participated in several important organizations.
The son of Louis F. Robert, deceased, merchant of Au Sable Forks, and Orzilia (LaFreniere) Robert, deceased, who was a native of Montreal, Canada, Harold R. Robert was born in Au Sable Forks, Sep- tember 20, 1888. He attended public school there and the high school at Plattsburg. His medical studies were pursued at the famous McGill University at Montreal, Canada, where he received his degree of Doctor of Medicine, Master of Surgery in 1912. Com- pleting internship at Champlain Valley Hospital at Plattsburg, Dr. Robert was in state hospital service at Dannemora until 1918, when he was called to the service of his country. He returned to his post in Dannemora State Hospital after his discharge from the army and rendered valuable assistance at the institution until 1925 when he resigned to open an office in Farmingdale for the general practice of medi- cine. He has continued professionally at the Long Island address to the general satisfaction of the pub- lic. Dr. Robert maintains an alert interest in current medical advancements through his membership in the Nassau County Medical Society and the New York State Medical Society.
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