USA > New York > Nassau County > Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume III > Part 62
USA > New York > Suffolk County > Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume III > Part 62
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In 1924 Mr. Pulver established himself in the bot- tled gas business in Bridgehampton, where today his main office and principal warehouse are located. He now also has showrooms and bulk storage plants at Riverhead. The enterprise, constantly expanding, is known as Pulver's Bottled Gas Service.
In 1925 Mr. Pulver became a member of the Suf- folk County Republican Committee of which he is treasurer, and he is a member of the National Re- publican Club. He has continued active with that in- fluential political group ever since. In January, 1939, he became county auditor and this office he retains. He is a member of the Sag Harbor Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, and the Royal Arch Masons, the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, the Knights Temp- lar and the Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He is a Noble of Kismet Temple, Brooklyn. He is also a member of the Foresters of America, the Southhampton Lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and founder member
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and trustee of the Southampton Country Club. He is a member of the Bridgehampton Board of Education for fourteen years and has been fire commissioner for fifteen years. He worships at the Presbyterian Church in Bridgehampton.
Mr. Pulver married Katharine Rogers, daughter of Dr. William H. and Maud (Hastings) Rogers, of Bridgehampton, in that community on October 24, 1916. They have two daughters-Lois, born July 10, 1918, and Ruth, born December 29, 1921. Lois Pulver and Ruth Pulver were both educated in the Bridge- hampton High School and both are graduates of Skidmore College at Saratoga Springs, New York. Lois married Robert Hinkle and is the mother of two daughters, Sandra Lee and Cynthia Gale; the Hinkle family lives at Schenectady. Ruth married Raymond W. Enstine of Southampton, and has one son, Ray- mond W. Enstine, Jr.
WINFRED C. RYDER-Two generations of Ryd- ers have been true benefactors of the southern area of Nassau County, in that they have been the build- ers of great numbers of the beautiful homes which have attracted multitudes of New York City's over- crowded population to those Long Island villages where sunshine and breezes laden with the tonic tang of the sea afford health and happiness to adults and children alike. In addition, the Ryders have con- tributed to the development of those facilities, such as stores and theatres, which have made these Nassau County suburbs self-contained communities, offering all the conveniences of the city in a semi-rural setting.
George Sanford Ryder, who was a native of East Rockaway, was a large builder of homes in the Lyn- brook vicinity for many years. He married Eliza Jane Ryder, and of this union Winfred C. Ryder was born at East Rockaway on April 11, 1887. He at- tended public grade and high schools in his native village and also went to college, but in his eagerness to engage in the same work as his father, he started real estate operations and building on speculation at the age of nineteen years. Like his father, he oper- ated in Lynbrook and later opened a second office in Oceanside where he continued in the real estate and insurance businesses until his death on January 19, 1944. During these later years Mr. Ryder, in addi- tion to his principal office in Oceanside, maintained offices in Lynbrook, in the borough of Brooklyn and in the borough of Manhattan, New York City. His operations were not confined to the Oceanside vicinity, for he was interested in the development and build- ing of residential and business properties, including theatres, throughout much of Nassau County.
During the first World War Mr. Ryder served as a deputy United States marshal. He took part in politics as a member of the Democratic party. His hobbies were golf and boating, and he was the owner of a cruiser on which he spent many happy hours sailing the waters of the Atlantic Ocean and the bays which deeply indent the southern shores of Nassau and Suffolk counties.
At New York City Winfred C. Ryder married Isabel M. Wilkin of Brooklyn, a daughter of Elliott and Henrietta Wilkin. Of this marriage there was one child, a son, Roland Aubrey, who is now deceased.
LEONARD WOOD HALL-Since his graduation from Georgetown University, Leonard Wood Hall has made a career of the practice of the law and of service in public official capacities. He is Congress-
man representing the First New York District, and a prominent attorney of Oyster Bay.
Mr. Hall was born in this community, on October 2, 1900, son of Franklyn H. and Mary A. Garvin Hall, and was educated in local schools on Long Island, and Georgetown University, being graduated from the latter institution in 1920, with the degree Bachelor of Laws. Compelled to wait until he became of age before being admitted to the bar, he passed the New York State examinations during the follow- ing year and, since that time has followed his pro- fession in New York City and Oyster Bay. A staunch Republican in political affiliations, he served as an assemblyman from the Second District of Nassau County during the session of 1927-1928. He was elected sheriff of Nassau County, a post he filled capably until he retired on January 1, 1932. He was elected again to the Assembly of New York and attended the sessions at Albany from 1934 to 1938, sponsoring and supporting constructive legislation that made his name and reputation outstanding in New York political affairs. He had the honor and responsibility of serving in the seventy-sixth, seventy- seventh, seventy-eighth, seventy-ninth and eightieth congresses (1939-1948) at Washington, D. C., where he furthered his reputation and popularity, as a repre- sentative of the First New York District.
Congressman Hall is a member of the National Re- publican Club of New York, and fraternally is affili- ated with the Free and Accepted Masons and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He at- tends the Protestant Episcopal Church.
On May 10, 1934, Leonard Wood Hall married Gladys Dowsey of Manhasset, Long Island, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. James L. Dowsey. He maintains professional offices at No. 96 South Street, while his home is at No. 147 Antice Street, Oyster Bay.
WALTER R. PETTIT, SR .- "Dependable Goods -
Dependable Service."
That was the slogan chosen by Albert S. Pettit for the business he founded in Huntington Station in 1888-a business which, operating according to that slogan, has grown into the gigantic Nassau Suffolk Lumber and Supply Corporation. Of this corpora- tion, the late founder's son, Walter R. Pettit, Sr., is today vice president and treasurer. Through his ac- tivities with the concern and in the community, he has come to hold a foremost position among lumber- men in northeastern United States, is a former mem- ber of the Huntington Board of Education and is active in financial and insurance circles.
Walter R. Pettit, Sr., was born in Huntington on June 21, 1886. His father died in 1935 and his mother, the former Hattie Box, in 1943. Mr. Pettit received his early education in the public schools of Hunting- ton. Following his graduation from the Huntington High School, he attended the Centenary Collegiate Institute at Hackettstown, New Jersey, and subse- quently Syracuse University. He later entered his father's business, which by that time had already grown to great dimensions.
The elder Mr. Pettit, a native of Hempstead. had as a young man worked for the Long Island Railroad as a station agent, first at Westbury, finally at Hunt- ington. He was transferred to Huntington in 1883. Five years later he founded his business. He became not only a successful and prominent business man, but an influential citizen of the community and sur- rounding area. He was active in the Masonic fra-
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ternity and was one of the early directors of the First National Bank of Huntington.
His business, first known as A. S. Pettit, started its career when its founder bought his first carload of coal, all of which he sold in small piecemeal lots, in 1888. He gradually bought coal on a larger scale and in a few years he decided to add a feed and grain department. He and his wife managed the business jointly. They also handled the Huntington Station post office for some years. In 1910 Mr. A. S. Pettit added lumber and building materials to the firm's merchandise. In 1913 he decided to incorporate the business. It became the A. S. Pettit & Sons, Incor- porated. The officers at the time were A. S. Pettit, president; Stanley E. Pettit, vice president; Walter R. Pettit, Sr., secretary-treasurer, and Mrs. A. S. Pettit, assistant treasurer.
On April 1, 1927, the business of the Huntington Lumber and Coal Company was acquired by direct purchase, and since that time has been a branch yard of the main yard, opposite the depot at Huntington Station. Through this purchase, A. S. Pettit & Sons were able to increase their facilities to provide better service to their customers.
On January 1, 1928, the company and six other yards operating in Nassau and Suffolk counties joined forces and incorporated under the name of Nassau Suffolk Lumber & Supply Company, with its principal place of business at Mineola, where Walter R. Pettit served as secretary. The merger was formed primarily for the purpose of increasing the facilities of the various plants through achieving greater economy of purchase and efficiency of operation. Today the general offices are at Amityville, to which they were moved in 1930, with branches and yards at Huntington Station, Smithtown, Brentwood, Roslyn, Locust Valley, Wan- taghı, Westbury and Bay Shore. Among the mer- chandise handled are appliances for the home, wall- paper, hardware, paint, lumber, millwork, roofing, flagging, fencing, insulation, wallboard and water proofing.
Having as early as 1910 joined his father in the management of the business, Walter R. Pettit, Sr., has had much to do with its growth. As has been indicated, he was included among the incorporators when in 1913 the corporation of A. S. Pettit and Sons was created. Later he participated in the nego- tiations for the acquisition of the Huntington Lumber and Coal Company's holdings and the following year, 1928, in the consolidation of Pettit's with six other Long Island yards into the present Nassau Suffolk Lumber and Supply Company. To Mr. Pettit is cred- ited a great deal of the guidance which before and after the death of his father in 1935 extended the operations and the influence of the vast enterprise. As vice president and treasurer, he is associated with the following other officers: Stanley M. Cox, of Amity- ville, president; Harry M. Ketchum, of Amityville, vice president, and W. Harold Van Tuyl, secretary.
Mr. Pettit is also a vice president and director of the Huntington Federal Savings and Loan Associa- tion; a director of the First National Bank of Hunting- ton and of the Pennsylvania Lumbermen's Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Philadelphia, president and treasurer, Lumber Security Corporation; treas- urer, Lumber Realty Corporation; and a member of the Glen Cove Underwriters Advisory Board of the National Retailers Mutual Insurance Company. He is a former president of the Northeastern Retail Lum- bermen's Association, a charter member and past president of the Huntington Rotary Club, a director of the Long Island Association, and a member of the
Huntington Chamber of Commerce, the Huntington Crescent Club, and the Syracuse University Club. For some years he served on the Huntington Board of Education. His church is the First Presbyterian of Huntington.
Mr. Pettit and Martha L. Pettit, daughter of Wil- liam F. and Louisa C. (Millard) Pettit, of Hemp- stead, were married at Hempstead on October 26, 1912. They are the parents of two sons, both of whom are associated with their father in the Nassau Suffolk Lumber and Supply Corporation-Walter R., Jr., born in Huntington on February 2, 1914, and William A., born in Huntington on August 22, 1918. Walter R. Pettit, Jr., is a graduate of Huntington High School, Mercersburg Academy at Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, and the University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia. He received the degree of Bachelor of Science from the University in 1936. He married Mae Arnold Troup, daughter of Capt. and Mrs. Mary Arnold, of Babylon. Captain Arnold was commandant of the United States Coast Guard in the Third Naval District in World War I. Walter Pettit, Jr., was a fire con- trolman first class in the United States Navy in World War II. William A. Pettit is also a graduate of Huntington High School and the University of Pennsylvania. He also holds the degree of Bachelor of Science. In World War II, he was a corporal technician in the United States Army and served in the Pacific Theater of Operations. He married Lor- raine M. Ackerly, daughter of Russell H. and Mar- garet (Cushing) Ackerly of Huntington, and they are the parents of three sons: William A., Jr., Chris- topher, and Walter Russell.
DR. H. S. PETTIT-Peconic Lodge on Shelter Island, founded in 1921, owes its origin to a medically- trained American who was one of the earliest expon- ents of systematized physical exercise coordinated with outdoor camping, habit training and wholesome diet. As early as 1897 he established the first sea- shore camp for children in the United States. Called Pine Bluff Camp, it was located at Port Jefferson. Other camps followed, with Dr. Pettit's daughter, Clarissa, now Mrs. Marmont Edson, aiding her father and gradually assuming a more responsible share of the management of the "body building" resorts. Today, as the successor of her father, she is president and general manager of the company which operates the popular Peconic Lodge. The lodge, a natural outgrowth of Dr. Pettit's camping activities, is situated on a thousand-foot waterfront, surrounded by one hundred acres of rolling fields and woodland, with all the lodges, bungalows and the dining hall in the woods but within one hundred feet of the sandy beach. In the 188os and 1890s Dr. Pettit was known not only for his physical education work but for his own prowess in sports. . In 1885 he held parallel bar championship of America as well as the lightweight all-round championship of America, hav- ing won a well-sponsored competition consisting of boxing, wrestling, pushing up heavy weights, feats on the parallel and horizontal bars, fancy club swing- ing, running high jump and half-mile run. In 1889 he won second place in a contest to decide the cham- pionship of America on the flying rings. The Pettit family, like the Edson, into which the doctor's daugh- ter married, were charter members of the Shelter Island Association. The greatest era of development and popularity of Peconic Lodge has been the period in which Mrs. Clarissa Pettit Edson has guided its destinies.
Dr. H. S. Pettit was born in New Jersey and was
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a graduate of the Long Island College of Medicine. Early in his career he was associated with Adelphi College in Brooklyn. During this time he made re- searches into physical education which led to body- building systems and resorts. He established the first of his camps in 1894. In 1897 Pine Bluff Camp was founded. In 1921, a camp exclusively for girls was opened at Shelter Island Heights, with Clarissa Pettit Edson in charge. Later a second girls' camp was established at Shelter Island Heights. The two girls' camps were known as Camp Sewanhaka and Camp Manhansack.
Father and daughter operated the three camps simultaneously, with the former concentrating on the Port Jefferson resort, but his principles of body build- ing prevailed in all three camps. Shortly after the second girls' camp was opened, father and daughter established Peconic Lodge in conjunction with the two camps. At Peconic Lodge both sexes were re- ceived as guests, adults as well as younger people. Dr. Pettit and his daughter worked closely together on their four projects until Dr. Pettit's death in February, 1932. Mrs. Edson carried on alone in the management of the girls' camps and Peconic Lodge until 1938, when she discontinued the three camps to devote her full time and energies to developing Pe- conic Lodge to its full potentialities. The lodge, its buildings and grounds occupy eighty-seven acres of Shelter Island. Facilities are provided for one hundred and fifty guests individually, as couples or entire families.
Clarissa Pettit Edson was born in Brooklyn in April, 1893. After attending Adelphi Academy and being graduated from Adelphi College, she taught school in New York in the fall, winter and spring and did her camp work in the summer. Her mother was Blanche Tooker, a native of Port Jefferson and of a seafaring family. Her grandfather, Captain Edward Post Tooker, was a captain on coastwise vessels which operated between Port Jefferson and Jamaica and other West Indies ports.
Marmont Edson, to whom Clarissa Pettit was mar- ried in 1921, is a business executive in Binghamton, New York. He is a former commodore of the Shelter Island Yacht Club. Mr. and Mrs. Edson make their winter home in Binghamton.
ARTHUR R. JEDLICKA-For more than eighty years the name of Jedlicka has been known in Say- ville and adjacent parts of Suffolk County in connec- tion with plumbing, metal work, heating, water sys- tems, kitchen equipment and-in later years-auto- matic fuel burners. Three generations of the one family have guided the affairs of this solidly-established and lucrative concern, and have made the name Jedlicka synonymous with honest value in merchandise and expert service.
The firm of Jedlicka Brothers Company, Inc., was founded in 1866 by Joseph Jedlicka. His son, Joseph Jedlicka, Jr., has long been president of the corpora- tion.
A newspaper columnist some time ago recounted a conversation with Joseph Jedlicka, Sr., who recalled incidents of his own life and of old days on Long Island. When Mr. Jedlicka was born on July 22, 1863, his father was a member of the Union army, for those were the days of the Civil War, and by good fortune was able to come home on furlough from Virginia just in time to be at home when his son was born. On that occasion he brought with him a clock which many years later was still in good order
and a good time-keeper. Mr. Jedlicka recalled that the late genial proprietor of the Hotel Kensington, Andy Kennedy, was born within an hour of Mr. Jed- licka's own birth, and they always celebrated their birthdays together.
Joseph Jedlicka, Sr., remembers that the late Ad- miral George Dewey, victorious commander at the Battle of Manila Bay in the Spanish-American War, after the elaborate receptions given him in New York City, came to Oakdale, to visit Admiral Lud- low, whose name is traditional on the Island, being associated with the Ludlow estate and with a church in Oakdale. Mr. Jedlicka was proud of the fact that one of his sons was a member of old company B of the Uniform Rank before the World War. A son of his was also in the veterans' hospital in Northport as a result of injuries received in one of the World wars. Mr. Jedlicka himself years before this inter- view suffered a gunshot wound which left a dozen or more pellets in his arm, which came out from time to time for years afterward. Joseph Jedlicka, Sr., re- counted that he had helped install the plumbing in the old Laurel House and had done many other plumbing jobs throughout Long Island and New England, in- cluding a special bathroom installed for Consuelo Vanderbilt, now Mrs. Jacques Balsan, at the time of her first marriage, to the Duke of Marlborough. Mr. Jedlicka at that time had been fire commissioner of Sayville for sixteen years and was the oldest of four generations of his family belonging to the Say- ville fire department.
Joseph Jedlicka, Jr., married Antoinette Fisher, and to them the son they named Arthur was born at Sayville on January 18, 1901. He attended public grade and high schools at Sayville, graduating from the latter in June, 1918. Eager to take his place in the family business, he enrolled at Brown's Business School in Jamaica, borough of Queens, New York City; but our country being at that time involved in World War I he interrupted his studies to enter the armed service, and was stationed at Camp Upton, Long Island. After the war, in 1920, he became asso- ciated with the firm of Jedlicka Brothers as a book- keeper and also served an apprenticeship as a plumber and steamfitter. In 1930 Joseph Jedlicka, Jr., partially retired from business, and at that time the late Arthur R. Jedlicka took over active management of the firm's operations, from which time he guided progressively and profitably.
Mr. Jedlicka was a member and past president of the Suffolk County Master Plumbers Association. He was one of the leading and most popular citizens of his community, and active in many organizations. As a Mason he was a member of Connetquot Lodge No. 838 of the Free and Accepted Masons, meeting in Sayville, and of the South Shore Council No. 123 of the Junior Order of United American Mechanics; was a former chief and always an active member of the Sayville volunteer fire department. He was affiliated with the Foresters of America, and belonged to the Bohemian Game Protective Gun Club. He served as treasurer and a member of the board of directors of the Cherry Grove Property Owners Association. In religion he was a communicant of the Episcopalian Church. His favorite recreations were surf fishing and duck hunting.
At Bohemia, Suffolk County, Arthur R. Jedlicka married Louise Bartik, of that place, in October, 1925. Mrs. Jedlicka is a daughter of Edward and Bessie (Kovarik) Bartik. She is active in the work and affairs of Metlakatla Chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star, at Sayville. Of this marriage there is
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one child, a daughter, Lois. Lois Jedlicka graduated from the Sayville High School in 1946 and is now a student at the David Mannes Music School in the city of New York. Mr. Jedlicka's death occurreed August 4, 1947.
FRED L. HAYES early in life brought his excep- tional business abilities into a number of enterprises, and developed thereby the experience and judgment which had made his leadership of the Nassau Utilities Fuel Corporation, over a period of more than twenty year, an able and profitable one. Mr. Hayes's busi- ness is located at Roslyn Landing, and he is a resident of Great Neck, Nassau County, where he has been active in political and in club and lodge affairs, as well as in business circles.
On September 15, 1881, Mr. Hayes was born in Kingston, New York. His father, Joel Noble Hayes, found the small city of Kingston, located on the Hud- son, a pleasant place for his home, and a logical place as well; for he was chief engineer of the "Mary Powell," old steamer of the Hudson River Day Line and "Queen of the Hudson," plying between Kingston and New York City. Joel Noble Hayes married Hannah M. Lowe, and their son, Fred L., was reared in Kingston and attended the public schools there. He took responsibilities early in life, starting work at the age of thirteen at the death of his father. He later learned the machinist's trade which he followed for a time.
Meantime his program for his lifelong occupation was being formulated, and it centered, not in me- chanical pursuits, but in business. In May, 1908, he came to New York City as night superintendent of the New York Taxi-cab Company who operated about six hundred taxi-cabs in the city. The early part of 1910 the New York Taxi-cab Company and the Mason-Seaman Company merged into one large com- pany known as the Mason-Seaman Transportation Company with headquarters at West Fifty-seventh Street and North River and Mr. Hayes was made operating superintendent. The new corporation oper- ated approximately one thousand taxi-cabs in New York, with private stands at all the leading hotels, rail road terminals, etc. In 1913 he entered the garage business in New York City, located on Nintieth Street, Manhattan, naming it, for reasons which we may guess, the Kingston Garage. He later became proprietor of a commercial garage on 127th Street, and remained there until about the time of this coun- try's entry into World War I. After selling this business he became associated with the Tide Water Oil Corporation, this connection continuing from 1919 until April, 1925.
Now, with both private enterprise and utilities experience behind him, Mr. Hayes was ready for the decisive step of his career. In 1925 he organized the Nassau Utilities Corporation. Capitalized initially at twenty thousand dollars, this company offered facili- ties for the storage of one hundred thousand gallons of oil. An index of its acceptance and of its growth is the fact that today its storage capacity is in excess of four million gallons. Its main office and plant are located at Roslyn Landing, and there is a branch at Oceanside. It numbers on its payroll fifty full time employees. The firm name was changed, in 1929, from the Nassau Utilities Corporation to the Nassau Utilities Fuel Corporation. Throughout, Mr. Hayes has headed this concern, with the title of president. Another business connection of Mr. Hayes is the
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