Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume III, Part 73

Author: Bailey, Paul, 1885-1962, editor
Publication date: 1949
Publisher: New York, Lewis Historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 922

USA > New York > Nassau County > Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume III > Part 73
USA > New York > Suffolk County > Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume III > Part 73

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In 1930, Mr. Westerbeke became a member of the board of education of Union Free School District No. I, town of Islip, Bay Shore. In 1943-45, he was that body's president. He was one of the founders and is a director and the attorney for the Bay Shore Federal Savings and Loan Association. In World War II, he was active in the programs of the Ameri- can Red Cross, the Boy Scouts of America and the United Service Organizations (USO). He had served as a carpenter's mate second class in the United States Navy in World War I.

Mr. Westerbeke's standing in the community as a citizen and lawyer and his activities in fraternal and service club organizations have won him high honors. A charter member and first president of the Lions Club of Bay Shore, he is a past district deputy governor of Lions International. He served the Bay Shore club as president both in 1931 and 1933. A past master of the Bay Shore Lodge, No. 1043, Free and Accepted Masons, he is past district deputy grand master of the Suffolk Masonic District. In Masonry also, he is a member of Penataquit Chapter No. 309, Royal Arch Masons. He is also a member of the Bay Shore Post, No. 365 American Legion; Beta Theta Pi fraternity; the Timber Point Club, and the Suffolk County and New York State bar associations. In St. Peter's Episcopal Church, Bay Shore, he is a vestryman.

Mr. Westerbeke married Ethel M. Buchs, daughter of Charles and Florence A. (Kenward) Buchs, of Bay Shore, in that community on October 6, 1929.

They have become the parents of a daughter and son: Patricia, born on February 25, 1937, and Robert William, born on May 3, 1946. The family makes its home at Brightwaters. Mr. Westerbeke maintains offices in Bay Shore.

RALPH H. HONSBERGER-For more than a score of years Dr. Ralph H. Honsberger practiced the profession of dentistry at Amityville, and with each year his reputation mounted. Then Dr. Hons- berger retired-not from all activity, but only from the dental world. He has since then established a reputation of equal strength in the world of finance, for he is active in two institutions-the Suffolk County Federal Savings and Loan Association at Babylon, of which he is vice president and a director, and the Babylon National Bank and Trust Company, of which he is a director. His home is still Amity- ville.

Dr. Honsberger was born at New Ringgold, Penn- sylvania, on July 1I, 1892, the son of Harry Urias and Ida (Sassaman) Honsberger, both of whom were also born in the Keystone State. For many years until his death, Harry Honsberger was a superintendent of the Lehigh Navigation Coal Company of Lansford, Penn- sylvania. In the War Between the States, Mr. Hons- berger's grandfather was a sergeant in Company B, 48th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, serving throughout the four years of the conflict.

Ralph Honsberger was graduated from the Lans- ford High School in 1910. With an eye to a com- mercial career, he then continued his training at McCann's Business College at Mahonoy City, Penn- sylvania. Following his graduation from this institu- tion in I911, he was private secretary to the vice president of the Lehigh Navigation Coal Company for four years. In 1915 he embarked on the study of dentistry and in 1918 received his degree of Doctor of Dental Surgery from the University of Pennsyl- vania at Philadelphia. Until 1921, Dr. Honsberger practiced at Lansford. Then he left his native state to come to Long Island. From 1921 to 1944 he was in practice at Amityville. Upon retiring from the profession, he began giving full time to the financial interests which until then had claimed only part of his attention and energy. The Suffolk County Federal Savings and Loan Association is the largest institu- tion of its kind in the county. The Babylon National Bank and Trust Company is also a strong and in- fluential institution. Aside from his activity in the affairs of these organizations, Dr. Honsberger is a charter member of the Rotary Club of Amityville and worships at the Episcopal Church in that community.

Dr. Honsberger married Cornelia Robbins, of Babylon, in that town on December 28, 1921. Mrs. Honsberger's parents were the late Jeremiah and Carrie (Oaks) Robbins. Both the Robbins and Oaks families pioneered on Long Island. Mrs. Honsberger is a member of the Daughters of the American Revo- lution, with seven bars.

JOHN S. RANDALL-The Randall Farms, In- corporated, long noted for its fine farm and dairy products, is owned by John S. Randall and his brother, having been purchased by their grandfather in 1885.

He was born at Mount Sinai, Suffolk County, New York, September 2, 1909, son of Forrest B. and Achsa (Warner) Randall, the latter of whom, native of East Moriches, was born in 1878, and the former, born in Miller Place at the town of Brookhaven, is a trustee of the Mount Sinai Congregational Church,

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and in 1908 served as trustee of the Mount Sinai district school. Their other son, Waldo Warner, who is vice president of the Randall Farms, of which his brother is president, was born November 19, 1914, at Mount Sinai, and graduated from the Port Jefferson High School, and continued his education at William and Mary College, at Williamsburg, Virginia, from which he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1938. He married December 8, 1940, Marion McMann, of Geneva, New York, a talented pianist, and gradu- ate of the Eastman School of Music at Rochester. They are the parents of Lawrence E., born July, 1942, Warner Louis, born September 26, 1944, and Lynn Andrew, born September 26, 1946. A sister, Eloise S., born at Mount Sinai, and graduate of Port Jefferson High School, and of New Paltz Normal School, class of 1925, is at present teaching at South Huntington. The present property of the Randall family was pur- chased by the grandfather of the present owners, John S. Randall, in April of 1885, when he bought the Phillips farm. Upon his death the following year, he left the property to his son, Forrest B., who operated the farm until January 2, 1945, at which time he sold it to his two sons. The site consists of seventy acres situated in the center of Mount Sinai, carries about seventy head of Guernsey cattle, and operates a pasteurizing plant, receiving milk from the farmers of the community, and distributing the dairy products to the local consumers throughout Port Jefferson, Stony Brook, and Setauket. In 1939, the Randall family held a reunion at the Ernest Randall farm at Middle Island, attended by more than two hundred kinsmen, including many of the Long Island branches. The host is a cousin of the late John J. Randall, of Freeport, who organized the First Na- tional Bank and Trust Company of that town. Mem- bers of the family came from New York, California, Florida, Indiana, Connecticut, and New Jersey. Cap- tain A. B. Randall of Whitestone was elected presi- dent of the Randall Family Association to succeed Dr. Miller, of Freeport. A charter for this associa- tion as procured by the retiring president was pre- sented to the members at the reunion.

John S. Randall, after completing his early educa- tion at District School No. 7, at Mount Sinai, and graduating from Port Jefferson High School with the class of 1928, attended the Cornell School of Agricul- ture to prepare for his career in that field. He be- longs to the Port Jefferson Rotary Club, is a mem- ber of the Suffolk County Farm Bureau, is president of the Long Island Dairy Herd Approvement Asso- ciation, and during World War II, had the distinc- tion of being the only one in his county to receive a citation from the United States Department of Agri- culture Milk Industry Committee of the New York- New Jersey metropolitan milk marketing area. He married at Patchogue, August 15, 1934, Mary Eliza- beth Weeks, daughter of Harry T. and Myra (Jones) Weeks, a graduate of Cortland Normal School, who was a member of the teaching profession prior to her marriage. Their children are: I. Harry Weeks, born February 27, 1936. 2. Forrest B., born March 22, 1938. 3. Martin Thomas, born October 17, 1942. The children were all born at Mount Sinai, where the family resides.

JOHN D. BENNETT-A member of the law firm of Bennett and Bennett of Rockville Centre, John D. Bennett, representing the second senatorial district, is now serving his second term in the state senate.

He was born in Rockville Centre, Nassau County, June 21, 19II, son of Earl J. and Edna (Davison)

Bennett; the former is vice president of the Bank of Rockville Centre Trust Company and former county comptroller and assistant district attorney of Nassau County. Upon graduation from the public schools of his native city, John Bennett entered Cornell University, from which he received his Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws degrees. Admitted to the New York State Bar in 1936, he became a member of the above mentioned firm of Bennett and Bennett, engaged in the general practice of law, with offices at 28 North Park Avenue, Rockville Centre. Mr. Bennett is a member of Nassau County and New York State Bar associations and a Republican in his political interests. His business affiliations include the directorship of the Bank of Rockville Centre Trust Company, and the vice presidency of the Rock- ville Centre Savings and Loan Association, and he is a trustee of Adelphi College at Garden City, New York. Mr. Bennett is an active and exempt volunteer fireman, a member of the official board of St. Mark's Methodist Episcopal Church of Rockville Centre, a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, No. 1253 of Freeport, the Free and Accepted Masons, Lodge No. 822, the Consistory of the Thirty- second degree Masons of the Valley of Long Island, and Kismet Temple of the Shrine in Brooklyn.

John D. Bennett married on September 3, 1936, at Rockville Centre, Mildred Schwindt of that city, daughter of Henry and Emelie Schwindt. Their chil- dren are: I. James Davison born December 2, 1938. 2. Judith Ann, born November 25, 194I.

NATHAN NEWTON TIFFANY-As a relatively young man it was written of Nathan Newton Tiffany, third of his full name in the "Hampton" section of Long Island, that he was "prominent in the fields of engineering and banking, active in the affairs of East Hampton, serving in official capacities and offices and philanthropic institutions." That was printed more than two decades ago, and, while he rose to places of increasing importance in the com- munity, he also has become one of its most esteemed citizens. His career has added new lustre to an old and honored name.

Tiffany is one of those very ancient cognomens that grew out of a term that meant either light-hearted or gay; or the name of a bright silk, the equivalent of taffeta. Whatever the origin, the American progeni- tor of the family was one "Squire" Humphrey Tiffany, who came from Yorkshire, England, to the Massa- chusetts Bay Colony in 1660; was a settler of Reho- both, Massachusetts, in 1663; and was killed in Swansea, Massachusetts, by a stroke of lightning on July 15, 1685. He and his wife Hannah, had the following children: James, Thomas, of whom further; Ebenezer, Consider, Sarah, born July 6, 1683; and Hezekiah, who died December 4, 1685. Thomas Tiffany, their son, was born between 1665 and 1670; about 1698 he removed from Swansea to Bristol, Rhode Island, and later to the nearby town of Ash- ford, Connecticut, where he was made a freeman March 5, 1718. He was a large landowner, and from 1735 to 174I was selectman, and with the exception of two years served as town clerk from 1721 to 1748. He married, in Swansea, Massachusetts, about 1689, Hannah, whose surname is not known, and from them the line descends as follows: their son, Nathaniel Tiffany, who married, at Ashford, Connecticut, Keziah War; their son, Nathan Tiffany, born in Ashford, Con- necticut, May 1, 1731, died at Lyme, Connecticut, May 7. 1857, who married Lois Lord; their son, Nathan Tiffany, of whom further.

Jolie Bennett

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Nathan Newton (1) Tiffany, son of the above, was born at Lyme, Connecticut, May 17, 1812, and died at Bridgehampton, Long Island, April 29, 1882. He was a merchant of New York City, who removed to Sag Harbor during the whaling days, and was there engaged in business until 1856, when he removed to Bridgehampton, and here followed a general merchan- dising business, meeting with a large success, and was held in high esteem by all who knew him. He mar- ried, at Hadlyme, Connecticut, April 5, 1855, Mary Abigail Palmer, born in Stonington, Connecticut, August 27, 1824, and was a direct lineal descendant of Thomas Baker, one of the first settlers of East Hampton, New York. Of their children was:

Nathan Newton (2) Tiffany, born at Bridgehamp- ton, New York, January 29, 1857, and died April 15, 1894. He received a good education in the schools and academy at Bridgehampton, and under his father's guidance as a merchant became possessed of good business qualifications. In 1877 he entered into the mercantile business with Captain Huntting, with whom he remained for five years. Selling out his in- terests he entered the lumber business and later was a private banker in Bridgehampton. He subsequently added a coal and feed business to his lumber and banking interests, which he followed to his death. He married, October 11, 1882, Frederica G. Corwith, daughter of Silas and Susan (Rogers) Corwith, and they were the parents of three children: I. Nathan Newton (3), of whom further. 2. Frederick Leroy, born July 29, 1886. 3. Mary Palmer, born May 15, 1889.

Nathan Newton (3) Tiffany, with whom this record is primarily concerned, was born at Bridgehampton, on June 20, 1883, son of Nathan Newton (2) and Frederica G. (Corwith) Tiffany. Prepared for higher education in the East Hampton Literary and Com- mercial Institute, he matriculated at Cornell Uni- versity, where he was graduated with the class of 1905, with the degree of Civil Engineer. Following an extensive practice of his profession, both in the field and as a consulting engineer, he gradually became interested in finance, and in 1917 one of the organizers and was named secretary of the Osborne Trust Com- pany in East Hampton. From 1907 he was president and general manager of the East Hampton Electric Light Company, and became one of the advocates and promoters of public utilities in this section of Long Island.

As of the present (1947) Mr. Tiffany is the retired vice president and secretary of the Osborne Trust Company of East Hampton; and serves on the board of directors of the Osborne Trust Company. He is president and treasurer of the Southampton Lumber Company, a director in the East Hampton Lumber Company, a director of the Home Water Company of East Hampton, and is director and treasurer of the East Hampton League; honorary trustee of the East Hampton Free Public Library Association, and vice president and a director of Guild Hall, East Hampton. He is president of the board of education, a post he has filled most acceptably since about 1926, and gives it the benefit of his experience and philosophy of life as a member. During the passing years he has been a supervisor of the town of East Hampton (1913-1921); chairman of the Board of Supervisors of Suffolk County (1917-1921); and long a member of the Board of Managers of the Suffolk County Tuber- culosis Sanitarium. Nathan Newton (3) Tiffany is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, and a trustee and secretary of the First Presbyterian Church, of this community. Fraternally he is affili-

ated with the Star of the East Lodge, No. 843, Free and Accepted Masons; Nunnakoma Chapter, Royal Arch Masons; Patchogue Commandery, Knights Templar; Kismet Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine.

At East Hampton, on July 14, 1907, Nathan New- ton (3) Tiffany married Nellie Lawrence, daughter of John B. and Nancy (Edwards) Lawrence. Mr. and Mrs. Tiffany became the parents of three chil- dren: I. Nathan Newton (4) Tiffany, a graduate of Cornell University, now engaged as assistant sec- retary of the Osborne Trust Company; he married Helen Crapser of Wainscott and they have two children: Nathan Newton (5), and Nancy. 2. Helena Lawrence, who married Harry Lillywhite of South- ampton and they have one child, Susan Frederica. 3. Sarah Palmer, who married Richard Steele and they have two children, Richard B. and Sally.

JOHN CAMPBELL COCHRANE-A native of Suffolk County's beautiful village of Bay Shore, John Campbell Cochrane has lived all his life in his native place and has devoted his attention entirely to banking, with the result that he has become a power in banking circles in Suffolk County, and has also been called on by his fellow-citizens to discharge the duties of important public office.

Born on July 2, 1904, Mr. Cochrane is a son of the late John Campbell Cochrane and of his wife Alice (Roger) Cochrane. John Campbell Cochrane was a native of Oakdale and was a pioneer oysterman. He died in 1904. Alice (Roger) Cochrane was born in Scotland. The younger John Campbell Cochrane at- tended local schools and graduated from the Bay Shore High School before accepting his first em- ployment with the First National Bank and Trust Company in that village, in 1921. Beginning as a clerk, Mr. Cochrane grew up with this financial in- stitution. In 1923 he became assistant cashier, a post which he held until 1941. In that year he was made executive vice president of the bank and also given a seat on the board of directors, positions which he continues to hold to the present writing.

In 1943 and 1944 Mr. Cochrane was secretary and treasurer of group seven of the New York State Bankers Association, and in 1945 and 1946 he was chairman of that same group. He is a member of the New York State Bankers Association and during the period 1942 to 1944 he was on the Committee on Bank Management and Research.

Taking an active interest in civic affairs and the welfare of his community, Mr. Cochrane has been a volunteer fireman since 1926, and since 1928 he has filled the office of commissioner of the fire depart- ment of the village of Bay Shore. In religion he is an Episcopalian, and a member of St. Peter's Church.

At Bay Shore on December 8, 1928, John Campbell Cochrane was united in marriage with Helen Spach of Mountain Lakes, New Jersey, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Spach. Of this marriage there are two children: I. John Campbell, born on November 16, 1929. Midshipman in United States Naval Acad- emy at Annapolis, Maryland. 2. Helen Alice, born on October 23, 1935, attending the Hewlett School at East Islip, New York.

AUGUST G. RAMM-A native of Suffolk County, having been born at Oakdale on July 19, 1896, August G. Ramm has had a successful business career with- out going far afield from his birthplace. His parents are August F. (deceased 1932) and Anna (Van Em- merick) Ramm. His father was a native of Germany,

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while his mother was born in Oakdale in 1875. August F. Ramm came to the United States as a young man and settled on Long Island, becoming a fisherman at Sayville in Suffolk County, and later conducting a fish market in Babylon village, from 1907 to 1925.

The young August G. Ramm attended public school at Oakdale and the Babylon High School and Packard Commercial School, New York City. At an early age he became associated with his father in a local mercantile business in Babylon, Suffolk County, but in 1925 he entered the service of the Long Island Lighting Company, becoming assistant manager at Amityville. With this public utility cor- poration Mr. Ramm has remained associated since that time. He is now the Long Island Lighting Company's commercial representative for the Amityville district, which includes that village and in addition, Copiague, Farmingdale, Lindenhurst and Massapequa.

An active member of the business community, Mr. Ramm belongs to the Amityville Chamber of Commerce, the Amityville Business Men's Club, and the Lions Club of Amityville. He is also a member of the Amityville Club, and of the fraternal order of Woodmen of America. His religious affiliation is with the Methodist Church of Babylon, of which he is a member of the board of trustees. In politics he adheres to the Republican party. His favorite rec- reations are golf, bowling and fishing.

On January 15, 1918, August G. Ramm was mar- ried to Miriam Jackson, a native of the village of Babylon, where the ceremony took place, and a daugh- ter of Captain Carl and Mary Ella (Crum) Jackson. Mrs. Ramm's father, Captain Carl Jackson, (deceased 1918) was a sea captain, also assessor of the town of Babylon and trustee of the village of Babylon. Mrs. Ramm's grandfather, Richard Jackson, was drowned in Fire Island Inlet in 1853 when the boat foundered in a storm and all on board were lost.

WALTER WESLEY HILL-Aside from an ex- tensive private practice as a member of the bar, Walter Wesley Hill is attorney for the village of East Rockaway, and the Bay Park Fire District.

Mr. Hill was born in Brooklyn on November 27, 1906, the son of Walter Alonzo and Blanche Viola (Donaldson) Hill. His father, an electrician, was born in Brooklyn in 1880.

Walter Wesley Hill was graduated from the Lyn- brook High School in 1926, after which he did his pre-legal work at Columbia University. In 1932 he was graduated from St. John's University with the degree of Bachelor of Laws.

The following year he was admitted to the bar of New York State. Entering practice, he became asso- ciated with Norman F. Lent in Lynbrook. They were partners until January, 1938, when Mr. Lent became judge of the district court at Lynbrook. Mr. Hill then formed a partnership with Charles E. Schweitzer, the firm being Schweitzer and Hill, gen- eral practice. Mr. Hill was school attorney for Lyn- brook schools for ten years. He became village at- torney of East Rockaway and fire district attorney afterward. He is a member of the Nassau County Bar Association, the Sons of the American Revolu- tion, Long Island Chapter and Empire State Society. He and his family attend the Baptist Church at Free- port.

Mr. Hill married Ruth Lesley Stevens, daughter of Jerry and Harriet Stevens, at Lynbrook on July. 6, 1931. They are the parents of two children: Nancy Ruth, born August 24, 1935, and Barbara Lelia Viola, born May 3, 1943.

DR. WARREN POST KORTRIGHT-Like his father, Dr. Warren Post Kortright has chosen medi- cine as his career and life's work. In private prac- tice for more than a quarter of a century, the younger Dr. Kortright joined the Medical Corps of the United States Army during World War I, as so many of his contemporaries did, and learned techniques of medicine which necessity forced on the soldier doctor.

Born in 1891 in Brooklyn, New York, Dr. Kort- right is the son of Dr. James L. Kortright, and the former Alice McDougall. His mother was a descend- ant of an early Long Island family. She was the granddaughter of the Rev. James McDougall, one of the early ministers of the First Presbyterian Church of Huntington. Her father, Hugh McDougall, was associated in the early manufacture of thimbles at Huntington. Dr. Kortright received his education at Adelphi Academy, in Brooklyn; Williams College, where he was awarded his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1913, and Cornell University, where he received his Doctor of Medicine degree in 1917. During World War I he served as a first lieutenant in the Medical Corps, United States Army. In 1920, the first opportunity to settle down to the practice of medicine came to the young physician whose career was tem- porarily interrupted by the war. He chose the town of Huntington as the center of his practice, and has been a member of the staff of Huntington Hospital for a number of years. His father was recognized as one of Brooklyn's leading physicians. Active in medi- cal circles, Dr. Kortright holds memberships in the New York State Medical Association and the Suffolk County Medical Society. Interested in historical re- search, he is a member of the Huntington Historical Society.

Dr. Warren Post Kortright married (first) Sarah Funnell, of Huntington, daughter of William and Mabel (Banks) Funnell, who passed away in 1940. He married (second), in 1942, Mimi Kohler, of New York City. Children of the first marriage: I. Cynthia, born in 1924, a graduate of Smith College, where she received her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1945; she married Henry Fowler and they have a son Angus, born in 1947. 2. James, born in 1927, was valedic- torian of his class at Huntington High School, in 1944. While a student at Cornell University, he enlisted in the United States Army, and after the war returned to Cornell. 3. Ann, born in 1928, a gradu- ate of Huntington High School, now an undergradu- ate at Cornell University. The family belongs to the First Presbyterian Church of Huntington.

JOSEPH F. FIIGON, JR .- Two Fiigons are in- terested in the modern garage and accessories estab- lishment in Water Mill which, in a surprisingly short period, became a phenomenal success under the guid- ance of Joseph F. Fiigon, Jr. Mr. Fiigon is now semi- retired, leaving most of the management of the busi- ness to his son, Joseph F. Fiigon, III, veteran of World War II. Mr. Fiigon, Jr., has become one of the most prominent men in Water Mill and the entire town of Southampton. He is an officer of the Water Mill Community House, past master of the South- ampton Grange and active in nearly a dozen of the key organizations. Mr. Fiigon, III, is gradually as- suming a similar place of leadership in the com- munity.

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Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume III, Part 73

Author: Bailey, Paul, 1885-1962, editor Publication date: 1949 Publisher: New York, Lewis Historical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 922

Author: Bailey, Paul, 1885-1962, editor
Publication date: 1949
Publisher: New York, Lewis Historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 922