Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume III, Part 90

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 90
USA > New York > Suffolk County > Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume III > Part 90

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Mr. Wood married Mabel Luyster, daughter of Charles and Nellie (Todd) Luyster, at Brookville, on June 24, 1933. Mr. and Mrs. Wood have become the parents of a son, Edward F. Wood, III, born February 9, 1935.

PETER S. LERNER, M.D .- The son of a success- ful real estate operator, Peter S. Lerner made an early choice of the medical profession in preference to business, and in the fifteen years since he was ad- mitted to practice has built up a wide following in the Sayville area of Long Island's Suffolk County, mean-

while giving several years to serving the nation during the emergency of the second World War.

The late Abraham Lerner's realty interests were in Detroit, Michigan, as well as in New York City, and it was in Detroit that Peter S. Lerner was born to Abraham and Sarah (Brown) Lerner on August 24, 1907. Brought to New York City in boyhood, his preparatory education was completed at the Morris High School in the borough of the Bronx, and his premedical collegiate studies were pursued at Colum- bia University in New York, from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1928. Having by that time determined on a career in medicine, he entered the Colloge of Physicians and Surgeons, a division of Columbia University, and it was from this institu- tion that he received his degree of Doctor of Medi- cine in 1932.

The young physician's internship was divided between the Lincoln Hospital in New York City and the Rochester State Hospital in Monroe County, Rochester, New York. In 1935 Dr. Lerner came to Suffolk County and opened an office in the village of Sayville, where he continues to the present time, enjoying a lucrative practice, and participating actively in the affairs of various local community organizations.

During the second World War Dr. Lerner enlisted in the United States Navy, serving with the Reserve Medical Corps from 1942 to 1946, and holding the rank of a lieutenant commander.

Dr. Lerner is on the staff of the John Mather Memorial Hospital at Port Jefferson, and on the courtesy staff of that other well-known Suffolk County institution, the Southside Hospital at Bay Shore. He is a member of the American Legion of Sayville and also belongs to the Veterans of Foreign Wars in the same village. Professional organizations with which he is affiliated are the Suffolk County Medical Society and the New York State Medical So- ciety. His favorite recreation is fishing.

At New York City in 1934, Peter S. Lerner was married to Pauline A. Baris, a daughter of Mr. and ·Mrs. Alexander Baris of San Francisco, California. Of this union there are three children: I. Thomas. 2. David. 3. Jean.

Dr. Lerner's mother, Mrs. Sarah (Brown) Lerner, is still living, and makes her home in Jamaica, bor- ough of Queens, New York City.

ERNEST GREENWOOD-A noted educator of New York City, Ernest Greenwood has been promi- nently connected with institutions of learning for many years. His work in the secondary schools has contributed substantially to their development.

Mr. Greenwood was born November 25, 1884, in Lowerby Bridge, Yorkshire, England. He obtained his elementary education in that town and his second- ary schooling at Halifax in England, later attending the Technical College there, taking the engineering course and serving his apprenticeship in that line of work.

Transferring to Sheffield, he worked at the well- known engineering firms of Sir Edgar Allen's and Sir John Brown's, attended Sheffield University, and later took courses in education at Columbia University.

In 1910 he came to the United States and was for four years associated with the General Electric Com- pany, then entered the teaching profession, teaching mathematics, drawing and shopwork in the public schools of the city of Schenectady. After two years there, he came to Islip, Long Island, to teach the same subjects and took an active interest in community

Edward & Wood JA.

L.I .- 39

335

LONG ISLAND - NASSAU AND SUFFOLK

affairs. In 1920 Mr. Greenwood became supervisor for the Federal Board for Vocational Education. Two years later, he was appointed associate headmaster of a system of schools known as the New York Pre- paratory Schools which at that time controlled the New York Preparatory School branch in Brooklyn, now the Brooklyn Academy, the New York Pre- paratory Evening School and the Dwight Day School for Boys, both in Manhattan. In 1927 he succeeded to the position of headmaster which post he re- tained until his retirement in December 1946.

Among Mr. Greenwood's activities in education in the recent years are the following: president of the School Masters Association of New York and Vicin- ity; president of the New York Preparatory School and Dwight School for a continuous period of nine- teen years; president of the New York and Vicinity Private School Athletic Association.

In 1928 he was elected to the office of president of the New York City Evening Preparatory School As- sociation, and in 1929 the presidency of the Private Summer High Schools Association of New York. He has continued to serve in both capacities for over twenty years. Also at present he is the chairman of the board of trustees and headmaster emeritus of the Dwight and New York Preparatory schools, the president of the Bay Shore Rotary Club, the president of the Civic Association of Bay Shore and Bright- waters, treasurer to the Bay Shore Board of Educa- tion, a member of the vestry of St. Peter's Church, Bay Shore, and a director of the First National Bank of Islip.

A cricket, rugby and soccer player in England prior to coming to the United States, Mr. Greenwood cap- tained the Schenectady Cricket Team four years against the best-known teams in the United States and Canada, as well as the famous, then unbeaten, Austra- lian Test Team touring the North American continent in 1912.

JAMES GILBERT BLAKE-Three professions- teaching, journalism and the law-have successively claimed the interest of James Gilbert Blake; in view of his success in ten years of practice in the last of these, during which time he has risen high in the ranks of attorneys at the bar of Nassau County, it may be assumed that the law now has his full allegiance.

A native of the borough of Brooklyn, where he was born on May 30, 1906, Mr. Blake is a son of Thomas and Margaret Elinor Blake, his father being a police lieutenant. The young James Gilbert Blake attended St. James' Academy in Brooklyn before enrolling at Manhattan College, from which he received the de- gree of Bachelor of Arts with the class of 1928. His first employment was in the teaching of English literature at St. James' Academy, but evidently the academic life was too quiet and slow-paced for his temperament, for he turned from it after only one year, entering the more strenuous arena of journalism as a reporter for the "New York Times."

From the "Times" Mr. Blake went to the "Long Island Chronicle," published on Long Island, as its editor, and presently he became publisher as well of that locally-important newspaper. For some of his work as a newspaperman Mr. Blake was mentioned in Silas Bent's book "Crusading Newspapers."

The law, however, attracted Mr. Blake even while he was winning eminence in journalism, and he en- rolled at the Brooklyn Law School, a division of St. Lawrence University, and from that institution received the degree of Bachelor of Laws in 1937. Ad-

mitted to the bar in that year, he established him- self in practice at once, and has so continued to the present time with the exception of the two years when, having answered the call to the colors in the second World War, he served in the United States Navy. Enlisting in September, 1943, Mr. Blake was first assigned to the U.S.S. "Brant" in the European Theater. Later he was made skipper of a T-149 patrol boat, and finally served on the U.S.S. "Columbus."

Mr. Blake as one would expect of a man of his wide interests and active mind and temperament, has parti- cipated in public affairs. He was tax assessor of Long Beach, in the term 1934-1936, and city clerk of the same city from 1936 to 1938. He is a member of the Nassau County Bar Association, and he belongs both to the American Legion and to the Veterans of For- eign Wars, serving as commander in the latter or- ganization. His fraternal affiliation is with the Knights of Columbus. Mr. Blake and his family are communicants of St. Christopher's Roman Catholic Church at Baldwin.

At Brooklyn, on August 6, 1933, James Gilbert Blake was married to Marie Louise Rickerby, a daugh- ter of William Rickerby and his wife Barbara Nicol. Of this marriage there are two children: I. Mar- garet Elinor, who was born on August 4, 1934. 2. James Gilbert, Jr., born on February 19, 1943.

WILLIAM MORRIS CRUIKSHANK-For more than one hundred and fifty years the name of Cruik- shank has been widely and favorably known in real estate circles in New York City, the business having been established in 1794 by William Cruikshank, the great-grandfather of the subject of this biographical sketch.

Some time after the Civil War, William Cruik- shank, a grandson of the founder of the firm es- tablished his office at 51 Liberty Street. William Cruikshank married Mary Ann Worley, and of this marriage William Morris Cruikshank was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey on July 24, 1870.

Educated first at the Pingry School in his native city, and in 1887 by Gibbons and Beach in the City of New York, William Morris Cruikshank became associated with his father in business on October 3, 1887. The Cruikshank offices were moved in 1931 to 49 Wall Street, New York City, where they remain to this time. William Morris Cruikshank is a trustee of the Atlantic Mutual Insurance Company at that same address and of the Bank of New York-Fifth Avenue Bank, 48 Wall Street. He is a member of the Real Estate Board of New York. His clubs are the India House and the Downtown Association, both of New York City, and the Garden City Golf Club of Garden City, New York, where he now resides.

William Morris Cruikshank married Edwina R. Bigelow in 1906 and their son, William Cruikshank, who was born on April 18, 1912 is now the president of William Cruikshank's Sons, Inc. Mrs. Cruikshank died in January, 1943, and three years later, William Morris Cruikshank married Helen C. Fitzpatrick.

EARL M. McCOY, M.D .- Since the early days fol- lowing World War I, in which he served as an officer, Dr. Earl M. McCoy has been prominent as a surgeon on Long Island. In addition to the recognition he has won from the lay public, Dr. McCoy has been honered by his associates in the medical field, and has held numerous positions of leadership.

336

LONG ISLAND - NASSAU AND SUFFOLK

Dr. McCoy was born in Corbyville, Ontario, Canada, on January 5, 1895, the son of the late William and Anna C. (Robinson) McCoy. His father, who was a member of the Dominion of Canada's Customs Ser- vice, was born in Ireland, but was brought to the New World in his infancy. His widow resides with her son, the doctor, at Central Islip.

Dr. McCoy was educated in Canada. After com- pleting his studies at the Belleville Collegiate Insti- tute, he attended Queens University, at Kingston, Ontario, where he took his premedical work. He received the degree of Bachelor of Arts from the university in 1916. Two years later he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Medicine by the Queens University College of Medicine.

Immediately upon receipt of his medical degree, Dr. McCoy entered the Canadian Army Medical Corps. Commissioned a captain, he was attached to the Royal Air Force, with which he remained throughout the rest of World War I and into 1919. Upon receiving his honorable discharge, Dr. McCoy came to the United States. From 1919 to 1920 he was an intern at St. John's Hospital in Long Island City. He also served an internship at Columbus Hospital, New York City, in 1921.

The same year, Dr. McCoy became associated with Dr. William H. Ross at Brentwood, thus beginning his Suffolk County career. In 1923, when the associ- ation was discontinued, Dr. McCoy became surgeon for several hospitals in Suffolk County and in that year established himself in practice as a surgeon at Central Islip. He is now attending senior surgeon for Southside Hospital at Bayshore; attending surgeon at the Central Islip State Hospital; attending surgeon at Pilgrim State Hospital, Brentwood; consulting sur- geon at the John T. Mather Memorial Hospital, Port Jefferson, and school physician for Hauppauge, Cen- tral Islip.

Through the recognition accorded him in the pro- fessional world, Dr. McCoy has served as president of the Suffolk County Medical Society, as president of the South Shore Clinical Society and the Southside Hospital Medical staff. He is a Fellow of the Ameri- can College of Surgeons. Outside the profession, Dr. McCoy is affiliated with Moira No. II, Grand Lodge of Canada. He and his mother attend the Presbyterian Church at Central Islip. His favorite recreation is fishing.

EDWARD JAMES DOUGHERTY-Throughout World War II Edward James Dougherty displayed effective leadership in two phases of essential war work on the home front-in the fund-raising cam- paigns of the Community and War Chests conducted under the banner of the National War Fund in the East Meadow sector of Nassau County, and in the civilian defense organization. Mr. Dougherty is dis- tinguished in other fields of endeavor. He is Chief Clerk of the County Treasurer's Department and is a leader in the Republican party for the county as a whole and in the Town of Hempstead, where he lives. He is also active in Mineola's civic affairs.

Mr. Dougherty was born in Philadelphia on Decem- ber 13, 1905, the son of James J. and Ellen (Carmody) Dougherty. His father, a traffic man, has been with the Linde Oxygen Company and the United Carbide and Carbon Company in Philadelphia. Edward J. Dougherty was educated in the pubic schools of Philadelphia, being graduted from the Northeast High School there. He studied real estate law and convey- ance at Temple University. In 1922, he became a title examiner for the North Central Trust Company of Philadelphia, rising in time to title officer. In 1928,

he resigned the Philadelphia position to come to Long Island as manager of the law department of the Greater New York Suffolk Title and Guarantee Com- pany at Jamaica. In 1935, he left this position to ac- cept appointment as Deputy County Clerk in charge of the lot and block department, and this office he held ten years. On January I, 1945, Mr. Dougherty was appointed Chief Clerk in the County Treasurer's de- partment.

Mr. Dougherty is on the executive committee of the Nassau County Republican Committee and is sec- retary of the Republican Committee of the Town of Hempstead. Aside from holding the district chairman- ship of the National War Fund Drives at East Mea- dow, he was senior air raid warden and sector warden in map preparation and related home defense activities. He is a member of the East Meadow Republican Club. Mr. Dougherty is a communicant of the St. Raephael's Roman Catholic Church at East Meadow.

He married Beatrice Pecan Henderson, daughter of Harry and Josephine Henderson, in Philadelphia on April 25, 1927. Mrs. Dougherty attends Grace Luth- eran Church at North, Belmont.

FRANKLIN T. VOELKER-Suffolk County knows Franklin T. Voelker as an attorney acknowl- edged by his fellow attorneys as a leader in the bar, as an active fraternity and service club man and as an individual interested in the broadest aspects of public education. Mr. Voelker has been president and is now attorney of the board of education for his village, Lindenhurst, and is also attorney for the village itself as well as the Lindenhurst Bank.

He was born in Winfield, Queens County, New York, on October 10, 1903, the son of Frank J. and Emma K. (Reppenhagen) Voelker. His father, a resident of Lindenhurst since 1876, is a retired machin- ist. Franklin Voelker began his education in the Lin- denhurst public schools, being graduated from the Lindenhurst High School in 1920. In 1924 he obtained the degree of Bachelor of Laws at Brooklyn Law School and two years later was admitted to the New York State bar. He immediately established himself in practice in Lindenhurst. Until January, 1946, he practiced alone, but at that time he formed a partner- ship with Edward M. Pinter. The firm is called Voelker and Pinter.

Mr. Voelker has been Village Attorney of Linden- hurst since 1932 and attorney for the Board of Education since 1942. He was president of the board from 1926 to 1930. In World War II, he was a member of the United States Coast Guard Tem- porary Reserve. He is a former president of the Sun- rise Square Club, is a member and first president of the Lions Club of Lindenhurst and a member of and past president of the Suffolk County Bar Association. He is also a member of the Amityville Lodge No. 977, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons.

Mr. Voelker married Alice Woodward, daughter of John and Emily K. (Kuehn) Woodward, in the Presbyterian Church, Babylon, on May 23, 1928. They are the parents of Virginia Voelker, born in Lindenhurst on October 30, 1930, who in 1947 was attending the Lindenhurst High School.

Mr. Voelker's favorite leisure time activities are fishing, boating and baseball.

EDWARD MARTIN PINTER-Among the younger lawyers of Suffolk County, Edward Martin Pinter enjoys a high standing as an excellent and successful lawyer, and as an active and useful parti- cipant in civic life and public affairs in the village

(

Franklin D Voelker

Edward In. Pinter

337

LONG ISLAND - NASSAU AND SUFFOLK

of Lindenhurst and the town of Babylon, where he was born on North Seventh Street on November 10, 19II, and where he still resides and has his office. Mr. Pinter's parents are Joseph and Theresa Pinter, and his father was in the Swiss embroideries business and died March 5, 1939.

After graduating from Our Lady of Perpetual Help School in 1925, Edward Martin Pinter at- tended the Lindenhurst High School, and graduated from there in 1929. From high school he went to the University of Syracuse in Onondaga County, New York, where he studied from 1929 to 1931, trans- ferring in the latter year to St. John's University, where he studied until 1932. In 1944 he returned to St. John's to take an accelerated course in the Law School of that University, graduating in 1946.

From 1933 until 1947 Mr. Pinter was employed by the Pinter Brothers Trucking Company. Since Janu- ary I, 1947 he has been a member of the law firm of Voelker and Pinter. His activities in civic affairs are largely channelled through the Lions Interna- tional. A Roman Catholic in religion, he is a com- municant of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Lindenhurst; a member of the Holy Name Society of that parish; and a member and grand knight of the Knights of Columbus, No. 794. From 1942 to 1947 Mr. Pinter served as a member of the board of trustees of Union Free School District No. 4, village of Lin- denhurst, town of Babylon. He was a member of Zeta Psi fraternity at Syracuse University.

On September 3, 1934, Edward Martin Pinter was married at Seaford, Long Island, New York, to Mary Anne Rigo, a daughter of Paul and Sophie Rigo. Of this union there are two children: I. Joan Marie, who was born on June 3, 1935. 2. Edward M., Jr., born on March 10, 1942.

THE DENTON FAMILY-Eugene W. Denton, prominent Mineola attorney, is descended from a family whose early history is inseparably linked with the development of Long Island communities. He is a direct descendant of Rev. Richard Denton, who led the group which settled Hempstead, Long Island, in 1644. The first of the name to arrive in this country, this Richard Denton was a native of Yorkshire, Eng- land, and was born in 1586. He graduated at Cam- bridge University, and for some years was minister of Coley Chapel, Halifax. In 1630, the famous Act of Conformity forced him to relinquish his church, and in search of liberty he with his followers set sail for America, and settled first in Watertown, Massachu- setts. There he continued his pastorate until 1635, when he started a new settlement in Connecticut, which he gave the name of Wethersfield. In 1640 he left that place for Rippowams, now Stamford, Con- necticut, which was purchased from New Haven on October 30, 1640. The following was passed at a town meeting at Stamford, in 1641:

Whereas the purchase of this place and vicinity of it was done by our friends of New Haven, and as we stand indebted to them for it. It is ordered That one thousand bushels of corn at three shillings a bushel be paid toward it when raised, and sent them as follows: Matthew Mitchell, 14 bu 3 pks; Thurston Wagoner, 5 bu 3 pks; Mr. Denton, 4 bu 1 pk; Andrew Ward, 4 bu 1 pk ; Robbird Coe, 4 bu 1 pk; Richard Gildersleeve, 4 bu 0 pk; Rich- ard Law, 3 bu 2 pks, and many others.

The above were among the principal settlers, and many of the above removed with Mr. Denton to Hempstead, Long Island, in 1644, where he estab- lished Christ's First Presbyterian Church, the first congregation of that denomination in this country.

The famous divine, Cotton Mather, apparently knew Richard Denton well, and gave him the character of

being an excellent man and an able preacher. He said, more fully :

Among the clouds was one pious man and learned Mr. Richard Denton, a Yorkshire man, who having watered Halifax, in Eng- land, [came to Connecticut] where first at Wetherfield and then at Stamford, his doctrine distilled as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass. Though he were a little man, yet he had a great soul; his well accomp- lished mind, in his lesser body, was an Iliad in a nutshell. I think he was blind of one eye, yet he was not the least among the seers of Israel; he saw a very considerable portion of those things which eye hath not seen. He was far from cloudy in his conceptions and principles of divinity, whereof he wrote a system entitled 'Soliliquia Sacra,' so accurately considering the four-fold state of man in his created purity, contracted deformity, restored beauty and celestian glory, that judicious persons, who, having seen it, very much lament the churches being deprived of it. At length he got into heaven beyond the clouds, and so beyond the storms; waiting the return of the Lord Jesus Christ in the clouds of heaven, where he will have his reward among the saints.

Doubt has been expressed that Richard Denton was a Presbyterian, and the matter has frequently been argued at considerable length, many holding that he was simply an English "noncomformist" and what would be termed nowadays a Congregational minister. Still the Rev. Sylvester Woodbridge, who was pastor of the Hempstead Church from 1838 to 1848, and who wrote its history, claims Mr. Denton to have been a Presbyterian; and as he is as good an authority as any other, we may be content to take our stand in that matter with him. Woodbridge is also our auth- ority for much of what follows concerning the history of the church. "It was not until 1648" he tells us, "that the congregation was able to move into its own meeting-house. .

It stood near the pond, in the northwest part of the village [northwest corner of Fulton and Franklin streets], and was sur- rounded by, or at least connected with, a fort or stockade. It may be proper to observe that at this time the most intimate connection existed between church and state in all Christian countries. In towns which, like Hempstead, were Presbyterian (that is, which chose their own officers) this was particularly the case. The same persons constituted 'the church' and 'the town' and elected the two boards of magistrates and elders who were often the same individuals.

The Rev. Mr. Denton continued to officiate as minister, evidently after rather a stormy pastorate, until 1659, receiving a salary of seventy pounds, equal in our money to three hundred and fifty dollars, which was paid in such articles as were "most useful and comfortable." His leaving is involved in a mystery, as he left four sons behind him, two of whom, Na- thaniel and Daniel, were established at Jamaica in the year 1656, and aided in the plantation of Elizabeth- town, New Jersey, in 1664. It was the son Daniel who wrote a work entitled "A Brief Description of New York, with the Customs of the Indians," in London in 1670, which is said to have been the first description in print of New York and New Jersey. An edition of this work, consisting of one hundred copies, was printed in 1845 by Gabrial Furman, with some valuable notes.

But regarding Richard Denton: his successor at Halifax says that he returned to England in 1659, and spent the remainder of his life in Essex, where he died in 1662.

Rev. Richard Denton had at least three sons: I. Nathaniel, of Hempstead and later of Jamaica; 2. Daniel, of Hempstead and later of Jamaica and Spring- field, Massachusetts; he married twice and had five children; 3. Samuel, of Hempstead, who married Mary Smith, daughter of John "Rock" Smith, and had ten children.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume III, Part 90

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