USA > New York > Suffolk County > Portrait and biographical record of Suffolk county (Long Island) New York, Pt. 2 > Part 43
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69
Mr. Fordham is a popular and highly-prized citizen and is interested in many of the important enterprises of Southampton. He is stockholder and Director in the water works, and is also Di- rector and President of the Village Hall property. As a candidate of the Democratic party, he l'as been successful in being elected Town Clerk and Justice of the Peace. He takes great inter- est in the success of this organization and has been sent as a delegate on various occasions to the county conventions.
In 1860 Mr. Fordham was married to Miss Har- riet Post, who remained his companion and help- mate until 1888, when she was called from this life. Two years later our subject chose as his second wife Mrs. Caroline Fordham, the widow of his younger brother, William F. She was the daugh- ter of Samuel Bishop, now deceased, but who was one of the old and prominent residents of this portion of Suffolk County. Mrs. Caroline Fordham was born and educated in Southampton, where she has always made her home.
By his marriage with Miss Post our subject be- came the father of two children. Helen, now the wife of Dr. John Nugent, of this village, and Henry P., a lad of fourteen years, at home. In religious affairs Mr. Fordham has been a member of the Presbyterian Church for many years, now filling an official position in his congregation, and is also a valued member of the building commit- tee, under whose wise management the new church is being erected. He stands high in Ma- sonic circles and is identified with the lodge at
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
883
Sag Harbor. In educational affairs he has al- ways been greatly interested, and since the or- ganization of the School Board has been a mem- ber and is now President of the same. He is also President of the Southampton Literary Society, an organization which holds many interesting meetings and has been instrumental in developing the hidden talents of its various members. Mr. Fordham is Secretary and Treasurer of the Vil- lage Improvement Association and is likewise Clerk of the Village Board. He is widely known for his enterprise and general business ability and exhibits in his character the traits of honest in- tegrity and sterling worth.
F RANKLIN A. DARLING. A resident of the town of Brook Haven, our subject was born at East Setauket April 19, 1846. He is a son of Alfred and Martha (Smith) Darling, and was one of five children born to his parents, namely: Elizabeth, who married Rev. C. S. Williams and died in 1862: Clarissa, who is the wife of George Fordham and a resident of Setau- ket; Elbert O., who is a contractor and builder residing at East Setauket; Franklin A .; and Mar- tha, who married Alfred Woodhull and died in 1886.
Our subject's father was born in Smithtown April 13, 1808, and was a son of Capt. John Dar- ling. When only six years of age his father took hin on a voyage with him, and as soon as he was old enough he was given charge of a vessel ply- ing between the island and New York City and also trading along the coast. He removed to East Setauket about 1840, at which time he left the sea and took up farming. His first tract of land to which he devoted himself is now the home of our subject. There he died February 6, 1891. Hle was interred at Setauket Cemetery and his demise was lamented by friends and neighbors. He was an active worker in the church and organ- ized the Methodist body in this place. For many years lie occupied the offices of Trustee and Stew- :d. In politics he was a Republican. His first .
wife, whom he married in 1839, died in 1849 and in 1852 he married Mary Roe, who died Febru- ary 14, 1889. One child was born of that union. Seymour, who died in 1862.
Our subject was born and reared on his fa- ther's farm, which is now his own home. He re- ceived his education in the district schools and when twenty-two years of age entered the mer- cantile business at East Setauket, and conducted a general store for fifteen years. At the end of that time he moved to Hewlett's, L. I. There he was engaged in the mercantile business until 1893, when he sold out and returned to the old homestead. During this time, while he was oc- cupied as a business man, he held the office of Postmaster at East Setauket from 1870 to 1883. After removing to Hewlett's he was appointed Postmaster there and held the office throughout his residence, which was ten years.
January 1, 1868, Mr. Darling married Miss Adelia S. Punce, a native of Setauket, born in 1847. They have had three children: Mary R .. who is the wife of Wilfred Horton, of Hewlett's: Effie A. and Robert B. In politics Mr. Darling is a Republican. He is a member of the Meth- odist Episcopal Church and has held the office of Steward. He has been an energetic man, which has insured his business success. Although he is now retired from active participation in mer- cantile affairs he is esteemed as one of the clear- minded, level-headed men of affairs in this place.
EREMIAH BAKER. They make good. strong men in the Amagansett country. The favor of the salt sea creeps into their na- tures, and they are breezy and stormy like the great ocean at their feet. They sail the seas, or open the West, or master the hostilities of a great city, always in a large and grand way, like the hills and waters around their boyhood home. When we touch the story of their lives it has a flavor of romance, and we see ships sailing off in the sunset to remote quarters of the earth and sailors in far-off lands. Surely the sailor lads
884
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
of the coast have done much to make their names beloved.
Mr. Baker was born in the village of Amagan- sett December 23, 1835, and is a son of George L. and Caroline (Barnes) Baker. They had two sons, the brother of Jeremiah being William T., who is now living on a farm in this county. Oc- tober 25, 1860, our subject married Miss Amanda D. Edwards, and they are the parents of two children: George S., who married Antonette Edwards and lives at home, and Marietta T., who is the wife of C. W. Rackett, a merchant of this village.
When about sixteen Mr. Baker went on a schooner, sailing up and down the Atlantic coast and along Long Island. In this occupation he was engaged for many years. He then under- took the fishing business, which he followed for two years. In 1856 he went to California by way of steamer and the isthmus, landing at San Fran- cisco. For some two years he followed farming and coopering there, after which, feeling that he had experienced enough of excitement and dan- ger, he returned to Amagansett. In the spring of 1859 he started the first regular stage route from Amagansett and East Hampton to Sag Harbor, making one trip each day. With the exception of two years he has driven the stage himself and for twenty-eight years he has carried the United States mail. In politics he is a Demo- crat, and a Presbyterian in his church member- ship. He had a common school education, but he has made it tell for good in his life.
R EV. CHARLES H. GARDINER. The life and achievements of him whose name heads this sketch worthily illustrates what may be attained by persistent and painstaking ef- fort. He is a man of progressive ideas, noted for nobility and integrity of character, gentleness of manner and promptness in all things. He has "high and peculiar gifts of nature," impelling his mind to creative imagery of the highest type, and which enables him to reach conclusions seem-
ingly by intuition. As a preacher Mr. Gardiner has few superiors in the East. Although versa- tile he is not superficial; exactness and thorough- ness characterize all his attainments. His intel- lectual possessions are unified and assimulated; they are his own.
Charles H. Gardiner was born in East Hamp- ton June 10, 1826, and was about three years old when his parents moved to Brooklyn. There he remained until grown, but passed some of his boy- hood days with his grandfather at East Hamp- ton, where he attended Clinton Academy. When eighteen years old he entered the New York Uni- versity at New York City and one year later en- tered the General Theological Seminary of that place. This was in 1844, and he attended two and a half years, lacking three months of taking a full course. He was ordained Deacon of St. John's Church, Brooklyn, January 15, 1848, and was assistant of that church, also at Morristown, N. J., Lockport, etc., until 1851, when he received the second ordination as priest in Trinity Church, Geneva.
At that time he had charge of a church in Clyde, Wayne County, and he also had a parish soon after at Ashfield, Mass., for two years. He had charge of a parish at Morristown, St. Lawrence County, N. Y., for several years and acted as mis- sionary under Bishop DeLancy. While at Cairo, N. Y., where he remained two and a half years, he met his future wife, Miss Annie E. Len- non, daughter of Jolin Lennon, of the Empire State, and their marriage occurred September 26, 1865. The two children born to this union died in infancy. David, the elder, was seven months old at the time of his death.
Mr. Gardiner came from Cairo to Bridgehamp- ton in 1868 and took charge of the East Hampton St. Luke's Episcopal Church, of which he has since had charge. Mr. Gardiner is a man of com- mon sense as well as of talent. He is a man of retiring nature, modest and unassuming, and nothing could be more foreign or distasteful than to court favors or position. These he has re- ceived in abundance, honorary degrees and the like, but they have come unsought. He has made of life a grand success; and were one to seek for
885
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
its secret it would be found in that persistent pur- pose which has been a motive power in his life, to make the world brighter and better by putting to the noblest and best use, under Divine guid- ance, all that he is and has.
Upon the twenty-fifth anniversary of his charge of St. Luke's Church his congregation showed their appreciation of his efforts by presenting him with a fine gold watch and a set of clerical robes, valuable books, etc. IIe has also been Rector of St. Mary's Church, Shelter Island. for fourteen years. He has a large congregation and has been in the ministry for forty-seven years. During that time he married two hundred cou- ples, baptized over three hundred people and has officiated at several hundred funerals. He was waited on by a committee from Kansas who wished to make him their Bishop in 1858, but he declined this office on account of ill health.
E UGENE FISHEL has won for himself a good standing as a lawyer at Babylon. His business connections justify and make profitable an office in the city of New York, which is situated in the famous World building. As an attorney he is conceded to occupy a posi- tion among the talented and successful represen- tatives at the bar of Suffolk County. During the years that have elapsed since he entered the pro- fession he has built up a reputation for tact, keen insight and a sagacious judgment that seldom errs.
Born in Patchogue, Suffolk County, January 20, 1859, the subject of this notice is a son of Francis and Teresa (Schott) Fishel, with whom he re- moved to New York at the age of two years. He was a child of ten when the family came to Baby- lon, and his education, begun in the schools of the metropolis, was completed here and in the College of the City of New York, from which he was graduated in 1878. Later entering the Co- Inmbia Law School, he remained there until com- pleting the course in 1881. Subsequently he en- tered the law offices of Sullivan & Cornwell, where
he had two years of very helpful and useful ex- perience, after which he opened offices in Baby- lon and New York. In professional work he has already achieved commendable success, which will without doubt increase with the passing years.
For about five years Mr. Fishel was in partner- ship with Willard P. Reid, the firm title being Fishel & Reid, but in 1892 the connection was dissolved, since which time our subject has con- tinued in practice alone. The firm were attor- neys for the town of Islip in the celebrated case of enjoining the State from making use of Fire Island as a quarantine station, and in the handling of that case the young attorneys won great praise from old and experienced lawyers. They were also attorneys for defendant in the Scheidweller murder case, wherein their client was proved in- sane against much opposition. Other cases of note were successfuly managed by them much to their professional credit.
Like all progressive attorneys Mr. Fishel is a member of the Bar Association of New York City, and also the Brooklyn Club. Masonry claims him as an active member, his membership being in the lodge at Babylon. He is identified with Babylon Lodge No. 178. K. of P. Since the organization of the village he has served as Clerk. Politically he actively supports Demo- cratic principles, and is a member of the Reform Club of New York City. April 25, 1883, he miar- ried Miss Louise M. A. Eckstein, who died Sep- tember 18, 1893, leaving no children.
I ARVIS E. SMITH, a rising young lawyer of Huntington, with an office in Jamaica. was born in East Moriches, Suffolk County. January 15, 1866. His father, Egbert Smith, was born at the same place. The homestead has been in the possession of the family since 1687, when a patent was taken out for it by Richard Smith, the first of the family to settle in Long Island. From generation to generation the property has been handed down by will, until it has reached the father of our subject, who now owns and occu-
886
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
pies it. Josiah, a grandson of the original Richard Smith, did honorable service in the Revolutionary War.
Egbert Smith, the oldest son of Josiah Smith of Revolutionary fame, has engaged throughout life in farming, and has taken a very active in- terest in local polities, but has never sought office for himself. He is a prominent member of the Presbyterian Church, and assists in pushing its work along to the largest possible results. His brother, Howard, and sister, Hannah, died of yel- low fever. The mother of our subject, Josephine H. Glasier, was born in New York City, and has four children, two sons and two daughters, all of whom excepting our subject are at home with their parents.
When Jarvis E. Smith was thirteen years old he went into the village of Huntington to attend the school, and here he continued until 1885. when he graduated with high honors. He then began to read law with Edward R. Ackerly, of Huntington, with whom he remained for three years as a student, being admitted to the bar Sep- tember 20, 188S. Continuing with Mr. Ackerly until July, 1880, he then accepted an offer of a lucrative and honorable position with the Title Guarantee and Trust Company of Brooklyn, and had charge of their legal business until February 1, 1895. His professional business in this part of the island, however, made such demands upon his time that he felt it best to resign his position with the Title Guarantee and Trust Company and de- vote himself to legal work. About a month before severing his connection with the company he formed a partnership with George Wallace, who was elected Attorney to the County Board of Supervisors, and hence leaves the office business to his partner, Mr. Smith.
At the age of thirteen Mr. Smith united with the Presbyterian Church at Moriches, and when he came to Huntington he united with the Second Presbyterian Church. He is Secretary of the So- cial Club of the village, and is a Republican, but not an aspirant for office. He was married, June 16, 1892, to Miss Annie D., oldest daughter of Edward R. Aitkin, of the firm of Thomas Aitkin & Son, who conduct the largest general store in
this village. Mr. and Mrs. Smith have two chil- dren, Thomas Aitkin, born April 7, 1893, and Josepheny Glasier, conceded to be one of the brightest young men of the Suffolk County bar. and certainly he has a bright future before hin. The house in Huntington which he occupies as a family residence is one of the neatest and most at- tractive in this village of pleasant homes.
G EORGE H. DONAHUE, M. D., a resi- dent of Northport, commands a wide practice, and during the six years of his residence in this village has had the favor of the people of this community to a remarkable degree. His father, who is also a resident of this place, carries on an extensive business as a merchant tailor in Brooklyn. John Donahue belongs to the old Scotch Covenanter settlement in the North of Ireland, and, true to his ancestry, he is a stanch Presbyterian. He married Alice Scott, of Canada, who was also of Scotch extraction, and they had three children, namely: James, who is in business in Brooklyn with his father; George H .. the subject of this writing, and Benjamin J., who is in Brooklyn.
Dr. Donahue was born in Brooklyn June 20. 1855, and remained in that city until he was eighteen. He secured the most of his education in a private school, spending very little time in the common schools. His higher education was received in the University of Rochester, a Bap- tist school, from which he graduated in 1877, re- ceiving the degree of A. B. After a year's rest he attended for a year the medical department of the University of New York and gave three years to the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York City, graduating in 1882. Successful in his contest with other students for the position of at- tendant in the hospital, he was assigned to the Charity and Maternity Hospitals on Blackwell's Island, and continued in that place for two years on account of its rich clinical advantage -. He then began the practice of medicine in New York and was in intimate association with some
887
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
of the brightest lights of the healing profession. Dr. Goldthwaite, of the Fifth Avenue Hotel, was very appreciative of his ability, and Dr. Belden, of Gramercy Park, took him as a partner. His prospects were bright, but his health failed and removal from the city became a necessity. He had some property in this village, and since he must seek the country he located here, and in a short time won a fine practice.
Dr. Donahue has never sought or consented to accept political honors, but responded to a de- mand that he be Health Officer, since that was in the line of his profession. His administration was strictly up to date and sought only to promote the health of the town and of the village, but the people were not educated up to that point, and rather than have prolonged trouble the Doctor resigned. He has thoroughly vindicated, over and over again, all that his friends claim for him. that he is an able physician, with the best of train- ing for his work and fitted to meet any of its delicate requirements. June 29, 1882, he mar-
ried Susan Emma Mott, of Philadelphia, and they have one child, who is named Walton Scott. In politics he is strictly independent and in social fra- ternities is a member of the Order of the Royal Arcanum. He is liberal in his views, reliable in his work and pleasant and genial with all.
J OHN CULVER, one of the older but still active and enterprising citizens of West Hampton, was born April 8, 1832, and is the son of William and Abigail (Jessup) Culver, four of whose children are still living. William, the oldest, is the father of three children: Mrs. Elizabeth Phillips is a widow and the mother of three children; Lydia married Charles E. Top- ping, Superintendent of the United States Ex- press Company, and a resident of Long Island . City, and they have three children. John is the youngest of the four children, and the history of his life forms the substance of this article.
William Culver, the father of our subject, was a native of Moriches, and was a son of Jeremiah
Culver, a native of the same place. He followed farming all his life and removed to West Hamp- ton to find a home for his declining years, when he felt that he had served the world as an active laborer long enoughi, and was now entitled to a little peace and comfort before the call to enter the great unknown.
It was in this village of West Hampton that John Culver passed his boyhood years, fenced in from care and want and the temptations of the great world by the provident and thoughtful love of father and mother, and being educated under these quiet and peaceful influences. He was edu- cated in the "poor man's university," the district school, which has proved the only university that hundreds of our brightest and ablest men (men who have in after years made their mark indel- ibly upon the affairs of the world) have ever been able to attend.
While still a boy, at the age of sixteen, our sub- ject left home to seek his fortune in the wide world. He went to California by way of Cape Horn, and when he arrived in that distant land he engaged with a lumber firm in Sacramento City, and the engagement proved so profitable that it continued for some sixteen years. In 1865 he returned to West Hampton, but after a stay of ten months he again went to California, his second trip to the West, however, being made under easier conditions and in much quicker time than his first. There he continued for some two years. when he was once more seen in the streets of this village for a brief visit. He was in California on two other occasions, being there two and three years respectively, engaged in various occupa- tions. He has made four trips to the Pacific coast, two times crossing the Isthmus, once arou.id Cape Horn, and once overland.
Returning home the last time in 1880, Mr. Culver settled down in this village, where he now lives, and in a short time married Mrs. R. S. Cul- ver, née Sarah Rogers. A number of years ago. impelled by the flood of city people who came out into these beautiful regions, seeking some refuge from the heat and dust and weariness of a sum- mer in the great city, he began accommodating summer boarders, and his elegant country home.
888
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
which will receive from thirty to forty guests, is taxed during the season to its utmost capacity. He is a Republican in his politics, and he and his wife are both members of the Presbyterian Church.
R EV. SAMUEL THOMSON CARTER is pastor of the old First Presbyterian Church of the Village of Huntington, a po- sition that he has filled and honored for more than a quarter of a century. The church has been in existence for two hundred and fifty years, and has the marked honor of having had but thirteen pastors in all that time, two of them serving for one hundred and four years in succession. Our subject was born in New York, July 22, 1840, and was the son of the late Robert Carter, a promi- nent publisher of that city, and long one of the best known men in the American metropolis. We take a few extracts from a work that has been published in book form since his death:
"Thirty miles from Edinburgh, and as many from the English border, stands the pleasant vil- lage of Earlston, in the heart of the most beautiful part of Scotland. Four miles away is Melrose, with its classic Abbey, and not far off, Abbots- ford, where the 'Wizard of the North' wove many an enchanting spell. This was the birth- place of Robert Carter, and the date, November 2, 1807. In the beginning of the present century Earlston was so secluded from intercourse with the surrounding world that there was not even a stage coach running through it. The ancestry of some of the villagers could be traced back for five or six hundred years, and in that time the village had made little progress. Many had been born, grown up, and died in a good old age who had never gone beyond the hills that formed its sensible horizon. But they were an intelligent people, eager for books and learning, and sus- tained good schools, where even the poorest had opportunity of studying Greek and Latin.
"They were also a God-fearing folk, bringing up their children in His fear and in the study of llis word. The minister went from house to
house, duly examining the children in their knowledge of the scriptures and the catechism. In one of these homes the father of Rev. S. T. Carter was born. He was the second child in a family of eleven children of Thomas Carter, also a native of Earlston, a man of sterling qualities and much intelligence, a true Celt, who traced his ancestry to the Highlands of Scotland from days long gone by. His ancestors, being Protest- ants, fled from the fire of persecution on their native heath to the Lowlands, and found a refuge in this ancient village. Thomas Carter was a weaver by trade, a high-minded Christian gentle- man, a great reader, a free and easy speaker, but of very modest means. Robert Carter, when a lit- tle more than nine years of age, was taken from school and put to work at a loom, of which his father had six in his modest home.
"Robert Carter, even at this early age, had an insatiable thirst for reading, and while working at his loom he had erected a board at his left side, on which he placed such books as he could procure. and as he wove hie read such books as 'Pilgrim's Progress,' 'Hervey's Meditations,' 'Rollins' An- cient History,' the works of Josephus, Fox's 'Book of Martyrs,' and others of like character. In this way he became one of the best learned boys in his native village, taught school for some years in his native land. being for two years teacher of Latin and Greek at Peebles' Grammar School, after which he entered Edinburgh Uni- versity, and in 1831 came to America. He settled in New York, where for a time he taught school. and in this way earned money enough to bring his father, mother and all his brothers and sisters. to this country.
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.