USA > New York > Suffolk County > Portrait and biographical record of Suffolk county (Long Island) New York, Pt. 2 > Part 50
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After the death of his father our subject was taken into the home of his grandfather. Ellis Strong, who owned a large farm between Amity- ville and Babylon. There he remained as long as his grandfather lived, and after the latter's death he went to live at Peekskill, on the Hudson. For five years he was a student in the military aca I- emy at that place. From that city he went to make his home with an uncle, who had charge of the Strong estate, and for two years he aided in the work there. Next, entering Eastman's Business College, he remained there until his graduation in 1881.
On returning to Babylon Mr. Robbins found a place in the general store of Mr. Fishel. where he remained as clerk for three years. Later he was employed as clerk for Higbie & Robbins for one year, after which he embarke : in business as a member of the firm of Fishel & Robbins in June, 1885. Three years later he par- chased Mr. Fishel's interest in the business, and at the same time branched out in the real estate and insurance business. At this writing he reg- resents twelve fire insurance societies. This busi- ness he purchased from E. A. Scudder, and ::: 1893 also secured the business of Charles Wood & Co., who were successors to the firm of War- ren D. Lewis.
November 19, 1889, Mr. Robbins married Miss Carrie Oakes, who was born in Babylon and is a graduate of the high school of this place. They are the parents of a daughter, Cornelia. Politic- ally Mr. Robbins is a Republican, and has often served as delegate to the county conventions of the party. Fraternally he is a member of Baby- lon Lodge No. 791, F. & A. M .. and Babylon Council. Royal Arcanum, for which organizat n he has served as Collector nine years. He was a
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close student of the wonderful exhibition of the life and commerce of the world, which was offered at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago. One of the promoters of the Sumpwans Water Works Company, he is at present Secretary of that con- cern, and also fills the position of Director of the Queens & Suffolk Fire Insurance Company.
R EQUA BROTHERS have one of the most attractive business places in the village of Cold Spring Harbor, and make a specialty of teas, coffees, spices, flavoring extracts and bak- ing powders. They are both in the bloom and vigor of manhood and bring to their calling all the native energy of shrewd business men. The firm comprises Cornelius O. and Atkin F. Requa, sons of Cornelius O. and Ann MI. (Conklin) Requa. The senior member of the firm was born Decem- ber 7, 1858, while Atkin F. was born January 6, 1864. Their father spent his boyhood days in his native village, Tarrytown, and on reaching manhood became engaged in the shoe business in New York City, which he followed until the time of his death, which occurred about 1863.
Although the founder of the present enterpris- ing firm of Requa Brothers-Cornelius O .- was bereft of his father when but five years of age, he grew to manhood under the careful and loving guidance of an intelligent mother, and early in life had instilled within him qualities of manliness and independence. When but eighteen years of age he entered the employ of a New York tea and spice house, taking orders for this company, first in his own neighborhood, soliciting from house to house. He also delivered the goods in person and without conveyance of any sort. His cour- teous and obliging manners prepossessed patrons in his favor and he soon attained the success and popularity that such a course invariably brings to a business man. In three years his order business had increased to such an extent that he was justi- fied in purchasing a horse and wagon, and a year later he was so well established that he severed his connection with the New York house and con- 1 of New Jersey.
tinued the rapidly growing business under his own management.
When the junior member of the firm, Atkin F., attained his majority he was taken into the busi- ness, and since that time their interests have grown to such proportions that at the present writ- ing six wagons are constantly traveling through the county, and this besides their local trade. The firmi now import their staples direct, although they manufacture their own baking powder and flavoring extracts. They also roast their own cof- fees, and are thoroughly alive to the wants of their patrons. It gives us great pleasure to re- count the rapid rise and success of this firm of young men. In these days of luxury and pam- pered idleness among the youth of our nation, it is to such characters as these who prove their in- nate strength of purpose and clearness of judg- ment, as well as business integrity, that we look for the financial strength, the bone and brawn of our business life.
D ANIEL EMBURY KISSAM, M. D. Retired from an active professional life, our subject is spending his declining years in the beautiful village of Huntington Har- bor, reaping the reward of energy and activity devoted to his chosen calling in former years. Dr. Kissam is a native of New York City, and was born October 3. 1817, a son of Joseph and Ann M. (Embury) Kissam. He is the eldest of five children who lived to reach years of maturity and of these we mention the following: Benja- min Tredwell is a prominent lawyer of New York City; Philip for fifty years was in the em- ploy of the Astors, first as clerk, then man- ager, and also confidential clerk to one of the brothers, William, who being absent frequently and for long periods, entrusted Him with the en- tire care of his property, and finally made him one of the executors of his will: he died February 27, 1895: Josephine became the wife of James W. Field. now deceased: and William is a farmer
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The father, Joseph Kissam, was born at Mos- quito Cove (now Glen Avenne), L. I., October 18, 1700. He was a very prominent business man and was for years a member of the hardware firm of Tredwell Kissam & Co., located at No. 228 Pearl Street, New York. He was a very ac- tive man and through his connection with differ- ent banks as director, became much esteemed in the business world. By his marriage with Miss Ann M. Embury, daughter of Peter Embury, of New York City, six children were born, three of whom still survive. Mrs. Ann Kissam died De- cember 27, 1829, and July 30, 1830, the father married Miss Matilda M. Williamson, of Eliza- beth, N. J. One child was born of this union. The father, who died June 28, 1863, was a son of Daniel Whitehead Kissam, M. D., who was born at Manhanset, L. I., March 23, 1763. At an early age the latter was placed under the direc- tion of Rev. Leonard Cutting, Rector of St. George Church at Hempstead, a graduate of the University at Oxford, England. After studying under this tutor several years, and acquiring an intimate acquaintance with the choicest classics, he went to New York City and received his medi- cal education under the preceptorship of Dr. Richard Bayley. He commenced the practice of medicine at Glen Cove, L. I .. in 1787, but re- moved to Huntington in 1795 and had a large practice in Queens and Suffolk Counties for near- ly a half century. His professional life was marked by ability and success. From 1802 to 1839 he was a Warden in St. John's Church in Huntington.
Daniel W. Kissam was twice married, first to Miss Elizabeth, daughter of Dr. Benjamin Tred- well, of North Hempstead, Queens County, and a niece of Rt. Rev. Samuel Seabury, D. D., first Bishop of Connecticut. Seven children were born of that marriage, Joseph, the second son, being our subject's father. Daniel W.'s second mar- riage was to Miss Phoebe, daughter of Wilmot Oakley, an own cousin of the late Chief Justice Thomas J. Oakley, of New York City. Seven children were also born of this marriage. He died November 21, 1839. This is the only family of the name in this country, and all its members
can trace back to a common ancestor of Eng- lish origin, viz: John Kissam, of Flushing, L. I .. who was born in July, 1644. At the breaking out of the Revolutionary War many of its members were holding offices under the British Govern- ment, to which they had sworn allegiance, and a large majority of them remained loyal to the Crown.
Dr. Daniel Embury Kissam received his ele- mentary education in the private schools ci his native city. Later he was sent to a classical school at Hadley, England, and in- clining to the family profession, he took up the study of medicine and graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City in 1848. Shortly after his gradua- tion he settled in Brooklyn, and there continued to practice until about eight years ago, when he retired from active professional life, and moved to Huntington Harbor, settling in huis present de- lightful home, which is on a neck of land extend- ing out into the harbor. The ground had never been stirred by a white man's plow. The old In- dian name for this bit of land is Kettewomax. meaning in English, Chief Village.
Dr. Kissam has been visiting surgeon of the Brooklyn Hospital. His career has been an un- usually successful one and among the many unique operations which he has performed are three successful amputations of the hip joint. He originated a railroad fracture box for use in compound fractures of the leg. and this is used in connection with Dr. Bucks' pulley attachment. For five or six years our subject was police sur- geon of Brooklyn, was a member of the Board of Education at Huntington and was its President for two years.
Our subject was married June 11, 1839. to Miss Hannah Aymar, of New York City, who was ci French Huguenot descent. Six children were born of this marriage: Ann M. is now the widow of Charles L. Lord and the mother of two chil- dren: Augustus E., who is engaged in the auto- matic elevator business, has three children: Eliz- abeth A. is Mrs. Robert Livingston Crooks: William Aymar, who died in 1877, was a gra.l- uate of the College of Physicians and Surgeons
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and practiced for ten years in Brooklyn; Jose- phene died at about the age of ten years, and Louisa is the youngest child.
In 1862 when a call was made by the Secretary of War and the Governor of this state for the volunteer services of the visiting surgeons of the several hospitals, Dr. Kissam responded, and on the 18th day of April, 1862, received a commis- sion from Governor Morgan, and was named a member of the "Special Corps of Volunteer Sur- geons" to serve without pecuniary compensation. He soon after went to the front, and with three other surgeons was placed in charge of a hospital at Mill Creek, near Norfolk, in which were brought both the Gray and the Blue, who were wounded at the battle of Williamsburg. On the 16th of October, 1862, he was appointed by the Governor one of the surgeons to examine claims of exemption from draft in the city of Brooklyn, and on the 17th was assigned to the First, Third and Fourth wards of that city.
Politically Dr. Kissam is a liberal, considering men and measures rather than party. Religiously he is a member of St. John's Episcopal Church at Huntington.
J OHN K. SAMMIS, one of the stirring and hustling young business men of Northport, is the local agent of the Long Island Ex- press Company at this place, and also engaged in dealing in grain, flour, feed, and kindred ar- tieles. He has been in this village for nearly three years, and in that time has managed to win for himself a wide circle of friends and acquaintances. He came here from Port Jefferson, where he had been located for twenty years.
Henry Sammis, the father of our subject, is still living in the town of Huntington, and is over seventy-seven, but still hale and hearty. He was married to Rebecca Ketchum, of the village of Huntington. Her father, who was a sea Captain. was lost at sea. The parental family included four children, of whom the oldest is the subject of this sketch. Rebecca P. is living in Norwalk, Conn .;
Henry S. is in Huntington, and George died in infancy.
Mr. Sammis has led a somewhat varied life. August 18, 1844, he was born in Huntington, where he resided until he had reached the age of nine. Then his parents moved to Cold Spring, where he continued with them until he had reached the age of seventeen, attending school until thirteen years old. At this early age he was put into his father's store as clerk. He spent two years in this capacity in a general store at South Norwalk, Conn., having by this time gained a thorough knowledge of the business. A year in a hat factory was followed by work in dry goods stores in New York City and Brooklyn, where he thoroughly learned all details of city trade. He then came here as lighthouse assistant, leav- ing New York on account of ill health. After a year and a half in the latter capacity our subject located at Port Jefferson in the ice cream and confectionery business, and was thus engaged for twenty years.
Subsequently Mr. Sammis came here, bought out the grain and feed business, and secured the express agency, and has carried on his work here with the very best results. He is a genial, pleas- ant and accommodating gentleman, and these qualities are winning him new friends every day. He was married May 5, 1875, to Maria Jarvis, and they have two children, Jessie and Harold J. He is a Republican in politics, and socially is a mem- ber of the Royal Arcanum and the Mutual Ben- efit, of Riverhead.
C APT. CHARLES S. SANFORD has been a resident of the village of North- port for the last thirty-four years, and for the last seventeen years has been very busily occupied with a store devoted to general mer- chandise. His father, Capt. H. S. Sanford, was a well-known and popular sea captain, who lived first at East Hampton, then six years at Stony Brook, and finally auchored in this pleasant har- bor. He was the father of six children by bis
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first wife, three sons and three daughters. She died at the age of seventy-six, and her children are also deceased. For his second wife Captain Sanford married Sarah S. (Skidmore) Smith, who was born in this village, and here she died at the age of eighty-four. Our subject was her only son by this marriage, but she had one son by her former marriage, A. M. Smith.
Charles S. Sanford, the subject of this sketch, was born on Henry Street, New York. February II, 1832, and when only six months old was taken to Stony Brook, where he lived six years, and then came with his parents to Northport. Here he learned the trade of carriage-maker and blacksmith. He took to the water with much cagerness, and owned a schooner at two different times, being his own Captain. He followed the water for three years, running between Hoboken, N. J., and Rhode Island. After a time he again turned his attention to the carriage business, but still later was once more on the water. The car- rying trade becoming slow, however. he traded his schooner for his present business, and here he has since continued, by patience, skill and strict lionesty, building up a large business, which he still retains.
Our subject has been twice married. the first time to Mary E. Burr, daughter of Smith Burr. She was the mother of four children. two of whom died before her death, Charles at eighteen months and Montiville B. at five years. Sarah S. is the wife of George Babcock, and makes her home in Northport; she has one child, whom she has named George S. Claude D. was engaged with his father in the store, having a jewelry stand as a side line of his own, and also conducted a coal business until the summer of 1895: he took a long ride on a bicycle and died from its effects at the age of twenty-nine. He was a young man of much promise, and his untimely death was re- garded as a great loss. Mr. Sanford was a sec- ond time married, in 1878, to Emeline Garrison, the widow of Charles Garrison. She was for- merly Emeline Field, and had borne her first hus- band one child, Henrietta, who is now Mrs. Au- gustus Hawkins.
Our subject is a Democrat in his political pro-
clivities, and has been Trustee both of the town and of the village. Religiously he is a member of the Episcopal Church. He is a popular mier- chant of this place and has made his way against great obstacles. The family is of English origin, the paternal grandfather, who settled at East Mor- iches, being one of three brothers who came over from England together. One brother settled in New Jersey and the others in Connecticut. The name in England is Sandford, but in this country it is shortened to Sanford.
C APT. GEORGE GILBERT WHITE was born at Southampton in 1819 and died in 1803. He came from a family dating back on both sides to the earliest days of the town, his mother, Ruth Howell, being a descendant of Ed- ward Howell, who was one of the original "un- dertakers" who founded the town. He was one created in no ordinary mold, and differing greatly from the general average of humanity: one whose pronounced personality and rugged characteris- tics distinguished him as a man of mark; one who "in times which try men's souls" would have left his impress upon history, and who even in the quiet walks of ordinary existence, performed acts of devotion, of daring and of heroism which give him title to the claim which is here made for him.
Born and reared in a quiet hamlet: engaging while a mere lad in the rough career of a sailor; without opportunities for education or culture, George G. White came forth from the hard school of life a man of strict honesty, honor and true re- finement of nature, which served to carry him un- sullied through a long life of usefulness and dis- tinction: Possessed of dauntless courage, deter- mined in pursuing whatever course appeared to him to be right, uncompromising as to truth, he feared no man and offered himself a willing chan- pion wherever action, resistance or effort was necessary. Quick of temper, obstinate and out- spoken in the expression of opinion, often un- compromising, he made enemies as well as friends in the discharge of what he deemed his duty. Yet
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no one ever charged him with a mean or unworthy action; no man ever denied him the credit of an incorruptible character, and even his foes admit- ted that his word was final in questions of truth. Had anyone ventured upon such charges he would have had to seek believers of his tale else- where than in the community in which Captain White was born and passed his life.
This was one side of his character. The other was as striking as it was different. To all who came in touch with him suffering from sorrow, sickness or other adversity, he was always as kind and tender as a woman. His sympathy knew no limits; his efforts at relief had no bounds. At the period of his boyhood Sag Harbor was a port of entry for considerable shipping, and old men de- clare that sixty or seventy whalers at one time sailed from her wharves. Sailors for this fleet were largely furnished by the Hamptons, and ev- ery boy was eager to enlist in this exciting service. Thus it was that at the age of thirteen years George White shipped as cabin boy with Captain Cooper of Southampton, one of the most re- nowned seamen of his day, one whose dash and courage are still the theme for many a winter's tale.
For twenty-six years young White followed the sea, rising gradually in his calling, being boat- steerer, then mate and in time captain of a whaling ship. In the course of his voyages, he visited many lands and seas, sailing in the Atlantic, Pa- cific, Indian and Arctic Oceans, and bringing home trophies from Japan, China, the Sandwich Islands, Madagascar and many other foreign countries. On one occasion, when he was act- ing as first mate to Captain Allen, he sailed further north than any navigator had gone up to that time.
In 1852 Captain White married Elizabeth Ford- ham, a native of Southampton, and at the age of forty, having accumulated a competency by suc- cessful voyages, he settled down to the life of a farmer in the place of his birth. Although we have alluded to Southampton as a quiet hanilet, it afforded a fruitful field for the display of cour- age and heroism in connection with the wrecking of vessels on its exposed coast, at a time when no
life-saving service existed. It was on occasions when ships carrying hundreds of human beings became the helpless toys of the angry ocean that the experience of the brave men who had learned their trade in the Arctic Sea became of signal valne; and as a saver of life, the name of Captain George (as he was familiarly and affectionately called) soon became known and reverenced along the whole Long Island seaboard.
One stormy day in 1847 an emigrant ship, bound from Europe to New York, was reported in dire necessity off the village of Southampton and the whole village flocked to the scene. The "Ashland," an emigrant ship, carrying two hun- dred and seventy-five passengers, in addition to her crew, was being beaten to pieces upon the outer bar. Seamen declare to this day that if not gotten away from this perilous position she would have been dismembered in twenty minutes. Aid from shore was impossible, but by proper man- agement it was possible that she might be maneuvered over the outer bar, beached upon the shore, and her passengers, whose doleful cries wrung the hearts of all, saved. The captain of the doomed ship was evidently wholly incompetent to meet the emergency and death seemed about to reap a rich harvest.
A young sailor, tall and straight as a poplar, and athletic as an Indian brave, stepped forth and urged that a boat be manned and that by it he be carried under the bowsprit of the fast dissolving "Ashland," so that he might be lifted aboard and live or die with the three hundred men, women and children whose hours seemed numbered. After much opposition his wish was granted: he was pulled up to the deck of the stranded ves- sel, given entire command of her by the captain. and soon the man who was willing to put his life in jeopardy that the lives of others might be saved had the proud satisfaction of rescuing at one stroke full three hundred fellow beings. The nanie of that sailor was George G. White. No one will deny that this was an act of true heroism; no one will begrudge to the bold sailor the title of hero; no one withhold front him applause and admira- tion.
A great poet has immortalized the name of a
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French pilot Herve Riel, who by his coolness and daring saved a fleet from destruction ; and the name of this hero will live as long as poetry exists. How much more heroic was the act of one who, not being a part of the imperiled crew, vol- untarily made himself so at the imminent risk of his life. Alas, that no poet saw the noble, daring, unselfish deed of Captain White, that it might have had its record among those of the heroes whose grand and solemn march comes down to us out of the ages.
About 1874 a French steamer, the "Alexandre Le Valley," went ashore upon the outer bar at Southampton, with thirty seamen aboard of her. To save the lives of these men it was necessary that a boat should go from the shore to the stranded vessel. The crew of the life boat, under the command of the captain of the life saving sta- tion, tried several times to accomplish this in vain, and the thirty sailors of the "Le Valley" ap- peared to be inevitably doomed. But the "inex- orable logic of events" determined otherwise. Captain White offered to take the helm and at once the disheartened crew sprang again to their oars. To those simple, hardy men his name in the hour of danger carried with it what the name of Sheridan carried on that black day at Win- chester town, when the hosts of the North were beaten down and conquered. At imminent risk the boat reached the "Le Valley" and all on board were saved.
"Years ago," says Henry A. Fordham, "a brig loaded with salt came ashore on this coast in very cold weather and during a severe gale. Captain White took charge of the life boat, of which I was one of the crew, and succeeded in bringing to land all on board, including the captain's wife and two children." Time and space do not permit of fuller detail as to the heroic deeds of this courage- ous and noble man. Many other instances of devotion and bravery are recorded of hini.
.
After he had settled down at home, Captain White was elected President of the Board of Trustees of the town of Southampton, which of- fice he held for about twenty-five years. He found many abuses existing which took from the town some of its privileges and jeopardized many of its
rights. To protect these lie entered into a number of lawsuits, which ended most successfully for his constituents. Entirely without prospect of com- pensation and often single-handed, he contested these cases with a persistence which was equaled only by his pertinacity, and defeated many schemes which were really outrages upon a long- suffering community, whose only fault was a too excessive love of peace and an exaggerated aver- sion to contention. Among his most important achievements in this respect was the recovery of the bays of the town from the parties to whom they had been sold by the proprietors. Southamp- ton owes him a debt which she is too noble not to recognize; too generous and too just not to pay. In spite of abuse, open and violent; in the face of opposition, stubborn and determined: in disre- gard of urgent appeals from friends to desist from a work which was exhausting, uncertain as to re- sults and fraught with personal unpopularity, he strode straight forward with measured and manly tread and never desisted from his labors until summoned before a greater Judge than those to whom he had appealed in behalf of his fellow- citizens in this world.
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