USA > New York > Suffolk County > Yaphank > Yaphank as it is, and was, and will be. Containing biographical sketches of all its prominent men, the characteristic proclivities of its "funny" people, its business and business "monarchs," its facilities for enterprise and improvement, > Part 7
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' HOMEWARD BOUND,'
after a three years' knock-about in the war.
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YAPHANK AS IT IS.
" After returning to civil life, I again took up my trade for a season ; but finding myself not as robust as before the war, I gave it up, and for a period was with Prof. Abby, in New York City, receiving musical instruction. At this time I was chorister in the Tabernacle Church, in Green- point, where I became acquainted and rather fascinated with the young lady organist in the same church. Both being musicians, I thought it might prove beneficial to study our natures a little. We used sometimes to while whole evenings in this delightful study, until at last we found our chords so complete that we ventured to appear in public, where we struck the hymenal chord, from which we have not as yet resolved into the dominant Seventh."
PERSONAL.
Mr. Ritch has a peculiar and rare gift of song. He is tall and well-formed, with a long, flowing beard, dark and wavy. There is a freedom from cant and affectation in his manner. His voice is clear and ringing, and sweeps from the lowest bass to the highest register, in tender and pathetic notes.
His wife is a sweet lady-talented and musical. Theirs is a harmonious life, devoted to the soothing powers of song. Mr. Ritch has taught many singing schools, and qualified many pupils for the sweet field of music.
His whole make-up assists him ; his actions are pleasant and natural ; he puts himself in perfect sympathy with his audience, and his ringing voice pours out charming music. Whether the flowers are blooming in Spring of dying in Autumn, the change affects not his jolly jokes. Down the flowery path he treads, arm-in-arm with his gifted wife. The roses and the lilies bloom for them, and their songs mingle with the warbling notes of the birds, and are wafted o'er the placid waters to the sweet Eden of song.
Part Second.
OLD YAP AS IT WAS. THE
OLD LAND-MARKS THAT HAVE PASSED AWAY.
PART SECOND.
I.
YAPHANK AS IT WAS.
CONTAINING BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF THE MEN THAT ONCE WERE PROMINENT.
ESQUIRE MORDECAI HOMAN.
HIS SMALL BEGINNING AND FINAL ACHIEVEMENTS.
While Yaphank has a history and Brookhaven Town a record, the name of Mordecai Homan will form a prominent feature in both.
He was the most popular and illustrious Homan and citi- zen that ever lived in Yaphank ; he was a sagacious poli- tician, of keen penetration and judgment, a discerning and judicious business man, and a noble and much-loved citi- zen.
No man was better acquainted with the history of his day and town than he ; for forty-two years he was Town Clerk, a responsible and trusted officer.
When age laid its unrelenting hand upon him, and in- firmities forced him to lay aside the quill forever, it was a lamented period in Brookhaven. The old veteran laid down his harness with a sigh. Long years had he been the social friend and adviser of public men; long years had he been a faithful servant and an honorable leader.
During all the years of his public life, not a murmur was spoken against him. No one doubted 'Squire Homan's ve-
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YAPHANK AS IT WAS.
racity and honor ; no one questioned what he discharged. When his eyes grew dim and his steps tottering, he bade farewell to a busy life, lived to see a successor established and then girded on his armor for the long, long march of his fathers.
When the cruel grave closed over him, and the mourning ones turned toward the home made sad by the Angel of Death, a soothing consolation cheered every heart, and mitigated the deep sorrow ; he had left a spotless record, a white rose of a blameless life behind him.
Those who had differed with him politically, dropped a tear over his grave. The bad, bold politician, feared, but loved him. When he died the sun set over a sorrowing people.
His life was a martyrdom of care and trouble. A large family of ailing relatives depended upon him for the things of life, and hundreds of dollars went to alleviate physicians' demands. With but few to assist and many to pull down, he still trudged manfully on, and reared a snug fortune and an enviable name.
From boyhood to ripe old age he carried that ambitious and business-like air. He was truly a self-made man, and erected the pillars of his success. He was born of plebeian parentage, and no golden spoon held dainty morsels to soothe his childish whims. No wealthy relatives or finan- cial king placed him in public favor, or assisted in sus- taining his reputation.
During the most seditious and tumultuous political times, when the trusted and tried party men were abused and crushed by a people who had lost confidence in them, Esquire Homan was among the few who ran the gauntlets nnabused, and passed the ordeals unscathed.
There were no Camerons, no Wades, no Butlers or Sum- ners in his day ; and he lived before the men of Morrissey stamp became honorables and national dictators.
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YAPHANK AS IT WAS.
HIS SMALL BEGINNING AND FINAL ACHIEVEMENTS.
Early in life he taught school and labored upon his farm. He lived with his father upon his farm at Middle Island during his younger days.
When about twenty-eight years old, he married a Miss Polly Buckingham, in Old Milfred. Conn., and purchasing his brother's interest in the " Homan estate," at Yaphank, moved thither.
He evinced original ability, and his appreciating towns- men soon elected him a Justice of the Peace. In consumma- tion. Esquire Homan officiated in nearly every town office.
In the days of his glory, his many friends were enthusi- astically in favor of his accepting the nomination for Assem- bly. That nomination, and the proffered one for Super- visor, he decidedly refused. He was, without doubt, the strongest candidate for either position in the town, at that time.
THOMAS HOMAN.
HIS CHARACTERISTICS.
This deceased yeoman was born in Yaphank, 1781. His remains are buried in the Presbyterian churchyard, sur- rounded by the graves of those who were young with him- self.
He died Feb. 6th, 1860. aged seventy-nine years and six months.
HIS CHARACTERISTICS.
Thomas Homan was a farmer, and owned and tilled the farm now occupied by his son Edward. He was a much respected neighbor. and an exemplary Christian. "Every- body liked 'Uncle Tommy,' and 'Uncle Tommy' liked everybody." He had a small body, but a large heart ; and his mind was invariably contented and happy.
Thomas was the youngest of a family of three brothers- Mordecai, Philip and Thomas. Their father was named Mordecai, and their grandsire also.
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YAPHANK AS IT WAS.
Mr. Homan lived during the "Sunny Era," before the "new fangled things " drove the good old established cus- toms into obscurity. He lived in Yaphank when it was not Yaphank, and when every citizen now living was far in the future.
There are many anecdotes connected with the lives of these "Subjects of the Past," that would interest and amuse ; but time and space does not permit me to record them.
By plunging into the buried past, I contracted a more ar- duous task than I at first imagined. To recall the local in- terest of my own day is a facile effort compared to my gleaned reminiscences of the long ago ; but I endeavored to make my sketches as authentic as they are brief.
I smile in my heart as I write of these old patriarchs, who, many years ago, guided the plow and gathered the har- vest where dwellings and business institutions now stand ; whose lives were unbroken by fashion's tide ; whose years were unmarred dreams of rustic happiness, remote from the engine's screech or the roar of enterprise.
What a grand transformation ! The old men that are gone could never live happy in this age ! It is too scien- tific and enlightened !
" Uncle Tommy " was an industrious man, and an un- changeable Christian. His voice has long been silenced, and sweet flowers have many Summers bloomed over his grave ; but when the Resurrection shall arouse the slum- bering dead, his face will beam brighter than the flowers that wave o'er his grave.
II.
DEA. SIMMONS LAWS.
Dea. S. Laws was born in England, 1781. and died at Yaphank, Feb. 4, 1867, aged 86 years, 10 months and 10 days.
He came to the "States" with his parents when fifteen years old, and settled in the Ridge. He married there, and early moved to Yaphank, where he kept a tavern in an old structure that stood west of his more recent residence.
To the day of his decease he was a senior elder and dea- con in the Presbyterian Church, and quite ecclesiastically famous.
When he came to Y- he was not wealthy, but contin- ually added to his estate, and ultimately possessed a large tract of wood and cultivated land.
Dea. Laws was a pious man, but ignorance often caused him to grope in darkness. He was arbitrary and self-willed. and blindly grasped for worldly goods. Like many ex- emplary Christians, he carried the world in one hand and God's Word in the other. His besetting sin was an inborn love for money ; but that peculiar failing is as universal within the sanctuary as in the " Broad Road," and is not generally declared a " very bad fault."
Mr. Laws lived to a ripe old age, and calmly sank to sleep. He left many mourning friends behind him, and a breach that has never been filled. It was a lovely winter day when his remains were lowered to their long, long rest ; but at the last trump his face will beam from beyond the setting sun, and he will be judged with his fathers.
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YAPHANK AS IT WAS.
RICHARD HAWKINS.
Richard Hawkins was born in Setauket, 1796, and died at Yaphank, April 29th, 1855. He was fifty-nine years old.
Mr. Hawkins was a quiet, retired man, and not very popular or exceedingly unpopular. He reared a large fam- ily, and died poor. He died in obscurity, and in the bosom of his family.
No lioness cast her whelps in the streets when he was born or when he died. No warring of the elements, or strange appearances in the heavens, denoted that a great soul had passed into eternity ; but, calmly and serenely, as the sun rose in the east, his spirit sank down the west.
He was a laboring man, and worked alternately at farm- ing, tailoring and carpentering. He never gained pre-en- inence in his combined callings, or even distinction in one.
His children are separated far and near. One son lies beneath the dark waters of the Atlantic, and another, Rob- ert, entered the Mexican war, came home, "went up the Mississippi," took ill and died.
Mr. Hawkins married a daughter of Dea. Simmons Laws, and settled in the home of his after scenes
He established no enduring name, and his good and bad acts lie mouldering with his mortality.
A
III. JONAH HAWKINS.
HIS EARTHLY LABORS-UNCLE JONAH'S ANTERIOR POSITION.
This jocund old gentleman was born in West Moriches, Sep. 3. 1790. He died Dec. 3, 1856. His epitaphic words were : "When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord."
Jonah Hawkins was not an exceedingly fascinating man. physically, but a more agreeable and honorable citizen never existed in Yaphank. Always feeble and frail in con stitution, but active and ambitious.
He was hunchbacked and very deaf ; but, notwithstand- ing his physical deformity, he always wore a genial smile for every one. Mr. Hawkins possessed an irreproachable reputation while living. and left a white record of a blame- less life.
HIS EARTHLY LABORS.
Where E. W. Mills now "gathers in the dust " stood an unpainted, weather-beaten, brown structure, one story and attic high. In that old building. Jonah Hawkins estab- lished a grocery store on a limited scale, and from behind the low, rough-planed counter. the old gentleman would smilingly greet his rustic customers.
In those " ye olden days," Yaphank- then Millville- gloried in the accommodations of three stores, Isaac Terry's was declared the model mercantile institution, and he the " princely merchant."
J. P. Mills was then unknown upon the mercantile sea. but he soon launched his chip. He purchased Mr. Terry's business and interest, and became possessor of the lit
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YAPHANK AS IT WAS.
tle brown store. A larger and more commodious one was soon erected upon the old ground, and the romantic name of "Mills" was a business fact.
UNCLE JONAH'S ANTERIOR POSITION.
What is now Van Rensellar Swezey's carriage and store house, forty years in the past was a popular grocery and Yankee Notion store, where the vivacious subject of our sketch bartered his commodities and notions for farmers' produce, and the hard cash of the local yeomanry.
" Uncle Jonah" lived to the mature old age of three- score years and six, and then he girded on his armor and began the long. long march through the valley. He died as he had lived, fearing God and loving man.
His mortality slumbers beside those of his faithful companion, in the Episcopal graveyard in Yaphank.
JONAS BUCKINGHAM.
Jonas Buckingham was born in the town of Old Milford. Ct., February 25, 1779. He died and was buried at Yap- hank, February 25, 1815. He was, accordingly, 46 years old when he laid down the things of life.
There lives not a mortal upon earth at the present day who remembers Uncle Jonah's boyhood, or the scenes of 1779 : and the number is meagre who can recall the period of his marriage and residence in Yaphank.
He married a widow lady named Greene, I believe, and settled in Yaphank on the bank of the bonny Connect- icut.
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IV.
MORDECAI OVERTON.
A NUMEROUS FAMILY.
Mr. Overton was born in Coram, May 26. 1797. and died at Yaphank, November 17, 1866. He was, according to mathematical exactness, 79 years old.
Mordecai was an ingenious man, and noted as a successful watch and clock repairer. He was a son of the "illustri- ons" John Overton, and brother of the "immortal" James.
A NUMEROUS FAMILY.
The Overtons are an almost innumerable race, and their names appear conspicuously at every point of the compass. They are a class that have become more remarkable for numbers than illustrious deeds or virtues, and Mordecai was a fair representative of the "great whole."
I know of none that begat criminals, or men eminent for innate greatness : in the language of the Englishman. they "are about arf and arf." It can be safely declared that the race never will do much damage by the impetu- osity of family ambitions, or much national benefit by states- manly greatness.
Mordecai lived in Yaphank many years, and was univer- sally considered an honorable, ingenious and inoffensive man : a pleasant neighbor and companion.
Mr. Overton was a remarkable inventor in his humble way. and constructed many things of decided merit. He invented the famous crank angur now in use in every ship vard in the country. He also invented the combination shovel, for digging cellars, cisterns, wells. &c. None of
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YAPHANK AS IT WAS.
these were patented, and, like nearly every other inventor, Mr. Overton died poor.
DANIEL HAMMOND.
THE SOCIAL CUSTOMS OF HIS DAY.
Daniel Hammond was born May 23d, 1774, and died De- cember 30th, 1848.
Mr. Hammond was shoemaker, tanner and currier for the vicinity, and was considered a clever workman. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the farmers furnished hides to the local tanneries, and had them "done up on shares." Cobblers visited the rural homes and " made up" the family work once or twice a year. Cow-lides were con- sidered fashionable, and even bare feet on the Sabbath were not regarded as violating conventional decorum.
Mr. Hammond was not remarkable for noble deeds, or for his individual malevolence. He was not illustrious for his elevated magnanimity or debased malapertness.
THE SOCIAL CUSTOMS OF HIS DAYS.
It was customary, and not considered debasing, in Daniel Hammond's time, to "tip the elbow." Men in exalted sta- tions, and those regarded as examples, and highly respect- able people in all capacities, drank " blue lightning."
The ring of the social glass was heard at every public and private gathering, and was countenanced by the aristocrat and the plebeian. Cider flowed in every man's cellar, and "good whiskey " was no luxury in the farming homes. But evil effects attended the old-time drunks, as it invari- ably accompanies our more modern " carousels," and deli- rium tremens was as common as the toasts.
Mr. Hammond liked the "fire water," but seldom drank to dissipation, or a pernicious extent. It was usual for him to drink a friendly glass with such men as Esquire Homan and Phillips, who generally drank the great toast of the day-friendship.
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YAPHANK AS IT WAS.
Five sons and a daughter grew up around him, and still live to read his record.
Mr. Hammond was familiarly known among his acquaint- ances and neighbors as "Neighbor Hammond," and by that soubriquet was universally addressed.
He was a smart man and an excellent workman, but if he ever suffered a besetting sin, it was a passion for intoxicat ing liqnor.
The snows of many winters have fallen over his grave, and his body lies, with no monument to mark its resting place, in the Middle Island burying ground.
V.
ESQUIRE WILLIAM PHILLIPS.
A REVIEW-THE OLD SQUIRE'S PECULIARITIES. /
'Time will not permit me to dwell lengthily on the bi- ography of this lamented man, whose appellation forms the subject of this sketch.
He died as he had lived : in the bosom of his family, and high in the esteem of all who knew him.
Esquire Phillips was born in 1787, and died March 22. 1858. His body reposes among the tombs of his fathers and friends in the Middle Island burying-ground.
A REVIEW.
Before he was married he worked in an uncle's store as clerk, in Connecticut. There he learned to drive sharp bar- gains, and became acquainted with the varied tastes, dispo- sitions and characters of humanity generally.
When still young he came back to old Long Island, married, and settled down as a farmer. He owned an ex- tensive and fertile farm, and, unlike our farmers of this age, the farm made him and he made the farm.
He speculated much in wood and other staple products of the time, and amassed quite a fortune. The 'Squire was a hard-working man ; hale and rugged.
He made his wealth by honest toil and enterprise, and he left four children a father's blesssing, an honest name, and the fruits of honorable toil.
For many years prior to his death he suffered with a painful cancer, which caused his death at last.
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YAPILANK AS IT WAS.
He was not a professing christian, but an exemplary moral man. His name would fittingly adorn the scroll of the good men of any time.
His son William, who bears his name, bears his reputa- tion for enterprise and industry. He has done more to benefit Yaphank than a dozen Augustus Floyds or Nath- aniel Tuthills ever did or will.
Where the County Alms House reared its leviathan frame, twenty-five years ago grew tall forest trees, and impene trable undergrowth shut out the howling wood. 'Squire Phillips purchased the tract, and cleared the land now known as the county farm.
DANIEL HOMAN.
Daniel Homan was born in 1800, and died at Yaphank, Feb. 20th, 1847.
At seventeen he was apprenticed to the carpenter trade under the vigilant instruction of Benjamin Grover of Wad- ing River, L. I.
In 1821 he married a Miss Melissia Griffing, and removed with his young wife to Brooklyn, Long Island. He pur- chased lots and built the first house ever erected on Pine- apple street, Brooklyn.
The climate impaired his wife's health, and not proving exceedingly congenial to his own, he returned to his old home in Yaphank.
He was an ingenious and skillful workman. Apparently in the flush of manhood and health, that deadly ill of the human race-consumption-fastened its implacable coils around his form, and the strong man became feeble and emaciated. For seven years he suffered a lingering death, when the diseased body fainted and died. He has faced the "king of terrors," and suffers no more sickness, no more sorrow.
1
VI.
ISAAC MILLS, ESQ.,
HIS DEATH.
Isaac Mills was born in Smithtown, 1769, and died at Yaphank.
Some men are born unfortunate and die miserable. Genial smiles beam upon some from the cradle to the grave, and dark days never lower. Privately and publicly, no cloud darkens their sky, but all is sunshine.
How strange and intangible seem some of God's dispensa- tions to man ; and how varied are His dealings with us mort- als. He allows the persecuted to suffer, nor guides a good Samaritan to cheer the sorrowing.
Still more mysterious is His dealing with the persecutor. The unrelenting and uncompromising man of the world lives to a ripe old age amid the blessings of health and mortal affairs, while the godly and moral suffer in body, mind and soul, from sickness, trouble, and unpardonable crimes compulsorily performed.
We cannot but believe that although Isaac Mills slept the nights of his nnhappy end away upon a bed of thorns, that a couch of roses awaited him beyond the Great Un- fathomed, where he is freed from the taunts and abuse of unnatural relations.
He lived unfortunately and died unfortunately. His earthly career was an ordeal of trouble-especially his lat- ter life.
Trouble-domestic, it is asserted-bore him to a sui- cide's grave ; and, indeed, it must have been aggravatingly
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YAPHANK AS IT WAS.
intense to have caused his committal of a deed so shocking, for Isaac Mills was inevitably gay and buoyant spirited.
His bones are mouldered to dust, and his tongue is silent forever, and the true reasons that caused him to commit the awful crime that lowered the black curtain over his dreary life, were buried with his body, and money has ever kept the sea unruffled that rolls above the mystery.
Who or what originated the trouble that caused him to take his life, is one of the sealed insolubles that time alone can reveal.
HIS DEATH.
It was a lovely Sunday eve that he committed the act that stamped his name upon the dark scroll of self-murderers. The night wind rocked the tall trees to and fro that towered above the old farm-house where he lived ; and the holy si- lence of a Sabbath evening had fallen over the settlement of Yaphank.
It was an evening in keeping with the horrible deed that was destined to make it long remembered. The stars glim- mered dimly through a hazy mist, and twilight-the most solemn hour of the twenty-four-was slowly trans- formed into sober darkness. The lovely twilight hour had vanished, and evening had thrown its sable mantle over the quiet Sabbath scene, when the night air rang with the re- port of a shocking deed.
" Isaac Mills has committed suicide !"
The startling import roused the slumbering yeoman, and changed the sleeping settlement into a rustic bedlam.
Behind the barn that still stands upon the old farm, lay the subject of the report, groaning and dying.
His throat was severed from car to ear, and the gurgling noise caused by blood flowing into his throat, attracted the attention of cattle in an adjoining yard, and their loud bellowing raised the alarm.
When a sufficient number of witnesses had arrived to sus- tain his removal, he was conveyed to his couch of thorns to die.
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His wound was tenderly dressed by Doc. Samuel F. Norton, of Coram, his family physician, and he was urged to wait patiently the result. He rocked to and fro upon his couch, in an agony of mind and body. He did not wish to live ; oh, no! What ! live to again undergo the trouble that robbed him of his hapiness? God forbid.
He tore the bandages from his wound, and prayed for death to relieve him of his agony. It came. The dreaded monster was welcomed in that little chamber of suffering, and the angel bore from the shores of time a great martyr. Isaac Mills was dead !
The cold sod had closed over his remains, and Isaac Mills was catalogued with the past. The affair created much "talk," but the excitement finally subsided and was for- gotten; but we are sanguine-although the stain of a suicide darkens his memory-that he is, this moment, praising the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob.
APPOLAS MILLS.
HIS ILLUSTRIOUS WIFE-THE TRUE MAN.
Appollas was the eldest son and heir of Isaac Mills. There were three sons and a daughter-Appollas, Horace, Philip, and Joanna.
Appollas married a Miss Urania Phillips, a sister of the popular Esquire William Phillips-who was seven years his senior. But, as considerable " cash" was annexed, the seniority was no obstacle to a happy union-and such it was.
She was a loving wife and mother, and an acknowledged business woman. Her name deserves to be cherished among the model women of the age, as a choice sample. She was more illustrious and popular than her husband, and did I represent feminine prominency in this little vil- lage record, be assured that Mrs. Urania Mills would be represented.
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YAPHANK AS IT WAS.
Appollas Mills did nothing while on earth wherein the world can recognize superior characteristical qualities, nor anything that does signalize his name.
By terming Mr. Mills conspicnous, I rank his sketch among others, who, in consequence of the searcity of more brilliant subjects, I am compelled to notice in keeping with their family connections, rather than deserved eminence.
He was not loquacious, or taciturn; not classical, or illit erate; not obtuse, or gifted.
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