John Allen - Civil War Soldier

John Allen was born in Cheltingham, England in 1836. His family moved to America in 1840. They lived in Pennsylvania and then Brooklyn before settling in Farmingdale in 1858. He married Mary Pilkington in 1860.

He enlisted August 19, 1862 and went to fight in the Civil War as a member of Company “E”, 127th Regiment. He was mustered in on September 8, 1862 with the 127th Regiment of the New York Volunteer Infantry. He served as a private in Company E. He was attached to the 7th Corps, Division of Virginia and was part of the siege of Suffolk and the Six Peninsula Campaign. His outfit moved to Maryland and followed General Lee into South Carolina where they took part in the siege of Charleston and the taking of Fort Sumpter.  He mustered out with his company on June 30, 1865 in Charleston, South Carolina.
 

While he was fighting, his wife saved up and bought them their home in Farmingdale as a surprise upon his return. John Allen was involved in the bakery business for 50 years. The first shop was in his home on Front Street before he moved the shop to Main Street around where 246 Main Street is now.
He was appointed postmaster in 1897. 

His son, Ellsworth Allen, also was postmaster. He laid the cornerstone in the first Episcopal Church in Farmingdale and was one of the organizers of the Farmingdale Fire Department. He was also a member of the Board of Education. He was a member of the H. B. Knickerbocker Post #743.
 

John Allen died in 1925.

 

Sources:

Allen, John. “Minute of History: Life of an Early Resident of Farmingdale.” Farmingdale Observer. July 27, 2001

"John Allen 1836-1925." Farmingdale Post. July 31, 1925

Junior Historical Society of Farmingdale. Farmingdale's Story: Farms to Flight. The Society, 1956

New York State Military Museum

Bayberry Land - Southampton

 Bayberry Land in Southampton was owned by Charles Hamilton and Pauline Sabin. It was designed by Cross & Cross in conjunction with the landscape architect Marian Cruger Coffin. Sabin was at one time president and later chairman of the Guaranty Trust Company.

The 314-acre country estate eventually included eight buildings: the manor house, the main garage with chauffeur’s apartment, a gate house, the caretaker’s cottage, a greenhouse, the hunting lodge, a stable, and a two-car garage with pump house. Cross & Cross designed the buildings in a style meant to emulate an English country manor. The interior of the Manor House included 28 rooms, 11 baths, and 11 bedrooms. The house was completed in 1919, and to celebrate, the Sabins held a housewarming dinner and dance.

Mr. Sabin had a private drive connecting the Manor with the National Golf Links. Other sports included hunting, polo, and walking over Bayberry Land’s extensive grounds. Closer to the Manor, the great lawn itself provided level ground for croquet, and there were tennis courts on its eastern edge. Marian Cruger Coffin Coffin surrounded the Manor with a great lawn and four distinct gardens: the Italianate garden, the rose garden, the tritoma walk, and the sundial garden. On the bay side of the house, Coffin laid out the great lawn enclosed by waist-high walls. The great lawn provided an unbroken line of sight to the bay from within the house.  Coffin designed a “wild” seaside garden to the east of the great lawn.

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local No.3 purchased Bayberry Land in 1949 to serve as a convalescent home for electrical workers. Motivated by the growing emphasis on education in the American labor movement, the IBEW added an Educational Center for workers in 1957 and a summer camp for children in 1971. Between 1969 and 1994, the Union built numerous buildings on the estate, including five buildings containing 65 motel-style rooms, an administrative building, a camp latrine, a camp kitchen, an arts and crafts building, three swimming pools (with decks, patios and storage structures), numerous camp dwellings, a camp administration building and infirmary, a basketball court, an archery range, two tennis courts, a volleyball court, a large group picnic area, two changing rooms, and an outdoor shower.

In 2001, the IBEW sold Bayberry Land to Michael C. Pascucci of Sebonac Neck Holdings, LLC, to be developed into an 18-hole golf course. Pascucci engaged Hall of Fame golfer and noted designer Jack Nicklaus and Tom Doak, one of the most sought-after young architects in the world, to collaborate on the project. The course opened in 2006.

 

Sources:

“Bayberry Land.” Southampton Government, www.southamptontownny.gov/DocumentCenter/View/1213/Bayberry-Land-Brochure-PDF. Accessed 28 Jan. 2025

L., Zach. “Bayberry Land.” Old Long Island, www.oldlongisland.com/2010/04/bayberry-land.html. Accessed 28 Jan. 2025

Artist Edward Lange

Artist Edward Lange was born in Darmstadt, Germany in 1846.,Edward’s father, Gustav Georg, owned a print shop and published a number of popular volumes on German history and scenic landscapes.

He emigrated with his family from Germany to New York in the 1860s. He headed towards Commack, where his father held title to one hundred forty-eight acres of land along Cedar Road. Within ten months, Lange married Sarah Cornelia (Nellie) Denton. Following the birth of their first child in 1872, Edward acquired the title to the Commack property from his father. He spent the next seventeen years in Elwood, raising a family with Nellie and painting the surrounding landscape.

During the early 1870s, Lange focused primarily on painting house portraits. Over the course of the 1870s, Lange increasingly incorporated gouache onto his palette. Between 1880 and 1881, Lange flourished as an artist. He created some of his most recognizable artworks today during this time, including Brown Brothers Huntington Pottery, Lower Main Street, Northport, and Panorama View of Huntington from Woolsey Avenue. After nearly twenty years living and working on Long Island, Lange moved to Olympia, Washington with his family. Two large panoramas of Roslyn were likely two of the last major works the artist completed before leaving New York. 

Edward Lange died in 1912.

Sources:

Fedoryk, Peter. “About the Artist.” The Art of Edward Lange, edwardlange.omeka.net/about-the-artist. Accessed 10 Jan. 2025 

“Land by Hand: Edward Lange’s Long Island.” The Long Island Museum, longislandmuseum.org/exhibition/land-by-hand-edward-langes-long-island/. Accessed 10 Jan. 2025